8 
The word here rendered made, is not the one which is rendered create, but one 
which most frequently means constituted, appointed, or set in order. The 
work, then, of the fourth day was the ordering and arrangement of the mo- 
tions of the heavenly bodies ; and their functions, so far as our earth is con- 
cerned, are clearly stated. The undoubted object of this was to guard men 
against making them objects of divine worship ; they were created things, the 
work of the Deity ; and, so far as man was concerned, they were designed to 
serve his convenience and promote liis welfare. Let us now recapitulate the 
work of the several days, and see how they agree with the teachings of the 
works of God. 
In the beginning, God created the substance of the heavens and the earth, 
and this substance was without form and void, or, diffused throughout space, 
it was dark, and the Spirit of God caused a motion to commence in it. God 
endued a part of it with luminous properties, and a part he left dark ; he then 
caused the light to separate from the dark matter, and named the light matter 
day, or the warmth-producing matter ; and the dark he called night, or the 
moving-around matter. This constituted the first day. On the second day, 
he caused the matter of the heavens and the earth, or of the universe, to sepa- 
rate and divide into distinct masses ; and to the space, which contained these 
masses, together with the masses themselves, he gave the name of heaven. 
This was the work of the second day. On the third day, he caused the masses 
of matter to become consolidated, and gave to the one which we inhabit, the 
specific name of earth, and to its collections of waters, seas. He then clothed 
the earth abundantly with verdure of all kinds, and commenced its prepara- 
tion for the residence of man upon it ; this was the work of the third day. On 
the fourth day, he arranged the motions of the heavenly bodies, both with 
reference to the earth and to each other. On the fifth and sixth days, the 
preparation of the earth for the residence of man was completed, and man 
was placed upon it. We have thus a clear, definite, and intelligible narrative, 
which agrees throughout with the teachings of the most perfect science. We 
have not space now to review the various phenomena of nature which bear us 
out in the assertion ; but those who have studied the subject will understand 
the full force of the declaration that, if one should seek to give a sketch in the 
fewest words of the Celestial Mechanism of Laplace, the Cosmos of Humboldt, 
and the geology of the latest and best authorities, he would do it in the very 
language of Moses. Here, then, we have presented to us the wonderful spec- 
tacle of all the grandest conclusions of science, epitomized, arranged, and 
accounted for ages ago, at a time when we are accustomed to look upon the 
world as in its infancy, and when all nations, except the one to which this 
wonderful writer belonged, were plunged in the darkest and most degrading 
idolatry. Where did Moses get this knowledge so absolutely perfect ? Was 
it not from God ? and is not this chapter, over which such a premature shout 
of triumph has been sent up, the most convincing proof of the inspiration of 
the Scriptures ? And so it will ever be, no matter what assaults may be made 
upon it, whether it be in regard to the unity of the race, or some other which 
shall yet be brought forward, all will prove in the end vain and futile, and the 
Scriptures will come out of the contest like the three Jews from Nebuchad- 
nezzar's fiery furnace, without even the smell of fire having passed upon 
them. 
