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viously assume that immediately before the six days' creation, when, according to them, the world was made a "wreck," it was raised from its inclination to a right angle to the ecliptic. But that were in contravention of their principles, both because there are no proofs in the present condition of the earth of such a change; and because, if it took place, it cannot have been caused by the chemical and mechanical forces to which alone they can refer such a change in the position of the globe. It were supremely absurd to suppose that chemistry, any volcanic action, or any movement of the ocean, can have thrown the axis of the earth from an angle, to a perpendicular to the ecliptic. In maintaining, therefore, that the earth had revolved round the sun through an immeasurable tract of years, with its present inclination to the ecliptic and diversity of days and seasons, they in effect assume either that at the close of that period it was made a "wreck," and lost its inclination to the ecliptic, or else that no such change was wrought in its condition on the fourth day of the Mosaic creation, as is related in this passage. If the latter, they offer a direct contradiction to the inspired record; if the former, they both contradict the announcement in the first four verses, and in Exodus xx. 3, that the earth itself, and the sun, moon, and stars, were created on the first of the six days; and contravene their own principles, which forbid them to assume the

occurrence of any change of the earth's condition that was not produced by the chemical and mechanical agents to which they refer all geological effects. Of this difficulty, as they appear not to have been aware of its existence, they have not attempted a solution.

QUESTIONS.

Could there have been any mountains or high hills on the earth's surface while it continued to be covered by the ocean? What must have been the process by which the dry land was formed? Must the change have been rapid, if large continents and islands immediately became dry? Must the dry land have been covered with a soil fit for the support of vegetables? Is this narrative of the formation of mountains on the third day, reconcilable with the geological theory? To what epoch do geologists refer the elevation of the mountains? Do they hold that the soil of the present strata formed the surface of the earth which was elevated from the waters at this epoch; and that the materials of these strata were drawn from mountains and lands that had previously existed? State the opinions of Macculloch, Buckland, Phillips, and Lyell. Are not these opinions in the most open antagonism to the sacred text? To what expedient do geologists resort to extricate themselves from this difficulty? Is their omission to notice it adapted to confirm the claim they often put forth, to an exclusive competence to treat of the subject? Does the supposition on which they rely to save themselves from all difficulties that a vast tract of ages intervened between the epoch of the first and second verses-relieve them in any measure from this contradiction to the sacred text? If continents and mountains had existed for ages before the era of the third day's creation, must not those mountains and continents have been got rid of and the earth reduced to a geological level, in order that a new set could be pro

duced at the time and in the manner the text narrates? Can a more irreconcilable contradiction be conceived, than their theory thus forms to the inspired history?

What was the act of the fourth day's creation? What is the first of the views geologists entertain of this creative act? What is the objection to that view? What is the second construction they place on this act? What is the objection to that view of it? What is the third notion they entertain of it? Is that consistent with the language of the passage? What then was the true import of the creative fiat? What was the effect wrought by it? How may a change have been produced in the relations of the earth and other planets and the sun, that gave birth to seasons and years? What other change in their relations to each other may also have taken place? Is either of these effects reconcilable with the geological theory? Show how it is irreconcilable with the supposition that a change of the distances of the planets from each other and from the sun was wrought by the creative act. Show how it is inconsistent, with the supposition that the effect wrought was the change of the earth's axis from a perpendicular to its present inclination to the ecliptic.

CHAPTER VII.

Difficulties of Geologists respecting the Creation of Animals and Man.

THEIR theory that the plants and animals whose relics are buried in the earth, had their life during the ages which they hold preceded the "wreck" and reconstruction of the globe six thousand years ago, is in like manner contradictory to the inspired history of the creative acts of the third, fifth, and sixth days.

"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and

the morning were the fifth day.

"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,

and beast of the earth after his kind: And it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind. And God saw that it was good.

"And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them. And God said unto them: Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said: Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”—Chap. i.

20-31.

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