REFLECTIONS AND CONCLUSION. 421 



world as it now is in six ordinary days. He could 

 have created it just as it exists at present in a 

 single instant, for He is above and independent 

 of time. The teachings, however, of geology and 

 paleontology are diametrically opposed to the sup- 

 position that He did fashion this globe of ours, as 

 we now see it, in six ordinary days, while it is found 

 that there is nothing in Scripture which precludes 

 the view that the days of Genesis were indefinite 

 periods of time. God could have caused the flood 

 to cover the entire earth to the height of the highest 

 mountain, and He could thus have destroyed every 

 living thing except what was preserved in the ark ; 

 but did He? Ethnology, linguistics, prehistoric 

 archaeology, and even Scripture, supply us with 

 practically conclusive reasons for believing that He 

 did not. It is within the range of possibility, that 

 the four thousand and four years allowed by Usher 

 for the interval which elapsed between the creation 

 of Adam and the birth of Christ, are ample to meet 

 the demands of the case, but it is in the highest 

 degree improbable. If the evidence of history, 

 archaeology, and cognate branches of science have 

 any value at all, it is almost demonstrably certain 

 that the time granted by Usher and his followers 

 is entirely inadequate to meet the many difficulties 

 which modern science has raised against the accept- 

 ance of such a limited period since man's advent on 

 earth. And so, too, regarding fossils. God could, 

 undoubtedly, have created them just as they are 

 found in the earth's crust, but there is no reason 

 for believing that He did so, while there are many 



