other parts of the surface of our planet, here was a region which a tremendous cataclysm, at some previous period, had superficially convulsed and laid utterly waste. To a human eye surveying the desolation from the centre, the anarchy would appear to be universal; and, probably, so extensive and ruinous was it, that the equilibrium of nature was disturbed in regions far beyond the centre and actual scene of the chaos. The physical cause of the convulsion may have been the subsidence, owing to an igneous movement below, (one of a series to which that portion of the earth is still subject, for it forms part of the great volcanic range extending from Central Asia to the Azores,) of a considerable region; for the surface is described as being covered with water. One of the consequences was a thick darkness. Even an ordinary cloud will conceal the sun. A dense fog will render artificial light necessary at noon-day. A local convulsion of the earth has been known to envelope a district of many miles extent in midnight gloom. What, then, may we suppose to have been the turbid and opaque condition of the atmosphere, when all its elements over a wide region were in a state of conflicting activity and revolution!

13. On the face of this troubled deep the Spirit of God brooded; and to the profound gloom of the atmosphere the voice of Omnipotence said, Be Light. The laws of gravity, of molecular attraction, and of light, were forthwith so recalled into operation, that the surging deep began to be tranquillized. The restoration of light was the chief work of the first day; or, as it must have appeared to a terrestrial spectator, had there been one, its production. But that this light was at first only very partially reproduced, is evident from the work assigned to the second day; for the atmosphere was still laden with dense watery vapor, which must have rendered it a very imperfect medium for the light, and probably unfit for organic life. This vapor, therefore, was next collected into floating masses, or clouds, and become "the waters above the firmament," in distinction from "the waters" which still overflowed the earth "under the firmament." The balanced condition of the atmosphere having been thus comparatively restored, the Divine Creator proceeded, on the third day, to arrange the surface of the earth. He bade the waters to collect and confine themselves within certain boundaries. And as this could take place only by the upheaving of the subjacent land, He called for "the dry land to appear: and it was so." Everlasting hills lifted themselves up, and awaited his further command. The

fiat, it will be observed, is not now creative, but formative, and is represented as being issued, not to the land, but to the water; for, owing to its greater mobility, it would have appeared to a spectator to be hastening away and voluntarily giving place to the land, rather than as being actually displaced by it. Yet the running off of the waters was doubtless the effect of the miraculous elevation of the land. Vegetation was called for, and the newly raised lands were forthwith covered with grasses, herbs, and fruit trees- terms designating, by a common figure, the whole vegetable kingdom. The morning of the fourth day dawned, and behold, not now a dubious and gloomy twilight, but the sun itself enthroned, and "rejoicing as a strong man to run a race." Of course, by a spectator then standing on the earth for the first time, the appearance of the sun, and perhaps of the moon in another part of the heavens at the same time, would have been regarded as the sudden production of "two great lights." These luminaries, light-dispensers, or lightbearers, the Divine Creator now "made," in the common sense of appointed, to serve a purpose which they had never answered before, (inasmuch as there had been no intelligent beings on the earth to appropriate them to the use,) to "be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years," to his coming creature man. And now again "the stars" shone forth. The fifth morning of creation came: and the waters teemed with fish, and birds winged their way through the air. "And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth," a commission which obviously recognized the ordinance of animal death, and involved its necessity; as the grant of the green herb for food involved the condition of vegetable death: for continued propagation supposes the removal of some, at least, of the preceding generations, otherwise room and food would soon be wanting. The sixth day beheld the occupation of the earth by landanimals of various tribes: and the Glorious Creator saw that the whole "was good." Of man's creation-the last and crowning act of the Divine process - -we shall speak presently.

14. As far, then, as the law now under consideration relates to the preparation of the region destined for man's immediate abode, its conditions are all satisfied. Often, before, we are to suppose, the same tract of the earth's surface had been the scene of Creative intervention. Very various and conclusive evidence exists that, at an early period of the ancient earth, the northern hemisphere was almost entirely submerged. But

after the formation of the carboniferous strata, land was successively upheaved from the deep by repeated convulsions, and the physical geography of those regions greatly modified. So recently as the tertiary period, the great lowland of Siberiaan area nearly equal to all Europe· appears, from the character of its marine strata, to have emerged. Shells of tertiary species have been found in the plains of Armenia.* And fossil remains of still existing species inhabiting valleys and plains have been found lodged in the peaks of the Sewalik range,† westward of the river Jumna, indicating the comparatively recent action of a subterraneous upheaving force. Indeed, the volcanic region commencing in China and Tartary extends through the Caspian to the Caucasus, the countries bordering the Black Sea, and through part of Asia Minor to Syria; still keeping it, at times and in places, in violent commotion. But as often as such Pre-Adamite disturbance and consequent desolation had occurred, the Divine Creator had renewed the face of the earth, and, in the later epochs, had successively placed on its surface new forms of animal life. In a similar manner, on the present occasion, the face of the ancient earth is once more renewed. It is not said that, on the third day, He called new matter into existence; but that He gave to the confused and conflicting materials already existing, a new arrangement. All the mechanical and chemical laws which the ancient physical creation had known were again reinstated in power, and resumed their tranquil operation. The laws of organic life were summoned anew to activity; and sentient existence reappeared in the fulness of enjoyment. Or, taking the order of the Divine Perfections which the Pre-Adamite Earth displayed — POWER had first stilled the conflict of chaos, and restored the reign of pre-existing physical law over inorganic nature; and hence, in the Ruach Elohim, or Spirit of God, of Gen. i. 2, the predominant idea is that of power. WISDOM employed inorganic matter as means for the accomplishment of organic ends clothing the earth with vegetable life and beauty. And GOODNESS once

