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it may be, the precise duration of each stage of creation, the 
grand sum of the whole ; let her make it as vast as she will, — 
we have nothing to fear from such researches and conclusions, 
but rather everything to hope. Whatever may be the result 
arrived at, it cannot in the least touch the doctrine of time con- 
tained in the cosmogony. This only it can do — it can, by giving 
us a truer, grander view both of what creation was, and in 
what time wrought, enhance our conception of His greatness 
to whom the whole vast work was but as one week's labour. 
4th. It remains now only, lastly, to make a few remarks on 
the teaching of the cosmogony in regard to the manner 
of creation. Most of the points here to be noted have been 
already touched on in the earlier portions of the paper. It 
may be well, however, briefly to group them together so as to 
present in one view their scientific bearing. Creation, then, 
in general must be defined as a series of spiritual acts whereby 
new existences were called into being. The first of such acts, 
recorded in the first verse, was without doubt the creation of 
the matter of the universe ; the second was the infusion in some 
way of living power by the Spirit of God ; the third was the 
calling forth of radiant force ; and so on. At each such stage 
of progress in the narrative, being a stage of creation, we are 
bound to regard some altogether new impulse as having been 
given, some new influence introduced ; something done, in 
fact, which while potent in effect upon what was to come after, 
was not the result of that which had gone before, but of God's 
immediate spiritual action. At the same time, we are as 
clearly forbidden to imagine that all the effects described arose 
from these new impulses. Part, doubtless, in every case arose 
from the natural action of these elements in creation already 
in existence. In some instances this is distinctly stated, as in 
the successive stages of created life, which though called into 
being by special fiat, and so certainly involving some new 
impulse in their origination, yet are described as “ brought 
forth" by the “ earth" and “ waters," thereby as clearly 
implying that earth and waters, as well as the new impulse, 
had part in their creation ; while for other cases where this is 
not distinctly asserted, we have the general statement of 
Gen. ii. 3, that God's method of creation was throughout “ by 
making i.e., it was a fashioning process, rather than a series 
of creations totally de novo. Keeping these two complemen- 
tary truths clearly in mind, and observing the steps of 
progress indicated by the order and divisions of the cosmo- 
gony, and we have all that it has to tell us concerning the 
manner of creation. The precise measure in which the two 
elements referred to were respectively concerned in any par- 
