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This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. AUTHOR: ROBINSON, WILLIAM TITLE: FIRST CHAPTER OF THE BIBLE AND THE LAST PLACE' CAMBRIDGE [ENG] DA TE : 1856 Restrictions on Use: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative # BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARGET Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record 215 Zl Robinson, V.'illinm The firnt chapter of the Biblo and the Ifict chrptcr of .-introiioinicnl ccicnce viewecl in con.iunniion: a ciicccur::G Oclivorcd at Cambridge, <-^uly C>» 1B56... Cambridge cring-) lB5f 28 p OVllh^ IIo 2 of a vol o'f pa-r-phlots TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA REDUCTION RATIO: FILM SlZE:_^f__j^_f^^_ IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA (UA/ IB IIB DATE FILMED: ?_^>_Xr_ll. INITIALS i^^^T HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS, INC WOODBRIDGE. cf \iy c Association for information and image Management 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter 12 3 4 Illl MnlmjJmilmil^^ Inches Mill 5 6 7 8 9 10 liiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiilniiliiiilmiliiiilii 1.0 I.I 1.25 TTT m 2.8 2.5 us, "" 15^ II" 2.2 I* 3 ^ «£ 2.0 IS. 1^ u SHAH. 1.8 1.4 ^ 1.6 11 12 13 14 iiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiiiliii I I I I I 5 15 mm nil T MRNUFfiCTURED TO fillM STflNDflRDS BY APPLIED IMfiGE- INC. Ho-"S> i THE FIBST CHAPTER OF THE BIBLE, AND THE LAST CHAPTEE OF ASTRONOMICAL SCIENCE, VIEWED IN CONJUNCTION. A DISCOURSE, DELIVERED AT CAMBRIDGE, JULY 6, 1856. y BY WILLIAM KOBINSON. 1 * • Scripture with Christian men being received as the word of God. we hold that His speech revealeth there what He Himself seeth. HOOKEB. MACMILLAN AND CO. LONDON : BELL & DALDY, 186 FLEET STREET. 1856. ■A I / A DISCOURSE, Sfc The substance of this Discourse was delivered as a sermon, but without some of the scientific phraseology which it has been deemed desirable now to introduce. \ t GENESIS, Chapter I. There is unquestionably afloat in the present day a large amount of scepticism on religious subjects, and the controversies of this time are fast ranging themselves around the momentous question— Bible or no Bible; or as it may be otherwise expressed, Have we in the book called the Bible a revelation from another world, or merely the coruscations of human genius? We hail the strife well assured that, whatever its dangers and its immediate result, the ultimate issue must be good. Yet very pain- ful are some of the incidents of the strife, and especially the shaken faith, and trembling tones, and uncertain voice of many, whose love for the Scriptures it is impossible to doubt. There is no part of " the lively oracles" which infidels have turned to with greater boldness, and Christians with greater tremor, than the opening page of the Bible ; and it is but the part of candour to confess that it is marked by seeming discrepancies, and that the discordant and fiercely disputed interpretations which have gathered around it, afford some countenance to the opinion that B it is really unintelligible, if not contradictory. Many of the most enlightened friends of the Bible are probably conscious, that their faith in the inspiration of the Scrip- tures does not at all rest upon this chapter, but exists despite the difficulties which it exhibits. They never hear of the Mosaic cosmogony without a sense of weakness and alarm. For this reason I propose to take up the Genesis as recorded by Moses, and inquire whether we may not divest it of all painful difficulty, or — which were far better — ^make it availing to the confirmation of faith. Let no one, however, misunderstand the object for which the inquiry is opened. It is not to prove the claim of this chapter to human credence. That the Preacher holds to be established on independent grounds, and to be valid though all men should fail to find out the meaning of the record. The present effort to interpret it is made, because of the belief that " God spake by ^Moses ;" and that these words, which would otherwise be worthy of no investigation, are for that reason deserving of all investigation. If this description of the processes by which the world became what it is, be but the specu- lation of some ingenious man, an elaborate attempt to expound it would be quite childish. For why should we trouble ourselves about any man's guesses at that which no man can possibly know? No record can be more ridiculous than the one before us, if it reveal but human fancies. But if indeed the Creator has disclosed what every man wishes to learn — the origin of that state of things in the midst of which we find ourselves placed; then have we the strongest in- ducement to examine devoutly and intently what is I ,- > written.* So far as we cannot understand it, we learn our ignorance; so far as we can understand it, we ac- quire knowledge which no science can unveil. Away with the maudlin mode of handling this chapter, which has been and is very common, and which is barely con- sistent with either good sense or mental honesty. If it be but a man who is telling us how God made the heaven and the earth in six days, he is not worth listen- ing to; for he can know nothing about that which he affects to explain : but if God spake by that man, then we may gain information from him, which human wisdom would toil after in vain. The details before us are either from God— and then they are invaluable, and the writer was a good man; or they are not from God— and then they are quite worthless, and their author was a vain pretender. If the Preacher believed or suspected the latter to be the case, he would not be so