great family* were previously in existence, yet on the fourth day the position of the earth's axis was adjusted in its present inclination, and the proper motions given to the heavenly bodies and the earth, by which the sun and moon were first appointed for signs and seasons. This would, indeed, be a work sublime enough to occupy one of the days of creation. Modern natural philosophers have observed the correctness of the phraseology of Moses in speaking of light as distinct from the sun. Light was the first thing created Offspring of heaven, first-born;" but the sun did not appear at least till the fourth day. For thousands of years men believed that the sun was the great source of light; but it is now shown that light, and heat, and electricity, and magnetism are but different movements in a substance or elastic medium that pervades all material things, and perhaps all space; and it is by no means unphilosophical to speak of light as created apart from the sun. How could Moses have understood this? And yet now how consistent his representation appears ! * The revelations of the telescope prove that there are separate families or systems of stars, mutually acting upon each other, and connected together; and that between these immense clusters of stars are large, vacant places in space, in which no material existence can be detected. What is called the “Milky Way,” with all the larger stars, constitutes the cluster to which our world belongs. We leave this subject, then, with this observation, that probably the first act of God, connected with this earth, will be the last understood by We are not competent to criticise the Almighty's method of creating; but so far as we can understand the nature of material things, when closely examined, it confirms the Mosaic account. man. CHAPTER II. THE DELUGE. The moral lessons of the Deluge are what should give it the greatest interest, and these alone gave its history a claim to a place in the word of God. But the stupendousness of the event as a natural phenomenon, its assumed violation of the laws which ordinarily govern material things, and its apparent impossibility, have diverted many minds from its deep religious teachings to learned disquisitions upon the ocean, the land, rain, and all the particulars of the science of meteorology. Gladly would we confine our attention to the strictly religious aspects of the subject; but the object which we have proposed compels us to consider the theme in the light of evidence, and to show that the account of it in Scripture is a truthful record of the miraculous acts of our Creator. Our first effort should be to obtain as clear and as accurate views as possible of the event. It has been so often fancifully and eloquently described, that very many additional particulars have been foisted in upon the Biblical narrative, and perhaps multitudes owe more of their conceptions of the deluge to the fertile fancy of men than to its only truthful history. When we are really ignorant, it is wise to acknowledge it; and we protest against the right of any uninspired man to append any particulars to the original narrative of this event. Let us first consider the probable number of human beings living when the flood came on the earth. Upon this subject the fancy of commentators has performed wondrous exploits, and we have been bidden to look upon a world teeming with population, covered with cities, its rivers and oceans checkered with the sails of commerce, its valleys and hill-sides cultivated—all submerged by the rising waters, and swept into one common grave. But what are the facts upon which this immense superstructure is built? Simply these 1. The antediluvian history extended over sixteen hundred and fifty-six years; or, according to the Septuagint, twenty-two hundred and sixty-two years. 2. God had said to man, Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. а 66 Be 3. Cain is said to have built a city. Gen. iv, 17. 4. The patriarchs successively mentioned are said to have had sons and daughters. Beyond these simple statements there are no facts mentioned bearing upon the populousness of the earth ; and truly they are a very slight 1 basis for such a towering edifice. Let us examine them in order. The antediluvian history was about two thousand years, and God had said unto man, fruitful.” True, but it by no means follows that we have a right to transfer to that time and that world the rates of increase in population that have been observed in the most favoured countries in the postdiluvian world. We travel quite beyond the record in so doing. Nothing is more evident than that the condition of man and the nature of man were vastly different then from the present. One thing must strike every observer, that Noah was in the tenth generation only from Adam, and that there had been, therefore, actually only ten generations in human history. Again, it is observable that the average age of the persons mentioned, at the birth of their eldest son, was about one hundred and sixty, or, according to the Septuagint, two hundred and sixty years; and that we have no |