Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe
660 A FEW REMARKS rotation of the earth between the third day, wlien vegetation was produced, and the fourth, could not have been very differ- ent, in velocity, from its present rotation. Some men, of rare abilities, have thought that the " days" of creation were inde- finite periods, notwithstanding the statement in verse 14, which affirms that the lights in the firmament of heaven were to divide the day from the night ; and to " be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." In this one verse do we not see that the day was less than a year (signs and seasons, days and years) ; for had the day there meant been more than a year would not the words have been differently placed, namely — signs and seasons, years and days ? Can we think that day means one space of time in the former part, and another space of time in the latter part of that one verse ? Another indica- tion that the word day, used in the first chapter of Genesis, does not mean a period much, if at all, longer than our present day, is — that it is spoken of as alternating with night. Although the word day is used in other chapters of the Bible, even so soon as the 4th verse of the 2d chapter of Genesis, to express a period, or space of time longer than our present day, the word night is never so applied. — hence, as the earth turns uni- formly on its axis, and, so far as we can reason from analogy, must have turned uniformly, while turning at all, the word night in the 5th verse interprets the length of a day. Some have laid stress upon the declaration that a thousand years are with the Lord as one day : — but what is the con- text .'* * To lengthen the day to a thousand years, on account of this and a similar expression, is not more reasonable than it would be to reduce it to a night-watch. What is a watch in the night when passed ^ — next to nothing : — so are a thousand years with the Almighty. These considerations tend to show how, without Chaldee or Hebrew learning, a man, with a com- mon English education, may convince himself of a fact which has lately been so much controverted.-f* • " A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the nig-ht." — Ps. xc. ver. 4. t I may, however, here remark to my young sailor friends, that the Jews,
Made with FlippingBook
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy Mzc3MTg=