unreasonable as to ask hundreds of his fellow-creatures to spend an hour in quest of their meaning: but believing that we have here communications which God has condescended to im- part, he solicits patient attention to the ensuing inquiry proposing first to explain the account given us of chaos and creation, and secondly to view that account in the light of a novel hypothesis. * " Whether the original writer of this sacred archive was Moses, or whether he was placing at the head of his work a composition of an earlier patriarch, the calm majesty and simpUcity of the declaration give, as a matter of internal evidence, the strong presumption that he spoke with authority; that he only repeated what the Omniscient Spirit had commanded him to say and write. The declaration is, in the New Testament, adduced as an object oi faith; which impUes a divine testimony."-Dr. Pye Smith's Congregational Lectures, p 246 5th Ed. B2 6 I. Some explanation will be attempted of the narra- tive contained in the first chapter of the Bible; and this may be conveniently ranged mider three heads ; shewing — 1. The subject of the chapter, the creation of "the heaven and the earth." (ver. 1.) 2. The state of this globe before the first day: "the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." (ver. 2.) 3. The successive steps by which "the heaven and the earth" which now are, were created in six days, (vs. 3—31.) 1. Let us observe distinctly the subject of the chapter as defined in its opening verse: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." One question alone arises to awaken doubt, namely, what is meant by "the heaven." In the later verses the writer fixes the import of the phraf3. "God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the r waters which were above the firmament ; and God called , V ^** )f^^^ firmament heaven." ^ X X^X^^"^ The vapours that float above us are part of this ^,\ ^^-^^^ »* ! mundane system, but separated from its terraqueous sur- " "^ face by the atmosphere which upbears them; and which, Sj/' enveloping the earth to the distance of many miles, rotates b^'*^ with it daily, and travels with it in its annual sweep around their common centre, the sun; being as important ,a part of the creation designed for Adam and his race, as the dry land or the seas. If Moses had written merely according to the wisdom of the Egyptians, it is highly ■'f^A r. •1/ «: ^^• K\' k 1 improbable that he would have made such reference to the atmosphere in which the clouds float, as we find here :* but if God instructed him to describe the creation, it is equally improbable that so important a part of it should be omitted. He tells us that " God called the firmament heaven." The sense of the first verse would therefore be expressed thus: "In the beginning God created the atmosphere and the earth." To assume that in the first verse the word heaven denotes the whole stellar regions, while in the subsequent verses it is declared, and by divine authority, to mean the firmament which divides the waters from the waters, is not to interpret but to supplement the narrative. By the fairest and strictest rule of interpretation, we learn that Moses is about to describe those operations, by which this world was pre- pared to be the dwellingplace of mankind. There is in the statement of the subject, no reference to the origin of material existence ; nor to sun, moon, or stars. "In the begmning God created the heaven {t,e. the fir- mament) and the earth." That is the work divine of which the writer is about to give us the details, and which he afl&rms that Omnipotence completed in six days. 2. In the second verse we are informed what the world was before the first day. Very short is the de- scription, but of inestimable worth; containing the only authentic lines on the subject which mortals have, or can hope to have. God, who revealed by Abraham and • "A Firmament. That is the air." (Diodati's Amiotations, Edition of 1651.) " The word translated firmament is here generally in- terpreted to mean, the atmosphere or air in which the clouds are suspended, and from which they water the earth."— Scott's Commentary, Edition of 1812. s b 8 Isaiah things far in the distance of futurity, and by Paul has disclosed "the eternal purpose which he purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord," has here told us what was the state of this planet ere yet the song of the morning stars, and the joyful shout of the sons of God, celebrated the newly-fashioned world. "The earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters." The several expressions employed require brief but careful notice. "The deep." We are at no loss to imderstand this phrase when applied to a part or parts of the existing globe. It guides our thoughts at once to the vast basins appointed for the oceans' home. "The fountains of the great deep were broken up." " The waters of the great deep." While the world was in the state commonly called chaotic, there was " a deep," darkness was upon that deep, and it was not a dry depth, for there were waters. Besides the deep, there was the " earth" ; which word when used in distinction from the deep, means the dry land. " The dry land he called earth, and the gather- ing together of the waters called he seas." We infer that before the recorded creation, a part of the world was, as now, dry. Advancing another step we learn that, if not the whole globe, at least the dry part of it, was " without form and void:" the sense of which words will be best perceived from the quotation of other passages in which .they occur. "Without form." " The loaste wilderness." — Deut. xxxii. 10. 1 .1^ / «^# '.^ T t 9 "He shall stretch out upon it the line of confusion.'' Isa. xxxiv. 