PRINCIPLES OF INTERPRETATION. 153 



that God actually did do either of these things, would be to 

 set all analogy at defiance, and to take an everlasting leave 

 of those guides to truth to which the human mind is largely 

 indebted for all of its substantial progress. If, however, we 

 abstain from such a violation of the God-established laws of 

 our rational nature, we must admit in their full force the 

 manifest indications of fossilology and lithology, in reference 

 to the immense periods which must have elapsed during the 

 genesis of our globe, and of the various and successive races 

 of living organisms by which it" was tenanted prior to the 

 introduction of man. 



Having the utmost confidence in the inherent strength and 

 invulnerability of true theology, therefore, we affirm, without 

 any delicacy or evasion, that if the six days of creation, 

 spoken of by Moses, mean only six times twenty-four hours 

 of our time, then the chronology of the stages of creation, as 

 given by him, is manifestly untrue. But with a perfect 

 willingness to find the account, true or untrue, as the case 

 may be, let us examine the account fearlessly and without 

 reserve, and endeavor to discover its real import. 



In order to do justice in our interpretation of any writer's 

 language, we must, of course, have a due regard to the mean- 

 ing which context, the nature of the subject, the circumstances, 

 objects, and personal condition, of the writer, and the modes 

 of speech prevalent among the class of writers to which he 

 belongs, conspire to fix upon his language. This rule is so 

 obviously true, that no candid mind will fail to recognize its 

 propriety at once. Now, the book of Genesis (as is the case 

 with other books of the Bible) was written in an age and a 

 country in which symbolical language was much in vogue. It 

 also claims, like other sacred books, to have been written by 

 a spiritually illuminated person, and for spiritual purposes ; 



