The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1881-02-11

beneath this thick canopy the unseen
deep would literally "boil as pot, Wild
ly tempested from below. while from
time to time more deeply seated convul-
sion would upheave to the surface, vast
tracts of half-molten rock, soon again
to disappear, and from which waves of
enormous bulk would roll outwards, to
meet with giant waves of other convul-
sions or return to hiss and sputter against
the heated mass, whose violent upheaval
had first elevated and sent them abroad
Such would be the probable state of
things during the times based deep in
that chaotic night whi.h must have con
tinued to exist for many ages after that
beginning of things in which God crea-
ted the heavens and the earth, and which
preceded the first day. Within the cloud
spoken of, all would have been darkness
to a human eye. At length, however,
as the earth's surface gradually cooled
down, the steam atmosphere became less
dense and at length the rays of the sun
struggled through, in obedience to the
divine mandate, "Let there be light"
But space will not permit us to take up
each day separately. The work of the
second and third days as given by Mo.
ses are confirmed by the testimony of
the rocks On the 4th day the sun,
moon and stars appear. They were prob
ably created before. The fifth and six
days, that of great sea monsters and
winged fowl, and that OF cattle and
beasts of the earth, belong to the second
AIRY period, and the tertiary, in which the
gigantic mammals possessed the earth.
Man belongs to the close of this latter
period 1t was for him that the earth
had been undergoing through so many
ages the changes that had come over it.
All these were to fit it for mans habita-
ton. In either of the previous periods
man could not have lived. The atmos-
phere that surrounded the globe would
have been instantaneously fatal to him.
But it was ready to receive him, and he
was created 10y God. In His own i'm
age created He him, and with mans ap
pearance on the scene, the days of crea
ton end, and the Divine Sabbath begins
that Sabbath of rest from creative
labor of which the proper work ia the
species, and which will terminate only
with the full completion of that sub
lime task on the full accomplishment of
which Gods eternal purposes and the
tendencies of mans progressive nature
are alike directed. The sixth day OF
creation is thus described by Hugh
Miller, celebrated writer on the testi-
mony of the rocks:
"Again the night descends, for the
fifth day has closed, and morning breaks
on the sixth and last day of creation
Cattle and beasts of the field Craze on
the plains, the thick-skinned rhinoceros
wallows in the marshes; the squat hip
popotamus rustles among the reeds Oh
plunges sullenly into the river. great
herds of elephants seek their food amid
the young herbsge Of the woods; while
animals of fiercer nature, the lion, the
leopard and the bear-harbor in deep
caves until the evening, or lie in wait for
their prey mid tangled thickets, or be-
meath some broken bank. At length as
the day wanes and the shadows length
en-, man, the responsible lord of creation,
formed in Gods own image, is introduced
upon the scene, and the work of creation
ceases forever upon the earth. The
night falls once more upon the prospect
and then dawns yet another morrow
the morrow of Gods rest, that divine
Sabbath in which there is no more crea-
tive labor, which was blessed and sane
tilted beyond all the days that had gone
before, has as its special object the NOR
al elevation and refinement of man. Aud
over 1t no evening is represented in the
record of Moses as falling, for its spo-
cial work is not yet complete" Such
seems to have been the sublime panora-
ma that passed before the vision of
"The shepherd who first taught the cho-
sen seed, in the beginning how the
Heavens and earth rose out of chaos"
And rightly understood, it seems that
there is not a single scientific truth that,
not only accords with, but confirms the
minutest of the details Of the creation as
given us by Moses.