Year: 1875


| the type and expression. Here | may
pause to notice double relation in the
first chapter of Genesis, one to science,
the other to the most ancient myths by
| which religion had been corrupted in the
days of Moses Breath and spirit have
been synonyms in all languages, and
Spirit of God has been identified with
idolatries of the four winds of heaven.
So with reference to light and the dawn
of twilight, all great divinlties IN the
myths of antiquity, and perhaps the
dawn as the mother of day, and night
the greatest and most widely adored of
ALL They, too must come into their
/ places in the Word as the handmalds of
the Almighty. One perceives, in study
ing this magnificent revelation, tnat 1t
has not been put to its trues use by the
| improvers of modern times, but perhaps
it has triumphs yet in store, not only IN
reference to the old myths that still
reign in the dark places OF the earth, but
with reference to the more aggressive su-
perstitions of modern inidelity. In the
state to which the earth had been reveal
ed it was d sun-like star.


'sSphered in a radiant cloud, for yet the Sun
- was not"


as Milton says, gathering this truth in his
poetic insight from the Bible in advance
of science. Further, the Hebrew word
used here for light includes the allied
forces of heat and electricity with light
now emanate from the solar photoshere
That marvellous and incomprehensible
ether which, though theoretically contin-
uous, vibrates, and whose vibrations are
so regulated as to give light with its pris-
matte colors, and heat, with all its vast
powers, and that still more strange and
wonderful actinic power which puJs In
motion all the vital machinery of plants
and so is the material source of life. If
science can anywhere find evidence of
design in the revelations of physical
agencies; if it can anywhere find step
ping-stone to lift it from the grossness of
atomic matter, surely it is here. Fittest
of all emblems of God is this heavenly
light; and when first it pulsated through
space, then, if there were anywhere In
the universe eyes to behold it and minds
to think of it, might it be said that there
existed a physical analogue of Him who
is light. But another stage has to be
passed through, and the earth becomes a
dull yet heated mass, and dense pail
of airy, vaporous substance lowering over
it and constantly descends in acid rains
on its heated surface, to be as constantly
thrown off in vapor. Modern solar ply
sizes, aided by the spectroscope, and mod





the elements on an earth melted with
| ferVent heat, have alone enabled US to
attach due significance to these stages of
the creative work.


When next the historian lifts the vail
we see universal ocean, with the spirit
or breath of God brooding on the face of
the waters There again we have a stage
in the geological history of the earth,
that in which its waters were condensed
on its surface from a shoreless sea before
these foldings of the crust which formed
the first dry land.


l need not here refer to the product of
the atmosphere as to the arrangement of
the heavens lumnaries, except to re-
mark that the order is that of nature,
since the atmospheric armament must
first be cleared in order to the heavenly
bodies coming into due relation to the
earth, and since the nebular system
would require long time before the sun
and the larger planets were established
in their present relations to our globe
and the superabundant cometary and
nebulous matter of the planetary spaces
got rid Of 1t is in perfect accordance
with what we know from scientific inves
tigation that the dry land should appear
! before the completion of these processes,
but it is an unexpected and hitherto un-
explained statement that vegetation
should make its appearance before the fl
nal arrangements of our planetary sys-
tenn, Let us enumerate these points.
! The natural cause of the appearance of
the first dry land is explained in geologi-
cal investigations. We left the earth at
the beginning of the first creative aeon
with solid crust supporting universal
ocean. But as time advanced, the grad
ual cooling of the earth's mass would
make this crust too small for its shrunk-
en- size. At length it would collapse and
| fall into folds, giving ridges of land and
shallow oceans. That this process actu-
ally occurred, not. once only, but repeat
! edly, we know from the folded and
crumpled condition of the rocks along
their old lines of upheaval. The time
required for this, relating to the cotem-
poraneous changes in other parts of the
solar system, has not, so far as l am
aware, been calculated but some rough
approximation to it could no doubt be
made. The question would be, suppos-
ing a vaporous condition of our system,
what would be the time necessary to en-
able the earth to acquire solid crust
relatively to that needful to enable the
sun to condense to itself all the nebulous
matter within its reach and to enable
the larger planets to assume their pres
ent form. When that calculation shall
be made l have no doubt that it will vim
dictate Moses in giving precedence to our
little earth, which has not only complet-
ed its planetary form but gone through
vast series of geological changes, while
he knew that in this work the Sun and
Jupiter and Saturn have still much to do.


Let us observe here in passing that the
elevation of the first dry land was not
merely barren act leading to no conse-
quence. With that great change began
numerous phenomena. the metamorph-
ism of rocks, the elementary action of the
rains, waves, and breakers on the land, the
deposit of the true sedementary strata in
the sea, the unequal thickening of the |
earth S shell, the establishment of the great
oceanic currents, and, in short all those |
ceaseless causes of change by which, in |
the progress of geological time, our conti- |
nents have acquired their present form
and structure We may also turn for |
moment to the other aspect of these |
questions Man, according to Genesis as |
in all the tradition on antiquity, is earth
born, but the earth is not on that ac-
count great goddess nor is the sea the |
domain of the gods The sea is Gods |
and he made it. His hands also formed |
the dry ground, and accordingly he |
named them both. This naming + as a |
further significance God called the dry |
land earth the same term used in the |
first verse for the whole world The |
earth, therefore, of the following passag-
es, and of Scripture generally, is special |
ly dry land. Hence the earth is said to !
be laid on foundations and pillars, and |
supported above the water and out of the |
water and by the water expressions |
perfectly accurate when we understand |
that the continents constitute the earth !
rafarran In The hlavatinp of ha nv |