Diuturnity; or, The comparative age of the world, showing that the human race is in the infancy of its being, and demonstrating a reasonable and rational world, and its immense future duration

Front matter

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I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I

{UNITED' STATES OF AMERICA.}

Dedication

To my Little Grandsons, Abbey, Johnny, and Lenny :

My Dear Children — I dedicate this book to you. You are now little boys, of the ages of five to ten years, and know but little of the labors in which you have seen me so constantly engaged, in my study, every evening and leisure hour. A few times I have attempted to explain to you that I was writing a book, but you have only a partial conception of it. I humbly pray Almighty Grod that he may bless you with health and wisdom, that in riper years you may not only study and comprehend these thoughts profitably, but improve upon them and learn wisdom. And I confidently expect that your early dedication to God, whose providence I have herein, in a small degree, attempted to explain, will stimulate you to higher and still higher thoughts of his ways, and to closer and still closer devotion to his service.

Your affectionate grandfather,

Chapter 1. A cursory View of the Point we now occupy as to

the Past, the Present, and the Future 15

2. God is Infinitely Wise and Good. This is the True

and Only Basis of all Practical Reasoning on Nature and Providence 19

3. God being Infinitely Wise and Good, there is noth-

ing Made in Vain, but every thing for an Adequate Purpose 23

4. Respecting the Adamic Curse and some of its Im-

mediate Effects 25

5. Concerning the Restoration and the Means by

which it was to be Effected 27

6. The Final Triumph of Christ in the Simple Work-

ings of the Christian Religion will be absolutely Completed 28

7. The Natural Advancement of the World and of Re-

ligion Considered 32

8. The Natural Tendency of Religion is to Increase... 35

9. Concerning the Natural Process by which Children

Inherit Piety 38

10. Concerning the Comparative Age of the World —

Whether it is Old or Young 42

11. Refutation of some of the Popular Sentiments re-

specting the Comparative Age of the World 44

VI CONTENTS.

PAGK

Chapter 12. A Philosophers Rule by which the Comparative Age of the World may be so far Ascertained as to Determine that this Age belongs to its Infancy. 46

13. Concerning the Vast Amount of Undiscovered Nature 48

SECTION SECOND. On the Physical Aspects of the "World 53

Chapter 14. Capacity proves Design — The Rule applied to the

World and its Furniture 55

15. The Earth and its great Store-houses are as yet al-

most wholly Undiscovered 58

16. Concerning Rocks, Hills, and Deserts — Their Con-

dition and Design 61

17. Some Practical Observations on Isaiah xl: 4 04

18. Concerning the Present Condition of Forests and

Unused Lands compared with their Evident Design 67

19. An Inquiry respecting the Polar Regions 68

20. An Inquiry respecting the Present Condition of

Mineralogy 72

21. Concerning Caves and the Light they throw on the

Subject 75

22. An Inquiry Relating to Fossil Coal 81

23. Concerning Salt, its Great Quantities, Practical

Uses, etc 83

24. Concerning Mineral Waters — Their Quantities,

Kinds, and Uses 85

25. Concerning Hot Springs and other Underground

Phenomena 87

26. An Inquiry respecting Earthquakes, their Design,

etc 89

27. Respecting Agriculture, its Present Condition, etc. 91

28. There is Evident Defect in the Present System of

Agriculture 94

CONTENTS. Vll

PAGE

Chapter 29. Concerning Rain, and how far Science may Control it 96

30. Concerning Medicine — The Small Discoveries made

in this Department 98

31. The Mechanic Arts are in a Crude Beginning State 99

32. Concerning the Durability of Building Material —

The Small Discoveries we have made in it 101

83. Concerning Oil, with Conjectures as to the Probable Supply, Uses, etc 103

CTION THIRD.

