G. The hue of my argument must be threefold: — 1. I 
shall concede that Scripture is indifferent about speaking 
upon scientific facts with philosophical accuracy ; 2. I shall 
show that some of its expressions are, notwithstanding, so 
scientifically accurate, as to be consistent with the latest of our 
modern discoveries; 3. I shall then test the bearing of these 
facts upon Biblical interpretation, and ultimately come to the 
conclusion just announced. 
I. — We shall concede that Scripture does not in- 
variably EXPRESS ITSELF WITH EXACTNESS ON SCIENTIFIC 
QUESTIONS. 
7. Since, for all the purposes of controversy, one test is as good 
as twenty, let us confine ourselves to the Creation of the world ; 
which in the fourth Commandment is said to have been effected 
in six days. “ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, 
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day ; 
wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.” 
(Ex. xx. 11.) Now, comparing this statement with the account 
given us in the first chapter of Genesis, it is perfectly clear that 
it speaks of the creation of the whole physical universe, including 
the sun, the moon, and the stars ; for, in the course of the 
narrative of the six days’ creation, it is said that “ God made 
two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser 
light to rule the night; the stars also” (v. 16).* Reading all 
this, therefore, in the way of plain common sense, and taking 
the words in their simple and natural meaning, it is absolutely 
impossible to doubt that the Hebrews to whom they were 
revealed regarded them as teaching that the whole universe, 
from the stars above their heads to the waters at the bottom of 
the sea, were created in six days; and that, as God rested from 
His work on the seventh, that day w r as to be observed by them 
* I am not going to enter into the question as to whether the first verse 
of this chapter describes an original creation of the universe at an indefinite 
point of remote time ; v r hile the rest of the chapter, in which the six days, 
work is recorded, refers only to the present condition of the earth’s surface ; 
because that theory is now held to be impossible by all scientific men. It 
was held by Buckland, but has been abandoned by Hugh Miller and all the 
later geologists. 
