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that our present knowledge does not enable us to trace such a correspondence. There is an agreement of order with an apparent disagreement in time.

Geologically this third day, or rather its latter half, denotes the latter part of the Azoic Age.

FOURTH DAY.

The physical relations of the solar system completed.

And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and for years and let them be for lights in the expanse of heaven to give light on the earth: and it was so, &c., &c. Gen. 1. 14–19.

Light had existed during the three preceding periods, but the courses of that light were hidden by the dense vapours enveloping the earth. Had eye of man or bird or beast looked up from the first made land or from the far spreading sea, no blazing sun or silvery moon, or twinkling star would have greeted his gaze. But during the fourth creative day, the heavenly bodies appear, and instead of thick cloud masses rolling slowly across the sky, a blue star-spangled canopy appears, a bright sun moves slowly athwart it by day, and moon and stars pursue their solemn march by night-a glorious change truely; and it was perhaps then that the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy. (Job. xxxvIII. 7.)

But while our earth has been advancing up to this point, sun, moon and planets have also been growing into shape. What had once been a huge mass of vapour occupying the whole space inside of the earth's orbit, has shrunk into a small but brilliant ball of fire, now called the sun, having, however, in the mean time, thrown off two other planets like our earth, but smaller. The whole of the heavenly bodies now assume towards our earth those visible relations which they at present hold and henceforth mark its days and nights, its seasons and years.

The work of this fourth day marks two important advances. The atmosphere loses its watery vapour and reveals the starry sky, and the general physical relations of the solar system are completed.

Of this fourth day's work geology of course has nothing to say. Whether any and what changes occurred during that period in the relative positions of sea and land and in the progress of plant-life we are not told. Like the work of the first day it was atmospheric and solar.

FIFTH DAY.

Creation of the lower animals.

And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarming living things, and let winged things fly above the earth in the expanse of heaven. And

God made great reptiles, and every living moving thing which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged thing after its kind; and God saw that it was good, &c., &c. Gen. 1. 20-23.

It is difficult to determine with certainty the classes of animals intended in these verses. By swarming creatures we may perhaps understand all the invertebrates such as radiates, crustacea, and mollusca, and the two lowest classes of vertebrates, fish and amphibious. By winged things is probably intended all things that fly, such as insects and birds, but chiefly the latter. By great reptiles is meant those huge Saurians which first appeared in the Carboniferous Period and culminated in the Oolitic.

If these identifications are correct, and they are probably not far from the mark, the order of creation as told by Moses is in close agreement with the story of the rocks.

As already stated, the oldest fossils yet discovered are the calcareous coral-like remains of foraminifera found in the Laurentian strata. Crustaceans and mollusks first appear in the Cambrian; fish and insects* in the Devonian; reptiles in the Carboniferous; and birds in the Triassic. This order as you will observe is nearly, if not quite that of the Mosaic record.

What geological period then does this fifth day of creation cover? I am inclined to think, the whole series from the Laurentian to the Permian, or the Paleozoic Age. It may be objected that as birds' remains do not occur in the Paleozoic rocks, the fifth day must cover a longer period. It is true that we do not find traces of birds earlier than the Triassic Period; but in some of the strata of that system the foot-prints of birds, some of gigantic dimensions, occur in great abundance. Hitchcock found the foot-prints of 31† species in the Connecticut valley. We may safely infer therefore that birds existed in the previous period, for geology shows that every class of plants and animals has had its forerunners. The fish of the Devonian Age were heralded by scattered predecessors in the latter part (Ludlow beds) of the Silurian Age; the reptilian monsters of the Mesozoic had their precursors in the Carboniferous period; and the huge and abundant mammalia of the Tertiary were predicted by a little in

*Two orders of insects are found in the Devonian rocks: Large-winged dragonfly. like ephemera allied to our modern May-flies, and a species seemingly belonging to the grasshopper tribe (orthoptera). In addition to these the Carboniferous strata contain remains of weevils, the earliest representatives of the beetle tribe (coleoptera). Our domestic pests, the cockroaches, also occur in the Carbonifer. ous. Thus at least three out of the ten or twelve orders into which insects are commonly divided must have flourished in the woods and swamps of the Devonian and Carboniferous Periods.

Only foot-prints of birds are found in the Triassic; the first fossil bones of a bird (Archæopteryx) occur in the Oolitic.

significant marsupial away back in the Triassic. We may therefore reasonably suppose that the gigantic birds of the Traissic had their representatives in a preceding Age. Besides, God's creative work is. all prophetic. It is initial not final. We may, therefore, take this fifth creative day as corresponding with the Paleozoic Age of geology.

SIXTH DAY.

Introduction of the mammalia and of man.

And God said, Let the land bring forth animals, after their kind, &c., &c., &c. Gen. 1. 24-28.

By cattle (běhemâh) is here probably meant herbivorous animals (compare Lev. XI. 22-27) and by beasts Věkayethô) of the earth, the carnivorous animals. What class or classes are intended by "creeping things," it is not easy to determine; probably the smaller creeping things of the land in distinction from the creeping things of the waters.