On tee Intellectual Aspects of the World 105

Chapter 34. What is the Proper Mission and End of Science ?... 107

35. Concerning the Philosophic Congruity between

Man and the World 110

36. Concerning Money — Its Philosophy and Uses 113

37. Concerning the Intercommunication of Ideas Gen-

erally and the Means by which it is done 115

38. Concerning the Office and End of Human Language 118

39. Concerning Acoustics — Its immense Natural Im-

portance, and our Great Lack of Knowledge respecting it 124

40. Concerning Writing — Is it probable the Most

Proper Mode of Writing is Discovered? 126

41. Concerning Longevity, Ancient and Modern —

Which is the Rule and which the Exception?... 129

42. Concerning Wild Animals — Their Wildness is

merely Temporary and Incidental 134

43. Concerning the Pre-Adamite Earth, considered in

reference to its most Natural and Probable Relation to the Earth in its Present Form 138

SECTION FOURTH. On the Moral and Religious Aspects op the World.. 145

Chapter 44. Some Plain and Unmistakable Bible Teachings on

the Sinless Period 147

Vlll CONTENTS.

Chapter 45. Concerning Popular Errors respecting the Sinless

Period and of all Long Periods 151

46. The Undertaking of Christ in our Present Relig-

ious System was the Thorough and Complete Renovation and Christianization of Mankind... 154

47. A Brief View of the Present State of Religion in

the World.. 157

49. Concerning the State and Influence of Popular

Prejudice 164

50. The Popular Misunderstanding of the Scriptures

in the best portions of Society shows their comparative Recent Introduction 166

51. Moral Philosophy is in its Crudest and Most Ini-

tiatory State 168

52. Concerning the Present State of Religious Litera-

ture — What it is and what it must be 170

53. Concerning the Agency and Necessity of Litera-

ture in the Evangelization of the World 176

64. Concerning Juvenile Conversion — What it is and

65. Concerning the very great Injury the World Re-

ceives by the Uniform Failures in the Government of Infants 181

66. Concerning Popular Views of Religion 188

67. The Conventional Laws of Society and the Rules

of the Decalogue Contrasted 192

68. An Inside View of Popular Honesty 194

69. Concerning Civilization, and its Testimony as to

the Progress the World has made in its Natural Course 195

60. Concerning Hypocrisy and Inferences to be Drawn

therefrom 198

61. Concerning the Practical Use and Benefit of the

Moral Law 200

CONTENTS. IX

PAGE

Chapter 62. Concerning the Irregularity of the Course of Religious Progress 204

63. Concerning the Remarkable Successes and Fail-

ures of the Gospel 208

64. Concerning Civil Government — Whether it is De-

signed to be Permanent, and what are its Functions and Uses 216

65. Concerning Domestic Science — Its Philosophy and

Compensation 221

66. Concerning War, and to what Comparative Period

in Human Progress it Naturally belongs 228

67. Concerning Natural Theology 230

68. Concerning the Morals of Cities as Types and

Models of the World 234

69. Concerning the Dark Ages, and its relation to

other Periods, particularly the Future 236

70. Concerning Ecclesiastical History — Of what is it

a History 239

71. Concerning Mental Progress — An Inquiry into the

Absolute Powers of the Mental Const! tution 243

72. Concerning Animal Magnetism — What is it? 248

73. Concerning Astronomy — The Newness of the Sci-

ence, with Inferences Deducible therefrom 253

74. Concerning Time and Space, and the Deficiency of *

our Knowledge respecting them 256

75. Concerning Light and Vision — The Little we Know

in comparison with what is Certainly or Probably within our reach 259

76. Concerning Electricity — Possibility of its Discov-

ery and Practical Use 262

SECTION FIFTH. On the Future Improved and Blissful State of the World 267

Chapter 77. Concerning the Natural Work and Office of Human

Religion — Its Theater and its End 269

X CONTENTS,

PAGE

Chapter 78. Are there Few that be Saved?— Luke xiii: 23 273

79. Concerning the Sinless Period of the World, Im-

properly Called a Millennium — Its Philosophy and Naturalness 276

80. Concerning the Second Coming of Christ — A De-

murrer to some Recent Theories 286

81. Concerning the Philosophy and Sufficiency of the

Christian Religion as it now is 302

82. Concerning the Attempted Degradation of Jehovah

to an Earthly Emperorship — A Glance at its Rationale 307

83. My Kingdom is not of this World 315

84. This same Jesus which is Taken from you into

Heaven, shall so Come in Like Manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven — Acts i: 11 319

