174 
ments on the subject ; neither can it satisfy any doubt to assert, that the clays 
of creation were intended to justify the weekly Sabbath, since that merely 
gives them the character of a pious fraud. Fortunately, there is no necessity 
to have recourse to such explanations, since it is obvious that some account 
of creation was required as an introduction to the monotheistic theology of 
the Bible. It was necessary, for example, to affirm that nothing is fortuitous 
or eternal, but all the work of God ; also to include in this statement all the 
materials of ancient idolatry, whether in the heavens or the earth, and to 
show that the universe is a work of order and design. It was also important 
that any such statemants should be so accurate and guarded as not to commit 
themselves to any existing hypothetical views, or to be contradicted by 
subsequent discoveries which might be made by scientific investigation. 
These are the conditions which should be fulfilled by the first chapter of 
Genesis, and which all fair investigation of the subject tends to show have 
actually been fulfilled, as I endeavoured many years ago to show in my work 
on this subject.* 
Secondly. The question whether the days of creation are intended to 
designate long periods of time is one which, independently of the testimony 
of Augustine and other writers before the rise of geology, seems to be settled 
by the internal evidence of the book as investigated by modern scholars. 
On this point I would merely mention the following considerations : — 
(1.) The Hebrew yom does not necessarily mean a natural day. In 
Genesis i. the word is obviously used in two senses, designating the creative 
days and the alternations of light and darkness within such days. The 
earlier creative days could not, in consistency with the terms of the narra- 
tive, have been natural days. In Genesis ii. 4, the whole creative week is 
called a day. 
(2.) The expression “ one day,” used for the first creative day, has been 
held, on the analogy of other Scriptural expressions, to imply a peculiar kind 
of day. 
(3.) Many internal difficulties occur in the natural day theory ; one of 
these arises from the interval between the creation of the man and the 
woman as stated in chapter ii. 
(4.) In Psalm xc., attributed to Moses, and which in its style resembles 
his poetry as reported in Deuteronomy, one day of God relatively to human 
history is said to be a thousand years, and relatively to creation it may be 
still longer ; and in this Psalm these days of God appear to be designated 
by the term “ Olam,” age (rendered “ everlasting ” in our translation). 
“ From Olam to Olam thou art, 0 mighty EL.” 
(5.) The seventh day is not stated, like the others, to have had a beginning 
and an end ; nor is God said to have recommenced His work on any eighth 
day. It is fair, therefore, to infer that the seventh day at least is a long 
period, and still continues. Our Saviour himself seems to have referred to 
this when He said, “ My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” 
* “ Archaia.” Sampson Low & Co., London. 