11. " Their graven images are vanity'' — ^Isa. xliv. 9. " Void." "The stones of emptiness." — Isa. xxxiv. 11. So that either of these expressions, and much more the two combined, give us the conception of the dry land as a wide, unpeopled waste; wholly devoid of life and beauty. K an intelligent creature had been there, no living breezes would have fanned him, neither cedar nor lily have gladdened his eye: he would have seen no eagle on the rock, no sheep on the mountains; have heard no lark in the sky: but have found sterility and silence reigning every where around him. And besides this wilderness, there existed a deep, and there were waters; but no sunbeams played upon them. Unbroken night sat upon the deep. " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." It is not without much doubt— the reasons of which are assigned below — that this clause is adopted as part of the description of the Pre-Adamic world, and not of the creative process by which it was made anew. But assuming that such is its right application, it may be supposed to teach us that the Spirit of the Lord, as a quickening spirit, moved where the deep was and the waters lay, there giving life:* implying that where the ♦ The narrative of the creation is commonly supposed to commence with these words, Q'^an ^y:rh^ nsnnn D'^nbw nrr\ • T - •• : - V V - : • :v - : "The Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters." TVn (ro6ach) has, according to its connexion, its primary sense. 10 11 world was without form and void, it was also without life. From the whole verse we learn that the globe was divided into two parts, the one bemg desert, the other a deep; and further, that where the deep was, there were waters, and darkness, and perhaps life. 3. We have to observe the successive steps, by which it is said that the heaven and the earth were created, and in six days. It has indeed been asserted that the first chapter of the Bible neither is, nor was designed to be, a record wind; or its secondary, spirit. Had we read merely that ro6ach moved on the face of the waters, there could have been no hesitation in translating thus— "the wind moved on the face of the waters." The insertion of the word elohim may seem to forbid the literal sense of ro6ach : but an examination of Ex. xv. 8, 10 ; Num. xi. 31 ; 2 Kings ii. 16 ; Psa. cxlvii. 18 ; Isa. xl. 7, would perhaps (if considered apart from the following word) render the scholar doubtful, whether ro6ach elohim did not mean **a wind from the Lord." riDmp moved, from V\7in "(1) mollis, tener fuit -^Oni emollita sunt (ossa, ut adeo stare non possis) Jer. xxiii. 9, (2) molliter fovit Pih. part. foem. nDn")» fovens. Gen. i. 2, fut ^Ul) incubat (aquila pullis) et fovet, Deiit. xxxii. 11. Possis etiam ^PDI^ Gen. i. 2, vertere delapsus est, ex Syr sed prius prse- fero." See Simonis's Hebrew Lexicon. Gesenius gives decidedly the sense which Simonis prefers. The word occurs but thrice in the Old Testament, and not in such con- nexion as to determine the meaning. But if we accept the inter- pretation "to move gently," "to brood as a bird over her young," the verb seems to require for its nominative rooach, not the literal sense, wind ; but the secondary and higher sense, spirit. And if so, it will perhaps be admitted that the most natural interpretation of the whole clause is that given above. An illustrative passage occurs in the 104th Psalm, where the writer describes the transition from the death of winter to the life of spring. " Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou rcnewest the face of the earth." te#*' f 1 \ of the events of six days; but of events which may have required for their completion myriads or millions of years, or even myriads or millions of ages: but the text revolts against such violence. Bead by itself, and yet more when read in connexion with the fourth conunand- ment, it contains as explicit a recital of the events, real or supposed, of six days, as words can convey. "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." To as- sume that the author did not mean days, but millenniums, or cycles of millenniums, is tantamount to reducing all words to arbitrary signs, to which the reader has license to affix any signification which his theories may require, or his caprice dictate : so that if a writer mention seven men, we may conclude that he meant ten thousand; and if he name the north pole, we may interpret him to mean the equator, or the south pole, or the earth's centre. That Moses wrote what he did not understand, that his representations are altogether erroneous, are propositions perfectly intelligible, however untrue; but to deny that in the first chapter of the Bible he designed to narrate the operations of six days is absurd, and very dangerous : absurd, because he tells us he means days, and defines the days; dangerous, because sanctioning the notion that in religious usage words, whenever convenient to our fancies, may be interpreted in a " non-natural sense," that is, may be understood to mean what they do not mean. On the first day, the darkness which had been on the face of the deep gave place to light, and the exist- ing division of day and night was accomplished. On ^t 12 the second day, the earth was robed in the atmosphere which still enwraps it. On the third day, land and sea had assigned to them those portions of the globe they were afterwards to occupy; and vegetable existence was produced. On the fourth day, sun, moon, and stars were set in the firmament of the heaven. On the fifth day, the fowl of the air, and fish to move in the waters, were created: and on the sixth day, other animated beings, man included. n. The account of chaos and creation which has been explained, is to be viewed in the light of a novel hypothesis. Could we soar to the distant regions of space, it is quite possible that worlds might appear, which are now in the state this world was, prior to the first day of creation; at least, that we might witness phenomena which would throw light on the Mosaic cosmogony. But the OQly planetary body, to any considerable knowledge of which we can aspire, is the Moon. Let us observe its present condition according to the latest theory of science, and assuming that this world was formerly in a similar condition, inquire whether the scriptural ac- coimt of both chaos and creation be not intelligible.