85. Human Advancement must be supposed to be

Finally Equal to the Natural Capacity for it 323

87. Concerning the Resurrection and the End of the

World 336

88. Concerning the Final and Glorious Destiny of this

EXORDIUM

The drift of the times is far too sensational. "We need more sobriety, more reason, and less fancy and imagery. Pictures of the marvelous are so easily drawn that we need not pay men for manufacturing them. Romance is cheap; and even rhetoric is sold by the teacher at a fair value. Poetry is very good in its place ; but it ought not to usurp the territory of others. The age in which we live, especially among the religious and the religiously inclined, is already too imaginative, too romantic, too extravagant, too enthusiastic, too fanatic, too Utopian. We want less writing and more thinking, less fancy and more reality, less idealism and more philosophy, less romance and more truth. It is not enough that a book be readable. Don Quixote has played his part. Literature, especially on religious subjects, undertaking to demonstrate the great truths of God and morals, ought to be free from fiction and somnambulism; manufacturers of gossip and sensation ought to be suspected prima facia; and rhetoric, oriental phraseology, and mystic verbiage, and paintings of the marvelous ought not to be deemed sufficient to entitle them to public confidence.

In these chapters the author has had a different sort of

Xll EXORDIUM.

labor to perforin than to tickle the fancy and excite the imagination. Truth and Reason have been his instruments. This world is held to be reasonable, rational, sensible, and eminently harmonious and consistent. The reader is invited to a plain repast, served in a plain way. The entertainment is for his sober reason. He is asked to see, to think, and to admire, rather than to gaze, to marvel, and to wonder.

I hold the doctrine of Millennium, in all the shapes and phases in which I have seen it stated, to be a most dangerous form of infidelity, though I must confess that many who hold it are by no means aware of this. Indeed, many are among the most pious and useful Christians. Indeed, further, most of the objections I have seen against it, not being directed against the thing, but some particular phases of it, make concessions in its favor which are utterly subversive to the Christian religion.

They tell us that millennium writers do n't know when the millennium will set in; it might happen at any time, and that our business is to let their calculations alone and get ready for it. It may happen at any time.

On the contrary, I hold that there is and can be no such thing, neither now nor ever; that if a millennium and a human second-coming can happen at all, then the Christian religion is both a falsehood and a failure.

And what we arc to do, or can do, to get ready for such an event, should such a thing be possible, I can not comprehend, nor have I ever heard any one attempt to explain it. I know of no religious preparation we can make, except to live and die right and assist others to do the same.

DITTTTJIlIISriTY.

Section First

Before bringing forward the Physical and Moral Testimony designed to be advanced in this argument, it is needful to prepare the way by a few chapters of plain but important considerations respecting some points of relationship between the Maker, the World, and the inhabitants thereof. The unreasoning notion of wrapping up the course of time and humanity, and of circumscribing the sweep of earthly destiny within the narrow precincts of sixty or seventy centuries, is far too common. There is at least a reasonable relationship in providential things. The system we familiarly call the World has a beginning, a course, and a rationale.

CHAPTER I.

A CURSORY VIEW OF THE POINT WE NOW OCCUPY AS TO THE PAST, THE PRESENT, AND THE FUTURE.

We are naturally inclined, and our circumstances and condition strongly prompt us, to take very restricted views and imbibe superficial notions of the depth and magnitude of the great course and sweep of the divine procedure in administering the affairs of our world, both in its natural and moral aspects. Occupying, as we do, each of us, but a brief point in periodicity, as we appear upon and pass over the stage of life in successive generations, and then having our attention centered chiefly upon the scenes immediately before us, we almost lose sight, in the dim distance, of things of the greatest moment. While

" distance lends enchantment to the "view, "

it generally hinders, if it does not oftentimes wholly obstruct, philosophic research.

