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tion between the two. The proper word for creation is not 
applied to the lower animals. The words are — “ And God 
said, Let the earth bring forth/' &c. “And God made [or 
arranged] the beasts of the earth after his kind/' &c. Whereas 
in the ease of man, the words are — “ And God said, Let us 
make man/' &c. “ And God created man in Ilis own 
image.” 
Whether the days spoken of, in this record, are periods of 
twenty-four hours, or of still greater duration, it is impossible 
to determine. There are mauy who think that they may be 
understood as indefinite periods. But the language of the 
Fourth Commandment seems to others to be unfavourable to 
such an interpretation. Nor do they see any reason for its 
necessity. We have to deal, they argue, with the Scripture 
narrative, not with modern scientific theories. The narrative 
specifies certain distinct operations, and they do not see that 
the time specified is in any one case incommensurate with 
those operations. The subsidence of the waters is represented 
as God's act. The production of the verdure and the vegetable 
creation, is the result of God's command, after the necessary 
preparation. The localization of light is attributed immediately 
to the divine operation. And so with what follows. The 
wording of the fourteenth verse, and the verses which follow, is 
consistent with the idea that the creation of the heavenly bodies 
is included in the first verse. The work of creation, subse- 
quently, is connected simply with man and his residence upon 
earth. The organization, the mlecoration, of the earth is the 
subject of the narrative, and the author confines himself to that 
one topic. We have his plain testimony that God himself 
undertook this re-constitution. He, who was to be the Saviour 
of a fallen race, was the Being by whom all these effects were 
produced, and the time, which He would assign to such opera- 
tions, was according to His own wise purpose. He tells us 
that in six days He completed the formation of the things 
which we see, and rested the seventh day and hallowed it. Be 
this as it may, we can in this case only wait for further infor- 
mation. The Biblical students watch, with intense interest, 
the progress of scientific inquiry. They listen, gladly, for the 
conclusions to which Science conducts her disciples. They 
join, heartily, in the gratulations with which each new stage, 
in her triumphant march, is hailed. But they cannot forget 
that the voice of Science has not always been the same. They 
cannot forget that, at different periods, different theories have 
been maintained (especially, for instance, with respect to the 
formation of geological strata), and that, at all these periods, 
the theories have been employed, by men who were so disposed, 
