308 Natural Theology. 



and the heavens? There are also other meanings 

 of the word day. 



In the fifth verse of the first chapter it is also 

 said : " God called the light, day." 



J-lere it is simply a name, as God named all the 

 works as they were finished. 



Since then we find Moses using the word yom in 

 the second chapter in such a way that all must agree 

 it means a long period ; and since the best critics on 

 both sides of the question acknowledge that yom is 

 not necessarily a period of twenty-four hours, we 

 cannot see that we do any violence to the principles 

 of sound exegesis when we adopt that meaning 

 which harmonizes with the revelations of the 

 earth. 



In addition to this, we may say that Hugh Mil- 

 ler's view seems sound in his whole treatment of 

 the three days which he has attempted to account 

 for. We think a legitimate use of the word day is 

 in reference to the time when any order of things so 

 took the lead as to constitute a distinct epoch. We 

 use it now in the same way. Washington's day was 

 when he was exerting his influence in the armies 

 and councils of the nation. And so in the changes 

 in the earth's geologic history. They may have 

 been going on together, but the day of each creation 

 was when its activity rose above that of all others, 

 having, as it were, possession of the globe. And 

 these great epochs are properly spoken of by Moses 

 as days. They began and they closed, and he ap- 

 plies the usual Jewish method of describing the be- 