And even history much resembles a landscape view. Objects and facts at the remove of a few years lessen in their bulk greatly, while those a few centuries off stand in little clusters away in the dim distance. A little spreading oak near you is larger and fills more of the eye than the mountain whose azure peak rises on the other side of the landscape. Yet the men who lived a thousand years ago, or those beyond the flood, experienced all the deep interest, and marked all the anxious solicitude in the extensive variety and individuality of separate years and days and hours; their disappointments, their good and bad fortune, as well as their separate and various individual relationship, were all spread out before them, each in its separate, several position, and each possessing its individual relationship and peculiar interest. But the view we take of these things is very different. The events of a whole year, or of a hundred years, are often thrown into a general mass, with little or no separate individuality of interest, aad we see them only in a few convenient hillocks. Persons are nearly or quite cotemporary who lived a hundred years apart, and even geography is gathered together at a few convenient points.

Thus we attach undue importance to the things which stand nearest us. The age in which we live is, in our estimation, far more important than any other. Now, every thing has ripened, or is fast ripening, into the most important results. This is the culminating period. Science is at or near its acme. The arts have reached very nearly or quite the line of perfectness. Every thing is mature or is fast maturing.

Nor do we rest these things upon mere fancy and imagination. We reason and prove as we go. See how we are in advance of our fathers! Look at the high condition of the arts and sciences ! See our inventions and perfection in motive power — of railroads, navigation, and many other useful things ! The men who lived before us had not discovered the vast and important uses to which the earth and its properties could be subjected. They had not discovered America; and now look at its countless towns and cities, and its rich and ripening farm-fields. They had not even discovered Africa, save a few border patches; but now the source of the Niger is made to wheel into the ranks of geography. Look at Australia, California, the Sandwich Islands, and the far East, and compare their condition with what they were only half a century ago.

And notice the perfection in telegraphing; improvements in agriculture: look at geological research; at printing; at artistic printing and lithography ; at the discovery of subterranean lakes of pure oil, etc., etc.

And, besides the vast improvements and perfections in arts and science, look at the moral and religious condition of the world. Missionaries have been sent to and have labored in every main-land and every island of the sea. Far-off Africa has been cited to Christ and exhorted to holiness. Many millions of copies of the Bible have been printed and circulated in all lands; its text has been scrutinized more carefully, or at least more critically, than in former ages, and its doctrines are therefore better understood, and consequently more highly appreciated. Biblical science and ecclesiastical philosophy were never so well understood as they are now.

So that our present stand-point is one of great if not universal corvergence. We live in the great focal center of human progress. We conclude that human advancement has reached almost the very topmost round of the ladder. We have reached so far that surely there is not much beyond.

Such reasoning as this is inconclusive and unsatisfactory. However far it may be carried as matter of mere historic truth, and to whatever particular things it may be applied, there being no common standard nor rule of human perfectability, nor natural maturity with which to compare these facts, and by which to determine their character, the argument amounts to nothing, or nearly nothing. They prove that human affairs are still progressing. But whether they have marked one-half, or one-thousandth part, or one stride in a million of the great course of time, they determine nothing. By this kind of argument we determine that human improvement continues; that the world and its affairs have not stopped, nor turned back upon their axes; that experience still develops moral, intellectual, and scientific truth.

18 DITJTTTRNITY.

If you were to go back to the' people who lived ten, a hundred, a thousand, or two or five thousand years ago, you would find them reasoning in the very same way, and forming the very same conclusions. They, too, had made great improvements upon the past, and saw every thing fast reaching maturity. We must find some other mode of reasoning. Reasoning without a base-line is not reasoning. Determining without an axiom determines nothing.

By observing the simple but sure utterances of nature, we have ascertained some of Grod's laws respecting what we call science, with unmistakable certainty. But what proportion of the regions of science we have actually explored, who can tell? We have entered upon the threshold, and set foot upon the margin; but where the other side is, who has ascertained?

The discovery of the mariner's compass, and of a continent in the West, settled nearly all principles in nautical science; and yet the first masters of the seas can not tell the character nor the use of the Gulf Stream, nor why or wherefore the tide rises. The plow which Cincinnatus drove twenty-three hundred years ago was the perfection of agricultural science and of that class of labor-saving machinery ; and yet we have not, to this day, discovered a rule by which to determine poor land from rich; nor even have we ascertained whether indeed there is absolutely any such distinction.

