THE MOSAIC ACCOUNT OF CREATION VIEWED IN CONNEXION WITH MODERN SCIENCE.

No. III.

to rule the day, and the lesser light (that is, the moon, with the stars also) to rule the night."

is precisely that which would have been given by a spectator who had been privileged to witness the successive changes which the Creator was making on the With regard to the creation of the earth. Let the reader carry this principle firmament, it is equally evident that the along with him, then, in reading this pas- inspired historian described the visible sage, and he will find it removes all dif- heaven not as it was, but as it appeared ficulties. Let him suppose himself in to be. He spoke of it in the popular the situation of an eye-witness of the language that was in use in his day; for creative work, and then, as the sun is the Hebrews had no idea, any more than the centre of the system, he will easily the ancients generally, of an atmosphere perceive how, when the darkness that or ethereal fluid surrounding all parts of brooded thick on the void and formless our world. They were led, by an illusion earth was gradually lessened, light ap- of the senses, to think of the blue canopy peared to penetrate it on the first day; of the sky, as firmament-a solid expanse, and how, when the atmosphere was no -a kind of dome in which the heavenly longer thick and murky, but clear and bodies were fastened as lamps, and in serene, and the discs both of the sun and which there were receptacles for the rain moon shone forth on the noon and night that descended occasionally to refresh of the fourth day in their full effulgence, and fertilize the earth. Hence, he disthey would seem to the spectator, who tinguishes the waters that were above the beheld them for the first time, as then firmament-i. e., the clouds-from the newly created, and hung up in the ethe-waters that were under the firmamentreal vault of heaven. Besides, it is to be i. e., the seas; and, accordingly, while observed, that in mentioning the sun and the watery vapours were probably floatmoon, Moses is not describing their crea-ing at first on all parts, they were, by the tion at all, but only their relative uses to man, for the word rendered "made" in the 16th verse, is not the same as that rendered "created" in the first. It signifies simply, made or appointed; and, accordingly, ever since, they have served the purpose of luminaries to men by day and by night, not only in guiding them to their daily scenes of business or pleasure, but as signs for marking the progress of the seasons, and the daily and annual revolutions of time, as well as for directing the husbandmen in the various processes of agriculture, and the mariner in making his way through the trackless ocean. This was the purpose for which the sun and moon were appointed, as well as the stars, on the fourth day; for the historian is not speaking of the creation of the stars any more than of the sun; and, accordingly, if the passage is read under this impression, omitting the italics at the end, to which there is nothing corresponding in the original, a sense will be obtained not only perfectly intelligible, but perfectly just, and consistent with all that we know to be true:-" And God made two great lights, the greater light

creative power of God, separated, and the waters confined to their appointed place in the sea, while the atmosphere surrounded the earth.

On the same principle, also, may be explained the account which Moses has given of the creation of the vegetable and animal tribes—the principle of noticing things in a popular way, and so far only as was necessary for the purposes of religious instruction. Thus, for instance, in describing the productions of the third day, instead of condescending to specify the rarer specimens, or even to enumerate the principal classes of the botanical and vegetable kingdoms, he contents himself with the mention of those only which are most subservient to domestic use, and of greatest importance in the daily economy of life,-grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit-tree after his kind; and, in like manner, in describing the productions of the fifth and sixth days, he passes over the innumerable varieties of the finny tribes that inhabit the seas, as well as the infinitude of insects and molluscous animals that belong to the land; mentioning those only which, from their

relation to man, were best known; or instance, however trivial, in which the

from their character and magnitude, were objects of attention or fear,-the great whales, the cattle, the wild beast, and the creeping things.

statement of Moses does not accord with the phenomena of nature. In the productions of one or other of the days of creation, all things that are of the earth, earthy, are included, whether they relate to the dry land below, or the atmosphere above,-whether they are members of the animal or vegetable kingdom,-whether they are inhabitants of the land, or tenants of the sea. All were called into being by the creative word of God; all were produced in a state of vigour, if not of maturity; and, in the "blessing" which He pronounced upon them, they all received the influence that has preserved their species, and the laws that have regulated their production and their growth. Thus-not to speak of the creation of man-thus was the world stocked with

occupied in this process of creation, was confined to the space of six days; for it is said, that "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." From this statement, which, like the rest of this primitive history, bears on the face of it the simple and natural impress of truth, we learn God created all things in this earth in six days. There have been some, indeed, who imagine, from the frequent use of the word day in the Scriptures in a figurative sense,-as, "the day of life"

