leaves. They have no true pistil, and the pollen is applied directly to the seed. Some of the stems of the fossil Cycads occur in an erect position in

what is denominated the Portland Dirt-bed, consisting of earthy brown matter of a peculiar character.

153. The Reign of Angiosperms. This includes the epoch which commences with the chalk and ends at the conclusion of the tertiary period, or that immediately preceding the present flora of

Fig. 166.-Zamia or Encephalartos pungens, another plant of the Cycas tribe, having naked seeds, and hence called gymnospermous.

the globe. There is a predominance in this epoch of plants resembling more nearly those of the present day. These belong chiefly to the divisions of monocotyledons and dicotyledons, having seedvessels, and hence called angiosperms.

154. Thus all the phenomena connected with fossil plants, show that great changes have taken place in our planet during its preparation for the abode of man, the noblest of God's works on earth; and they lead us to think of that final change when the earth shall be renewed and made a habitation of righteousness and peace. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness; looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens, being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”—(2 Peter iii. 10-14.)

155. "In prosecuting our geological researches in a right spirit, we need not fear that we shall ever arrive at a point where the knowledge of nature will be found to be at variance with the truth of Scripture. The volume of Nature and the volume of Inspiration are the products of the same Omniscient Mind. God is the author of both; and the more thoroughly each is studied, the more shall we be constrained to admit the unnumbered harmonies which subsist betwixt the two, and the beautiful light of illustration which they reciprocally shed on one another. Founding on this simple consideration of the common authorship of the two volumes, we may discard every jealousy of true science, and say with confidence that Christianity has every thing to hope and nothing to fear from the advancement of philosophy. There is a knowledge of nature which is essentially atheistic, but this arises not from superabundance, but from defect of knowledge; not from its going beyond, but from its stopping short of its legitimate bounds." All the discoveries of geology tend only to confirm the statements of Scripture, as has been ably shown by Dr King in his volume on the connection between Geology and Religion.

156. On the subject of Bible teaching in reference to the laws of nature, the following remarks of Gaussen deserve to be studied:-" Open the Bible, examine the fifty sacred authors therein, from

Moses who wrote in the wilderness 400 years before the siege of Troy-to the fisherman son of Zebedee, who wrote 1500 years later in Ephesus and Patmos, under the reign of Domitian; and you will find none of those mistakes which the science of every country detects in the works of preceding generations. Carefully go through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, in search of such faults, and as you carry on the investigation, remember that it is a book which treats of every thing, which describes nature, which recounts its wonders, which records its creation, which tells us of the formation of the heavens, of the light, of the waters, of the air, of the mountains, of animals, and of plants;-that it is a book which acquaints us with the first revolutions of the world, and which foretells also its last;-that it is a book which describes them with circumstantial details, invests them with sublime poetry, and chants them in fervent melodies;—that it is a book replete with eastern imagery, full of majesty, variety, and boldness;-that it is a book which treats of the earth and things visible, and at the same time of the celestial world and things invisible;-that it is a book in which nearly 50 writers, of every degree of cultivation, of every order, of every condition, and separated from one another by 1500 years, have been engaged; that it is a book written variously in the centre of Asia, in the sands of Arabia, in

the deserts of Judea, in the porches of the Jewish Temple and in the rustic schools of the prophets of Bethel and Jericho, in the magnificent palaces of Babylon and on the idolatrous banks of the Chebar, and afterwards in the centre of western civilization, in the midst of the Jews and their ignorant councils, among polytheism and its idols, and as it were in the bosom of pantheism and its foolish philosophy; that it is a book whose first writer was, during forty years, brought up among the magicians of Egypt, who regarded the sun, planets, and elements as endowed with intelligence, reacting upon and governing our world by their continual evaporation ;-and that it is a book whose first pages preceded, by more than 900 years, the most ancient philosophers of Greece and Asia, Thales, Pythagoras, Zaleucus, Xenophon, and Confucius; that it is a book which carries its records into the scenes of the invisible world, the hierarchy of angels, the latest periods of futurity, and the glorious consummation of all things. Well, search in its 50 authors, its 66 books, its 1189 chapters, and its 31,173 verses,-search for a single one of the thousand errors with which every ancient and modern author abounds, when they speak of the heavens or of the earth, of their revolutions or their elements, and you will fail to find it.. It never does violence to facts, nor to the Never in

principles of sound natural philosophy.