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much as the appearance of discrepancy between the deductions of geology and the statements of Scripture respects the age of the world, or the date of its creation. It is assumed by the objector, that the Scriptures make the age of the world to be something less than six thousand years-that immediately previous to the creation of our first parents, the world itself was created out of nothing. On the other hand, it has been demonstrated by geologists, that the world has existed much more than six thousand years; that its existence dates back to a vastly remote period; that the placing of man upon it is comparatively a recent event in its history. I need not go into the detail of proof on which this geological conclusion is based. To my own mind it is perfectly satisfactory. I would as soon think of disputing the Copernican system of astronomy, or the results of modern chemistry as to the elementary constituents of what used themselves to be considered elements, as to call in question the deductions of geology respecting the great antiquity of the world. There is no accounting for numberless facts which meet us, as we penetrate into the bowels of the earth, or walk upon its surface, but by supposing the earth itself to have existed for a very long period― a period remotely anterior to the origin of

our race.

Here then, it is said, is a manifest contradiction between the deductions of geology, and the declarations of Scripture. The teachings of the Bible are contradicted by plain matters of fact, and of course cannot be received as true.

But let us look at this subject again. Let us be sure that we understand some of the first verses in the Bible, before we declare them inconsistent with facts, and abandon the entire volume of inspiration as an imposture.

In attempting to explain the first chapter of Genesis, I shall not take the ground that this is mere human tradition, and no part of the revelation which God has given us. It is an unquestionable part of Divine revelation. We have as much reason to think this portion of Scripture inspired, as that inspiration may be predicated of any other part of the Bible.

Nor shall I take the ground that this chapter, and several which follow it, are a poetical mythus, a fable, designed to

convey moral instruction under a seeming narration of facts. For the truth is, these chapters are not poetry, but simple prose. They are not a parable, but a plain narration of important facts;facts, the truth of which is assumed in the subsequent parts of Scripture, and on the ground of which the most important doctrines are based.

Nor shall I take the ground that the term day, so frequently recurring in the first chapter of Genesis, signifies an epoch-an indefinitely long period of time. I think it signifies a literal day, including the evening and the morning -a period of twenty-four hours. This is the proper philological interpretation of the word, as here used; and we have no occasion, and as it seems to me no right, to lay it aside, for any less apposite and less usual sense. *

I have said, that those who represent geology as inconsistent with Scripture, assume that the Scriptures make the entire age of the world to be something less than six thousand years. But have they any right to this assumption? Where is it said in Scripture that the world we inhabit was made out of nothing near the time of the creation of our first parents? Nowhere. "IN THE BEGINNING, God created the heavens and the earth." This is an independent, a most important, and I will add (considering the circumstances under which it was uttered) a most wonderful proposition,-announcing that, at some time -at some remote period of antiquityGod 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

I know that the original word here employed, like our English word day by which it is translated, is used with considerable latitude in the Scriptures, and elsewhere; so that the particular sense in which it is used, must be learned from the connection. And in the first chapter of Genesis, the connection, as it seems to me, determines that the word stands for a literal day. Each day consists of an evening and a morning. Besides, on the seventh day the Sabbath was instituted, which has never been understood to include more than a literal day.

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 crystallized. 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 were 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 vapours 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 vapours 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 depressed. 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 splendour."

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 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 vapours were dispersed, and the sun and moon commenced their shining.

On the fifth day, God peopled 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 occan with their appropriate inhabitants.

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 remodelled 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 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

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 "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, pp. 178.

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 farther in the narrative Iwould 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 organisations 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 organisations, 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 everlasting to everlasting thou art God," Psalm xc. 2. "I was set up from everlasting, or ever the earth was," Proverbs viii. 23.

The geological conclusion, that this world must have had a beginning is of very great importance in connection with natural theology. The most plausible

* 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.

of all the atheistical hypotheses are those which assert the eternity of the world. Without undervaluing any thing which has been written with a view to refute these unreasonable suppositions, the proper refutation of them is to be sought, and is found, in the world itself. Tracing back geologically the history of this globe, and, after successive generations, we arrive at a period, when it contained no living thing, and when it was incapable of sustaining any form of life with which we are acquainted. We arrive at a period, when nought terrestrial existed but the bare elements of nature, and when in all probability an existence was imparted even to these.

2. Geology teaches that the earth we inhabit is the workmanship of one God. This is evident from the unity of design every where exhibited in the structure of the globe. The Bible also teaches the same doctrine. The God of the Bible is one God-to whom the work of creation is ascribed.

