309 
Genesis, we are told that God made the heavens and the earth, and 
everything else, I have been somewhat disappointed by this paper. I 
expected that reference would have been made to the Timcexis of Plato, 
which gives us the basis of the Greek cosmogonies. Plato tells us 
how God made the world out of the four elements, according to fixed 
ideas in His mind, and formed all things by means of inferior deities 
whom He had created. Many of the moral and spiritual notions of Plato 
agree in a remarkable manner with the teachings of Scripture, but that has 
not been referred to in the paper before us. 
Kev. J. W. Buckley. — I cannot but think that the word “ day ” in 
Genesis means some longer period than that which we ordinarily understand 
by “ day.” There is no great difficulty in supposing that the word “ day ” 
means a period. We shall surely get ourselves into a very great fix as theo- 
logians, if we maintain, after the researches of science, that the days of 
creation are what we understand by days. I do not know whether that is 
what Mr. Coxhead means. 
Mr. Coxhead. — Yes ; I do mean a day, from the rising to the setting 
of the sun. 
Mr. Buckley. — I should be sorry as a clergyman to be bound by 
that definition ; and I do not believe that great theologians at any time 
have really held that view. I am afraid we shall set Science and Scripture 
hopelessly at issue, if we dogmatically adopt such an interpretation. Nor 
need we be perplexed, if we suppose “ day ” to mean a period, as to how 
we should then understand the institution of the Sabbath.* We should 
believe that the seventh period was God’s period of rest, and that He set 
apart the seventh day in each week as man’s period for rest ; not, indeed, of 
the same absolute length, but in like proportion. 
A Member. — There have been several attempts to harmonize the account 
given by Moses with modern science, but many have been too prone to 
accept every statement of geology and astronomy as the expression of an 
unalterable truth. I think that we cannot shut out from our knowledge that 
both sciences have been growing. There have been divines in years gone by 
who have reconciled systems of geology or astronomy with Scripture ; and 
when those systems have changed other divines have reconciled the new 
systems with Scripture. And so they have gone on, and there arc in the 
present day divines who are trying to reconcile Genesis with modern science. 
But I would ask, arc we to accept the teachings of science as final 1 “ Scio ” 
means “ I know,” but many of our so-called scientific truths are mere as- 
sumptions. Scientific men assume very many things in the present day, and 
have gone through a uniform process in all times. It is true that in our 
own day scientific assumptions are often advanced as “working theories,” 
* Professor Challis has fully taken up this, as well as other points touched 
upon in Mr. Coxhead’s speech ; see vol. ix. p. 143. — Ed. 
