848 



COSMOGONY. 



The central thought^of each step in the Scripture cosmogony — for 

 example, Light ; the Dividing of the fluid earth from the fluid around 

 it, individualizing the earth ; the Arrangement of its land and water ; 

 Vegetation ; and so on — is brought out in the simple and natural 

 style of a sublime intellect, wise for its times, but unversed in the 

 depths of science which the future was to reveal. The idea of vege- 

 tation to such a one would be vegetation as he knew it ; and so it is 

 described. The idea of dividing the earth from the fluid around it 

 would take the form of a dividing from the fluid above, in the imper- 

 fect conceptions of a mind unacquainted with the earth's sphericity 

 and the true nature of the firmanent, — especially as the event was 

 beyond the reach of all ordinary thought. 



Objections are often made to the word "day," — as if its use limited the time of each 

 of the six periods to a day of twenty-four hours. But, in the course of the document, 

 this word "day " has various significations, and, among them, all that are common to 

 it in ordinary language. These are — (1) The light, — "God called the light, day," 

 v. 5; (2) the "evening and the morning" before the appearance of the sun; (3) the 

 "evening and the morning" after the appearance of the sun; (4) the hours of light in 

 the twenty-four hours (as well as the whole twenty-four hours), in verse 14; and (5) in 

 the following chapter, at the commencement of another record of creation, the whole 

 period of creation is called " a day." The proper meaning of " evening and morning," 

 in a history of creation, is beginning and completion ; and, in this sense, darkness before 

 light is but a common metaphor. 



A Deity working in creation, like a day-laborer, by earth-days of twenty-four hours, 

 resting at night, is a belittling conception, and one probably never in the mind of the 

 sacred penman. In the plan of an infinite God, centuries are required for the maturing 

 of some of the plants with which the earth is adorned. 



The order of events in the Scripture cosmogony corresponds essen- 

 tially with that which has been given. There was first a void and 

 formless earth ; this was literally true of the " heavens and the earth," 

 if they were in the condition of a gaseous fluid. The succession is as 

 follows : — 



(1.) Light. 



(2.) The dividing of the waters below from the waters above the 

 earth (the word translated waters may mean fluid). 



(3.) The dividing of the land and water on the earth. 



(4.) Vegetation ; which Moses, appreciating the philosophical char- 

 acteristic of the new creation, distinguishing it from previous inorganic 

 substances, defines as that " which has seed in itself." 



(5.) The sun, moon, and stars. 



(6.) The lower animals, those that swarm in the waters, and the 

 creeping and flying species of the land. 



(7.) Beasts of prey (" creeping " here meaning " prowling "). 



(8.) Man. 



In this succession, we observe not merely an order of events, like 

 that deduced from science ; there is a system in the arrangement, and 