Thus, throughout the whole of this passage, we find the sacred writer adopting and maintaining a style of narrative accommodated to the apprehensions of the youngest and weakest of men. In describing the successive acts of creation, he was treating of subjects which might well have been supposed to lead to a natural elevation of sentiment and language, and yet he never departs from his characteristic simplicity of speech. He never allows himself to slide into the philosophic style, or to bring forward the views and distinctions of science; for how could the language of modern science have corresponded to the state of know-inhabitants; and the time which was ledge in the days of Moses; or where is the intermediate age from his time down to the present, when such language would have been intelligible to all whom it was desirable to make acquainted with the principles of religious faith? But Moses, under the guidance of the Spirit of all wisdom, adapted his annals of creation to the intellectual capacities of all classes. He wrote in the common and popular style of speaking which men have always been accustomed to use; and thus, when he speaks of the sun and the moon, he describes the one as a greater, and the other as a lesser light, because they appear to be so,—just as we are still accustomed to speak of those luminaries rising and setting from their both having such apparent motions;—when he speaks of the earth yielding grass, herbs, and fruit-bearing trees, he employs the terms under which simple men would comprehend the universal produce of the soil;-and when, in addition to cattle, and fowl, and wild beasts, and fishes, he speaks of "creeping things," he makes use of one general expression to compre-admitted to be the only true doctrine of hend all the smaller brood of living creatures, not only reptiles, but insects and animalcules of every name and of every description. The whole enumeration is made in the most simple and familiar language, and yet there is not a single

"the day of salvation"-" the day of the Son of man”—“ a day is with the Lord as a thousand years," that the word might be taken here also in the same metaphorical import; and hence they grounded the notion of indefinite periods of great length during which the process of creation was carried on. But this idea having been found alike contrary to the conditions of nature as to the tenor of sacred history, is now generally abandoned, and the old and common view

Scripture, that God created the world, and all that it contains, in the space of six natural days.

It is true, indeed, that He could as easily have created it in a moment of time. He had but to will, to speak, to

command, and all nature would have the experiment was once made by a started into being, in the order and neighbouring nation, but one day in beauty in which we now behold it. It seven. Nor is it unimportant to notice is enough for us to know, that Infinite in passing, that the same law extends to Wisdom chose this method of proceeding, the beast that labours in the service of to be convinced that it was the wisest man and assists him in his toils, as the and the best. But although it does not experience of the most competent judges become us to seek to be wise above what has enabled them to attest.* It is evident, is written, we can perceive many, and then, that the physical nature of man has strong reasons for this progressive plan been framed for a state of society, in of creation. The gradual character of which a Sabbath is to be observed; and the work would furnish important and to labour more than six days in the interesting instruction, as well as heighten week, whether from necessity or avarice, the devotions of superior creatures; and being a violation of one of God's natural as we learn that the morning stars sang laws, is sure to be followed, sooner or together, and all the sons of God shouted later, by its appropriate penalty of exfor joy, it would have been impossible for hausting the energies of the body, overtheir finite, though exalted minds, to taxing the faculties of the mind, and have received the full impressions of the sinking the immoderate labourer in a scene, if they had not had time to observe premature grave. This is the unalterable and to ponder over each successive act of decree of heaven; and, therefore, to mainthe Creator's power. tain inviolable the law of the Sabbath, to secure the full and regular enjoyment of its rest, is of such incalculable importance to the physical wellbeing of man, that all classes, but especially the hardwrought and labouring poor, have reason to guard with gratitude and jealous care this precious boon and blessing of heaven.

But it was not for angelic creatures only, who were honoured to be spectators of this magnificent scene,-it was not for their instruction only that the process of creation was carried on in a gradual manner. It was designed more directly, perhaps, to furnish important lessons for the spiritual, as well as the physical In the same manner it might be shewn benefit of mankind. As the Creator how adapted the law of the Sabbath is to rested on the seventh day from all the the intellectual nature of man,-securing work which He had made, He intended a regular interval of repose to the mind His conduct to be an example to us; and overburdened with the cares of business, as He, in His infinite wisdom, imposed or the studies of a profession. We might this law of labour and rest on Himself, adduce the strongest testimonies to the so it seems to have been established, from beneficial influence and absolute necesthe era of creation, as the law of our sity of the Sabbath as a season of mental physical nature, that we too should work rest-both from the biographies of eminent six days, and rest on the seventh. In literary men, as well as from the records other words, as the bodily frame of man of lunatic asylums. But not to dwell is constructed for labour in the day, and on this at present, we proceed to refor sleep in the night, so also it has been mark on the still more admirable adaptendowed with a capacity of continuous ation of this to the moral and spirexertion for six days, when it demands a itual nature of man. All history and day's relaxation, after which it is invigo-experience shew that piety cannot exist, rated to go through the same range of either in a land, or in the bosom of indiactivities again. This is a fact, supported viduals, without a Sabbath. And how by the uniform testimony of all experi- can it be otherwise? The great majority ence. Physiologists, who have made the human frame an object of study, unite in assuring us, that man, viewed merely as an animal, requires one day's rest in seven;-not one day in ten, as

