454 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 



In the recapitulatory view of the creation in the beginning of the 

 2d chapter of Genesis, — allusion is made to the whole work in the 

 expression " in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the 

 earth." 



4. If the Canons of criticism require that one sense of the word day- 

 should be adopted and preserved throughout the whole account, how 

 are we to understand this verse 1 " These are the generations of the 

 heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the 

 Lord God made the heavens and the earth." Which of the three 

 senses shall we adopt? If the last, then the whole work was perform- 

 ed not in six days, but in one day — of twenty four hours, in the pop- 

 ular sense ; — in a sufficient period of time, according to the geolog- 

 ical view. The canons of criticism were made by man and may be 

 erroneous, or at least, they may be erroneously applied ; the world 

 was made by God, and if the history in question were dictated by 

 him, it cannot be inconsistent with the facts.* Why then, should we 

 not prefer that sense of the word used in the history itself, which is 

 in harmony with the structure of the globe. It is said indeed, that 

 the account in the 2d chapter of Genesis is a different one from that 

 in the first. With this the geologist can have no concern ; since he 

 finds both adopted in a connected history, he receives them as one. 



It is agreed on all hands, that the word here used for day, is that 

 which in the Hebrew, usually signified a period of 24 hours and the 

 addition of morning and evening is supposed to render it certain that 

 this is the real sense and the only sense that is admissible, especially 

 as this view is supported by the peculiar genius of the Hebrew lan- 

 guage. 



But, we would ask, is it unusual to preserve this allusion to morn- 

 ing and evening, when the word day is used for time ; we speak for 

 instance of the life of a man as his day, and in the same sense and in 

 harmony with this rhetorical figure, we speak of the morning and the 

 evening of life. 



* No opinion can be heretical but that which is not true. Truths can never 

 war against each other. I affirm, therefore, that we have nothing to fear from the 

 result of our inquiries, provided they be followed in the laborious but secure road 

 of honest induction. In this way, we may rest assured, we shall never arrive at 

 conclusions opposed to any truth, either physical or moral, from whatsoever source 

 that truth may be derived; nay, rather that new discoveries will ever lend support 

 and illustration to things which are already known, by giving us a larger insight 

 into the universal harmonies of Nature. — Professor Sedgwick's Address to the Geo- 

 logical Society^ February 19, 1830. 



