The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-10-12

There is another period called tn,
Azoic, before animal life was created
when the temperature of the earth't
crust seems to have been high that the
strata at first deposited apparently
in water, passed into a semi fluid state
became strangely waved and contorted
This is the lowest stratum found
Genesis. Let us suppose that during
the earlier. part of this period of ex.
cessive heat, the waters of the ocean
had stood at the boiling point even al
the surface, and farther that the hall
molten metal crust stretched out over
a molten abyss, was 30 thin that il
could not support, save for a short
time after some convulsion, even a
small island above the sea level What
would be the aspect of the ocean a few
hundred yards over the seat 1t would
be blank, for the earth was complete
ly enveloped in a cloud of steam. And
beneath this thick canopy the unseen
deep would literally "boil as pot"
wildly tempested from below, while
from time to time more deeply seated
convulsion would upheave to the sur.
face, vast tracts of half molten rock,
soon again to disappear, and from
which waves of enormous bulk would
roll outwards, to meet in conflict with
the giant waves of other commissions or
return to hiss aud 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 buried deep in
that chaotic night which must have
continued to exist for many age after
that beginning of things in which God
created the heavens and the earth, and
which preceded the first day. Within
the cloud spoken of all would have
seemed thick darkness to human eye.
At length, however as the earth's sur
face 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
Moses are confirmed by the testimony
of the rocks. On the fourth day the
sun moon and stars appear They
were probably created before. The
fifth and sixth days that of great sea
monsters and winged fowl, and that of
cattle and beasts of the earth belong
to the secondary period, and the ter
tiary, in which the gigantic mammals
the earth. Man belongs to
the close of this latter period. 1t was
for him that the earth had been under.
going through so many ages the
changes that had come over it. All
these were to fit it for mans habitation.
In either of the previous periods man
coul1 not have lived. The atmosphere
that surrounded the globe would have
been instantaneously fatal to him. But
it was ready to receive him, and he
was created by God, in his own image
created he him, and with mans appear
ance Oh the scene the days of creation
end, and the Divine Sabbath begins,
that Sabbath of rest from creation
labor of which the proper work is the
moral development and elevation of
the species, end which will terminate
only with the full completion of that
sublime task on the full accomplish
ment 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 testimony of the rocks.
"Again the night descends, for the
9th day has closed, and morning breaks
on the sixth and last day of creation.
Cattle and beasts of the fields Craze
on the plains, the thick skinned
rhinoceros wallows in the marshes :;
the squat hippopotamus rustles among
the reeds, or plunges sullenly into the
river, great herds of elephants seek
their food among the young herbage
of the woods; while animals of 6ercer
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 beneath some
broken bank. At length as the day
wanes, and the shadows lengthen,
man, the responsible lord of creation,
found in Gods own image, ia 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
in which there is no more
creative labor, and which "blessed and
sanctified' beyond all the days that had
gone before, has as its special object
the moral eleyation and refinement of
man, and oyer it no evening is repre-
sented in the record as falling, for it's
special work is not yet complete
Such seems to have been the sublime
panorama that passed before the vision
of "The sheppard who first taught the
chosen seed In the be ginning how the
heavens and earth rose out of chaos. u
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.
NzzZE8 THE LOG CABINS OF
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