condemn it, as wrong; the moral emotions attending the condemnation will be the same as though the state of the will belonged to another person. It does really belong to another person, viz. to the old man which we have put off, with the affections and lusts belonging to him. We shall always disapprove of that state, feel indignant towards it. But it is no longer ours. The understanding now sees a state of will in us which has love to God and man. The moral faculty approves of that state, and its approbation is followed by a class of emotions which fill the soul with joy and peace.

ARTICLE II.

THE RELATIONS OF GEOLOGY TO THEOLOGY.

BY PROF. C. H. HITCHCOCK, NEW YORK CITY.

(Continued from page 388.)

III. GEOLOGY gives additional force to the arguments for the truth and inspiration of the scriptures. The arguments for the truth of the historical statements of the Bible and its authority had been clearly stated and confided in by the church before the birth of geology. Not knowing that the history of immense periods anterior to man could be acquired, divines supposed the world began with man, and that only the existing animals and plants were produced in the creation. As soon as glimpses of the truth appeared, sceptics cried out that the Bible had committed itself to scientific error, and honest inquirers were bewildered. After decades of discussion, sceptics are silenced, the church adopts new interpretations of Genesis, and allows the conclusions of science to illuminate the sacred page. This feature of the connections between science and religion has been the most commented upon, though less important than some others.

Geology confirms the biblical account of the antiquity of the earth; the order of creation, particularly the compara

tively recent origin of man; the nature of the Noachian deluge; and the future state of the earth. The interpretation of the Bible was formerly incorrect in these particulars. Before entering immediately upon the discussion of these topics, let us examine the form and evident design of the first eight chapters of Genesis, which contain the principal statements respecting the early history and condition of the earth. Form. The accounts of the creation and fall of man must have been directly revealed to Moses, or else he was inspired to select material from historical records, to be moulded into one connected narrative. The latter course seems to have been adopted. The style of the first chapter is different from that employed later in the Pentateuch. There seem to be separate statements, each giving the history of some particular event, and complete in itself. The earliest documents were quoted in full, and they succeed each other abruptly. Those later may have been abridged, pruned of human additions, and explained by the insertion of Mosaic connectives and sentences. So far as the truth and inspiration are concerned, it makes no difference where Moses obtained his. information; he was inspired to select what was proper.1

The different documents are characterized by the special names applied to God. Thus Document No. 1 (chap. i., ii. 1-3) describes the creation of the universe, using only Elohim [God] for deity. This account is brief, simple, and pertinent. Document No. 2 (chap. ii. 4-25, iii.), is a different record, composed by another hand, and written without reference to the first. It describes man's original condition and fall, and is appropriately prefaced by a brief notice of the creation of plants, the earth, and heavens. These are repetitions of what has gone before, but the account of the creation of man and woman is amplified. The progressive nature of the creation is not at all alluded to. This record uses only the words "Jehovah Elohim" (LORD God) for deity, except when Eve speaks with the serpent, which may be a quotation.

Document No. 3 (chap. iv.) gives the history of Cain and

1 See Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. xii. p. 87. Yahvch Christ; or the Memorial Name, by A. MacWhorter, p. 56 et seq.

Abel, using the word "Jehovah" [LORD] almost exclusively for deity. Document No. 4 (chap. v.), is the book of the generations of Adam, using only the word "Elohim" for deity. The account of the deluge (chap. vi., vii., viii.) seems to have been compiled from both Elohistic and Jehovistic documents. Elohim is an older name than Jehovah, the latter first coming into general use in the time of Enos, when "men began to call upon [use] the name of Jehovah." 1

We have thus briefly alluded to the fragmentary character of these chapters, because the knowledge of their origin enables us to interpret them more intelligently. If Moses was simply guided in selecting the materials, as Ezra compiled the books of Chronicles, he may not have been aware of their full meaning or importance, while the preservation of the original history of the creation, probably revealed to Adam or some one before the time of Enos, shows us the designs of providence in giving us, thousands of years later, the means of properly interpreting his first revelation.

