CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 437 



of the planet, entirely out of its own ruins, a supposition which is in- 

 consistent with the state of facts. 



3. The present crust of the planet has been regularly formed be- 

 tween the first creation ^Hn the beginning,^^* and the commencement 

 of the first day. 



It appears to be admitted by critics, that the period alluded to in 

 the first verse of Genesis, "in the beginning," is not necessarily con- 

 nected with the first day. It may therefore be regarded as standing , ^ C^^Mf^^ 

 by itself, and as it is not limited, it admits of any extension baciiward j | 



in time which the facts may require.! v ^ . 



By asserting that there was a beginning, it is declared that the world 

 is not eternal, and the declaration that God made the heavens and the 

 earth, is a bar, equally, against atheism and materialism. The world 

 was, therefore, made in time by the omnipotent Creator. 



The creation of the planet was no doubt instantaneous, as regards 

 the materials, but the arrangement, at least of the crust, was gradual. 

 As a subject either of moral or physical contemplation, we can say 

 nothing better, than that it was the good pleasure of God that this 

 world should be called into existence ; but, it was also his pleasure, 

 that the arrangement, by which it was to become a fit habitation for 

 man, should be progressive. • . -v 



This is in strict analogy with the regular course of things in the 

 physical, moral and intellectual world. Every thing, except God, has 

 a beginning, and every thing else is progressive. The human mind, 



* " Of old, hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the 

 work of thy hands." Ps. cii. 25. "And thou, Lord, i7i ilic beginning, hast laid 

 the foundation of the earth." Heb. i. 10. 



t " This statement appears to be entirely distinct from all that follows." — W. M. 

 Higgins, F. G. S.; the Mosaic and Mi7ieral Geologies: London, 1833. 



"In this view I find no difficulties, either as a divine or a philosopher." — Private 

 correspondence of the Editor with an eminent biblical critic and divine. 



Dr. Chalmers says — " Does Moses ever say, that when God created the heavens 

 and the earth, he did more, at the time alluded to, than transform them out of pre- 

 viously existing materials '? Or does he ever say, that there was not an interval of 

 many ages betwixt the first act of creation, described in the first verse of the book 

 of Genesis, and said to have been performed in the beginning, and those more de- 

 tailed operations, the account of which commences at the second verse, and which 

 are described to us as having been performed in So many days 1 Or, finally, does 

 he ever make us understand, that the generations of man went further than to fix 

 the antiquiiy of the species, and of consequence that they left the antiquity of the 

 -globe a free subject for the speculations of philosophers," — Evid. Christ. Rev. in 

 Edin. Encyc. 