• One of the greatest coach proprietors in the kingdom stated before a committee of the House of Commons, that hackney horses which had not

the interval of a day's weekly rest, soon broke down under continued labour.

of men must support themselves by the are, is evident; since a dirty plant (to use labour of their hands for six days in the an expressive term,) is scarcely ever seen, week. Deprive them of the seventh, and peculiarly exposed as they are to the adhesion of soil and thus does the vegetable man has generally no leisure for religi- world present that universal look of cleanous improvement-no time for commun-liness and neatness, which is as striking ing with himself-no proper season for as if there was a hand perpetually emacquiring a knowledge of God, and direct-ployed in no other office: preserving an ing his thoughts to that better world order that we cannot maintain in our possessions, without constant labour: If which awaits him, who looks and hopes all the dead portions in leaves and flowers, for it through the Saviour. And if the with little exception, detach themselves, Sabbath is so necessary for fostering the the effect is the same, and so perhaps was growth of piety in the heart of man, it is the purpose; while we know how disagreeno less indispensable to the continued pro-them, we here interfere with the proceedable the appearance is, when, by housing sperity of religion in a land. "Through-ings of nature. But if we overlook the out the world," says an eloquent writer, "where no Sabbath assembles the people to receive instruction, the character and government of God, as well as the retributions of eternity, soon fade from the mind, and cease to operate as principles of action. Blot out the Sabbath, and, in half a century, the intelligent worship of God would be nearly obliterated, and the land of our fathers covered with every form of superstition and crime. The Sabbath is the sun of the moral worldthe mainspring of moral action; it is the handmaid of Christian faith and piety-rigidity, and order, during the time that it is a weekly stage at which man pauses to think of the journey that still lies before him; and in this view, therefore, from securing the means of religious improvement, and calling the mind at regularly recurring intervals to subjects of pious meditation, it is a law of the Creator, admirably adapted to the moral and spiritual nature of man."

CLEANLINESS OF CREATION.

"The contrivance for this purpose in plants, consists in the nature of the surfaces, most remarkable in the leaves, where this object is sometimes attained by a high polish and great density, at others by a waxy secretion. at others again by a minute texture of the surface, resembling that of hairs and feathers, or by means of actual down or hairs; as, in the flowers, the globular velvety surface which enhances the colours by dispersive reflection, serves for this end also. These prevent the lodgment of water, which is itself injurious, and, with that, of all liquid matters which might soil them; while the dust which might have adhered in a dry state, is easily dislodged by the first shower. How effectual the provisions

contrivance as well as the intention, considering the effect, like all else, as a matter of course, so do we also not merely forget to note another provision for maintaining the neatness of the vegetable creation, but neglect the very fact itself, as if this also could not be otherwise.. Yet the least reflection will show that the result would be incredible, but for experience. The simple power of vitalonly sufficient to retain the feeble petal ity maintaining the circulation, is not in its place against the power of the storm, but to maintain all the most delicate and tender flowers in perfect shape,

they were ordained to last. We cannot imitate these objects without much stronger materials, and ligatures, and gums; yet the Cistus, with its almost cobweb petals of a few hours, is a structure of perfect strength, retaining the elegant form assigned to it till the term

of its life has arrived.

"The same cleanliness, with the same decided intention to produce it, pervades the animal creation, and under many more forms than it is convenient or proper to notice. To man, it has been permitted to do what he pleases; and he is not slow in disobeying the universal command, which the other animals have received through instincts for this purpose, and through provisions for rendering neatness attainable by them; as thus also has he contrived to make some of his followers what he too often is himself. And if we forget to note this also, we should certainly have found it a very difficult problem to devise the means of keeping all this multitudinous world of animals in that state of neatness in which we find it some difficulty to preserve ourselves. peculiarly exposed as they are to soil. Yet a dirty animal, like a dirty plant, is scarcely to be found: the very Mole and the Earthworm, inhabiting the soil itself, are without a stain; the Snail is clean,