* ♦ "That this world was formerly in a similar condition." The hyi)othesis does not assume that it always had been in that coodition, but merely that it was so just before the Adamic era. Geologists assure us that it has been the scene of physical changes incalculable both in number and duration. " Excepting [possibly but not certainly] the higher parts of some moflihtains, there is scarcely a spot on the earth's surface which has not been many times in succes- sion the bottom of a sea, and a portion of dry land Each one of such changes did not take place till after the next pre- \ . / •» < ■3 13 The moon always keeps the same side turned towards us; and yet not exactly the same area: but we can at one time see, as it were, a little over the line in one direction, and at another, a little over the line in the opposite direction. This is called the moon's libra- tion. Astronomers have been much perplexed by this phenomenon, and are now attempting to account for it by a theory which, in substance, Newton held, namely, that the two sides of the moon are of different density; or in other words, that the local centre and the centre of gravity are not identical. This side of the moon, it is supposed, bulges mto a mountain several miles high — far too high for the atmosphere of life — the other side being proportionately depressed.* ceding condition of the earth had continued through a duration, com- pared with which six thousand years appear an inconsiderable frac- tion of time." — Dr. Pye Smith's Congregational Lectures, p. 69, 5th Edit. "As Geologists, we learn that it is not only the present condition of the globe that has been suited to the accommodation of myriads of livino" creatures, but that many former states also have been equally adapted to the organization and habits of prior races of beings. The disposition of the seas, continents, and islands, and the climates have varied."— Lyell's Principles of Geology, vol. iii. p. 384, 1st Edition. The italics are not Mr. Lyell's. * "Astronomical observations of undoubted accuracy compel us to admit that the hemisphere of the moon which is turned towards our earth is not surrounded by any atmosphere at all ; or, at least, that any atmosphere which does exist must be so rare and so low as to be quite imfit for the support of animal and vegetable life. It now appears, however, that this circumstance is attributable rather to the peculiar constitution of the moon herself, than to a total want of any lunar atmosphere whatever. It is well known that the moon revolves once upon her own axis during one revolution round the earth, so that she would constantly turn the same hemisphere towards us, if it were not that, owing to the eflFect of a slight oscillation in her movement, which astronomers call her libration there is a narrow 14 I make no pretension to decide whether this theory be correct or not. It may be but the newest poetry of marginal zone on either limb of her surface, which is sometimes visible and sometimes concealed. To account, on mechanical principles, for the permanence of this arrangement, it is necessary to assume either that the figure of the moon is that of a very irregular spheroid, or else that her mass is distributed ver^- irregularly within her surface. The former supposition is precluded by the accurate measurements which have been made of the moon's disc in different states of libra- tion; we have no choice therefore but to accept the latter. It is, therefore, exceedingly probable that the centre of the moon's figure does not coincide with her mechanical centre, or centre of gravity ; and this conjecture has suggested to Professor Hansen— probably the most eminent authority among living astronomers ifpon the Lunar Theory— a very interesting astronomical investigation. From an accurate com- parison of the libration of the moon with the perturbations which she experiences in her orbitual motion. Professor Hansen infers that the centre of the moon's figure lies about 59,000 metres, that is, about eight geographical miles (reckoning fifteen miles to a degree of the equator), nearer to us than the centre of gravity ; and hence it follows, that between the two hemispheres of the moon there must exist a considerable difference with respect to level, climate, and all other circumstances depending thereon. • It foUows,' he continues, » if we suppose the moon to be a sphere, that the centre of the visible disc of the moon lies about 59,000 metres above the mean level, and the centre of the opposite hemisphere ahnost as much under the same level. We need not then, under these circimistances, wonder that the moon when viewed from the Earth appears to be a barren region, deprived of an atmosphere and of animal and vegetable life, since if there existed upon the Earth a mountain proportionably high, and having consequently an elevation of 216,000 metres, or twenty-nine geographical miles, there would not be recognisable upon its summit the slightest trace of an atmosphere, or of any thing depending