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CHAPTER V.

THE SHINING ORBS.

Ir is now our purpose to trace the progress of Creation during the Permian, or fourth great creative day. Genesis i. 14-16 informs us that the work of this day was the appointing the sun and moon to shine upon the earth. The words are, when literally translated, "Then God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to divide between the day, and between the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years.

Then God made two great luminaries, the greater luminary to rule the day, and the lesser luminary to rule the night." It will be seen that the work of this day has much in common with that of the first. The work of that day is continued and completed in this. Both deal with light and with the dividing between light and darkness. The fourth day, however, is an advance on the first. It brings to view the luminaries, or light-bearers, thus giving the source of light; whilst the first day only indicates the stream issuing therefrom. This day contemplates the far expanse, while that regards the near horizon. Hence, after a long sojourn in tracing out the workmanship of God

below, we are carried back to the heavenly bodies, constituting a break in the terrestrial history of creation. But why this break? Was it accidental, impromptu, on the spur of the moment? or was it a lapsus calami? No; it was proper and in perfect keeping with the design of the writer, as it marks an important progress in the creation of our globe. The apparent difficulty in the statement, that light existed before the sun, has led many of our modern critics to conclude that the account of creation in this chapter is nothing more than a myth, or a piece of Oriental poetry, not scientifically correct. "The writer," say these objectors, "forgot himself by representing the first, second, and third days, as actually existing before the heavenly bodies were formed." Allowing this representation to be as they assert, it does not follow that the writer forgot himself. His language is not at variance with scientific truth. For be it observed, he does not say that the heavenly bodies were now brought into existence; he says they were made, that is, they were appointed to "rule the day," or "to give light upon the earth." There are three words employed in the Old Testament scripture in reference to the production of the universe, viz., Bara, he created; Yatzar, he formed; and Asah, he made. The first word is never predicated of any but God; while the two latter ones are often applied to men. Seeing men can make and

form, that is, they can alter the form and shape of material substance; whereas God alone can create, hence He only is called a Baré, or a Creator. The first word occurs eighty times in Genesis, and is always rendered created. The second occurs three times, and is translated, formed. The third occurs 154 times, but in no case is it rendered

created; it is nearly always rendered did, done, or made. Hence it means that God now made, or caused, the sun and moon to shine upon the earth. It cannot mean that they were now created, or brought into existence; evidently they formed a part of the heavens which God created in the beginning. The science of astronomy shows this view to be correct. Had the sun, the centre and focus of centripetal attraction to the solar system, not been in existence till the fourth great day of creation—the earth having no regulating force, nor any governing power to counteract its immense centrifugal impetus, or flying-off force-would have swept through the fields of space with amazing rapidity; or, it would have darted off among other systems of world; and coming in contact with other planets, would have smashed them to pieces, or have been smashed itself, as the result of collision. Hence we conclude that the heavenly bodies were created in the beginning, when "God created the heavens and the earth.”

The work of the fourth day consisted in manifesting the sun in the vault of heaven, or in making it visible. And when that event took place, the moon, and stars, or planets, would appear as luminaries also, seeing they receive their light from the sun. In accordance with this view, Moses speaks of the sun and moon as being not created, but made on this day. As God made Joseph a father to Pharaoh; as he made the river Jordan a border between the tribes of Israel; as he made David the head of the heathen, so he made the sun and moon to rule the day. Just as if some person should say to the chandelier, suspended from the ceiling of a dark room, "be lighted up," at the same time applying the match, instantly the gas

ignites, giving a brilliant light. Some say, up to this time the sun and moon were as lamps unlighted. No, their light was obscured by thick clouds of mist and vapour. Hence there are two theories to account for the origin of light before the sun. One is, that the earth was self-luminous; or, in other words, that the light before the fourth day proceeded from some luminous matter diffused through space, or like some envelope, it encircled the globe. The earth then, in the language of the psalmist, was clothed with light as with a garment." Dr. Dawson supposes "this luminous matter to be the same with that which now surrounds the sun, and constitutes the stratum of its luminous substance." He further supposes that "this luminous atmosphere slowly concentrated itself towards the centre of the solar system." All this is very sublime, but it is only an hypothesis. It was thought that the sun was a cold body like the earth, on which men might live, move, and have their being; and that light was caused by some luminous atmosphere which surrounded it. This supposition, however, is now proved to be erroneous. The sun is an intensely hot body; at its surface there are masses of metals burning together more than anything we can think of or imagine, compared to which a mass of white hot iron is cold as ice. That it gives out light and heat because it is intensely hot, though now, like the earth and planets, in process of cooling; hence it will follow, that during the geological eras of the past, it would give out light much the same as now. It cannot be then that the solar light or luminous matter existed once within the earth's orbit, so giving light to our globe in pre-adamic times. Light from the first proceeded from the sun as now. There

is no proof, either from science, or from scripture, that the solar atmosphere ever surrounded the earth. Dr. W. Cooke apparently endorses the self-luminous theory, and in support of it, says, "The sun is not the only source of light. We have light in various oils, in phosphorus, and various gases. We have light in coals, cannel, iron, copper, zinc, and even in rocks and stones. But the question is, where did the light come from originally? Not from the sun, for astronomers tell us this: his body is dark and opaque, like our earth, and that this luminous orb, which we see with the naked eye, is not the sun's body, but the luminous atmosphere surrounding it."* This is simply what logicians call a petitio principii. Light did not originally come from the sun, because the luminous atmosphere is not the sun's body. The conclusion does not follow from the premises. It cannot be assumed that the light we have in the various oils, coals, and gases, was that which God caused to shine upon the earth. Let it be understood, that the sun, moon, and stars, were all created in the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth. The heavens must mean, in this verse, the entire universe except the earth. It is easy to understand that the divine command for light to shine upon the earth, only conveys the information that light was made to shine where darkness had previously prevailed. That the light which reached our earth during the first great day was the same as that which now shines forth, is evident from the animals that then lived upon the earth; many of them had perfect organs of sight. When Dr. Buckland had examined the eyes of the Trilobite that lived in Silurian seas, he said, "We must regard these organs with feelings of no ordinary *"Explanations of difficult portions of Scripture," page 16. By Dr. W. Cooke.