The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1885-02-13
WHOLE NO. 247

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and every winged fowl after its kind; and
God saw that il was good. And God
blessed them and said, BE fruitful and
multiply, and fill the waters and the seas !;
and let fowl multiply in the earth"
"AndH teds erening and IL noS morning
tie tin day."
We perceive by comparison Of the
above scientific account with the Biblical
that the Bible does not mention the crea-
tion OF the extinct species-deslroyed be'
fore the period of tie fifth day-nor
throughout The account does il descend TO
the minutiae Of the mOlusks, radiates and
arlculates Of the Silurian, nor The almost
structurelcss creatures of Archaean time.
II is evident, 1st. That the sacred writer
in brevily only intends 10 notice The more
prominent forms of life; and Cd, That
those forms Of life noticed were only those
known to the people of his and succeed
ing ages; consequently he begins not with
the extinct forms swept away by the
glacial epoch, but with second creation of
permanent Tor "good') varieties; 3d. II is
quite evident that the writers did not in
tend rs IN the case of the mention of the
heavenly bodies, 10 refer 10 some remote
period Of creation---for during millions Of
years after aZoic time there were neither
great "sea monsters" nor any other ver-
tebrates in the waters, nor fowl nor cattle
nor beasts on the land TO shy that the
writer WAS discussing the creation of the
earlier primordial life conradicts the time
order and forciby changes his meaning
to falsehood; while 10 say that the ref
crcnce is to the creation of existing life is
in harmony with both language and science
If terror occurred here, then il is quite .c-
markable that the "crrOr" should occur ut
one OF the pronounced periods of vcr-
tebratc creation If any one still upholds the
theory Of "error" after this dcmonstra-
ton he must he an exceedingly bigoted or
credulous man.
II. Science. After the creation of mod
ern species of fish and fowl during the
tertiary period the animals Of the class
mammalia were created. But these were
not of permanent varieties. and carly in
last ''quaternary and modern" period bc
came extinct. Consequently later on in
this period there was n new creation of
land animals Of permanent kind. For
the fl.sttlme then do the rocks disclose the
presence of man-the crowning work of the
"inscrutable" force or power" operating
in nature But nature does not here speak
clearly and the facts of this quaternary
period, as well as its date, are matters Of
doubt and discussion. In brief, after
present vegetation, the appointment Of
sun, moon aud stars to their Offices. the
appearance of the living marine fish
and fowl. and, either cotemporaneously
with or subsequent to liTng animals. man
appeared.
Bible, Vs. "a, 25, 90, "And God said,
Let the earth bring forth The living crca.
turc after its kind. cattle and creeping
thing and beast Of the earth after its kind
and it was so done. And God made the
beast of the earth after its kind, and cat
tie after their kind and everything that
crecpeth on the earth after its kind; and
! God saw that IL was good. And God said.
Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness, and let them rule over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over the cattle, and over all Of the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creep
eth on the earth.
In this account we notice that Moses
follows the same plan as in the proceed
ings of the fifth day. He mentions only
the creation of hcing or acrmanent cdrietie'
of the class mammalia and ignores III,
creation of the temporary varieties of tht
tertiary period which became extinct. ii,
takes up the later permanent quaternary
creation alone at the proper point and
pushes it through to the creation of man.
Thus we come 10 the close of the sixth
and final creative day.
The use of the expression at was eve
ming and il was morning" is evidently tN
divide the narrative into six stages OF
divisions. Taylor, Lewis, Dana and Others
interpret this day as period" Also
Hahn, DcLuc, Lee, Wait, Silliman and
Guyot, and the early christian fathers
Augustine and Origen. Hitchcock very
reasonably suggests that il be understood
"symbolically." A symbol is n rcpresen.
tation of something else and thus the
word can be taken in all respects in ia
literal Specification and yet have higher
meaning They symbolic higher periods
just as days." weeks" and ''times'
are elsewhere in the Bible used in proph
ecy for years. This is rational and re-
moves all basis for criticism upon thi,
point.
The apparent discrepancies between tho
Biblical statement and that Of scicpc'