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child standing on the sea-shore of the ocean of truth, and 
playing with a little pebble which the waters have washed to 
my feet/’ 
53. We come now to the question at issue among ourselves. 
What does the Bible really teach, and what did the Jewish 
people, for whom it was written, really believe respecting the 
Mosaic, record of creation ? Adopting a more literal rendering 
than is to be found in our admirable Authorized Version, and 
combining with it a few other passages besides the Mosaic 
account, in order to elucidate more fully the correct teaching of 
Scripture, I believe the following will be found to convey a fair 
representation of all the information contained in the Bible 
respecting the Hebrew cosmogony. 
54. In the beginning was the Word (6 \6yog), and the 
Word was with God, and the Word was God (John i. 1). In 
the beginning, before the earth existed (Proverbs viii. 23), God 
the Eloheem, i.e. the Trinity, called into existence, by a 
sovereign act of creative power, the Essence of the Heavens and 
the Essence of the Earth (Genesis i. 1).* Moreover, the 
Creator hung the earth upon nothing, as a ball in the air, 
poised with its own weight, and kept in this manner by the 
power of gravity (Job xxvi. 7). Now God did not create the 
earth empty (Isaiah xlv. 18) ; but the earth became empty 
and desolate ; and there was darkness upon the surface of the 
deep. And the Spirit of God brooded upon the face of the 
waters (Genesis i. 2). 
First Yom. 
55. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light. 
And God saw the essence of light that it was good ; and God 
made a division between the light and between the darkness. 
And God called the light Yom (day), and the darkness He 
called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, 
one peculiar Yom (Genesis i. 3 — 5). 
Second Yom. 
56. And God said, Let there be an atmosphere or expanse 
in the midst of the waters, and let it divide between the waters. 
* The following is a comparison between the ancient Hebrew characters, 
such as we may suppose Moses used on the occasion, and the modern Hebrew 
characters : — 
• Bi . , 
Modern. 
Ancient. 
