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E. WALTER MAUNDER^ P.R.A.S., ON 



the raging deep — and at that era it was so. " And the spirit of God 

 brooded on the face of the waters. And God said, let there be 

 light." Where In some place in the universe? No. The 

 subject was not now the heaven and the earth, but the earth only. 

 The light, therefore, was shown where the darkness had been, 

 namely on the face of the deep. Before the solidity of earth 

 permitted of land standing out of the waters, the water covered the 

 whole earth to the depth of about two miles. The translation " in 

 the beginning " was misleading ; there was no article in the Hebrew 

 here, although very plentifully used in this chapter. It was not, 

 therefore, the beginning of all things, as of energy and matter, etc., 

 that was iatended, but a beginning relating mainly to this poor 

 one-mooned world. 



When we considered the facts that the time ratios of Genesis and 

 of our leading geologists agreed ; that the order and distribution of 

 life, beginning first in the waters, also agreed with those stated by 

 Sir Archibald Geikie ; that the day divisions in Genesis agreed with 

 the divisions of Professor Haeckel ; that the days were called aeons 

 in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and were so understood by all the 

 Greek fathers ; then we dared not doubt the reality of Divine 

 revelation and the truth of the Bible. 



Dr. A. T. SCHOFIELD thought the beauty of Mr. Maunder's paper 

 consisted in what it contained, and that a good deal of its wisdom 

 consisted in what was left out. He thought Mr. Maunder's remark 

 that the words " Let there be light " implied the creation of energy 

 might be open to question, but he would ask whether it was quite 

 certain that the words "Let there be light" necessarily implied the 

 original creation of light in the universe. He would like to allude to 

 Dean Wace's wonderful words about the breadth and scope of the 

 magnificent painting in this chapter ; he ventured to suggest that, 

 being painted by the Divine Artist, its accuracy in respect to the 

 minutest word used was as conspicuous as the majestic breadth of 

 the painting. Now one speaker had already pointed out that the 

 word " was " occurred twice in the second verse but was only 

 expressed once. " Darkness upon the face of the deep " ; the " was " 

 not expressed ; but " the earth was without form and void," the 

 word " was " expressed ; the Hebrew usage suggesting that the first 

 statement simply expressed that the darkness was there, and the 

 second that the earth had become without form and void 