The fifth day witnessed the creation of the animals of the water and the air; the sixth day those of the land, or the mammalia. The oldest mammmalian fossil occurs in rocks of the Triassic period. It is that of a small, rather fox-like marsupial (microlestes antiquus) akin to the myrmecobius fasciatus, a species living in Australia. Remains of other marsupial species have since been discovered in the same rocks. In the succeeding or Jurassic period, the fossil bones and teeth of several mammalian species occur, but all seem to be marsupial, though two or three, as the stereognathus and triconodon mordax, are doubtful and may possibly belong to higher orders. Few mammalian fossils have yet been found in the Cretaceous rocks; some of these, however, are regarded by Professor Owen as showing affinities to the quadrumana or monkeys. But on reaching the Tertiary a grand array of mammals confronts us. It is emphatically the mammalian Age. All existing orders are represented even up to the quadrumana, though they differ much from their descendants of to-day. The Pachyderms, however, predominate and boast such grand forms as the mastodon, mammoth and dinotherium. Man alone was wanting to complete and crown the great mammalian list of the Tertiary. Towards the end of the sixth day that great addition was made and the work of creation was finished. And God said, Let us make man in our own image after our own likeness, &c.

No traces of man have yet been discovered except in the rocks, mud and gravel of the Quaternary or Recent Period. Those remains chiefly consist of stone, bone, horn, wood, bronze and iron implements or weapons, and occur at various depths in the mud and gravel deposits of lakes and rivers. Ashes, cinders and charred bones, remains of man's kitchen fires and family feasts are also found buried

beneath the stalagmitic floors of ancient caves, associated with remains of the mammoth, Irish elk, cave bear and other extinct mammals. Fossilized human skeletons have also been discovered in recent rocks, and coins have been found embedded in new conglomerates. These bones and coins are of quite modern date being only a few hundred years old. The stone and other implements buried in river silts and gravel beds are of various ages, but careful calculations, based on the probable rates of deposit, goes to show that the oldest do not reach farther back than seven or eight thousand years, perhaps not so far. The cave remains, however, seem to require a considerably higher antiquity. But Moses does not inform us of the precise time of man's creation; he only tells us that man was the last made of God's creatures. This too is the testimony of the rocks. The oldest human remains are embedded in what we may call surface soil and are geologically speaking but of yesterday.

The first part of this sixth creative day seems to cover the Mesozoic and Tertiary; the latter part coincides with the Recent period or Age of Man.

Here let us take a brief geological retrospect of our position. According to the Mosaic record the earth did not come perfect at first from the hand of God. It was without form and void; a chaotic mass; and darkness covered the abyss. Then followed the long reign of the waters, broken at last by the upheaval on the third creative day, of the dry land. During the latter part of the same day plant life was introduced; cryptogamous or flowerless plants standing first and phanerogamous or flowering plants being second in order. This third day is geologically the first day and covers what is called the Azoic Age. On the fifth day, geologically the second day or the Palæozoic Age, the lower orders of animals were created, swarming things of the waters, flying things of the air and huge reptiles. On the sixth day, geologically the third day or the Mesozoic and Tertiary Ages, the higher animals or the mammalia were introduced; and finally man appeared, created in the image of God and made ruler over all God's creatures. All this is not only in substantial agreement with the discoveries of geology, but corresponds very nearly even in detail. The testimony of the Book and the testimony of the Rocks are one. Ignorance may fail to see and appreciate the agreement, prejudice and unbelief may seek to invalidate it, but the honest and instructed reader will recognise and rejoice in it.

But the student of the Mosaic record must bear in mind that it is written in theological language. Secondary causes are overlooked and results are attributed directly to the Great First Cause. This is

the case throughout the Bible. The ravages of famine, pestilence and war are constantly spoken of as the immediate work of God. It is not intended, however, that we should ignore secondary causes much less that we should deny them. What is meant is that above them all and directing them all we should see the hand of God. Science on the contrary takes note of secondary causes only and knows nothing of the Great First Cause. The scientific theologian, under the First Cause, has to write the secondary causes; and the Christian scientist, over the secondary causes, has to write the Great First Cause. This done, science and theology are one. In this paper we have attempted to translate the first chapter of Genesis into the language of modern science, and when thus translated, it is seen to be in striking harmony with the teachings of geology. The geologist will do well to pursue a similar course on his part and read the record of the rocks in the light of sacred story, and thus add to his knowledge of material causes, the knowledge of the One Great Cause.

THE SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST, TRANSLATED BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS AND EDITED BY F. MAX.

MR. EDITOR :

MÜLLER. VOL. I., OXFORD, 1879.

BY A STUDent.

It is probable that many of the readers of the Recorder, who may not have the opportunity of seeing the several volumes of the books which are in the course of publication under the above title, will be interested in knowing something of the plans and purposes of the Editor and his co-laborers in this work of translation. I propose, in some measure, to meet this desire of your readers. I prefer in most places. to do this in the language of the Editor, as stated in the Program of this translation, and in his Preface to the Series, as given in Vol. 1. In the Program, the Editor says: "Apart from the interest which the sacred books of all religions possess in the eyes of the theologian, and, more particularly, of the missionary, to whom an accurate knowledge of them is as indispensible as a knowledge of an enemy's country is to a general, these works of late have assumed a new importance, as viewed in the light of historical documents. In every country where sacred books have been preserved, whether by oral tradition or by writing, they are the oldest records, and mark the beginning of what may be called documentary, in opposition to traditional, history. There is nothing more ancient in India than the Vedas; and, if we except the Vedas and the literature which is connected with them, there is again no literary work in India which so far as we know at

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