660 



A FEW REMARKS 



rotation of the earth between the third day, when vegetation 

 was produced, and the fourth, could not have been very differ- 

 ent, in velocity, from its present rotation. Some men, of rare 

 abilities, have thought that the " days" of creation were inde- 

 finite periods, notwithstanding the statement in verse 14, which 

 affirms that the lights in the firmament of heaven were to 

 divide the day from the night ; and to " be for signs, and for 

 seasons, and for days, and years." In this one verse do we not 

 see that the day was less than a year (signs and seasons, days 

 and years) ; for had the day there meant been more than a 

 year would not the words have been differently placed, namely 

 — signs and seasons, years and days ? Can we think that day 

 means one space of time in the former part, and another space 

 of time in the latter part of that one verse ? Another indica- 

 tion that the word day, used in the first chapter of Genesis, 

 does not mean a period much, if at all, longer than our present 

 day, is — that it is spoken of as alternating with night. Although 

 the word day is used in other chapters of the Bible, even so 

 soon as the 4th verse of the 2d chapter of Genesis, to express a 

 period, or space of time longer than our present day, the word 

 night is never so applied. — hence, as the earth turns uni- 

 formly on its axis, and, so far as we can reason from analogy, 

 must have turned uniformly, while turning at all, the word 

 night in the 5th verse interprets the length of a day. 



Some have laid stress upon the declaration that a thousand 

 years are with the Lord as one day : — but what is the con- 

 text ? ^ To lengthen the day to a thousand years, on account 

 of this and a similar expression, is not more reasonable than it 

 would be to reduce it to a night-watch. What is a watch in 

 the night when passed ? — next to nothing : — so are a thousand 

 years with the Almighty. These considerations tend to show 

 how, without Chaldee or Hebrew learning, a man, with a com- 

 mon English education, may convince himself of u fact which 

 has lately been so much controverted.*)' 



* " A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, 

 and as a watch in the night." — Ps. xc. ver. 4. 



t I may, however, here remark to my young sailor friends, that the 



Jews, 



