HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vcrs. 1-3.-Rest and Ligltt. The finished heavens ana earth and their host pre- pare the day of rest. God ended his work as an interchange of clarlmcss and light. I. Tim REST OF TIIE SA.DEATH IS NOT INACTION, BUT THE CESSATION FROM ·rHE LOWE~ onnrn OF WORK FOR THE HIGHER. The idea of the first proclamation seems to be that creation was perfectly adjusted through the six days into a settled harmony which puts heaven and earth in their abiding relation to one anotl,er. II. Then TTIF.P.ll IS NO MORE SAID OF EVENING .um ~fORNING. The seventh clay is only b:gltt. God's rest is complacency in l1is works. ' The blessing on the seventh day \\"l1ich lwllowe,l it is the blessing on that which the day represents-peifect peace between heaven a11d earth, God satisfied in his creation, and inviting his intellig·ent creatures to "enter into !tis rest" by communion with him. It seems quite unneces- sary to vindicate ench a sanctification of the ee,·enth: day from the insinuations of critics tl,at it was a late addition made by the Jewish legislator to support the fourth commandmeut. In tliut case the whole cosmogony must be renounced. Such an obsernnc" of a day of rest seems a natural antecedent to tlie patriarchal as well ns ti,c M0sfli~ eco'lomy. V,'c lwve alrearly intimated that the whole account of creation on 11. 4-7.J T.HE BOOK OF GENE:SIS. 39
ie placed at the commencement of revelation bccfluse it hfls a bearir.g upon the positive ordinances of religion. It is not either a scientific or poetic sketch of the universe; it is the brond, fundamental outline of a system of religious truth con- nected with o body of Divine commandments. The sabbath is thus described in its original breadth. The sanctification of it is-1. Negative. It is separation from the lower conditions of work, which in the case of man are the characteristics of days which are sinful days-days of toil and conflict, of darkness and light mingled. 2. Positive. It is the restful enjoyment of a higher life, a life which is Mt labour- ing after emancipation from bo11dage, but perfect with a glorious liberty ; the trne day, "sacred, Myli, eternal noon," God and man rejoicing in one another, the crpa- ture reflecting the glory of the Creator.-R.
§ 2. THE GENETIATIONS OF THE HEAVENS AND OF THE EAnTII (en. ll. 4---rv. 2G). EXPOSITION.
Tim subject handletl in the present section is produced by the will of Cotl; in the scconrl the primeval history of man in his paradisa- its existence is made dependent on rain and ical state of innocence, his temptation and mists and the agricultural labours : in the foll, antl his subsequeut tlevelopment, in two first the earth emerges from the waters, and diverging lines, of faith antl unbelief, holi- is, therefore, saturated with moistut·P. ; in tl,e ness and sin. On the grow1d. of certain second it appears dry, sterile, and sanrly: obvious, well-definetl, and readily-explained in the first man and his wife are created char1tcte1istics which distinguish this from together ; in the second the wife is formed the preceding portion of the narrative, it is later, and from a part of man: in the former usual with the higher criticism to allege man bears the image of Goel, antl is made diversity of authorship; and, indeed, these ruler of the whole earth; in the latter his same characteristics, magnified by misapplied earth-formed body is only animated by the ingenuity into insoluble contradictions, are breath of life, and he is placed in Eden to the chief buttress of the documentary hypo- cultivate and to guard it : in tho former thesis of Astruc, Hupfcld, Tuch, Ewald, and tho birds and beasts are created before man ; others. Now the hypothesis that Moses, in in the latter man before birds antl beasts." the composition of the Pentateuch, and of For a reply to these "insoluble contra- this Book of Origins in particular, made use dictions," which, though "too obvious to of existing documents that lllny have de- be onrlooked or dcnietl," are mostly, if not scended from n remote antiquity is, cl prioi-i, solely, due to a. false exegesis aml n mis· neither incredible nor impossible; but, on apprehension of tho guiding purpose of the the contrary, is extremely probable, and may 1niter, see the Exposition following, which be held ns admitted ; only the alleged pccu, nttcmpts no "artificial solution " such as liarities of the different portions of the narra- Kalisch deprecates, and proposes no ingenious tive do not justify the reckless confidence rcconciliation of essentially opposing state- with wl1ich it has been resolvetl by Stiihelin, ments, but simply shows that, when naturally Bleck, De Wette, Knobel, Ewald, and David- and litcrnlly interpreted, the narrative is Crea son into its so-called original fragments; from those internal antagonisms which a nntl, in the case of Ew11ld, primordial atoms microscopic criticism imagines it has tletected (vid. Introd., p. ii.). 'l'he occun-ence of the in it. The intemal wi-ity of the present name Jelioi•ah Elohim, instcatl of simply writing, or second document, as it is cnlleJ, is Eloliim, as in the preceding section, is the npparcnt. The internecine struggle between chief peculiarity of the present portion of the seed of tho woman nnd the see,\ of the the narmtive, so far as style nnd language serpent, which the fratricidal net of Cuin nre concerned ; its alleged ilTeconcilable innugurnted (eh. iv.), is the legitimate antl differences in subject-matter nre skilfully necessnry outcome of the sin nnd ths gmca 1mtl succinctly put by Kalisch. "In the revealed in Eden (eh. iii.), while tl1e melau- first cosmogony vegetation is iwmcdiakly choly story of the temptation an,l the fall 40 TIii<:: BOOK OF GI<::NES'!'S. [,m. 11. 4-7.