was not instantaneous, but a continuous and progressive series of marvellous operations. Of a creatio continua, in the special sense of creation, Scripture knows nothing; nevertheless, of creation as a continuous agency of God, and specially of the Divine maintenance of the world as a creatio continua, Scripture does know (Isai. xl. 28, xlii. 5); and if we regard the human spiritual nature, as so planned that, associated with matter, it is able to propagate itself out of itself, this procreative process can only be explained by the co-operation of God's creative power,1 and the continuous process is not less Divine than the growth of a world in an hour.

3. Man has existed on the earth more than six thousand years. His remains and implements are found in places, and side by side with such relics of plants and animals, as leave little doubt of a high antiquity. The cave gravel and peat deposits, shell mounds and lake-dwellings, though not as yet giving any reliable data for estimating the precise age, may be fairly taken as proof that man contended with the mammoth. The genealogies of Christ, commonly and erroneously taken to show the age of man, indicate the line and families of Messianic descent; not always by actual procreation, but occasionally by adoption, or other succession. Hilary says "There are four genealogies of Christ in the four Gospels: 1st, in St. Matthew, from Abraham; 2nd, in St. Mark, from God the Holy Ghost; 3rd, in St. Luke, from Adam; 4th, in St. John, from Eternity." These show, not the age of the world, but that Jesus is the seed of the woman, the second Adam, the father of a new and spiritual race.

4. The world has been and is continually though slowly changing; new animals and plants arising with varied modifications, or becoming extinct, by the slow successive action of local causes, of which the chief is a gradual lowering or raising of temperature. Our own country has sunk several times beneath the sea, and again been raised. Iceland, a thousand years ago, according to Icelandic histories, was covered with forests of birch and fir; and at that time Greenland was fertile in the south.

Men generally agreeing as to the four classes of facts:

"Biblical Psychology," pp. 133-142: Prof. Delitzsch.

Ist, the antiquity of the earth; 2nd, its progressive formation; 3rd, earlier occupation by mankind than is given by the common date; 4th, the orderly progressive operation of nature; are met by assertions of this kind—"It is not likely that God should have inspired Moses to write a history of creation to be believed by all people, in language the meaning of which it were hard to find, and yet harder to believe." 1 Timid souls, rendered more timid by the reckless unbelief of godless men, cling almost superstitiously to the old ways of explanation, and say—“There is indeed a measure of difficulty, and a kind of unnaturalness, in giving a different sense to the words than that which has been generally accepted; and which, unless required by science, no one would think of giving." Students of science, provoked by this obstructiveness of ignorance and fear, reply with some scorn-"We know, as a matter of common sense, that God did not make the world in six days, and no man of science believes that He did. Cannot you divines, while contenting our emotions, satisfy also our intelligence ?"

They have been answered-That heaven and earth were created in the beginning, that the six days' work was the restoration rather than the creation of the earth, certainly not creation of the universe. In that beginning, angels were made, and in some way or other connected with the earth; animals and plants, in great variety and beauty, lived, passed away, and were succeeded by others. It was a golden age: no sin, no sorrow, everything good and very beautiful. In process of time, some of the angels sinned, and their evil courses cast the earth into chaotic confusion. Then, Divine power reformed the earth, as we now see it, with man as chief; who, after due probation, is to occupy those places in heaven from which the evil angels fell. In commemoration of the work, and as a measure of the days, Holy Sabbath was instituted. In the latter part of that primitive period were all those crises and periods required by geologists; and those fossils and animals of astonishing form, preserved in the rocky pages of the earth.

This statement about angels, happy eras, chaotic relapse, does not content those thoughtful men who require a verifiable substratum of fact on which intelligence may Suarez: "Tractatus De Opere Sex Dierum," lib. I. cap. xi. 42,

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truthfully erect a house of piety. They reply—“ There is no great break of continuity, nor universal chasm, separating the former good time from the later evil time; go back far as we may, dig deep as we can, death reigned in the world even as now; the stony leaves of ancient history bear no record of angelic life, but alway of the destroyer and destroyed. On these leaves are impressed likenesses and relics of vegetable, fish, reptile, bird, mammal, and human organisms. Life following life; hundreds and thousands of feet of slowly deposited rock intervening; but no record of peace, no footprints of angel anywhere. They devoured their fellows and propagated their kind. Worn teeth and aged structure prove a long duration of individual existence, and many relics are token of continuance as to species. Would you have us believe that within six days the firmament was spread out, land raised from the sea, and dried; that trees grew up bearing on their bark, and in the rings of their structure, record of centuries; that river channels were worn and excavated through thousands of feet of solid rock, leaving in the different stages of depth countless generations of creatures which grew, performed all the natural functions, and at length died of full age? Are all these marks of progress and tokens of age mere freaks of construction? did vegetables grow up instantaneously for full-grown animals to feed on; and fruit, already ripe on the trees, delight the sight and taste of man; and, in the latter end of the sixth day, was Eden planted, were beasts named, did Adam sleep, was Eve formed? Are we as geologists, naturalists, farmers, men of general observation, to credit all this? That old world was not an existence wholly good; the monster forms were unsuitable companions for holy angels; bone-breaking and fierce devouring belonged not to a pure and peaceful existence; nor was it separated from the present state by utterly destructive catastrophes. It contained all those plants, animals, men, whose remains, strangely revealed, are from one common grave. Extinct species are so mingled with those now in existence that they overlap each other; there is no universal break found by which the old world passed away and the new began."

