9. They were not designed to mark an order in the deposit of rock. All stratified rock, from the Gneiss to the Myocene deposit, is included in the fifth day. They do not, therefore, give a progressive order of deposit.
10. They were designed to give two mornings of inorganic changes of matter, with two contrasting evenings; two organic changes, as mornings of vegetation, with contrasting evenings; two organic changes, as mornings of animals, with contrasting evenings. These days are all spoken of as noting a beginning, a middle, and a close. The beginning and close are contrasts. This mode of measurement may have been derived from Job 9:9—“Which maketh the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades.” Here is Orion, marking the colure line of the Spring equinox at the creation of man; the Bear, marking the same Spring equinox at the end of time; and Pleiades, marking the date at which these visions came to the prophet. Thus we have the beginning and ending of the human race in contrast, and a middle date of passing events. Thus, with Moses the vision of creation opens with the creation of all matter, and the first day ends with the morning of light. The inertia of rest in chaos intervened. The Earth, without form, and the Earth, in form, is contrasted, the second day, with a separated firmament of the sun intervening. In the third day, we have evening commencing with two gases in the form of a steam globe, contrasted with the waving forests of the Devonian age of geology, with the millions of years of deposits of inorganic substance intervening. The language explaining the fourth day seems to be about the sun, moon, and stars. But that these might shine in on the Earth, there was involved the idea of removing the Earth’s “swaddling band,” alluded to by Job. Hence the language involves an evening of twilight in which Cryptogams, as the beginning of Earth’s vegetation, would contrast with the flowers basking in clear sun light, while the slow process of how God caused the sun to shine in on the Earth, by working this dark band of gases into its crust, intervened. Nowhere is this rule seen so clearly as in the language pertaining to the fifth day. Here, the infusoria of the sea is made to contrast with the whale; while birds intervene. These diatoms began in the deposit of the Gneiss rock. The whale is found in the Myocene and since. The solitary reign of beasts is noted as evening, contrasting with the reign of God’s people as “priests and kings unto God,” at the close of time. Intervening are the events of human history. Thus, every day of the six is shown by contrasts.
11. A general providence runs in law, evolving progress as far as Nature’s law is adapted; but when Nature fails to meet any new want, special providence steps in, with additional forces to supply the deficiency. Space was an empty nakedness, and God created matter therein. Matter was without form and void, and God started it in motion. Matter was without life, and God created the life. The beasts of the field were without a moral spirit. And God made man in his own image, blessed with immortality, and capable of attaining to eternal life. For farther particulars, see Sec. 4.
CHAPTER IV.
The Phenomena to which allusions are so freely made in the “Six
Days of Moses,” suggest certain scientific necessities, replete
with geological information, which demonstrate the progressive
work of God, for matter, in matter, by and through matter,
and above matter, to the end of time.
Two books give a revelation of God, Nature and the Bible. Except for purposes of intelligent connection, as a rule, the revelations of one are not repeated in the other. Revelation on the subject of cosmos is evidently intended to supply parts, which nature is not adapted to unfold. Each stands as a part of a great whole; that the true student of nature may be thoroughly furnished with proper text books, which, when rightly understood, are conjointly harmonious, connected, and exhaustive. If man would attain even the faintest ability to measure the “footprints of God” in nature, or fathom the relation of first causes in creation, he can ill afford unacquaintance with either book. The Bible is given as a supplement to God’s voice in nature. Creation, shown in harmony with the testimony of the rocks, confirms the testimony of Moses. The unsupported hypotheses of men have led some to deplore the “mistakes of Moses.” A better acquaintance with both books will lead them, it is thought, at least to respect his great prophetic knowledge, in outlining creation’s origin and forces.
Section 1.
The Work of the First Day.
1. The account, given in Genesis, of creation is in the form of an Epic Poem. As a treatise on any subject, it would be incomplete. Its design seems to be to give, in the form of poetic suggestions, the connecting links to unite creation with creation’s God. For such a purpose, it is the grandest and most complete of all productions of the pen. Six of these days are marked by contrasts, “called evening and morning” but the seventh is peculiar, having neither. The sixth is said to close God’s labor with matter. Unmeasured duration is, doubtless, the seventh.
2. The “deep,” when used in reference to the heavens, means immensity of space; as: “darkness was upon the face of the deep.” Darkness is the normal state of space. Not dependent on matter, it is eternal. Moses saw all matter created at once. God’s work, as revealed here for matter, is in harmony with correlation of matter in science.
3. By a beautiful figure of metonymy, poets speak of a part implying the whole. Such is the word “Earth,” as first introduced in this production. “And the earth (all matter) was without form.” Inertia holds all in rest. An act, fiat, or work of God, above matter, is requisite, to set it in motion. “And the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the deep.” A system formed with a center of light is noted. All systems are members of this choir.
4. Science would suggest, that, if a ponderous globe, as our sun, should gather in a field of gases, though trillions of miles in diameter, all gases, within its drawing sphere, must either go toward the sun, or be thrown around it in a circle. Such was the ring of waters, or fluids, first called a firmament. A most minute directing of Providence is here suggested. It extended to each molecule of gas, and its appropriate place was determined. Before that grand movement of the Spirit of God, there was nothing with which to measure duration, and time had not commenced. No centers—no gravitation. No motion—no light or force. All this is suggested in matter “without form.” Suns only had form at the close of the first day. As systems revolved, measured duration might have commenced at the revolutions of suns about a grand center. One day at the sun would be twenty-seven of ours; one year, eighteen thousand of ours. This first day of creation may have been one hundred million of years. It included the length of these contrasts to a climax, darkness—light. The one reigning over all matter, the other forming from matter, under the direction of God.