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important resemblance of any ancient cosmogony to the Mosaic 
recoid is to be found in the Persian, which may be accounted 
for by the probability of Zoroaster, its founder, having been 
brought into contact with the Jews at the court of “ Darius 
the Mede,” at the close of the Babylonish captivity; though, 
as we have seen, some parts of it are of such a fabulous nature 
as to forbid the thought of their being taken from the cosmogony 
revealed to Moses, who could not have written as he did, in 
such accordance with the discoveries of true science, without 
the direct inspiration of God. 
100. In the brief and rapid outline sketched in Scripture 
relating to astronomy and geology, we are enabled to see the 
all-perfect harmony which must ever exist between the word 
and the works of God. To mention only a few instances. 
1st. We have the simultaneous creation of the heavens and 
earth at so remote a period that it requires the known rate of 
the speed of light to enable us to grasp either its magnitude or 
its age. 2nd. The earth is represented as being- balanced in the 
air, poised by its own weight — a somewhat different conception 
from that of the Hindoos, who declared it to be resting on a big 
snake, which is itself upheld by a gigantic tortoise; but who 
supports the tortoise they cannot tell. 3rd. Moses teaches that 
the luminary which God appointed to rule the day is onlv a 
light-holder, the truth of which astronomy confirms by showing 
the sun to be an opaque body, dependent for its light on a 
luminous atmosphere. 4th. Light is said in the Mosaic record 
to have existed independent of the sun, which science has proved 
to be the case, in place of its being, as was very naturally 
supposed by all nations, the sole source of light and heat. 5th. 
Moses teaches that there is an expanse extending from earth to 
the ends of the Universe in which all the heavenly bodies are 
placed; and recent discoveries lead to the supposition of some 
subtle fluid in which they all move. 6th. Man is represented 
as having been created after the fowls, the fishes, and beasts of 
the field, which the modern science of geology has at length 
discovered to be the case. 
101. With reference to the origin of the human race, the 
subject of so much discussion in the present day, the more we 
reflect on the strange nature of man, the anomalies he presents, 
this Institute very properly argued that “one proof of the inspiration of the 
Bible is seen in the fact that in all other cosmogonies the greatest folly and 
nonsense is talked ; while in the Bible it is sublimely stated that in the 
beginning God created all things” ( Transactions , vol. vi. 160 
Y 2 
