6 
the first part of this verse, where it certainlj has no reference whatever to 
time or duration. When it does mean duration or time, it is by no means re- 
stricted to the meaning contqpded for ; on the contrary it has so many different 
ones, that we can only determine it from the context. The instances of these 
are numerous. In the next chapter we are told in the fourth verse, " these are 
the generations of the heavens and the earth, — in the day that the Lord Grod 
made the earth and the heavens." Here the term day includes the whole six 
days of the creation. So, when Job says, " turn from him that he may accom- 
plish, as an hireling, his day," he uses it to express the lifetime of a man. 
When our Saviour said to the Jews, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day," he 
used it to designate the period of his appearance upon earth. We have also 
the prophetic use of the word for a year, and many other uses of the same 
character, so that we can only determine the meaning of the word from the 
context. Prof. Lewis says, "the Hebrews use the word day, for any pe- 
riod of time, presenting a complete course or unity of events, irrespective of 
precise duration. There can be no doubt at all of such usage." We would 
I i"eply to the argument for the limitation of time in the fourth commandment, 
that we are told in the next chapter, that God rested from his work on the 
seventh day, and blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Now we wish those 
who contend for this limitation of the six days, to tell us when the seventh day 
ended, and when God ceased to rest from his work. The term Sabbath is also 
used to signify a rest of more than a natural day. It is so used in the 
Levitical law to designate the Sabbath of the land, or every seventh year, and 
in other places. The meaning of the word day is unquestionably limited by 
the context, and in each subsequent passage to the series of completed events 
with which it is connected. Here the context limits it to the period from the 
creation of matter to the separation of light matter from the dark matter ; and 
• as no sun was yet in existence, it could not have been a day measured by it. 
Verses 6th, 7th, and 8th. " And God said let there be a firmament in the 
midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God 
made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament, 
from the waters which were above the firmament, and it was so. And God 
called the firmament, heaven : and the evening and the morning were the sec- 
ond day." There is no part of the account of the creation that has more puz- 
zled commentators. 
Perhaps it is not possible to find any exposition of this work of the second 
day, that has yet been given, that when fairly examined does not involve a 
downright absurdity. We will mention two examples of these ; one given by 
Cruden, the author of the Concordance, as the understanding of divines in re- 
gard to it in the year 1737, and the other by Prof. Barrows, of Andover, in 
the year 1856. "The word used," says Cruden, "is y'p"!? which is trans- 
lated expansion, something expanded, or firmament, something firm and 
solid. By this word, the Hebrews understood the heavens, which, like a solid 
and immense arch (though it be soft and liquid) served as a bank and barrier 
between the upper and the lower waters ; and that the stars were set in this 
arch like so many precious stones in gold and silver, when firmament is taken 
for tlie starry heaven ; then by upper waters, is meant that sea or collection 
of waters placed by God above all the visible heavens, and there reserved for 
ends known to himself. If by firmament we understand the air called the 
expansion because it is extended far and wide, and the firmament, because it 
is fixed in its proper place, from whence it cannot be moved unless by force ; 
then by superior waters are to be understood the waters in the clouds ; and 
these may be said to be above the firmament of air, because they are above a 
considerable part of it." 
Prof. Barrows, of Andover, says: "In this azure vault (the sky) God has 
placed the heavenly bodies ; the fowls fly above the earth on its face ; that is, 
along under it, as if skimming its surface, and it constitutes a permanent di- 
vision between the waters above and below itself. The waters under the firma- 
ment are those on the earth's surface. The waters above the firmament are 
not directly the clouds, but rather that invisible store-house of waters whence 
