CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY' WITH SACRED HISTORY. 443 



They who object to this interpretation of the term here, immedi- 

 ately quote against it the reason added to the fourth commandment, 

 ^* For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all 

 that in them is, and rested the seventh day, wherefore the Lord bless- 

 ed the Sabbath-day and sanctified it." This is, however, no more than 

 a brief reference, and the terms of it must therefore be strictly inter- 

 preted in accordance with those of the detail to which the reference is 

 made. 



It has been said that such an interpretation goes to nullify the rea- 

 sons assigned for the sanctification of every seventh revolution of the 

 «un; but this does not follow. In point of fact, the rest from the 

 work of creation (we use this form of speech from the example before 

 us) did not endure for only one revolution, of the sun, but has contin- 

 ued since the creation of man ; and we have no grounds on which to 

 establish even a conjecture of the time of its coming to a close ; so 

 that if we were urged to adopt a period of twenty four hours as the 

 meaning of yom, that the six days of creation might literally corres- 

 pond with our six working days, we should then find the apparent dis- 

 agreement, which, by this process, we would endeavor to avoid, trans- 

 ferred to our weekly period of rest, and the rest from the work of 

 creation. 



It will surely be readily allowed, that the sanctification of the Sab- 

 bath has respect to man and his duties ; and since his Creator has been 

 made known to him, and the order of the six successive epochs in 

 which the earth was rendered fit for his habitation ; if we are to allow 

 what surely no reflecting mind will ever deny, that it is his duty to 

 reflect with gratitude on the blessing he has received, and to main- 

 tain in his heart a sense of his dependence upon, and responsibility 

 to him, who made the heavens and the earth, and all that they contain, 

 no method could have been devised better calculated for preserving 

 these feelings in constant activity than appointing some definite por- 

 tion of time, returning at short intervals, to be devoted to the con- 

 templations that awaken them, nor any interval more appropriate 

 than that which so directly recalls the order of the events of the 

 creation. 



Since we have introduced the subject of the measure of our pres- 

 ent day, we would ofler an observation regarding the work of the 

 fourth day, which includes the sun, moon and stars. Respecting the 

 period of their creation, geology, from its nature, gives us no precise- 

 ly definite indications. The history regarding them is from the 14th 

 to the 18th verses, and we would observe of it, that the terms employ- 



