and morning, that before the sun appeared, nature went through a period of decay, as to its vegetative and other forces?
The account does not read, morning and evening, but evening and morning. If the word morning came
first, there would be a show of support for the notion of an evening of
sleepiness and decay, after the revived work. But it is the evening first ; as
if the idea of the writer were simply that of progress. Where does he
speak of a poor, limping nature, inveterately bent on sleeping after
work ?
Finally,
the first day had also its evening and morning ; and when was the
period of decline corresponding to that first evening, before the first work ?
"We comprehend the grand truth, if we consider that the darkness of chaos, as the first day opened, was followed by light. The great epoch of progress was correctly described by the words evening and morning, the
darkness and then the light; they denote progress to the finished work,
and serve well as a general formula for all epochs. The declaration of
God's pleasure over the finished work of each day, and over the whole
work at its close, looks little like nature being left, at any time, to
her waywardness. The seventh day is the day of rest, according to Holy
Writ.
" Let the waters bring forth," " Let the earth bring forth." These
words are regarded as sustaining the Platonic notion that " immaterial
entities " were put into the waters and earth in order to the
development of the kingdoms of life. But if the germs were created in
the waters and the earth, with elements there present, as already
suggested, the accordance is as literal as if the hypothetical
entities were first put in. Moreover, in that case, also, " the trees
of the field would have been created before they were in the earth, and
every herb before it grew." But from the nature of the record and of
human language, we still regard the fact that the life of the fifth day
was mainly marine, and that of the sixth characterized by the terrestrial quadrupeds, all the accordance the text demands.
There are some other texts brought forward in behalf of the " immaterial entities," on one or two of which we add a few words.
