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one answer. Why then does he not apply the same principle 
here ? If sun- down means the apparent descent of the sun 
below the horizon, sun-still describes an analogous phenome- 
non. The one describes the reality no more than the other. 
Instead, therefore, of inquiring whether the whole solar system 
suddenly stopped, we are only required to believe that by 
some means unknown to us it pleased God to cause the sun to 
retain his apparent place in the heavens for twenty-four hours. 
W e have no more need to inquire into the manner how than in 
the case of any other miracle. How were the loaves and fishes 
multiplied? how did Jonah breathe when in the whale's belly ? 
how will the dead in one moment assume resurrection bodies ? 
One answer covers all — by the power of God. 
Let us examine this miracle of the sun and moon in another 
aspect, and we shall see in it abundant evidence of Divine 
wisdom and goodness. The nations of the world were rapidly 
casting off the worship of the one true God, and the inhabitants 
of Syria especially had given themselves up to nature-worship. 
The sun and moon were their principal deities. In His wisdom 
and righteous j udgment, God was allowing the nations of men 
to walk in their own ways and to choose their own delusions, 
yet He left not Himself without witness. He placed one people 
in the centre of the inhabited world, and committed to them 
a written revelation and an instituted worship. These were 
to be God's witnesses to all nations, and in order to be so, must 
themselves be preserved from all idolatry. By manifesting 
His power in that remarkable manner over the sun and moon. 
He gave public evidence, not only to Israel but to all nations, 
that He was supreme over all nature. Who can tell the 
amount of preservation to Israel, and of instructive admonition 
to all nations, from the Pillars of Hercules to the remote East, 
which resulted from that one transaction ? As far as eternal 
interests exceed temporal ones, so far did the wisdom and love 
which granted that wonderful phenonemon exceed the agency 
by which it was produced. Down to the death of the elders, 
who over-lived J oshua, Israel continued steadfast in the wor- 
ship of the one and only God. 
Interpret the words of Joshua as the language of phenomena, 
and science has no objection to allege against the history. 
Let us now come to the much-cavilled-at chapter which gives 
us an account of the origin of all things and of the six days' 
work. There is no doubt that on a superficial reading of the 
first chapter of Genesis there is an apparent contradiction to 
what science teaches us respecting the true condition of this 
earth. Many contrivances have been made to harmonize the 
discoveries of geology with the supposed meaning of Moses's 
