The sacred historian confines his narrative to effects, but it is for us to refer these effects to their plain and obvious cause. So his ancient Hebrew readers referred them, who needed not to be told that the light of which he spoke, proceeded from the same great solar fountain of light and heat, as that which shone upon their path, though not expressly named, and though the sun and moon were not revealed in their relative functions, as ruling the day and night.

"Let there be light, and there was light."

The sublimity of this passage has long been a subject of critical remark and admiration. The more we contemplate the surprising operation, the more will our minds be affected by a sense of that sublimity. The discoveries of Sir William Herschel, tend further to augment the feeling of astonishment, by the distinctness which they impart to our ideas on the subject.

That illustrious astronomer discovered the body of the sun to be an opaque substance, surrounded with a luminous atmosphere. When, therefore, the Most High kindled that splendid atmosphere, its new light was immediately reflected by all the circling planets. Most glorious, then, must have been the first, the sudden and magnificent illumination of the solar system, and well may we imagine what was meant when it was said, "The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy."*

But that great source of light must have been optically non-existent as respects the earth, when covered with water, yet being the cause of heat, it undoubtedly drew up a universal vapour, and was diffused in a manner similar to that which we experience during the prevalence of a dense fog.

*Job xxxviii. 7.

Nevertheless, the bursting forth of light, and the dividing of that light from darkness, the one being called day, the other night, carry with them, in effect, the record of the causes that were ordained to produce them. They inform us, that the solar fountain of light and heat was opened in the heavens on this first day of creation; that the earth received its rotatory motion on its axis, and in its orbit; that darkness, therefore, in its relative character of night, commenced from the moment when the earth was created, and day commenced, also, from the moment when light succeeded, at the distance assigned for their division. Hence it was, that in the Hebrew computation of days, darkness preceded light, to commemorate the transactions of the first day.

Some modern speculators being unable to reject the Mosaic records, and wishing to bend them to their own theories, state that the earth rose out of chaos from a confused assemblage of elements, by the laws of nature. They consider that this gradual rising would require a considerable length of time, and they endeavour to obtain it from the sacred text.

But Bacon and Newton were in no such dilemma. They believed the simple fact, and received the words of scripture as Moses intended them. They believed that each day was such as is understood by the common acceptation of the word; a natural day; the revolution of twenty-four hours, commencing from one evening, and terminated by the next, according to the reckoning of the most ancient nations.

Johnson, too, in referring to a theory which excited much attention in his time, thus forcibly remarks, "that the number of years which it requires to convert a stratum of lava into vegetable mould, must depend upon the position

of the stratum, and upon circumstances, accidents and temperature, occasional culture, and earthquakes, which admit of no calculation: That farther, it is the most unreasonable of all unreasonable things to call in question the inspired volume, and to throw aside the testimony of, history, for theories, and fancies, resting upon such a basis." The discovery of successive strata of lava and vegetable earth near Vesuvius, had led to the conclusion which excited this remark. And hence arose a theory, that at least twelve thousand years must have elapsed in order to convert a stratum of lava into mould; consequently, that the earth existed at a period antecedent to the one recorded in the Mosaic record. Scarcely, however, had twenty years elapsed, before it was ascertained from authentic records, that the effect had been produced within half a century. Dr. Watson notices this fact in his Apology for the Bible. He cites it as a striking instance of the fallacy of geologic theories, which every age produces, and which are successively overthrown. Had Bishop Watson lived to the present day, he would have witnessed the overthrow of nearly twenty systems.

That the period mentioned by Moses was a day, a real rotation of the earth upon its axis, rests not upon a dubious passage. It is six times repeated in the first chapter of Genesis; and is thus summed up in the twentieth of Exodus. "In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it." Thus carrying down the remembrance of this great act, by a perpetual decree.

We read also in the second of Genesis, that even on the seventh day, before man was created, "The Lord God, had not caused it to rain upon the earth; but there went

up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground." A mist could not have sustained for ages the exuberance of vegetable life. This we know, because in countries where dew is most abundant, rainy seasons invariably occur; except in Egypt, and there the rising of the river answers the same purpose.

In the first then, of natural days, the fabric of the globe was formed, and such effects resulted, as were analogous to those which the Most High appointed to result from the new causes then ordained. The earth, wrapped in a watery mantle, became visible, and a glorious lighting up of the whole creation, instantaneously took place. The sons of God saw it, as was observed before, and they rejoiced, and sang together, not only at the wondrous sight, which they beheld, but doubtless at the thought of that innumerable multitude, which should hereafter ascend from off its surface, to rejoice with them, throughout the boundless ages of eternity.

SECOND DAY OF CREATION.

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.

GENESIS i. 6-8.

THIS portion implies that the watery vapour which had been gradually exhaled during the preceding day, now formed a canopy above the globe, by the creation of an aërial atmosphere, instead of enveloping it, like a cloak, in immediate contact with the water.

The globe was then disengaged from its incumbent vapour; but still the effect of light was alone apparent, for a covering of clouds succeeded, and hence the sun could only shed through it, pale and ineffectual beams, yet little