not made of things which do appear." (Heb. xi. 3.) Gross blunders relating to natural objects committed in expounding the Word of God are far less excusable in our day than they were in times of ignorance, happily passed away for ever. Still, the light of science has not as yet chased away the thick mists of error that have so long darkened the Mosaic Record of creation. The erroneous interpretations of that narrative, published since geology became a science, are more numerous than they were in the days of John Milton or of John Ray. The doctrine that God created all things out of nothing in the creative week may not be held quite so universally now as it was then; but the belief in a chaos, and also that Moses describes that state of turmoil and confusion, holds its ground as firmly as ever. And those geologists and divines, who no longer believe that God made all things out of nothing in six days, have embraced other errors in connection with the Mosaic Record equally bad. They now know, that the world existed countless ages before the creative week; and they have made up their minds, right or wrong, let it cost what it will, to find the age of the earth and their geological periods, all in the Mosaic Record of creation. And, in accordance with this determination, they assert, contrary to the acknowledged rules. of Biblical criticism and good writing, that in the opening sentence of the Record Moses speaks of the first formation of our globe, and in the second, describes a chaotic state into which it had been permitted to fall. To disprove and dispose of these two statements forms no inconsiderable part of the purpose of this work. With respect to the former, it may be sufficientin addition to all that has already been said-here to remark, that so far is Moses from making any reference to the origin of our globe, he never, not even once, affirms, in a direct and absolute manner, the ex 66 66 istence of the globe. "O Israel, I am God, even thy God" (Psa. 1. 7). "I am God" is an absolute and unqualified assertion of the being of God. "I am thy God" is a qualified declaration of his existence. God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. xi. 6). The direct affirmation here is, not the existence of God (that is taken for granted), but a certain view of the character of God. Now, Moses never makes a direct and unqualified assertion of the existence of the earth-"The earth was without form and void," is a direct affirmation of the state or condition of the earth before the work of creation began; that assertion implies the existence of the earth, just as God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" implies the existence of God; but, in neither case is mere existence the direct object of affirmation, and, except in analysing the language for some critical purpose as at present, it never enters into our thoughts. Moses nowhere says "the earth was," which would be a direct and absolute affirmation of the earth's existence; such a broad statement does not fall within the scope of his history. The first particular assertion which Moses makes respecting our globe is the state in which it was immediately before the work of creation commenced : "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep :" His commission went no further back into the history of our earth. Yet these divines and learned geologists continue to assert that the Jewish historian speaks in verse 1 of the creation of the globe, or even of the universe, out of nothing. Sound philology consigns all such wild notions to merited oblivion. Before proceeding to the work of the first creative day, I shall here throw out a single remark for the consideration of the ex nihilo mien. Neither the first nor the second verse of the Record -with the exception of the last clause of the second describes any part of the work done during the creative week. They are merely preliminary statements of the historian, made with the view of rendering the descriptions of the creative works which follow better understood. The first verse expresses a summary of the six days and the six days' work; the second describes the state of the earth, before the works of these days began. In the case of every one of the particular and permanent acts of creation performed during the six days-"Let" introduces the fiat of the Almighty: Ver. 2. "Let there be light," &c. - 6. "Let there be a firmament," &c. 9. "Let the waters under heaven," &c. Had the globe been formed out of nothing in the creative week, it would have been by far the greatest act of divine power then displayed. And, when we find the historian so exact in introducing all the smaller acts of creation by "Let," he would not have omitted to introduce the most stupendous of them all, in the same formal manner; he would have said: Let the earth be, and the earth was. But this is what he has not done, and just because the earth was not then created. One set of divines explain the Record so as to show that it contains their views; a second and a third party are each as certain that their peculiar dogmas are described in it; yet, all the three are wide of the true interpretation-the only interpretation that the sacred historian's words will bear, but one which neither geologists nor geological divines have hitherto given of them. FIRST DAY. The acts of the Deity during the creative week, as these acts are described in the Record, may be divided into three sorts: I. Permanent adaptations. Each one of these permanent adaptations constitutes a link in the series of miracles, by which the world was prepared for new races of plants and animals, and new races of plants and animals prepared for the globe. These are each introduced by" Let ;" and from the going forth of the first "Let" or divine fiat up to the last, we shall find the work of creation progressing, in a very simple, gradual, formal, orderly, and regular manner: the first act preparing the way for the second, the second for the third, and so on till the very last; each successive act rising in importance above the one that immediately preceded it, till at length the grand and miraculous climax ends with the creation of man in the image of his Maker. And we shall discover as we proceed with our exposition, that the proper work or "Let" of each day consists of one or more permanent adjustments; so that the particular work of each day promotes or advances the creative series one or more steps nearer to its final consummation. These permanent adaptations may be said to form the peculiar characteristics of the world's constitution for the human period. II. The giving of permanent names to such things connected with the permanent adaptations, as, we may suppose, had them not before. III. Temporary or preliminary means necessary towards the accomplishment and efficiency of the permanent arrangements: of these last there are but a few. The first act of the creative week is contained in the last clause of the second verse: Ver. 2. " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." This first act of the Creator, we shall immediately find, belongs to the third kind of acts; the immediate purpose for which it is performed is accomplished in the course of a few hours; that purpose is not apparent on the face of creation; it does not form one of the characteristics of the constitution of our world; it only prepares the way for the permanent and characteristic arrangements that are to follow. The reader will observe that it is not introduced by a "Let." Throughout the Record "Let" is confined to the permanent adaptations. The Hebrew word ruah-here rendered "Spirit"is the same which is employed Gen. viii. 1, to denote the wind, which God made to pass over the earth, to remove the waters of the universal Deluge. By "the Spirit of God" then we are here to understand a wind to be intended; not, however, a common wind, brought about by the ordinary and every-day operation of secondary causes, but a strong wind coming immediately from God, as if "the breath of his mouth," and raised for the express purpose of dispersing the dense fogs then hovering on the surface of the waters, and causing the marked obscurity and gloom that dwelt permanently there. This miraculous wind would be proportioned in strength to the work to be done, and the limited time (part of a natural day) within which it was to be finished, as was the wind of the same nature, prepared to turn back the waters of the Noahic Deluge. The wind, however, required to scatter the fogs would not be nearly so powerful, as that which removed the waters of the Deluge, light fogs being much more easily dissipated than the more solid element of water. Moreover the fogs covered only a part of the sur |