ORDER OF CREATION. 



we now apply that term to any period during which a certain 

 succession of phenomena are manifested. Thus we speak of the 

 morning and the evening of life. 



" 'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore, 

 For coming events cast their shadows before." 



568. The first epoch was preceded by the formation of the 

 outlines of land and water. The rupture of the incipient crust of 

 the earth, as already explained (100), by throwing the solid 

 surface into different levels, divided the earth into oceans, seas, 

 continents, and islands : This is stated briefly but distinctly 

 enough in Gen. i. 9, 10 : "And God said, Let the waters under 

 the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry 

 land appear, and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, 

 and the gathering of the waters calk*d he Seas : and God saw that 

 it was good." 



569. The surface of the land was now clothed with vegetation. 

 Verses 11, 12 : " And God said, Let the earfch bring forth grass, 

 the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his 

 kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth : and it was so. And 

 the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his 

 kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after 

 his kind : and God saw that it was good ; " 



570. The second epoch of organic creation was signalised by 

 the production of animal life in its lowest forms, being limited to 

 marine tribes included under the general and familiar name of 

 Fishes. Yerse 20: "And God said, Let the waters bring forth 

 abundantly after their kind." This was succeeded by the crea- 

 tion of Birds : " And every winged fowl after his kind : and God 

 saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, 

 and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply 

 in the earth." 



571. In complete accordance with this account geological re- 

 searches show, that in the stages which immediately rest upon 

 the azoic formation beds of coal are found, proving that the 

 first land was clothed with vegetation. The animal remains 

 found in the same deposits, consist almost exclusively of marine 

 tribes. Some foot-tracks of birds, as we have shown, are also 

 found in these formations. No traces of land animals yet appear. 

 Thus in accordance with Genesis, geology announces that the first 

 acts of creation were the production of " the grass, the herb 

 yielding seed, and the tree yielding fruit after its kind," and 

 that then the Creator caused the "waters to bring forth abun- 

 dantly after their kind," and called into existence every winged 

 fowl after its kind. 



159 



