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.

8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

On this day alone, we are not told, that "God saw that it was good." Perhaps because the work was yet unfinished, the earth and the waters were yet commingled in one rude mass; and had any eye but that of the mighty Maker looked upon it, all would still have appeared "without form and void." And ought we not to derive some personal instruction, some high and holy and spiritual lesson, from this consideration? Have you heard the voice of God speaking to you by his word, or by his ministers ? has the light from heaven shone upon your heart? has the good work of dispelling its ignorance, its rudeness, its darkness commenced; but is it yet unfinished? While this is so, we

may not call it a "good," a complete, a perfect work. Be not satisfied, until all is learnt which God teaches, all is done which God commands, all is received, and loved, and depended upon,

which God has promised. Then, "unprofitable servants" as you will still be, God himself behold.. ing the great work which Christ has wrought in you, will not hesitate to pronounce it to be very good."

66

EXPOSITION II.

GENESIS i. 9-23.

9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear and it was so.

10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Light had been already made, and the waters had been before divided; but earth and sea were

yet commingled, and the great work of reducing disorder into beauty and comeliness, remained unfinished at the commencement of the third day. And now again God spake the word, and disorder vanished, and the dry land, earth, appeared, and then "God saw that it was good." Twice during this day is the testimony of the Creator to the perfection of his own beautiful work recorded. The earth on which we dwell, now for the first time appeared emerging from the waters in perfect beauty. And observe that its existence and its work commenced together. The very instant that it arose, dripping from the floods, it is commanded to bring forth grass, and herbs, and trees, and fruit; and as immediately does it obey, and all these are instantly brought forth, in all probability, in perfect ripeness, or they would not have been ready for the multitudes of living creatures which were so soon to feed on them. While-mark the merciful provision of the Great Husbandman-everything that yielded fruit, yielded seed also, that so long as the earth remained, seed-time and harvesttime, though never again to come together, should also never fail, but should follow each other in an order which none but God himself could interrupt, to the end of time, blessing every generation of God's creatures with food and plenty.

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 days, and years:

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, 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.

18. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

The sun and the moon were this day called into existence. Light had been, as we have seen, before created, and, if we may so say, was floating at large continually over the face of creation; but it was now collected, as it were, in one great treasure-house, thence to impart its beams, at such times and seasons as its Creator should direct. The day and the night are thus specifically declared to be divided, the first to be applied in after days to toil, the second to repose: "Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour, until the evening." Merciful appointment of our God! in a world, where so much is to be

done, how happy that there is so large a portion of daylight; in a world where so much is to be suffered, how merciful that there is also so much. night! Blessed be God, for the hope he has given us of a world where such a division shall be unneeded! where the sun shall no more go down; neither shall the moon withdraw herself, for the Lord shall be our everlasting light, and the days of our mourning shall be ended.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Here we learn that the birds of the air, as well as the fish of the sea, all proceeded from "the waters;' "Let the waters bring forth abundantly," were the words of our God; the earth had already performed a portion of its great work, in bringing forth the trees for the "fowls