3. Geology teaches that the Creator of the world is a being of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. No one can look into the interior of the earth, and observe its massive structure and multiform organisations, and not be convinced that its Maker is possessed of unlimited wisdom and power. As little can we doubt the goodness of the Creator. To give but a single indication of this. Was there no goodness manifested, on the part of the Creator, in his treasuring up, at a period long anterior to the creation of our race, those measureless coal formations, which are now beginning to be exhumed for our comfort and benefit? No reader of the Bible needs be informed that the creation of the world is there ascribed to a Being of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness.

4. Geology teaches that the earth, compared with its Creator, is a very little thing;-that he holds it in his hand, and can rock it on its base, and upheave it from its deep foundations, at his pleasure. In literal accordance with this, is much of the language of the Bible. "He taketh up the isles as a very little thing." "He looketh on the earth, and it trembleth; he toucheth the hills, and they smoke." "He stood and measured the earth; he beheld and drove asunder the nations; the everlasting mountains were scattered; the perpetual hills did bow." "His lightnings enlightened the world; the earth saw

and trembled; the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord." At language such as this, infidelity has been accustomed to sneer, and shake her head. "She would not believe that there lives a Being able or disposed to effect such stupendous changes in our firmly established world. But geology confirms the solemn facts, as taught by revelation."

5. Geology teaches that, previous to the creation of man, the earth was chiefly, and often perhaps entirely, covered with water. Most of the animals of that period were either marine animals, or of an amphibious character. Most of the plants and vegetables were such as grow in marshes and fens. The stratified rocks, from the lowest to the highest, are all to be referred to the action of water. The bowlders which occur in the tertiary formations; the regular layers in clay-pits and other places below the diluvium, all proclaim that, at the period immediately preceding the creation of man, the earth must have been almost entirely covered with water. This conclusion is in literal accordance with the representations of Scripture. While the ruins of a previous organisation lay formless and desolate "darkness," we are told, was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." It was these tertiary waters which were divided by the firmament on the second day; and were gathered into seas and oceans on the third.

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6. Geology teaches that man, and most of the present races of animals, have not existed on the earth more than a few thousands of years. In the transition and secondary formations, and in the deeper portions of the tertiary, we find no traces of human beings, or, with few exceptions, of such animals as now exist. Indeed, it is not at all likely that man could have lived on the earth at that period, had he been placed here. Dragons, and mighty lizards, and other frightful amphibious creatures were then the lords of the creation. It is only in the upper tertiary and diluvial formations, that we find the remains of such animals as now exist, and in some few cases, perhaps, the bones of men. Now this shows conclusively that man, and the present races of animals, are among the comparatively recent inhabitants of the earth. They cannot have existed on it more than a few thousands of

years. The Scriptures certify us of the truth of this important geological conclusion. They inform us definitely, that man, and the other animals now on the earth, were created less than six thousand years ago.

*

But

7. It is a remarkable fact, that in those geological formations which are supposed to have been deposited before the formation of man, there have been found as yet no literal serpents: i. e., reptiles without legs or fins, and which creep upon the belly. Of the general class of serpents, or of what would have been serpents, if they had gone upon the belly, there were reptiles in abundance, of various sizes and forms. they all were furnished with legs, or fins, or wings, or paddles, or some means of locomotion, beyond what belongs to the proper serpent. If this is a fact, as I believe it is, in what way is it to be accounted for? There is nothing certainly in the organisation or habits of the proper serpent which unfit him to have lived among the saurians of the secondary formation. On the contrary, all that we know respecting him would seem to adapt him precisely to that period, and to the state of the then existing earth. Why then do we find no proper serpents there, and nowhere until after the creation of man? The writer of the book of Genesis assigns a reason. On the apostacy of man, the serpent tribe, or a large proportion of them, became divested of some of their important members, and were henceforth doomed to roll, and gather their meat upon the naked earth. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, all the days of thy life," chap. iii. 14.

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8. Geology teaches that, at a period more recent than the creation of the present races of animals, the earth has been covered and washed with a deluge of waters. The proof of this is furnished every where. We cannot dig into a sand-hill or gravel-pit in any place, without discovering evidence of this deluge. We learn, too, from various indications, such as the deltas at the mouths of rivers, the amount of lava which has subsequently been issued from volcanoes, and the detritus which have fallen from the sides of mountains, that this terrible catastrophe cannot have been a very remote event. We know, from bones

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