and must henceforth either alone or in conjunction with practical science be used as a standard by which to test the truth or falsehood of every system which does or may hereafter exist. Philosophy is no longer to be employed as a test of scriptural truth, but the scriptures may and ought to be the test of all philosophy. Not that they are to be used as a test of philosophy simply because they are _thought_ or _believed_ to be the word of God, but because their literal teachings in regard to science and natural phenomena, are demonstrably correct. It is quite as faulty and unjust for the religious devotee to urge the scriptures against the theories of the philosopher simply because he _believes_ them to be true, as it is for the philosopher to urge his theories against the scriptures only because he disbelieves the one and believes the other. The whole matter must be taken out of the region of belief and disbelief. The Christian will be strengthened and his mind more completely satisfied by having it in his power to demonstrate that the scriptures are philosophically true, than he could possibly be by the simple belief in their validity, unsupported by practical evidence. On the other hand the Atheist who is met by the Christian upon purely scientific grounds, and who is not belaboured with enunciations of what his antagonist believes, will be led to listen and to pay more regard and respect to the reasons advanced than he could possibly concede to the purely religious argument, or to an argument founded upon faith alone. If it can be shown to the atheistical philosopher that his astronomical and geological theories are fallacious, and that all the expressions in the scriptures which have reference to natural phenomena are literally true, he will of necessity be led to admit that, apart from all other considerations, if the _philosophy_ of the scriptures is demonstrably correct, then possibly their _spiritual_ and _moral_ teachings may also be true; and if so, they may and indeed must have had a divine origin; and if so they are truly the “word of God,” and after all, religion is a grand reality; and the theories which speculative adventurous philosophers have advanced are nothing better than treacherous quicksands into which many of the deepest thinkers have been engulphed and lost. By this process many highly intelligent minds have been led to desert the ranks of Atheism and to rejoin the army of Christian soldiers and devotees. Many have rejoiced almost beyond expression that the subject of the Earth’s true form and position in the universe had ever been brought under their notice; and doubtless great numbers will yet be induced to return to that allegiance which plain demonstrable truth demands and deserves. To induce numbers of earnest thinking human beings to leave the rebellious cause of Atheism and false philosophy; to return to a full recognition of the beauty and truthfulness of the scriptures, and