The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 99

to bo rcplcni~hed, "To o 1r view," says have tho po"·er of val'iation nlong the line Dawson, "thnt primeval d.-y land "·ould of ccrtnin eharncteristies belonging to thom- scarc<'ly hnYc seemed good. It was a wol'ld aelves, but not that any absolutely new of bare, rocky peaks and verdureless valleys- species has ever been developed with power here nctin volcanoes, with their beeps of indefinitely to multiply its kind. scori:c, and scarcely cooled lava currents- Yer. 12.-And the earth brought forth there vnst mud-flats, recently uphoovcd from grass, ttd herb yielding aoed after his the bottom of the waters-nowhere even a kind, and tho tree yielding fruit, whose hlade of ~ss or a clinging lichen. Yet it seed was in itself, after hla kind. It i9 was good m the view of its Maker, who couhl noticon.ble that the vcgetntion of tho thil,l ~cc it in relation to the uses for which lie day sprnng from the soil in tho same natural J,ad made it, and ns a fit preparatory step to manner in "'hich all subsequent vngotation tl,c new wonders he was soon to introduce. has done, viz., by growth, which scorns to ..... " Besides, "the first dry land may resolve tho well-known problem of whether han presented crags, and peaks, and ravines, the tree was bcforo tho seed, or tbo soed and volcanic cones in a more marvellous nni before the tree, in favour of the latter. al- perfect manner than any succeeding con- ternative, although in the order of nature tinents, even as the dry nnd barren moon the parent is always before the offs:pring. In now, in this respect, far sm1Jasses the earth" all probability the seed forms were m the soil (' 0. W.,' p. 181). from the first, only waiting to be vitalised Yer. 11.-And God said, Let the earth by the Ruach Elohirn-The Spirit of God; or bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, tbeymayhave been then created. Certainly and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his they were not evolved from the dead matter kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the of the dry land. Scripture, no more than earth: and it was so. Three terms arc science, is acquainted with Abiogenesis. cm ployed to describe the vegetation here Believing that " if it were given to her to summoned into existence. Kaliseh regards look beyond the abyss of geolo~cally recorded the first as a generic term, including the time,'' she might "witness tne evolution of second and the third ; but they are better living protoplasm from not living matter," understood as distinct classes :-(1) grass, science yet honestly affirms "that she sees deshe, first sprouts of the earth, tender no reason for believing that the feat (of herb, in which foe seed is not noticed, as not vitalising dead matter) has been perfonncd being obnous to the eye; "ten era herba sine yet " (Huxley's 'Brit. Association Address,' semine saltem conspicuo" (Rosenmliller) ; 1871); and Scripture is emphatic that, if it probably the various kinds of grasses that is protoplasm which makes organised beings, supply food for the lower animals (cf. Ps. the power which manufactures protoplasm is xxiii. 2); (2) "the herb (eseb) yielding the Ruach Elohim, acting in obedience to seed," the more mature herbage, in which the Divine Logos. The timo when the earth the seed is the most stri.ki.n~ characteristic ; put forth its verdure, viz., towards the clos1.> the larger description of plants and vege- of the third day, after light, ail·, earth, and tables (cf. eh. ix. 3); and (3) "the fruit tree water hn.d been prepared and so adjusted as yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in to minister to the life of plants, was a signal itself, upon (or above) the earth." The first proof of the wisdom of the Creator and of clause describes its specific nature-" fruit- the nah1ralness of his working. bearing ; " the second, its peculiar charac- Yer. 13.-And the evening and the mor»• tcrist ic-enclosing the seed in its fruit; the ing were the third day. For exposition vid. third, its external appearance-rising above ver. 5. Has modern geological research nny the ground. "This division is simple and trace of this third day's vegetation I 'l'he natural. It proceeds upon two concurrent late Hugh Jlfillcr identified the long-con- marks, the structure and the seed. In the tinued epoch of profuse vegetation, since first the green blade is prominent; in the then unparallelec!. in rapidity and luxminnce, second, the stalk ; in the third, the woody which deposited the coal-measures of the kxture. ln the first the seed is not con- carboniferous system, with tho Intter ha.If of spicuous ; in the second it is conspicuous ; in this Jlfosaic day. Dana, Dawson, nncl others, the third it i., enclosed in a fruit which is rejecting this conclusion of tho eminent conspicuous" (l\Iurphy). The phrase "a~tcr geologist on the grouncl that the underlying his kind," appended to the second and third, Devonian, Silurian, nncl Cambrian systems seems to indicate that the different species yield abundant fossiliferous remains of oq uatio of plants '\"<'ere already fixed. The modern life, infer that the third Jay's vegetation is clogma of the origin of species by develop- to be sought for among the "unresolved ment would thus le declared to be un- schists" of the Azoic pedod. The mctn• 1.nhUcal, a~ it has nc t yet been proved to be morphic rocks, it is tmc, have 11ot 11s yet scicutifi~. The utmost that can be claimed yielded any absolutely certain tmc~s of vege- e.£ csL,\.lisLcd io thut "species," qna Rpl·cies, table life; 1tml 1 indeed, it is an open question on. ,. !l- -lB.J THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 19