Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"How very different was the intellectual world of the early nineteenth century! Then, virtually everyone believed in intelligent design. . . . The commonly used expression 'the book of nature' referred to the universal practice of viewing nature as revelation of God's power and wisdom. . . . The psalmist had proclaimed, 'The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.' The influential Benjamin Silliman, professor of chemistry and natural history at Yale from 1802 to 1853, affirmed that science tells us 'the thoughts of God.' . . . They insisted that neither geology nor fossils of extinct animals contradicted the book of Genesis. They interpreted the 'days' of creation as representing eons of time and pointed out that Genesis had been written for an ancient audience, with the purpose of teaching religion, and not to instruct modern people in scientific particulars. . . . . The spread of literacy, discoveries in science and technology, even a rising standard of living, could all be interpreted--and were--as evidences of the approach of Christ's Second Coming and the messianic age foretold by the prophets, near at hand." [Howe: What Hath God Wrought, p. 464-9]