sense ; but if that sense brings the Mosaic account into conflict with facts, and another sense avoids such conflict, then it is obliga- tory on us to adopt that other. Now it is urged that if the word " day " be taken in the sense of " an indeflnite period of time," a sense which it undoubtedly has in other parts of Scripture, there is not only no discrepancy between the Mosaic account of the crea- tion and the assumed facts of geology, but there is a most marvel- lous coincidence between them.
The cosmogony of modern science teaches that the universe, *' the heaven and the earth," was first in a chaotic or gaseous state. The process of its development included the following steps: (1.) " Activity begun, — light an immediate result. (2.) The earth made an independent sphere. (3.) Outlining of the land and water, determining the earth's general configuration. (4.) The idea of life in the lowest plants, and afterwards, if not contemporaneously, in the lowest or systemless animals, or Proto- zoans. (5.) The energizing light of the sun shining on the earth — an essential preliminary to the display of the systems of life. (6.) Introduction of the systems of life. (7.) Introduction of mammals — the highest order of the vertebrates, — the class after wards to be dignified by including a being of moral and intel- lectual nature. (8.) Introduction of man." ^
Professor Dana further says, " The order of events in the Scrip- ture cosmogony corresponds essentially with that which has been given. There was first a void and formless earth : this was lit- erally true of the ' heavens and the earth,' if they were in the condition of a gaseous fluid. The succession is as follows : —
"1. Light.
" 2. The dividing of the waters below from the waters above the earth (the word translated waters may mean fluid).
" 3. The dividing of the land and water on the earth.
*•' 4. Vegetation ; which Moses, appreciating the philosophical characteristic of the new creation distinguishing it from previous inorganic substances, defines as that ' which had seed in itself.'
" 5. The sun, moon, and stars.
" 6. The lower animals, those that swarm in the waters, and the creeping and flying species of the land.
" 7. Beasts of prey (' creeping ' here meaning prowling).
" 8. Man.
1 Manual of Geology. By James D. Dana, M. A., LL. D., Silliman Professor of Geology and Natural History in Yale College, p. 743.
572 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. X. — Creatiok
" In this succession, we observe not merely an order of events, like that deduced from science ; thei-e is a system in the arrange- ment, and a far-reaching prophecy, to which philosophy could not have attained, however instructed.
" The account recognizes in creation two great eras of three days each, — an Inorganic and an Organic, Each of these eras opens with the appearance of light ; the first, light cosmical ; the second, liglit from the sun for the special uses of the earth.
"" Each era ends in ' a day ' of two great works — tlie two shown to be distinct by being severally pronounced ' good.' On the third day, that closing the Inorganic Era, there was first the dividing of the land from the waters, and afterwards the creation of vegeta- tion, or the institution of a kingdom of life — a work widely diverse from all that preceded it in the era. So on the sixth day, termi- nating the Organic Era, there was fi.rst the creation of mammals, and then a second far greater work, totally new in its grandest element, the creation of Man.
" The arrangement is, then, as follows : —
" I. TJie Inorganic Era.
" 1st Day. — Light cosmical.
" 2d Day. — The earth divided from the fluid around it, or in- dividualized.
1. Outlining of the land and water.
2. Creation of vegetation.
3d Day.
" II. The Organic Era. 4th Day, — Light from the sun. 'Sth Day. — Creation of the lower order of animals. 1. Creation of mammals.
" 6th Day. , ^ ^
( z. Creation ot man.
"The record in the Bible," adds Professor Dana,^ " is therefore profoundly philosophical in tlie scheme of creation which it presents. It is both true and divine. It is a declaration of authorship, both of creation and the Bible, on the first page of the sacred volume."^ To the same eifect he elsewhere says : " The first thought that strikes the scientific reader [of the Mosaic account of the creation] is the evidence of divinity, not merely in the first verse of the record, and the successive fiats, but in the whole order of creation.
1 Page 745. 2 Page 746.