thereon. We must not, however, conclude, that upon the opposite hemisphere of the moon the same relations exist, but, rather, we should expect, in consequence of the distance of the centre of figure from the centre of gravity, that an atmosphere and vegetable' and animal life may there 'find place. Nearly at the moon's limbs the mean level must exist; consequently we might reasonably expect to discover there some trace of an atmosphere.' "—Oxford Essays, 18'=5, pp. 137, 138. < ^. ^ I J 15 lunar science. On the other hand, it may be true. Science does not forbid the supposition of a world in such a condition, nor therefore forbid us to adopt the hypothesis for the sake of illustration. Assuming the truth of the theory, this side of the moon is "without form and void"; and the other side may be called, a deep. Following the clue thus obtained, we imagine this world to have been eight thousand years ago, as astro- nomers tell us the moon is now; and to have been situated in respect to the sun its primary, as the moon is now in relation to her primary, the earth: and one side of this globe must have been desert, the other side must have been a deep; and a deep with per- petual night resting upon it. Adopt, together with the admitted condition of the moon, the most recent lunar hypothesis, as illustrative of the possible state of this world eight thousand years ago, and it must have an- swered to the description given in the first verses of the Bible, earth "without form and void," a deep where the waters were and on the face of which was darkness, and no diurnal rotation. It is surely a fact worth noticing, that there is this striking correspondence between the last theory of science, and the first verses of the Bible. K one side of the world were, before the Adamic era, void, and the other a deep, that deep may have been an extended morass; or may have contained within its limits profound abysses, in which the abundance of the waters slept. It may have had an atmosphere heavy and sluggish, and charged with vapours which were never uplifted from the waters beneath; an 16 atmosphere which would be exempted from total dark- ness, only by the light supplied from the moon and stars. But that the light which is pleasant to the eyes, the light of day, could not be here, is beyond controversy; for it is the production of two causes, the sun and the atmosphere; whereas one part of the world, according to the hypothesis, certainly had no atmosphere; and the other, as certainly, no sun. Man, if he had been here, would have found in the one hemisphere, a blinding glare always; and in the other, unchanging night. Admitting— as none can deny—the striking similarity between this globe as Moses declares it to have been before the human era, and the moon as astronomers now conceive of it, a question ensues of no trifling interest. Will that similarity throw any light on the processes of creation, detailed in the subsequent verses? If the world were eight thousand years ago as the moon is supj)osed to be at present, must it have undergone or may it have undergone the changes described in the text in its transmutation into "the heavens and the earth which are now?" Let us observe the series of changes recorded, and endeavour to supply some hints towards an answer to these inquiries. :nV . ^, f^rj]^ ^'^ The First Day, ^-c^- ^•^'^^^^ivi^f "(rod said. Let there be light." Light where? At Xlf'^^l}^^^^ where there was darkness before. Less than this, ^^ii^f^ ^|tbe words cannot mean. And the light so produced was ^^ . 1^ ^1 ^^^ ^^ ^e perpetual, but to alternate with the darkness ; :^tWtj\|^ ' and, as we now find it alternating. Conceive that on •o ^""' '^ t^^'iithe first day Omnipotence gave to this world, what the 17 moon has not, diurnal rotation; and the effects would be, those which Moses describes: light; light divided from the darkness; and so divided, as to create our day and night. Unless some further changes were wrought on the same day, there would still remain the blinding glare on the bulging hemisphere; and possibly, a heavy at- mosphere in its yet unbroken density, overhanging the deep. But — these things being named in passing — the main points here requiring attention are those previously affirmed, and which may deserve to be re-stated. Yonder is a world apparently uninhabited.* If our world were as that world is, one of the first steps towiards bringing it into its present state would be, to give it diurnal re- volution, and the giving it that movement would ensure the following changes — light where there had been dark- ness, light divided from the darkness, and light and darkness alternating in such measure as we experience. There is therefore no reason, thus far, why we should "stumble at the word, being disobedient." The Second Day, We know that the rotation of the world was essential i * " Now this minute examination of the moon's surface being possible, and having been made by many careful and skilful astronomers, what is the conviction which has been conveyed to their minds, with re- gard to the fact of her being the seat of vegetable or animal life? Without exception, it would seem, they have all been led to the be- lief, that the moon is not inhabited: that she is, so far as life and organization are concerned, waste and barren, like the streams of lava or of volcanic ashes on the earth, before any vestige of vegetation has been impressed upon them ; or like the sands of Africa, where no blade of grass finds root." ~ Plurality of Worlds, 2nd Edition, p, 273. 