In ecclesiastical science and theology, Luther was unquestionably far ahead of his race and his age ; and he opened up the Bible as it had not been read before. And yet at this day it is by no means a settled matter among theologians what and where the Church is, nor how it is to be identified, entered, or governed.

We must reason otherwise. We must find a fixed and certain base-line from which to reason. Can we do so?

GOD IS INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD. 19

CHAPTEE II.

GOD IS INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD — THIS IS THE TRUE AND ONLY BASIS OF ALL PRACTICAL REASONING ON NATURE AND PROVIDENCE.

The infinite wisdom and goodness of God are settled axioms. They are not latent principles which may be brought into exercise, but active characteristics which are certainly in operation always and in all places. It follows then, manifestly, that God has made nothing in vain; that every thing has a purpose and an adaptation. And not only has every thing, a purpose and an adaptation, but every thing in creation has an infinitely wise adaptation and an infinitely good purpose.

This means, in other words, that the earth, with its natural properties and laws, as a dwelling-place for mankind, is arranged and adapted, in all its parts and possible relations and combinations, so as to answer the end in view in the best possible way, and to the greatest possible extent. God has made nothing in vain. There is in creation no unnecessary outlay of either mind or means. That is, every thing was made and arranged for something. Nothing was made for nothing. Not a leaf, not a vapor, not a pebble, not a law but has a purpose and an adaptation under God's wisdom and goodness.

The nature and uses of most of the laws and properties of the earth, such of them as we have discovered, are easily seen and understood; and we certainly do not know of any thing that is useless. Thousands of the properties, laws, and relations of the earth have been discovered since we have been living upon it, and in almost every instance their usefulness, to some extent at least, has been seen.

To suppose that God lias made any thing without a wise and benevolent motive, is to suppose there was some lack of either wisdom or goodness in the production. But how far we, in the present age of the world, may be able to see and understand fully the usefulness of each particular piece of the earth's furniture, as far as we may have discovered them, is one thing ; and how far such usefulness may really exist, is perhaps quite another. It is certain we know of nothing intended to produce unhappiness.

The senses are channels through which, to a great extent, happiness and unhappiness are transmitted. Food is essential for the sustenance of the body; but it is by no means necessary, so far as we know, that food should have a pleasurable taste; that its proper use should be attended with pleasurable sensations; and that men should be capable of choosing between this and that kind of food of the same nourishing qualities, merely on the ground of happiness in the use of it. We see, however, that the nerves of the mouth are most nicely adjusted to the temper of the juice of the apple. And though there be such a great variety in the chemical formation of different kinds of food, prepared in different modes, yet there is, in almost all the millions of the human family, a corresponding and wonderfully nice adjustment in the numerous nerves with which the mouth is supplied, so that eating is a pleasure as well as a utility. To produce this result, there must have been a wonderful cooperation between the goodness and wisdom of Almighty God; for, without this, the most wholesome and nutritious food would be as likely to have the taste of putrid meat, or Indian turnip, or sand, as of beef-steaks or pies. Wisdom made food nutritious, and goodness made it pleasant to the taste.

And just so of the sense of seeing. But for a most wonderful adjustment in the formation of the retina of the eye

GOD IS INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD. 21

and the color of a landscape, seeing would be generally painful. Most things we see are green or of greenish color. This simple fact ministers largely to human happiness. And then the great variety in the colors of nature and the corresponding structure in the organs of sight render seeing a great pleasure as well as a utility. When some of the nerves of the eye become diseased, see how painful it oftentimes becomes to look out upon almost any thing. Now, we are obliged to conclude that but for the constant exercise of Divine goodness and wisdom, this great pain in seeing would be a common experience every moment of our lives, as the eye passes from one object to another.

And just so in hearing. The melody of common sounds is pleasurable. This is not necessarily so, nor could it be the result of accident. The voice of a friend might be as intelligible as it is, and yet grate upon the ear like a rasp upon a mill-saw, piercing asunder almost the very nerves of the teeth. The voice of birds, of the wind, the prattling of babes, the violin, the cascade, the base of the lowing ox, the rolling of the billow, or the sweet melody of song, are all sources of untold happiness to mankind. The simple utility of hearing is, we may say, produced by wisdom; while all that is pleasureable in sound, with its many varying notes, is to be attributed to the Divine goodness. The former might be as complete as it is now, with little or nothing of the latter. There can be no doubt that, but for special interworking of the wisdom and goodness of God in tempering the delicate texture of the atmosphere for the conveyance of sound, and the perhaps still more delicate construction of the ear to that end, that hearing would, in most if not all cases, be attended with intense pain.

