The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1878-09-01

ever taught this, cay whore or when.
Your quot ations from the Rsv. Father Wen
niger. j, and Rev. Father Jouin, give NJ
support to your positive statement. Thes'
Rev. Fathers have . perfect right to publish
sry opinions they please, that are permitted
by their superiors as hypothesis. Thechurei
Is very Glow, as 10 noticed by Bossuet, In OBJ
jeoting to any opinions, unless they are IL
support of condemned hereses.
Thus the Church would have permittet
Gallileo, As che had Copernious. to tesch hi.
theories OF astronomy as simple theories. Bu
shis would not satisfy GAllileo; he INFESTED
that the Church shoald teach his theories n
demonstrated by Holy Scripture. G. Jr. hs.
not been 90 wise as to give bis opinion of tn.
days Of creation q theory, but has made
| the positive ssstemsnt that "they could not be
days OF twenty four hours," and when called
upon to prove this, he fills Ave or six columns
of the STAR in denounoiDg and ridioulipg D. p
g. for presuming to differ from him and &c
quote the Holy Sculptures and Holy Father,
for she literal meaning of the days of orea
tion. Bat even he forgot the above positive
assertion. and says that the periods be oon
tends for may be ticenty four hours or may be
twert y-four Thousand years, more or less
will now repeat fhe two texts quoted in my
last: "In the beginning God created HEAVIER
aud earth."-GeHesis. i, !. He that livett
forever created all things Observation-Disclosures
tiens xvii. l..
Why, then, is 1t expressly said that the sun
moon and stars were created on the fourth
dsyi The Holy Fathers account for this and
the creation of light
"by supposipg this laminary to have indeed
existed, yet ,, as that its rays were prevented
by the dense chaotic atmosphere from pene
tra'ing to the earth; this on the first day wac
30 ratifed as to allow the transmission OF the
SUITS rays though not the disosrnment Of it }
dice. which wss fully displayed on the fourt b
day."-CdrdiRal Wisemans Kectures
St. Cyril of Alexandria supposed the light OF
the f ,st three days of creation to have been
"the element of FIRE, which, shooting up to.
wards heaven like luminous globe, shed Its
rays upon EARTH" st. Augustine considers il
+" as o spiritual illumination of heavenly intel
ligences." st. Dsnis maintains that "it was
the san itself. which had not yet arrived at the
perfection Of its height" st. Thomas calls
this light the beginning of the sun."
The opinions of these great lights of the
Church seem to BIS some little opposed to your
positive statement that the sun was not in ex.
10 'oLS0 oukiDB Sho hLeL iouE 02yop oEQ COuB0-
quently that the "days' could not be measured
by it. They deserve your saeers quite as much
aa O,igen and St. Gregory.
Father Louis Jouin, s. j.. "tells ns that st.
Augustine considers the days of creation hgur-
attire days" But Father J. does not say this. He
says: "St. Augustine gave to this word an
allegorioal meaning" And therefore the first
four days Of creation could not have been day 9
of Eenty- four hours, according to C. Jr. in
the MORNING STAR.
"Or we may hold that each Of the sir days
means length of time other than twenty -fou T
hours" Ce. .tlinly we can hold this, as tn Q
Church n has never decided any thing more on
creation than what we Fl nd in the Creed. C. Jr.
pleEss tell US what is before the Or" in the
above ex:rsit am really glad that you have
found two Catholic books, and that pointed
ont Cardinal Wiseman to You. That quI taton
at the head of your article fits you we'll. l
was afraid you were going to copfioe your bat
teries to Huxley, Ly all, Vo!taire and Byron.
stated in my f7st notice of G. Jr.'s aeser-
zion taat 1.-The first four days of creation could
not be days Of t,renty four hours" that it was
Il s; made by infdels and geologis:s but did
not ST spect that C. Jr. had taken it directly
the frst elementary work on geology that
have locked into ,ne fft cen closely printed
pages on this subject, aud more than fifty
authorities quoted, some of them stating G.
Jr.'s fret position, that as there was no sun
moon or stars until the fourth day, that
the days Of creation could not be measured by
the sun.
$50 me, as Bishop Horsley and Professor
jaime son, suggest that the revolution of the
| earth on its axis was at fret inconceivably
| slow, and that 1T did not acquire its presert
rate till the close of the fourth day, so that az
Grst four days may hare been Of rdst duration ~
Phil osopkiodl Magazine, vol. az, p. 243.
This will be seen at once is C. Jr.'s second
| position.
C. Jr. calls Croly an idiot; but he was Doc
tor of Divinity and, CT course, o theologian
and prided himself, just like C. Jr., on hil
knowledge of Hebrew. Bot Cardinal WisemAr
refused to accept his support of the literal day.
of creation, not because the Cardinal believes
| in fGurative days, but because he would moi
ACCEPT his assistance based on foolish or erroni
ouo ar11yraV n, or falaa F,or, ~,