Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-07-01

The WORK OF CREAr1oN.-The Creator has spok-
en-, and the stars look out from openings of deep
unclouded blue and, day rises, and the planet of
morning palcs in the East, the broken cloudlets are
transformed from bronze into gold, and anon the
gold becomes fire, and at length the glorious sun
rises out Of the sea- and enters his rejoc
ing. 1t is brilliant day-the waves, of deeper
and softer blue than before, dance and sparkle in
the light; the EARTH with little less to attract the
gaze, has assumed garb of brighter green and as
the sun declines amid richer gores than those
which had encircircled his rising the moon appears
full OF bed in the East, to the human eye the second
great luminary of the heavens, and climbs slowly
to the zenith as night advances, shedding its mild
radiance on land and sea.
Again the day breaks; the prospect consists, as
before, of land and ocean, There are great pine
woods, red-covcrcd swamps, wide-pains, winding
rivers and broad lakes and bright shines over
all. But the landscape derives its interest and nov
city from feature unmarked before. Gigantic
birds stalk along the sands wade far into the
waters in quest of their ichthyc food, while birds
Of lesser size float upon the lakes or scream discor-
dant in lowering docks, thick insects in the calm
OF summer evening, over the narrow SEAS or
brighten with the sunlit CLEAN of their wings the
thick woods And ocean has its monsters; great
"tonniaim" tempest the deep as they heaSc their
huge bulk over the surface to inhae the sustaining
air; and out Of their nostrils goeh smoke as out Of
"seehng pot or caudron." INDUSTRIOUS creatures,
armed in massive scales, haunt the rivers,
the flat, rank meadows; earth, air and water are
charged with animal life, and the sets on busy
scene, in which the unerring instinct pursucs
mttingy its few simple ends-the support and pre-
servaton of the individual the propagation of the
species, and the protection and maintenance of the
young.
Again the night descends, for the fifth day has
closed, and morning breaks the sixth and last
day of the creation. Cattle and beasts of the fields
Craze on the plains and the thick-skinned rhnoce-
walows in the marshes; the squat hppopota-
rustles among the reeds or punges suddenly
into the river great herds eff elephants seek their
food among the young heritage of the woods, while
animals Of tiercer nature-the lion, the leopard, and
the bear-harbor in deep caves till the evening, or
lie in wait for their prey amid tangled thckets, or
beneath some broken bank. At length, as the day
wanes and the shadows lengthen, man, the respon-
sible lord of the creation, formed in Gods own i'm
age, is introduced upon the scene, and the work of
creation ceases forever upon the earth. The night
falls once more upon the prospect and there dawns
vet another morrow-the morrow of Gods rest
that Divine Sabbath in which there is more crea-
tive labor, and which, "blessed and sanctfied " be-
yond all the days that had gone before, has its
special object the moral elevation and final redemp
ton of man. And over it no evening is represent
ed in the record falling for its special work is not
yet complete. Such seems TO have been the sublime
panorama of creation, exhibited in visions of DID, to
The shepherd who first taught the chosen seed,
In the beginning, how the heavens and earth
Rose out of chaUs!
And rightly understood, I know not single scien-
tic truth that initiates against even the minutest
or least prominent of its details.
Hugh Miller's Testimony of the Rocks"