*Mr. W. J. Hamilton's "Tour in Asia Minor," ii. 386.

† Falconer and Cautley, in Procced. Geol. Soc., Nov. 15, 1843.

In the second edition of his "Scripture and Geology," the Rev. Dr. J. P. Smith remarks on the phrases, Let the waters breed, and the earth brought forth, that "the kernel of truth which they enclose is, that animal and vegetable bodies are organized out of the very materials which constitute water and the commonest minerals." - P. 279. Note.

more called for various orders of animal existence, and filled the whole with enjoyment.

15. But were the laws of nature as known to the ancient earth, and now recalled into operation in his Edenic region, introduced and embodied in the constitution of the new-made man? This is the condition which the Law now under consideration especially requires.

We have seen the preparations made for the presence of the coming human being. The mansion is ready, but, as yet, the inhabitant is not. Here is the temple complete; the worshipper is now to be created. Eden is waiting to yield its fruits; but "there is not a man to till the ground." Was not His absence felt as a want, a state of unsatisfied incompletion? Did not creation await His coming with suspense? Did not a universal silence reign to hear the mandate for His creation issued? Let it be remarked, however, that the form of the Creative fiat is now changed. He who hath said, Let there be light, saith not, Let there be man. The Creator himself, as if to mark the importance of the crisis, is described as having paused. To denote the new style and superior excellence of the work which is now to be performed, the Elohim is represented as proceeding to it deliberately, and as the result of self-consultation. To indicate the God-like character and destiny of the creature, the "Elohim said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth."* And to represent the direct and peculiar derivation of the new creature, he is described as formed by the immediate hand, and inspired by the in-breathing of the Godhead.

16. A priori, indeed, it might have been said with a feeling of wondering interest. What will, what can be, the mysterious constitution of a creature whose high destiny it is that he is to read the creation as a manifestation of the Deity, himself being, by that very act, and by the power of performing it, superior to all the rest of creation! What a vast advance will he present on all that has previously existed! However far the mere animal may have proceeded along the brightening upward path which man is meant to travel, even if it went considerably beyond its present stage, the interval which separates it from the coming human being would yet be vast, greater than any known on earth before. And if for no other reason, for this, that the mere animal, by its destitution of those properties

* Gen. i. 26.

which are to bring man into a moral economy, and to render him capable of sympathizing with the ultimate end of that economy, proves that its relation to man is that of means to an end. Surely (it might on these grounds have been said) man will have little or nothing in common with the material nature of the preceding creation! Contrary, however, to such an antecedent expectation, it follows, if our theory of the Divine Procedure be correct, that, vastly superior as man must be by the nature of his destiny, to all the past, equally certain it is that he will take up into his constitution the essential elements of all that has gone before him; and that thus in common with them, he will display the power, and wisdom, and goodness of God.

17. (1.) Then, first, as part of a material universe, he may be expected to be, partly at least, material or physical, and subject to physical laws. Contrary to all antecedent views, as this expectation might have appeared, the physiological truth is, that the human body is composed of the carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, the lime and sulphur, iron, phosphorus, and some other substances, of the mineral kingdom. And, although this fact could not have been known scientifically until modern chemistry disclosed it, the Mosaic history announced with unfaltering accent "And the Lord God formed the man dust from the ground;" aphar - dust, denoting the sand, clay, lime, and common constituents of the general soil. And the same fact is commemorated in the name by which the father of mankind is known, for the verse just quoted is, literally rendered"Jehovah Elohim formed the adam (or man) dust from the adamah, or ground," the name being derived from the material of which the body was composed. And hence man is amenable to the laws of gravitation, mechanical force, chemical action, electricity, and light; and, as we shall hereafter show, much of his practical wisdom through life consists in conforming to

them.

18. (2.) Besides being a material existence, man must, for the same reason, be an organized being, and subject to organic laws. Accordingly, every great characteristic by which vegetable life is distinguished, both from inorganic matter and from animal life, is to be found in man. In distinction from the former, he is nourished and grows by a power of appropriation within, vitalizing that which he appropriates, and imparting to the matter vitalized the power of acting in the same way on other substances. And in distinction from the latter, his organic