18 . . to the creation of day and night; but cannot so defi- nitely judge of the means requisite for the completion of the works of the remaining days ; and must therefore now rely greatly, not to say wholly, on hypothesis. All that can be fairly demanded is, that the hypothesis should be, as such, tenable. "God made the firmament," that strong and elastic substance which now stretches out from the solid earth in every direction, so strong as to divide the waters from the watei-s, and so high that -44 miles upward it intercepts the rays of light, and therefore is sup- posed to reach a much greater height;* a creation as beneficent as marvellous, composed mainly of two elements either of which divested of the other would be death to aU things living. It claims our admiration for its strength, not less than our gratitude for its worth. Truly it is a firmament, or structure made firm. Its estimated weight is equal to that of a globe of lead sixty miles in di- ameter: yet by reason of its elasticity it is buoyant, not crushing; and it carries m its expanse, so as to render them innocuous and serviceable to man, the prodigious masses of vapour that float above us. Who has not • How then, it may be asked, could the waters be above the fir- mament? The word bV12 (above) is not to be pressed to its extreme meaning. The second instance of its use is Gen. iv. 14, "Thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth." No one conceives that Cain was banished to the antipodes, much less that he was exiled from the round worid. He remained in the earth. And the waters though on high, and away from the earth, are in the firmament. "Upon," as the same word is rendered Gen. xl. 17, would perhaps be preferable to "above," the reference being probably not only to the clouds, but also to the inconceivable abundance of invisible vapour every where difiused through the atmosphere and resting upon it. I 19 known the inhabitants of an extensive district retiring to rest on a winter's evening, the whole scene around them blackened by the frost; and finding that same district in the grey light of morning, covered with a very thick garment of purest whiteness? How strong that heaven which bare up the immense weight above them, or permitted it to descend, only with the noiseless step of the snow-storm ! Majestic is the sea, fathomless in its depths, ceaseless in its roll, and in its tumult terrific. Great is the strength of the hills; but not less to be admired that firmament which is the stay of the clouds, the home of the winds, the secret place of the thunder. And It was the work of the second day. That there may have existed previously an atmo- sphere where " the deep" was, has been already suggested : but if so, an atmosphere insufficient in quantity, perhaps also unsuited in kind, to the Adamic world. To com- plete therefore the work of the second day, there would be requisite the production of that atmosphere which now swathes the globe; and if this garment were then put on as now it is worn, another change enormously great would be required, namely, the readjustment of the earth's density, the identification of its two centres of gravity and magnitude; that so, one hemisphere might not re- main a deep, nor the other a bulging mountain too elevated for the breath of life to engirdle it. Let it be borne in mind that the Preacher is not imagining things which cannot be; but only accepting and applying the opinion of scientific men : for according to their conclusion, if it were required to envelope yon moon in an atmosphere as this world is enveloped, it would not be sufficient to C 20 create the atmosphere, but other changes, to which al- mightiness alone is adequate, would be indispensable. The very foundations of that world must he laid anew; and this shifting of her foundations would, if there be waters on her farther side, fling them in wildest confusion over her whole surface. Nor surely is it unlikely that the result of such prodigious and combined operations would be, to produce more than the gloom of the wildest tempest. Whether the materials of which the firmament is built were let loose from the interior of the earth, or not ; it needs no great stretch of imagination to suppose that though its creation were preparatory to brightness, the immediate result of the process would be universal ob- scuration. To sum up these suggestions. The moon is now, ac- cording to general belief, on this side, void ; and according to present theory, on the other side, a deep. It is tes- tified in the second verse of the Bible that this world was once void, and a deep. If it were so from similar causes to those supposed to create the void and the deep of the moon, then, to cover it with the firmament it now has, its foundations must have been re-laid. And who can wonder that the day of such a change should be " a day of darkness and gloominess ; a day of clouds and thick darkness;" a day in which "neither sun nor stars appeared." The Third Day. Assuming that the world in its Pre-Adamic state turned, as the moon does now, once on its axis while revolving round its primary, one hemisphere must have . ■ !l I ^ 9 t 21 been permanently opposite the sun; subject however to some libration, if the axis of the earth were not per- I pendicular to the plane of its annual revolution. We may suppose the point facing the sun, to have been near the present site of New Zealand. This may not indeed be more likely to have been its position than any other; but, for aught at present known, it is as likely as any other. And if that were its position, the bulging parts of the globe were chiefly those now covered by the waters of the south ; and " the deep" was the part now tenanted by mankind. We have supposed that on the second day the foun- dations of the earth were laid : and that in consequence parts of the surface previously sea or marsh