These statements, of honest and wise opponents, show that the Day theory is inadequate, unscriptural, unscientific.

Consideration may lead us to one that contents piety and intelligence: one that unites the view of prophets with the requirements of modern science:

"That mind and soul, according well,

May make one music as before."

In Memoriam.

In apparent vision, or narrative, or dream, or by whatever means we possess the memorial of creation—as picture for the seer to look on, or history for the prophet to writeit is certain that no finite mind perfectly understands the creation; nor can any merely physical theory adequately explain nature. Divine, it transcends physical science. It must be borne in mind that the Hebrew language has no scientific terms: symbols are in their place. It is natural that the word "Day" be used, the work-day of man to describe the work of God, and measure time. Fitness and simplicity would take evenings and mornings for divisions and changes; darkness and light for pauses and operations in the sublime scene. Nor is that all-past, present, future, are distinctions for man's use only, and have no real meaning in reference to Deity, are often ignored in Holy Scripture. The prophet not unfrequently speaks of the future as actually present; apparently, perhaps really, unconscious that centuries will pass away before the prediction can be fulfilled (Isai. ix. 13; Jer. xlix. 28-30; Isai. xxxiv. 5, x. 34, xi. 1).

The prophets did not always understand their own writings (Dan. xii. 4; Ephes. iii. 5; 2 Pet. i. 19-21). In many holy reflections, Divine realities are clad in garments of imagery (Ps. xix. 1-6). The Tabernacle was a figure of good things to come (Heb. ix. 8, 9). The sacrifice of Isaac had a deeper meaning than Abraham knew (Heb. xi. 17–19). The child promised to Ahaz (Isai. vii. 14); the Man of Sorrow, in whose hand the pleasure of the Lord was to prosper; and who, though dying, was to prolong his days (Isai. liii. 10); are examples and proofs that the Word of God is high and deep, full of wonders to feed the curiosity, exercise the powers, encourage the hope, augment the wisdom of men and angels.

Further a correspondence is traceable between the first three and second three of the days in which God created

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the heaven and the earth. The first, second, and third days answer, severally, to the fourth, fifth, and sixth days. On the first-there is light, on the fourth-light-bearers; on the second-the waters are separated and the firmament is constituted, on the fifth-the waters and firmament are occupied by fishes and birds; on the third-dry land appears, on the sixth-it is replenished. The work and the days are a parable of how God medicined death into life. Cherish your day and prize it well as the harvest of yesterday and the seed corn of to-morrow.

Comparison of one part of Scripture with another suggests that the idea of completeness and perfection is presented by use of the number seven in the Mosaic record. The seventh day, or Sabbath, is the key-note in every Hebrew observance; the factor in ali sacred times and things; ruling days, months, years, jubilees. It is part of the civil and of the ecclesiastic law. It concerns master and servant, the home-born and stranger, the harvest and the beast of the field. There are seven spirits, seven stars, seven angels, seven churches, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven vials. It is the representative symbolic number, the subject for precept, the rule and measure of observances, internal properties and external associations. Internal-the symbol of Divine and human labour and rest. External-as to periods and numbers, impressing times and seasons with a seal of sanctity. The seventh month ushered in the Feast of Trumpets. Seven weeks were the interval between Passover and Pentecost. The seventh year was sabbatical. Seven days were the measure of feasts, of the time occupied by priestly consecration, and removal of legal uncleanness. The sprinkling of purification was sevenfold-whether with water or blood. The arms of the golden candlestick were seven; the chief vessels of the Tabernacle were seven; and there are sacred sevens for forgiveness, for perfection, for interpretation of prophecy. Sevens express the arrangements of nature, the laws of labour, the sanctification and division of time, and form part of God's commandments (Gen. ii. 3; Ex. xx. 9-11, xxxi. 12-17). It may be inferred that the Scriptural account of creation is pictorial, symbolical, prophetical. The wise son of Sirach said—" All things are double, one against another." There are stores of hidden meaning beyond those we see.