The Portland daily press., 1874-02-23

the Coast Survey. 1t has beef recognized since
the days of Astruc that this chapter is not by
Moses, but has been copied by Moses from an
earlier hand 1t indeed contains in itself evidence
of its extreme antiquity and of its divine IN
spiration in the highest sense of the word. 1t
is, if human, speculation on the origin of
things, vet it does not contain phrase, or a
word. that has a philosophical or technical
sense.-bence it was written before the birth of
philosophy; and it is the oldest writing on such
a subject 1t contains, nevertheless, apparent
" clear intimations of knowledge of all SUBJ
sequent speculations in philosophy and religion
and of several modern discoveries in science;
hence its origin is in the mind of God, it comes
from an inspired man.
The single burden of the chapter is in the
word God; the whole is an expanded and ex-
haustve statement that He is the Creator of
water, and of all the forces which govern it;
that it was He who made the heavens, and He
who made the earth, and He who established
| the relations between them; it was He who
created all the tribes of living things, includ-
| ing man, the head and lord of all and that it
! is of His own choice that He has for the pres
| ent ceased from new creations On earth. This is
the primary meaning of the chapter; the
declaration that God of His own good pleasure
created the universe, endowed it with all its
I forces, provided for all that has come to pass,
and for all future needs The prophet, who
wrote it, was necessarily confined to the use of
the language of men of his day. in which there
were no philosophical terms; hence he could
not say creator of matter and its forces,''
but was forced to say, formed the earth
waste and empty" to attempt to express the
creation of matter; and was forced simply to
! select the most striking, wonderful, universal
of forces, light; and say God made that, and of
| couse made all the rest. The division into
days, was merely division in the prophets
| mind, by which he exhausted his subject in
the seven successive steps; and the figure of
| representing creation as successive days works
| is not SO violent as the familiar figure by
which modern writer would say: In the first
| place, he made matter and its forces; in the
second place he made the heavens above; in
the third place, the earth beneath; and in the
fourth place established the relations between
them; as though creation were in successive
| places. AS simple expansion of the state
ment that God created the heavens and the
| EARTH the chapter has a wonderful sublimity
| unapproached by any other writing.
Butin the evening, DIR. Hill went on to show,
still following the views of Prof. Pierce, that in
| its secondary meanings or interpretations, the
| chapter bore marvellous marks of divine wis
dom in it's composition. Only two of these sec
ondary meanings were fully stated. The first
is, that the logical order of the seven days is al
SO an accurate chronological order OF events, SO
| wonderfully accurate as almost to seem to have
| anticipated the science of the 18th and 18th
| centuries; giving us truths brou ght out by sci
j ence only since the invention of photography,
and the discovery OF the correlation OF forces
| And these truths not given by any refined sub
tlety, or jugglery with words, but lying on the
face OF the plain declaration of the text. The
second of these secondary meanings, is that
which supposes that the prophet might have
| had farreaching sight of all idolatrOus prac-
| tees, and all athestc speculations, down to and
| including all the modern forms of Hegelianism,
and also of Positivsm, Secularism, Spencerism,
| characterization, and what not, and to have
| entered his cayeat in advance against them ali.
| Against material A tbesm he announces God
| as the creator of matter and its forces: AGAINST
| the worship of Jupiter and the air he saws God
| made the tirmanent; against the followers of
Cybeli, that God made the earth; against the
that Cod mada these for n,.p's u.s. oma;nst ths
| fetish worshppers, the sacred bulls and ibisis.
serpents, ETC., that these are creatures made by
goa SUBJECT 70 human power; and then, pierre
l;obts nm the foo of that modayn "s sTframe of
| Standardization, which thinks that God arrived
at conscious thought only in the brain OF
t,,an, aua u; .ne aony, ~.
| the earth. Inv saving that Cod made man in his
| own image; our powers are but a faint image of
=; nus FL noo bis mi,a almasloh OF ours. FINALLY
the atheistc don5t snosested 70 90 manv Minds
by the unvarying uniformity of the operations
| OF nature. NO act OF creation mas ever been
a1f Wy sian, WY shouio noe you naniesG
creation of something new? To this the proph-
| ct replies in advance by saying that God rests
~ o nas o od cno,ce gu 'ne seVehtn Gay, ana
it not irreyerent to saw that this rest in which
| there is no creation going on, and in which
miracles MIR occur Only at tne most distant inter
dren; the Scientific investigation Of natnre of
| the text books in this school, always must pro-
Ecu ou , ene suRPosition VI t.e uniformity OF
has been the source of ali those natural. intel
lectual and spiritua! blessings which exalt men
do 'ne oni"ien VI "ou'
enhN sinNhi "Ariisf'
ns'' 1. n"1oi"oou VI Dansor' pfeacneu
III 'ne inorh'ns iroui Ma'' XXX ~. bue
when tne young man hearo tnat saying ne
wen' away soiro"iu'' LUZ n0 nau srea' poSseS-
''o1s'
liz" ''i"n'S 'no oApoi,onoo ~ 'n' Souus
m"n =. AZ" o'nn's WV
80 " WV :.S ,.:-s - -, .oa r.-
torth alone OF It's Alnd In tne new Testament
While on the one hand the large ma
iority went away from Christ rcioicino
=, ,ossoss;o,, &c .ho th;n, soroh+ o,a ~ .he
III po'eeS'ion VI 'no 'nins sousn'' anu on 'he
other hand the small minority went away
from Him in displeasure, and sometimes even
j.; .h;s Is ~. o,I,, o,,o &c IL,
~ " ias0' .n'' 10 'no on'y case VI "non we
nave knowledge, where man turned away
from the Savior in sorrow, after making an
bonest roouast of Hin, and roce;v;nr or honest
va AoAS'
reply. IL Is proper tnen 1or US 10 examine the
case critically that we may discover the reason
for this stranoe denartura from tho Son of God
WI" .,":ssso ~ ~,
=" NJ was 'nle young lian why 'io nc come
to Christ? Why did he 60 away sorrowful?
These questions naturally indicate the order of
;n,os,;aot;o,
inse''s""'
In answer to the first question little can be
said He is spoken of as rich and a rnler. Rut
;f tho ,ros,;on rofor 20 ohor.otor ,hor d.. =.
'ne 4a1.'on ieio, " o""i"0'e' ia.nei .lian W
personal history, much may be said In the
first place consider the manner of his approach
TO Christ. He came knee,ino. ba sa,ntod
Gu. 80 ca w.. 49,. :.
ohrls' DIS uooo Mas'er' 'na' Is cour1eousiy. In
the second place consider the testimony which
he gave concerning himself. All tbese-tbe
Observation-Disclosures &c Mo.os-horo -. e..
0on''n".o'' VI N.oo' Aep. iroh
my YOUTH the third place, consider the
foo All