were changed ; and that other parts, where before no water could flow nor even the liquid air, were covered with the rushing f'' waters; earth and water being blended in wildest tu- mult. To separate them, and give to the crust of the world its present form, is the mighty work of the third day. The fiat of Omnipotence lets loose the pent-up energies, which had been reserved against this great day of the Lord. The throes of an earthquake having its birth in the stores of central heat, upheave the north and sink the south ; rocks start out in forms of grandeur • beautiful valleys are formed, and ocean depths ; the con- | tinent of the old world is rent in twain, and the bed of the Atlantic yawns; "the deep" is heaved upward till the Alps and Himalayas reach their present elevation* and the opposite hemisphere depressed into those cavities in which for seven thousand years the southern oceans V have been imprisoned, and shall be till the end of the I-t*^ 22 world. Though not precisely this, yet scarcely less than this can be comprised in those teeming words, " God said, Let the waters imder the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear, and it was so." We are told of an earthquake in historic times* which uplifted the coast to an extent of a hundred thousand square miles, and which was accompanied by the emission of hot water, steam, mephitic gas, mud, black smoke, and flames. What must have been the convulsions of "the heaven and the earth," which accompanied and produced the universal and final severance of earth and seal On the same day the ground was stored with life; to what extent, and in how many parts, we should vainly inquire. Suffice it to say, that provision was made for the existence and perpetuation of the exquisite order, beauty, and fruitfulness of the vegetable kingdom. The Fourth Day, "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." The author of this chapter was a man of good sense. At least— and that is sufficient for my purpose— he was not demented : and therefore when, after having assured us that on the first day there was light, and in addition the phenomena of day and night, he informs us that God made the sun and moon on the fourth day, we • Johnston's Physical Atlas, Large Edition, p. 31. f I w^ 23 cannot imagine him to mean that the sun and moon did not exist till the fourth day. We should not attri- bute a blunder so gross and obvious to any sane man, much less to one trained in the learning of Egypt. The most ordinary candour might lead any reader to see, that he draws a distmction between the existence of the sun and moon as sources of light, and their being set in the firmament of heaven. Whether that distinction be of any validity and worth, is quite another question : but that his words, when interpreted not in a non-natural but in their natural sense, were not designed to teach that sun and moon and stars had no existence till the fourth day, is I submit certain, and on the face of them obvious. Moreover, it is not said that God created sim, moon, and stars f but that He made them; and the two words are not of the same force. To create is also to make : but to make is not necessarily to create. That this writer did not regard the two verbs as identical in meaning is clear, for he says that " God rested from all his work which he created and made^'' or " created to make." Creation is the production of that which did not previously exist, whether by the reconstruction of materials already prepared, or not. "God created great whales." The term "made" may mean but a new appropriation : for example, " Abra- ham ran to the herd, and fetched a calf, and gave it to a young man, and he hasted to make it; and he took butter and milk, and the calf which he had made^ and set it before them:" the word "made" being evidently used in the sense of prepare. And if in the 16th verse we should give it this meaning, no difficulty remains. 24 25 "God prepared two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night: the stars also. And God set them [gave them] in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth." In the production of these effects — the visibility of the grand panorama of the sky, and its appearance in such manner as we see it — a variety of causes combine. Could we stand on that side of the moon which w^e behold, we should experience Coleridge's picture of one on the summit of the Alps, "Around thee, and above, Deep is the air, and dark, substantial, black, An ebon mass." And could we reach the opposite side, it is not impos- sible that we might find it the region of everlasting fog^ where neither sun nor stars appear. Had we been in South America during the violent volcanic disturbances of the year 1835, we might have seen the people at Nicaragua, 155 miles to the south-west of the central disturbance; and at Matagalpa, 140 miles to the north- east, obliged to use artificial lights at noon-day: and in Iceland, in the year 1766, owing to similar causes, men could find their way only by groping.