Genesis And Geology Hand In Hand.

not to leave their respective guiding principles . Time rolls on , while they both pursue their courses , and , it may be a very long time after , one sees a figure in the distance , the other fancies he also sees one . Presently they each perceive that a man is approaching , and soon they are able to recognise each other , and when they meet , their astonishment is complete when each assures the other he never left the line which he assumed should be-his

guide . Then , ancl it may be not until then , by observation , calculation , and comparison , they find that they travelled along not a straight line , but only an apparently straight line , being in reality the circumference of an enormous circle . Call the line of the one Genesisand the line of

, the other Geology , and we have both uniting to form the full circle , and encompassing in its circuit the truth of Scripture , whicli comprehends within itself all the evidences of the earth .

Then is it possible to reconcile the long space of time required with the six days of Genesis i . ? Even so . Some attempt to do this by expanding the six days into periods of interminable length . Some have endeavoured to assert this by beautiful descriptions of Mosaic visions , as poor Hugh

Miller . Some by theories plausible , indeed , and they may be clever ; but this assertion for one by some able writers is supported by no proof , and they suppress , though perhaps not intentionally , the direct evidence of Scripture asserting the contrary .

Scripture asserts that God created the world , but it nowhere says that God created the world in six days . Scripture asserts that God made the earth in six days—that is , made , renewed , restored the earth—a very different matter from the first creation of it .

Here this subject appears to divide into two . 1 . The first six days . 2 . The difference between ¦ creating and making . For the present as to the six days . And , imprimis , is it not to be regretted that the foundation ! ess speculations of reason are often so intimately connected with revealed

doctrines of God ' s . truth , that the latter appear to suffer from the contagion and suspicion which the former should gather unto themselves alone ? So human error not only veils , but positively appears to disfigure , divine truth , and causes biblical truth either to be neglected as unsatisfactory , or ignored

as supposed to lead astray ; whereas , if it were rightly appreciated , it would be at once an authority and an evidence . But some mi ght think that if the six days are natural days , insuperable difficulties will accrue towards including the immeasurable time within the relation of Genesis i .

Let any allusion to the immense space of time required , be for the present postponed , and let us learn if the Scripture teaches us to believe , and affords us proof why we should accept , the first six days to be like our own ordinary days . 1 . To a general reader of the Bible the belief in the six days as such days as are common to all

human experience will be engendered from the fact that no change is referred to , or taught in connection with the term day ( Hebrew yohn ) as specifying day by day . For from the time of the six days up to the time of Moses , about 2 , 300 years , he does not allude by inspiration to any

change of the measurement of time , neither does he with regard to his own period , and regularly from his own date we have self-same days alluded to through a period of 3 , 355 years . The term yohm ( day ) is known to be used in Hebrew for time indefinite , as we use the word twice in

different senses , easily distinguished by any candid reader of the Hebrew , or even the English , according to the context . The first time this word is so used is in Genesis ii . 4 , the recapitulation of the 1 st chapter , " In the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens , " plainly proved by the

context to convey what we would mean were we to say " In the time that , " & c . Several parallel passages of such usage may be quoted where by the same word yohm occurs . The word by which yohm is translated is here put in italics in each text quoted : —•

Genesis ii . 17 . For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die . Genesis v . 1 . In the day that God created

man . Genesis v . 2 . Male and female * * * in the day when they were created . Genesis xxxix . 11 . Audit came to pass about this time .

Exodus ix . 18 . Such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now ( literally since the day it was founded ) . Leviticus xiv . 57 . When it is unclean , and when it is clean ( margin , literally in the day of the unclean , and in the day of the clean ) . Joshua iii . 15 . For Jordan overflowed all his

banks all the time of harvest . Any one may perceive by reading- the passages quoted , and several others , that in no case is day alluded to as belonging to measured time day by day , or any special day , other than the time when indefinite , or as day composed of evening and

morning , or in succession , consequently upon these points differing from the specified days in Genesis i . 5 , 8 , 13 , 19 , 23 , and 31 , and ii . 2 and 3 . II . —A second biblical proof is the measurement of the age of any person , for a man will give the age of his father in years made up of

days ; but this is the very same measurement which , in regular successions overlapping each other , the ages of every man in any historical time , modern , ancient , or scriptural , are reckoned by , till we get back to Moses , Abraham , Noah , and Adam himself , whose age was made up in part by the sixth ancl seventh days of the first week .

III . A third , biblical proof may be taken from the internal evidence of the record , for it is palpable that Moses himself must have understood