This ancient document, the first chapter, is of necessity retrospectively prophetic. Divinity alone can reveal to man what happened before his birth. We may conceive these truths to have been made known in a series of visions to Adam. Each great act in the drama of the earth's history passed before his mind, and the successive impressions are recorded in the form of a pictorial history. It is not a poem, nor an epic, but a plain, simple description of each vision in the magnificent panorama; not that the subject was not sufficiently grand for versification, but we should not expect to find metrical composition in the first family, whose ideas and words were few and expressive of the most common objects and sensations.

The first scene is of the materials about to be used for the building up of the earth, unarranged, without atmosphere, ocean, life, or even light, just as they had been created. God says: "Let there be light"; and suddenly chemical action commences among the atoms, and light shines. In the second vision activity is apparent. God commands the elements

1 Gen. iv. 26. Bibliotheca Sacra, Vol. xiv. p. 107.

to move, and the sky separates itself from the earth, clouds gather, and thus there was established, apparently, a great reservoir above, from which rain falls; and there is now a space between the waters in the clouds and those resting upon the earth.

The third scene represents the collecting together of the waters into oceans, and the elevation of continents; and presently the arid expanses are covered with verdure-a beautiful change from the previous barrenness. The fourth scene brings to view the sun and moon. The heavy primeval mists have cleared away, revealing the celestial bodies, while in the background of the picture there may be other green landscapes, but the mind is occupied with contemplations of the greater and lesser lights, so as not to mention them. In the fifth scene the attention is directed to the smaller objects-the animals sporting in the sea, on the land, and in the air. The ocean is seen to be swarming with corals, shells, and fishes; insects and birds fly in the air, and great leviathans and whales sail upon the waters. God had commanded the elements to abound with animals, and they appeared in regular order and definite succession. At the beginning of the sixth vision the command is uttered, and immediately the land is seen to be alive with living creatures, camels, elephants, oxen, sheep, the smaller creeping animals, and wild beasts of the forest. And while the new races are enjoying their existence, the determination is expressed to create man in the likeness of the Elohim, with a moral nature, who should multiply, dominate over the senseless beasts, and use them for his purposes. With the introduction of man the visions cease, but the following day of rest was made as memorable as the periods of vision.

Even if such a series of visions appear fanciful, none can deny that the supposition will explain the obscurities and systematize all the facts better than any other. And we can perceive its uses.

The pictorial method of representing facts is used elsewhere to reveal the future. The source of all description is

eye-witness; and when events in the past or future are to be described, they must be represented precisely as they appear. Two kinds of pictorial descriptions of future events are employed in scripture; the one where the precise acts or objects are represented, the other where the things perceived are symbols of the reality. Of the first class is the vision of the secret chamber of imagery, where Ezekiel saw seventy men of the ancients of Israel offering incense to idols; the women sitting in the northern door of the gate of the temple weeping for Tammuz; and also the vision of twenty-five men between the porch and the altar worshipping the sun. We may consider the pattern of the tabernacle showed Moses in the mount as another instance. Examples of symbolic visions are numerous. The living creatures, the wheels within wheels, and the brightness seen by Ezekiel symbolized the appearance of the likeness of the glory of God. The vision of dry bones taking on flesh and life symbolized the national and spiritual restoration of Israel. The visions of the fat and lean kine, the full corn and blasted ears, symbolized the years of plenty and famine in Egypt.

But there is a special class of symbolic representation peculiarly appropriate to our discussion, the time-symbols. The seventy weeks of Daniel symbolized the time that should elapse before the destruction of Jerusalem. The forty-two months, or twelve hundred and sixty days, mentioned in two places, symbolize the duration of antichrist. Then there are the thousand two hundred and ninety days, the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days, the thousand years during which Satan is to be bound, the time, times, and a half, all symbols of periods whose duration is not known. The best interpreters are now agreed that the days mentioned in the account of the creation are symbolical of previous periods of unknown length, like the time-symbols used by the prophets. The time-symbols of the future have a double signification; so have the time-symbols of the past; and we are authorized to draw inferences from the connections of the word "day" in other parts of scripture under either signification.