And the sense of feeling, also, and the manner in which it is exercised, give indubitable evidence of the immeasurable display of the Divine goodness and wisdom. But for these special preparations and adaptations, every thing we would touch would give us pain.

And what is it that causes a pleasurable fragrance to emit from the rose, or a sweet odor to arise from the meats we eat, hut the exact measurements and adaptations of Divine goodness and wisdom? "We judge to a considerable extent of the qualities of food by the sense of smell. But it is certainly not necessary that pleasurable sensations should be the rule of acceptance and rejection, or that the exercise of these organs should ever be attended with happiness.

But in all these things we see, as clearly as the sun at noonday, that there is an infinitely wise and benevolent adaptation in the placing of each one of the millions of nerves, fibers, tendons, muscles, bones, and juices of the human system, on the one hand, and, on the other, in the atmosphere, the light, heat, color, density, fluidity, and solidity of every part and particle of the earth's surface, and its attendant properties, in its animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. Every thing in itself and its relations is exactly fitted to its end and purpose. There is not a useless piece of machinery. There are not two things where one would answer as well; there are not ten things where nine would serve as good a purpose.

In all the countless variety of vegetation on the earth's surface — the number of leaves, the texture of bark, the decay of old foliage, and the production of new, the length of time necessary for its maturity — all are placed in precise harmony and adaptation with the composition of the atmosphere, the descending rain, the changes of the seasons, the recurrence of day and night, and every other earthly phenomenon. There is no jargon, no conflict, nothing made in vain, no lack, no redundancy. And the end of the whole and of each particular is, that the earth may be the better fitted to furnish a complete and happy residence for man.

Thus it is that God's WISDOM and GOODNESS underlie all true reasoning respecting the phenomena of the world regarded as a residence for mankind. It was made perfect, absolutely perfect in all its parts; for its Maker, in view

NOTHING IS MADE IN VAIN. 23

not merely of its then present condition, but of its course, sweep, career, use, and destiny, pronounced it "GOOD." And whether it had been so pronounced or not, such must have been its character, because it is the result of Infinite wisdom and goodness.

Chapter III

GOD BEING INFINITELY WISE AND GOOD, THERE IS NOTHING MADE IN VAIN, BUT EVERY THING EOR AN ADEQUATE PURPOSE.

It is not only a necessary deduction of reason that nothing could be made in vain, and that there could be no lack of any thing useful to man, seeing that Glod is infinitely wise and infinitely benevolent, and that he is our God, but when we examine the world itself, so far as we are at present capable of doing so, we find this doctrine abundantly vindicated. We know, however, but little of the world we inhabit, of its earth, rocks, minerals, water, vegetation, animals, atmosphere, light, heat, etc., and of the laws by which they are related and governed. And still less do we know of the extent to which they may be made to combine and cooperate for the advantage of mankind. Since we have inhabited the world, we have made ourselves acquainted with a few of these things and their laws, though it is certain that most of them lie quite beyond our observation. And we see nothing made in vain.

Perhaps some might assent to this general proposition — that every thing was made for a purpose — with but a faint and partial conception of its practical importance. The principle must hold good in all its practical details. The earth has exactly the right size, and the proper specific gravity, and is composed of the kind of material best suited to its end. And the materials with which it is furnished, air, water, minerals, vegetation, etc., is also of the proper kind and quantity. The idea is a pretty large one, and comprehends a great variety of particulars, and has immensity of extent, but it must be entertained as a basis of reasoning. The world was created not for a general but for a specific purpose.

On this point we are unmistakably informed. After God had created the earth with its properties and animals, each perfect in itself, with inherent provision for a continuous existence, he said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." And further it is said: "And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it ; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.*'