Third, the earliest creative effort to reduce it from this shapeless and void or waste condition, into a state of order and productiveness. The spirit of God moved upon THE FACE OF THE WATERS.

As it is stated that it was on the surface of the waters the Divine Spirit commenced his operative power, the natural and obvious inference to be drawn from the narrative is, that the first change of the formless chaos, after its existence, was into a state of universal aqueous solution. We are next informed, that this chaotic mass acquired shape, not instantaneously, but by a series of six days or GENERATIONS, (that is, epochs,) as Moses afterwards calls them.* The narrative tells us that, during the first of these days, or generations, the matter of light and heat was evolved. But against this the Infidel objects that light and heat could not exist anterior to the sun, their great source, which is represented as not having been created until the fourth day; hence also Mr. Olmsted's absurd proposition to change the arrangement of the narrative. Modern philosophy has proved that the sun is not the original source of light, and expositors tell us that the word aur which is used in the third verse, and which is now under consideration, means that subtile, elastic matter to which, in English, we give the name of light; but that in the 14th verse, the word mart is used, and that it signifies the instrument, or means, by which light is transmitted. Mr. Good, in his Book of Nature, tells us that "agreeably to the laws of gravity, the matter of light and heat, which is the most subtile and attenuate of all material substances, must have been evolved first." From the narrative we learn that luminous matter thus evolved produced light without the assistance of the sun or moon, which were not set in the sky, or firmament, and had no rule until the fourth day, or generation. The light thus produced appears to have flowed by tides, and alternately intermitted, constituting a single day and a single night of each of such epochs or generations, whatever their length might be, of which Moses has communicated to us no information. Here the Infidel objects, and he says that Moses must have meant, by the term day, what "the learned Christians, and Jews of ancient days, understood, and the unlearned of the present day yet understand" by it. "Let it not be supposed for a moment," says Mr. Good, "that the term day in the Hebrew tongue, seems to demand a limitation to four-and-twenty hours, as it ordinarily imports; for there is no term in any language that is used with a wider latitude of construction than the Hebrew

* Gen. ii. 4.

jom, or its Arabic form, which is the word for day in the original." He also says that in the Hebrew "it not only denotes, as with us, half a diurnal revolution of the earth, or a whole diurnal revolution, but in many instances, an entire year, or a revolution of the earth round the sun; and this not only in the prophetic writings, which are often appealed to in support of this remark, but in plain historical narrative as well. Thus in Exodus xiii. 10, "Thou shalt keep this ordinance in its season, from year to year," if literally rendered would be through days of days, or through days upon days. And in like manner, Judges xvii. 16, “I will give thee ten sheckels of silver by the year," if strictly rendered would be per dies, for the days, that is, "for the ANNUAL CIRCLE of days." Again he says, concerning the narrative of the creation: "After having stated in the first chapter of Genesis, that the work of creation occupied a period of six DAYS, the same inspired writer, in recapitulating his statements, chapter ii. 4, proceeds to tell us, "these are," or rather, “such were the GENERATIONS of the heavens and of the earth when they were created: in the day (jom) that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." In which passage Moses distinctly tells us that, in the preceding chapter he had used the term jom DAY in the sense of generation, succession, or epoch; while we find him here extending the same term DAY to the whole hexameron, the entire term of time, whatever it may be, that these six days or generations filled up." Therefore, instead of the word used by Moses limiting us to the idea of a period of time, so short as twenty-four hours, it naturally leads us to the idea of a period of much more enlarged extent; and to suppose that from the beginning, each of the periods constituted a solar day of twenty-four hours, it is necessary to suppose that the sun and the moon were set in the sky, "to rule over the day and over the night," "to divide the light from the darkness," "and to be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years," on, or before, the very first DAY or generation; but this is in direct opposition to the spirit and the letter of the Mosaic narrative, which must be preserved and vindicated in its integrity and simplicity.

The narrative tells us that, during the second day, or generation, the firmament was produced, that is, the fine fluids, or waters, as they are poetically and beautifully denominated, progressively uprose, and filled the ethereal void with a vital atmosphere. That during the third day, or generation, the waters under the atmosphere were gathered together in one place, and the dry land appeared; that is, then

ids of the general mass, were strained off, and gathered together into the vast bed of the ocean, and the dry land began to make its appearance, by disclosing the peaks of the primitive mountains; in consequence of which, as Moses informs us, during the same day or generation, "The earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself;" that is, a progress instantly commenced from inorganic matter to vegetable organization, the surface of the earth above, as well as under the waters, being covered with plants and herbs bearing seeds after their respective kinds; thus laying a basis for those carbonaceous materials, the remains of vegetable matter which, geologists inform us, are occasionally to be traced in some of the layers or formations of the class of primitive rocks, (the lowest of the whole,) without a single particle of animal relics intermixed with them.

