was uttered) a most wonderful proposition,-announcing that, at some time at some remote period of antiquity-God did create, did bring into existence, the heavens and the earth. At what time, in the lapse of eternal ages, this great event took place, we are not informed. What was the appearance or consistence of the earth, at its first creation, we are not informed. What changes it underwent-what forms of animal or vegetable life it bore upon its surface-what upheavings and revolutions passed over it, during the remoter periods of its history, we are not informed. The geologist has space enough here, for his deepest, his widest researches. He has scope enough for any conclusions which he may be led to adopt, without the remotest danger of trenching on any of the annunciations of revealed truth.

That a very long period-how long no being but God can tell-intervened between the creation of the world, and the commencement of the six days' work recorded in the following verses of the first chapter of Genesis, there can be, I think, no reasonable doubt. It was during this period, that the earth assumed a solid form. Its heated masses began to cool and conglomerate. The primary rocks were chrystalized. The transition, the secondary, and the deeper portion of the tertiary rocks were deposited and petrified. The lower forms of animal and vegetable life appeared. Vast multitudes of marine and amphibious animals-some of them of huge and terrific forms-lived, and died, and their remains became imbedded in the solid rocks. Vast quantities of vegetable matter also accumulated on the earth, and was treasured up in its deep foundations, in the form of coal, for the future use and benefit of man.

It is evident that the earth, during this period, underwent frequent and terrible revolutions. Its internal fires were raging in their prison-house, and often bursting through the crust which confined them. The mountains were upheaved from their deeper than ocean beds; trap dykes were formed; and the stratified rocks were tilted from their horizontal positions in every direction.

It was subsequent to one of these terrible revolutions, which had torn the earth from its very centre, merged the greater part of it beneath the ocean, and destroyed nearly every trace of animal and vegetable existence, that we have mention made of it, in the second verse of our Bible. It was then

confused and desolate, and darkness was upon the face of the

vast abyss. The earth was dark at this period, not because there was no sun, but because caliginous gases and vapors had utterly obscured the light of the sun, and shut it out from the desolate world.

But God had not abandoned the work of his own hands. He had nobler purposes to answer by this seemingly ruined world, than any which had yet been manifested. It was no longer to be the abode only of saurians and mastodons, and other huge and terrific monsters, but was to be fitted up and adorned for a new and nobler race of beings. Accordingly the Spirit of God began to move upon the troubled waters, and order and harmony were gradually restored.

At length "God said, let there be light, and there was light." The dense clouds and vapors which had enveloped the earth, and shut out entirely the light of heaven, were dissipated, so that it was easy to distinguish between night and day. "And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night; and the evening and the morning were the first day."

"And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day." The work here denoted was the elevation of the clouds, and the separation of the aerial waters, by the visible firmament-the seeming expanse of heaven-from those which rested on the surface of the earth.

"And God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day." In the course of this day, vast portions of the earth's surface were elevated, and other portions were de

pressed. Continents were raised, and the oceans were made to know their bounds. As soon as the dry land appeared, it began to be clothed with vegetation. The forming hand of the Creator covered it, in many instances, with new species of trees and vegetables, in place of such as had been finally destroyed.

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." The language here used does not import, that the sun, moon and stars were now first created, but only that they were first made to shine out upon the renovated earth. They now became visible lights to the earth. The clouds had before been so far dissipated, that it was easy to distinguish between day and night; but now they were entirely dispersed, and the lights of heaven shone down upon the earth "in full orb'd splendor."

In all this chapter, as God is speaking to man, so he speaks after the manner of men, and represents the progression of things, not with philosophical precision, but as they would have appeared to a human spectator. For instance, when it is said that God made a firmament, we are not to understand that the seeming canopy above us is a literal thing or substance, called a firmament, but only that such is the appearance to a spectator on the earth. And when it is said that God made two great lights, and set them in the firmament, we are not to suppose that the sun and moon were now first created, and fixed in the

* The original word here translated made (v. 16) is not the same as that used in the first verse, which properly signifies to create. When it is said that "God made two great lights," the meaning is that he made them to become lights to the earth. The same word is used in the fourth commandment, where it is said that "in six days the Lord made heaven, and earth, and sea, and all that in them is." During the six days, God renewed the face of the desolate earth, and made the heavens visible, and gave the seas their bounds, and filled earth, and air, and ocean with their appropriate inhabitants.

blue expanse, but that such would have been the appearance to man, had he been in existence on the fourth day, when the clouds and vapors were dispersed, and the sun and moon commenced their shining.

On the fifth day, God peopled the waters with fishes, and the air with birds and flying fowls.

On the sixth day, he brought forth "the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind; and God saw that it was good." In the course of this day, God created man also, in his own image. "Male and female created he them. And God blessed them," and gave them dominion over all the creatures that he had made.

"On the seventh day, God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made." Here we have the institution of the Sabbath-that statedly recurring season of holy rest, which commenced with the renovation of the world, and is to continue to the end of it.

It appears, therefore, that in the six days' work which has been considered, we have an account, not of the original creation of the world-this had been created long before-but of its renovation;—of its being remodeled and refitted, after one of those terrible revolutions by which it had been desolated, and its being prepared for the residence of innocent and happy man.*

If any are disposed here to inquire,-on supposition the earth existed for a long period after its creation, before it was fitted up for the use of man-why we have no particular account of this period in the Scriptures; it would be enough to answer that we do not know. Obviously, however, it was no

It is remarkable that some of the Christian Fathers entertained similar views respecting the creation of the world, to those which have been here expressed. Justin Martyr, and after him Gregory Nazianzen " suppose an indefinite period to have elapsed between the creation, and the first ordering of all things." Basil and Origen 66 account for the creation of light prior to the fourth day, not by supposing that there was no sun, but that the rays of the sun were prevented by a dense chaotic atmosphere, from penetrating to the earth." -See Wiseman's Lectures, p. 178.

part of the object of the Divine Author of Scripture to gratify the mere curiosity of man. Why have we no particular account of the life of our Saviour, between the period of his childhood, and that of his public ministry? Why does the writer of the Acts of the Apostles leave Paul in his own hired house at Rome, and not follow him through, to the end of his eventful history? It was enough for the inspired writer to make us acquainted with the original creation of the world, and of its being prepared for the use of man. This is all in which we have a direct personal interest. To have proceeded further in the narrative would have been to enter a field of scientific inquiry and curiosity from which the pen of inspiration is uniformly and wisely kept aloof.

In view of what has been said, it is evident, to my own mind, that there is no discrepancy certainly between the teachings of geology and those of the Bible respecting the date of the world's creation. Geology assures us that this earth must have existed for a very long period-one remotely anterior to the creation of man; and we find nothing in the first chapter of Genesis, or in any other part of Scripture, which is at all inconsistent with such a supposition.*

But it is not enough to say that the teachings of geology, and those of the Bible, are not self-contradictory. In various particulars, as I shall now proceed to show, the former serve to illustrate and support the latter.

1. Geology teaches that this world had a beginning. To be sure, it places its origin at a very remote period. Still there was an origin-there was a beginning. The organizations on the earth, and in the earth itself, have uniformly taken place in an ascending series, from the less to the more perfect. Trace now this series backward, and we at length arrive at a period when there were no organizations, and when the earth itself was not. The geological conclusion therefore is, that the earth was originally created from nothing. The same also is a doctrine of the Bible. "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." "Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from

When this article was written, the author had not seen Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise on Geology and Mineralogy. He has since been gratified to learn that his own views of the first chapter of Genesis agree, to a shade, with those of that celebrated philosopher and Christian.