This fact alone is suspicious; the more so, because there is absolutely
nothing in the context to indicate that anything but an ordinary day is
intended. Not only so, but there _is_ in the context something that does
very clearly indicate (and I think Dr. Reville is perfectly justified in
insisting on this) that an ordinary terrestrial day is meant. One of the
primeval institutions of Divine Providence for men, my readers will not
need to be reminded, was that of a "Sabbath," which any one reading the
text would understand to mean a day, and which the Jews--the earliest
formal or legal recognizers of it--_did_ so understand, and that under
direct Divine sanction.
If the _days_ of Genesis mean indefinite periods of aeonian duration,
how is the seventh _day_ of rest to be understood?
But even if these difficulties are overcome, absolutely nothing is
gained by taking the day to be a period.
I presume that the object of gaining long periods of time instead of
days in reading the Mosaic record, is to assume that the narrative means
to describe the actual production on the earth of all that was created;
in other words, to assume a particular meaning for the words "created,"
"brought forth," &c and then to make out that if a whole age is
granted, Science will allow us a sequence of a "plant age" a "fish and
saurian age," a "bird age," and a "mammalian age";--that is, in general
terms and neglecting minor forms of life.
Pages:
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170