Tlie First Men. 



199 



adopt one which, while being even more in harmony with the Word, 

 shall conform to the history of man which Grod Himself has written in 

 the open pages of the fossilized races now to be found the world over, 

 arranged in the strata where they were originally deposited, when man 

 was being gradually developed into the stature we now find him. 



It is established that the cyclical succession in the earth's history is 

 correctly recorded in Genesis. We must give to the "days" therein 

 described, however, a more sx^ecific character, if we would ascertain their 

 full significance. The "evening" and the "morning" have definite 

 meaning, and we must determine what that meaning is, or else lose the 

 full force of the testimony of the Word. A natural day is a completed 

 cycle, and so must the days in Genesis have been, or the original term 

 (yom) has been employed without due regard to its pertinence and value. 

 These cycles must have conformed in general character to the natural 

 day, or else the terms "evening" and ^' morning" have been used care- 

 lessly and at random. We must, then, base our divisions of the world's 

 history into ages upon the divisions in Genesis, and depart from scien- 

 tific nomenclature sufficiently to enable us to give names to those days, 

 derived from their characteristics as stated in the Word, if we would 

 synchronize the two accounts, and ascertain the night and noon of each 

 day. If science will enable us to do this, we shall find in Genesis the 

 cycle in which the first men were created. If the result thus reached 

 shall be in harmony with advanced science, let us not shrink from 

 accepting it as the true solution ; for man is older than he is willing 

 to own, as well as woman, and there can be no real conflict between 

 the record of God in the rocks of the earth or the races of men, and 

 the revelation of His doings which He gave to the founders of His true 

 worship. 



The Hebrew day began with the ''evening," aild thus began each 

 creative cycle.* In undertaking to give precise definition to the terms 

 "evening" {erev) and ''morning" {yoq^ler),^\Q shall be greatly assisted 

 by the fact that in Hebrew the same consonants, as a rule, embody the 

 same root idea, and that the different meanings are expressed by the 

 vowels. Erev^ therefore, is related in thought to arev, which means 

 to mix, conceal, confuse together; and voquer is connected with biquar,\ 

 to make appear, develop. In each creative day, therefore, there was 

 developed or made to appear during the morning that which was mixed, 

 concealed or confused together during the evening ; and hence each 

 day was a distinct cvle of evolution. 



* The author has rewritten the paragraphs in which the " days " of Genesis were con- 

 sidered, in order to avail himself of the interpretations of erer and rogr^cr, tliehom and 

 hoshak given in an able worli entitled "Conversations on the Creation: Chapters ou 

 Genesis and Evolution," published by the Sunday School Union, Loiidon. 



tThe consonants "b" and "v" are more or less interchangeable in nearly all lan- 

 guat'es. 



