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Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth."

Now, whether the views which we have hitherto entertained bear sufficient weight with them to reconcile us to the requirements of the geologists or not; one thing is very certain, that they arise, almost inevitably, from the original position which was laid down. They have so overlapped each other, that no one can be withdrawn without causing a manifest gap in the whole structure, and destroying its integrity. The first verse is separated from the context. The solar heavens and the earth have been created; and an interval takes place between that unknown period and the æra taken up by Moses. Darkness at that æra envelops the earth; and it follows that it must be a preternatural darkness arising from itself. Light is brought out to disperse it; and it follows, from the previous existence of the sun and planets, that it must be an apparent, and not a real formation. A firmament is made; and it follows, from the natural action of the sun on the waters, that, at most, a greater or different energy only could be imparted to a substance which before was in existence and operation. These seem the fair and rational consequences of the first step taken.

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With such facts in our possession, we come to the

work of the fourth day. But with these before us, in what can that work be said to consist? The "lights"-both the two greater and the innumerable host of lesser bodies, the stars, have long since been created; and more, have long since been appointed to their various uses; and arranged in regard to the earth, for signs and seasons, and days, and years. They have suffered no change. The Sun, fixed in the centre of its system, has for ages been immoveable; and the earth, together with the planets, by the admission of the geologists, though dispossessed of life, and shrouded in an inward darkness, has been upheld in its place by, and continued its destined course around, that luminary. There was consequently nothing new in the relative and actual position of the sun, and its satellite the earth, which could be said to constitute the divine labor of the fourth day.

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It must then consist, as has been stated, in the full development of the heavenly host to the earth in all their unclouded glory and brilliancy. They seemed by that disclosure to be arranged on that day; and are therefore spoken of by the historian in accordance with that seeming, and not with the reality. But is not this playing upon words? Surely such a mode of exposition derogates too much from the awe and sublimity of the subject, to be true; and yet we must perforce make an approach to such a solution if we admit the given premises. The works of God were arbitrarily divided into six equal periods. They might have been completed in a second; or extended over a space of thousands of years. But God willed that

his own labors in creation should be both a memorial and an image of what he required of man to the end of time; and having completed his labors in six days, he rested on the seventh in contemplation of his acts.

Now what, in the case under review, was the work of the fourth day? Absolutely nothing. The command for the dispersion of darkness had gone forth on the first; and the grosser elements, in obedience to that command, had been in a state of slow yielding to the power of the sun from that hour. They had vanished on the fourth ;-but there was no iterated command. In regard to that dispersion, the work of the fourth day differed not from the third; nor that from the second, or the first; and God must therefore virtually have rested from his work on the fourth, as entirely and unreservedly as he did on the seventh. It surely was not the degree of brightness which justified Moses in using the expressions which he has written relative to the fourth day. The justification must be looked for in the deed, and not in changeful operation of its effects. The light must have increased greatly, by comparison, and in degree, on the second and the third day; but it would be absurd to class the formation of light amongst the labors of those days; neither could those bodies, the sun and stars, which are assumed to have been moulded into form, and in the fulfilment of their destined offices millions of years antecedently, be said to be arranged on that day, when in point of fact, they underwent neither change of purpose nor position. And besides; the fourth commandment is evidently founded upon a review of these works of

creation. It is peremptorily stated in that law, that "in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and rested on the seventh day." The day of rest is put in opposition to the several days of work. It infers that work was done by the Almighty on each of those six days, or the whole force of the contrast falls at once to the ground; and it really is little short of trifling with our belief, to state that as a work of the Lord, which in reality was no work at all;-one of so frivolous and imaginary a character, that, in imposing it on our minds as an article of faith, the historian might almost be said to have practised a deception.

The other records of this opening chapter seem, in every point, as consistent with a re-production at the birth of Adam, as with an original formation. The process of one might be identified with the

other.

It remains with us to determine whether the points which have been adduced as exceptionable, present too great an obstacle to our reception of them in the manner stated: or whether the strength of evidence brought by the geologists to bear on the extreme antiquity of the earth, and on the probability of former convulsions on its surface, are sufficient to neutralize the objections which arise when the examination descends to matters of detail. That is a question which must be left to the mind and judgment of the individual. Truth should be the great object of our search; and that, without violence to the conscience. The subject admits of too many modes of explanation, to be imposed arbitrarily on

the mind as a distinct and settled article of faith.

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We seek for the most consistent; and with this caution resume our investigation.

DIV. II.

It was stated, that the requirements of the geologist for long periods of time anterior to the historic æra of Moses, might be met by two modes of solution. The one, which, under different modifications, is usually received, has been discussed. We leave it for the present, and approach the other. With this view we divide the narrative of Moses into two parts; the first of which is supposed to give the account of the original creation of the earth, and ends at the third verse of the second chapter;-the other details the formation of Adam, and the present race of men, commencing with the fourth verse. We give to this view of the subject the same patient attention which has been exhibited to that which we have left; not so much in advocacy of the opinions, as for the purpose of eliciting the truth.

Now, all that has been advanced as giving strength to the separation of the first verse of Genesis, will apply as closely to the present view of the subject, as to that peculiar one, which has already been tested. Indeed the idea must have been given to the mind of the man who first interpreted it as an abstract statement, from the very ease and probability of the separation. It was the capability of

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