the prophecies yet unfulfilled as their
guide, to plunge into a troubled sea of speculation regarding the
history of the future. And I have found that in every instance they were
deplorably at fault regarding even the events that were nearest at hand
at the time. History is thus the surest interpreter of the revealed
prophecies which referred to events _posterior_ to the times of the
prophet. In what shall we find the surest interpretation of the revealed
_prophecies_ that referred to events _anterior_ to his time? In what
light, or on what principle, shall we most correctly read the prophetic
drama of creation? In the light, I reply, of scientific discovery,--on
the principle that the clear and certain must be accepted, when
attainable, as the proper exponents of the doubtful and obscure. What
fully developed history is to the prophecy which of old looked forwards,
fully developed science is to the prophecy which of old looked
backwards. Scarce any one will question whether that portion of the
creation drama which deals with the heavenly bodies ought to be read in
the light of established astronomic discovery or no; for, save by
perhaps a few of Father Cullen's monks, who can still hold that the sun
moves round the earth, and is only six feet in diameter, all theologians
have now received the astronomic doctrines, and know that they rest upon
a basis at least as certain as any of the historic events symbolized in
fulfilled prophecy. And were we to challenge for the established
geologic doctrines a similar place and position with respect to those
portions of the drama which deal with the two great kingdoms of nature,
plant and animal, we might safely do so in the belief that the claim
will be one day as universally recognized as the astronomic one is now.

On this principle there may, of course, be portions of the _prophetic_
pre-Adamic past of as doubtful interpretation at the present time, from
the imperfect development of physical science, as is any portion of the
prophetic future from the imperfect development of historic events. The
science necessary to the interpretation of the one may be as certainly
still to discover as the events necessary to the interpretation of the
other may be still to take place. Three centuries have not yet passed
since astronomic science was sufficiently developed to form a true key
to the various notices of the heavenly bodies which occur in Scripture;
among the others, to the notice of