The narrative informs us that during the fourth day, or generation, God made two great lights; by this expression Moses does not convey the idea that during the fourth day the sun and moon were created out of nothing; for this is in opposition to what he had already stated, when he says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The natural inference therefore is, that in the beginning he created the matter of which our solar system is composed; and it is agreed that the words "he made two great lights," may be properly rendered, he ordained two great luminaries, or light bearers. So that the meaning of the narrative evidently is, that the matter composing the sun and the moon, having gradually undergone a similar process with that of the earth, on the fourth day they were completed, and they appeared in the heavens. The solar system being now finished, and its laws established, the celestial orrery was put into play; in consequence of which the harmonious revolutions of signs, and of seasons, of days, and of years, struck up for the first time their mighty symphony.

The narrative tells us that, during the fifth day, or generation, "the waters brought forth great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind;" so that this period was allotted exclusively to the formation of the fowls of the air, and countless tribes of aquatic creatures; and consequently to that of those lowest ranks of animal life, testaceous worms, corals, and other zoophytes, whose relics, geologists inform us, are alone to be traced in the second class of rocks, or transition formations; these being the only animals as yet created, since the air and the water; and the upper

most peaks of the mountains were the only parts as yet habitable. The narrative further tells us, continuing the same grand and exquisite climax, that towards the close of this period, the mass of waters having sufficiently retired into the deep bed appointed for them; the sixth and concluding period was devoted to the formation of terrestrial animals; and last of all, as the masterpiece of the whole, to that of man himself. Such is the beautiful, but literal, progression of the creation, according to the Mosaic account, as every one must perceive who will carefully peruse it for himself." +

Mr. Olmsted objects to the term epoch; and to test the propriety of the translation, he substitutes the expression "epoch of six thousand years" for the word day; and proceeds to give a false representation of the views of this subject as held by those he calls " geological Christians." A little explanation, however, may place this subject in a very different light. For this purpose it is necessary to remark, 1st. Christian Geologists are not agreed that each epoch may have been at least six thousand years, as Moses, their only authority, has given them no information concerning the duration of each of the generations, or epochs. 2nd. It has already been stated, that in Hebrew the word day is not only used to signify a half, and a whole diurnal revolution of the globe, but it also signifies a year; and that Moses applies the word not only to each of the six days, or generations, but also to the entire term of time, whatever it may have been, that these six days or generations filled up. 3d. It is agreed by expositors, that where in our version it is said: "And the evening and the morning were the first day;" the passage should have been rendered, "And there was dusk, and there was dawn the first day." From this explanation it will be perceived that Mr. Olmsted grossly misrepresents the "Christian geologist," by asserting that he believes God called the light an epoch of six thousand years. He believes that God called the light day, in a certain sense of the word which, as has been shown, admits of various applications; and in the sense in which it is here used, it signifies that period during which light shines upon the earth, and by no means necessarily confined to the space of twenty-four hours.

Moses informs us that during each of the days, generations, or epochs, there was dusk, and there was dawn; of the extent of those

Moses ascribes to birds and fishes a common origin; and it is well known to naturalists, that between these two classes intimate relations exist, imperceptible to the eye, but revealed by anatomy.

which preceded the display of the sun and the moon in the sky, as already observed, he gives no information. We only know that the flow of luminous matter, which measured them, advanced, or was kindled up by regular tides; so that it alternately appeared and disappeared, commencing with a dawn, and terminating with a dusk or darkness; for at the close of each, it is said, "and there was evening and there was morning the first day," or more literally, there was dusk and there was dawn. Whatever may have been the relative proportion of the times and the seasons, the light and the darkness, subsequently to the fourth day, or generation, when the sun and the moon were completed, Moses gives us no reason to suppose that they occurred in the same proportion antecedently to that period. But he tells us, that they were set in the sky to RULE those divisions of time, as they have ruled them, with a single miraculous exception or two, ever since; and to divide the light from the darkness, as it has been divided ever since. Whether the days from the fourth period, viz, the fifth and the sixth, were of a different length from any of the preceding, which may also have differed from each other, or whether they were strictly diurnal revolutions, it is impossible to determine. But to the plain and attentive reader of the Mosaic account, even these two last days must appear to have been of a far more protracted length than that of twenty-four hours, and for the following reasons. On the sixth and last day or generation, Moses informs us all the land animals after their kind, cattle, and wild beasts, and reptiles were created, and then, Adam himself, but alone; who, as we learn from ch. ii. 15—22, was taken and put into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and keep it; where he had explained to him the trees he might eat of, and the trees he might not; after which, were brought to him every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, that he might make himself acquainted with their respective natures, and to all of whom he gave names as soon as their respective characters became known to him. And after this he was plunged into a deep sleep, when the woman was formed out of a part of himself; and it is difficult to conceive, without a miracle, of which we have no intimation, how Adam could have got through the vast amount of work assigned to him in the brief space of twelve or fourteen hours. But whatever conclusions may be arrived at concerning the length of the two last days or generations, cannot affect the integrity of the Mosaic account of the creation, as the discoveries of geology shed no light whatever upon this subject.

Mr. Olmsted sneers at this beautiful and sublime narrative, and tri