82 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



« 

 senses in which the word is used. " God called the light day." This light has 



been shining ever since, hence this day is perhaps as long as time itself. " The 

 evening and the morning were the first day." The evening was the darkness of 

 chaos and extended from the beginning to the time light first appeared. As th's 

 time is indefinite the length of the remainder of this day is equally so. 7 he 

 "evening and the morning " before the appearance of the sun, and the " eve- 

 ning and the morning" after its appearance are alike called a day. In verse 14 

 the word day is used both to indicate the hours of light in the 24 hours, and also 

 the whole 24 hours. And in the fourth verse of the following chapter the word 

 day is used to designate the whole period of creation. 



The order of succession, as shown by both the records, has received so much 

 attention that but little more concerning it need be said. In general, we find 

 that the order of plants and animals, as they appear in the rock formations, is 

 strikingly in harmony with the order recorded in Genesis. Each reveals the fact 

 that the lowest in the scale of life were mainly the first to appear; though both 

 records, as we now interpret them, show that the gradation from the lowest to 

 highest was not a uniform and unbroken one. It must be admitted that the rec- 

 ord of the rocks has as yet been but imperfectly deciphered. This, however, is 

 often admitted or denied according as one position or the other best serves the 

 ends the party has in view, and the conclusions he wishes to reach. On the 

 other hand, in the brief Bible record, while we are profoundly convinced that it 

 contains the truth and nothing but the truth, and that no future discoveries in 

 geology will make it appear any less true, it is highly probable that from a scien- 

 tific standpoint, it does not contain the whole truth. In view of the fragmentary 

 nature of each, the harmony is too marked to be reasonably attributed to chance, 

 or to fail in convincing a candid student of both that the two revelations have a 

 common author and a common purpose. With the best light to which I have 

 found access, after considerable pains-taking research, I would say in recapitula- 

 tion that the panoramic vision creation of which Moses saw, contained the fol- 

 lowing pictures, and that they are equally correct illustrations of the book of na- 

 ture and the book of Genesis : After the blackness of darkness which preceded 

 the energizing of matter, the first picture was of a light diffused through space, 

 presenting to the inspired spectator no distinct object, but simply a glare of daz- 

 zling brightness; then he saw the solar system broken up into separate planets with 

 clear sky between them ; next the first grand upheaval of the land above the uni- 

 versal ocean of our own planet ; then a luxuriant growth of terrestrial vegetation 

 upon it, as in the carboniferous period of the geologist; then the appearance in 

 full view of the sun, moon and stars; after this the land, water and air swarming 

 with sea-monsters and reptiles of both sea and land, the bird-like reptiles, sauri- 

 ans, pterodactyls, etc., and the reptilian birds of the Mesozoic age ; finally appear 

 on the screen the monstrous sloths and other mammals of Cenozoic time as the 

 megatherium, mammoth and mastodon; and lastly man appears to crown the 

 whole. 



According to geology and to Genesis, man appeared when in the fullness of 



