104 
HISTORY OF THE EARTH. 
Maker, to perform acts of kindness to his fellows, to speculate on 
the magnificent mechanism of the universe, trace the evidences 
of the revolutions and catastrophes which the globe on which he 
dwells has undergone in former ages ; be filled with wonder 
and astonishment in meditating on the magnitude of those gigan¬ 
tic powers which were able thus to change the face of nature, 
but without ever being able to ascertain fully their nature, or de¬ 
termine what were the causes that quickened them into ac¬ 
tion. 
55. A question will here arise in the minds of some persons, 
which in view of what has been handed down from our fathers,and 
is commonly received as revealed truth amongst us, it becomes me 
to be prepared to answer, and as I may without travelling out of 
my proper province, or abandoning those objects to which these 
pages are particularly devoted, invite attention to the subject, it 
will betaken up at once whilst it is yet fresh in the mind. 
How, it will be inquired, does all this agree with the Mosaic 
account of the creation contained in the Bible? I might content 
myself with repl^’ing, “As well as the doctrines of modern As¬ 
tronomy agree with what is contained in the same account. ” We 
read :— 
Genesis, i. 6. And God said let there be a firmament in 
the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the 
waters. 
7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters 
which were under the firmament, from the waters which were 
above the firmament, and it was so. And God called the firma¬ 
ment Heaven. 
14. And God said let there be lights in the firmament of the 
heaven, to divide the day from the night, and let them be for 
signs, and for seasons, and for da}’s, and for j’ears. 
15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven 
to give light upon the earth, and it was so. 
16. And God made two great lights, the greater light to rule 
the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars 
also. 
17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give 
light upon the earth. 
18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide 
the light from the darkness : and God saw that it was good. 
The language of the last five verses, (from the 14th to the ISth 
inclusive) taken in its literal acceptation, would seem to inform 
us, that the particular and specific object for which the sun moon 
and stars were created was, to give light t) the inhabitants of the 
earth. But at the present day, mankind make an allowance for 
the circumstances under which these words were written, and 
believe that the sun and stars were created for some higher ob¬ 
ject than the mere furnishing of light, and the stars a very fee¬ 
ble light, to the small planet on which we live, though it is also 
