A DAY IN A QUARRY. 87 



signs for the division of day from night, and for the 

 reckoning of seasons, days, and years. The creation 

 of all such animals as inhabit the water or fly 

 through the air is ascribed to the fifth epoch, while 

 during the sixth land, animals, and man were made. 

 You see, then, that the word ' day ' is used of a time 

 when as yet the sun did not ' divide the day from 

 the night.' Besides, in this very chapter the word 

 has several different significations. The first time 

 it occurs it means ' light.' You remember it is said, 

 ' God called the light Day.' In the very same verse 

 it denotes both ' the evening and the morning ' 

 that is, the period of confusion and of order. It is 

 also used of the duration of light as affected by the 

 sun. And in the second chapter of Genesis it is 

 made to include the entire period of creation, and 

 is used likewise to refer to the Divine rest or 

 cessation from creation that is, from that special 

 manifestation of creative agency described by Moses ; 

 and this rest has continued to our time. All through 

 the Scriptures and indeed in every other book 

 the word ' day ' is used in this indefinite manner, 

 and no one ever mistakes the meaning intended. 

 The Mosaic use of it would never have been mis- 

 conceived had men possessed the least knowledge 

 of the condition of things during the ages which 

 the word denotes in the Book of Genesis. I 

 have not much doubt that Moses himself under- 

 stood that the periods of creation were of 

 indefinite duration, or he would not have chosen 

 so elastic a word as ' day ' to describe them, 

 especially as he must have been conscious that he 