* On the 2nd of March of this year, 1856, through vol- canic causes, it became so dark on the island of Great Sangir, "that people could not discern objects close at hand: and on the following day the atmosphere was so beclouded by ashes, that the rays of the sun could not penetrate through it, and an appalling darkness pre- vailed."t • Johnston's Physical Atlas, p. 22. t Daily News, Aug. 1, 1856. / In short, before the Creator could give us the lights which now appear in the firmament, and give them for signs and seasons as we have them, the following causes must all be made to operate in conjunction: the roll of the earth in its present orbit, the existing relation of its axis to the plane of that orbit, its diurnal rotation, an atmosphere with the refractive power of our atmosphere, and finally that atmosphere in a transparent condition. All these causes we know were in operation on the second day, excepting the last. That it is reasonable to suppose would not exist, and we learn from the text did not exist, on either the first, second, or third day : but on the fourth, the sky for the first time was blue; and in the firmament the sun — and not merely its diffused light — appeared ruling the day, and the moon and stars ruling the night : and they w^re there ordained to be the unfailingly exact chronometer and calendar of all ages ; the great dial-plate by which all terrestrial calculations of time were to be made and tested throughout all generations. On the first day there was light, but it was not in the firmament, and consequently the days and nights of the world had not assumed their destined measurement; on the second day there was light in the firmament, but not lights,* the lamps and signs of the sky not being apparent; nor on the third day; but on the fourth, time issues from the womb of eternity, and is born; the pendulum begins to swing, which is never to pause, neither to fail by one iota of its exactness, till God's purpose concerning these heavens and this earth be consummated, and the resist- less command go forth, that there shall be time no longer. ♦ -I'ls not ni'sa Q .\^ 26 On the fifth day, the tenants of the air and the waters were created: and on the sixth day, animated beings, and man the constituted sovereign of all. To prevent misapprehension let me say distinctly j very distinctly^ that I am as far as possible from presuming to affirm that the state the moon is now in^ was certainly the state from which this world began to emerge^ when God said " Let there be light, "^^ Its Pre-Adamic condition may have been exceedingly different from any thing we have ever seen or conceived of. My sole aim has been to shew that astronomers of highest reputation believe in the existence of a world, answering to the description given by Moses of this globe in the second verse of tlie Bible ; and which, if it were to be brought into the state this world is in now, must undergo some of the changes which Moses records, and might undergo them all, pre- cisely in the order in which he has narrated them, — to shew, therefore, that the most recent investigations of science have given a hypothetical intelligibleness to this narrative, which it never possessed before. With three observations, stated rather than expanded, we hasten to the conclusion. 1. Let us learn to prize the labours of scientific men, and thankfully adopt the fruits of their labours. So far as they are occupied in the scrutiny of creation, they are our friends and benefactors. What does not the Christian owe to the men, who having produced the mi- croscope, have revealed to him the universe of atomic life, and made obvious to sense the indefinite divisibility of matter: who have invented the telescope, and meted out the heavens: and who, looking downward from the I ' 27 newest soil to the rock of adamant, have deciphered the archives of the dateless past. The Author of the Bible and of the Creation are one; and he who believes this, should ever feel that the man who helps him better to understand the works of God, is thereby qualifying him the more fully to appreciate the word of God. 2. Let us firmly grasp and devoutly use the distinc- tion between " nature" and God. Creation is not a clock constructed and wound up by some necessity of material existence, and ever afterwards keeping time by the same blind necessity: but the workmanship of a divine archi- tect, who has changed and will change it at his pleasure. Eight millenniums ago there was no human being on this globe, and no alternation of day and night. For aught we know, operations similar to those Moses describes may now be evoking the hallelujahs of angels, in some distant part of infinite space. It is possible — I mean not to say in the slightest degree probable — that men now living should find the moon's librations changed, and see her rolling round on her axis as often as this world does, and exhibiting all parts of her surface to the gaze of mortals. And from revelation's page we learn as- suredly, that the day is approaching in the which this mundane system shall be shattered, its heaven passing away with a great noise, and the earth and the works that are therein being burned up. He who believes in God, understands the universe as the effect of an adequate cause ; can explain the existence of mankind ; and anti- cipate things to come with triumphant feelings of security and hope : but without faith in God, the past is a riddle, the future a blank. Man's mind and heart alike require 28 vJ the sentiment on which the Psabnist lived, "the glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works. I will be glad in the Lord." 3. If we are Christians, let us be induced by the few Imes of creation's history which we possess, to look onward to another state of existence with new joy. Our Saviour is gone to his Father's house to prepare a place for us. Without him was not any thing made. By him the Father made the worlds, and by him will bring into unity things on earth and in the heavens, visible and invisible. We long — and sometimes, oh ! how ardently — to know more of things that are made, their history, present state, and purpose. He who has inspired the desire will not disappoint it, keeping us in ignorance of the works which he has wrought by his Son. Heaven, the home of bliss, is also the focus of intelligence. THE END. HKTCALPE AHD PALMEB, PRINTERS, CAMBRIDGE.