370 
ORDINARY MEETING, June 15, 1868. 
The Right Hon. the Earl op Shaftesbury, K.G., President, 
in the Chair. 
The minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 
The names of the following new Members were announced :■ — 
The Iiev. Samuel Lysons, M.A., F.S.A., Hon. Canon of Gloucester Cathedral, 
Hempsted Court, near Gloucester; and W. H. Balmain, Esq., St. Helen’s, 
Lancashire. 
The Discussion on Mr. Warington’s Paper on “ The Biblical Cosmogony” 
was resumed as follows : — 
[Captain Fishbourne and the Rev. M. Davison opened the Discussion by 
reading written speeches on the subject, which are not however printed, as 
Mr. Warington was unable to reply to them, owing to the great length to 
which these written observations extended.] 
Rev. W. Mitchell.— I have to thank Mr. Warington for the general tone 
of his paper. There is, however, one point which I cannot quite comprehend ; 
and I doubt whether many of us who approve of the paper generally, have really 
got a correct view of what Mr. Warington means by “ God’s days.” In an earlier 
paper which Mr. Warington brought before us, he pointed out the manner in 
which men of science and defenders of revelation met one another with regard 
to the interpretation of the word “ day ” in the book of Genesis ; one inter- 
pretation being that of an ordinary day from morning to evening — a day of 
24 hours ; and the other interpretation being that of a long period of 
time. In this paper, however, Mr. Warington ignores both these interpre- 
tations, and introduces another — an interpretation of which I altogether fail 
to get any correct notion in my mind. It may be my denseness, but I cannot 
distinguish any difference between Mr. Warington’s “ God’s day ” and a 
lengthened period, in which there may be many natural days and nights. 
Mr. Warington says : — 
“ We turn to the question, is the word 4 day ’ to be taken here in its ordi- 
nary sense or otherwise ? If the word ‘ day ’ be used of a period of time, we 
find in Scripture, as everywhere else, but two meanings which can be assigned 
to it — a period of 24 hours, or a period of 12.” 
He goes on to say, that it is sometimes used as a symbol for long periods of 
