CREATION.

Genesis 1st.

MATERIAL BEFORE CREATION.

of the deep; and Moses in writing

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." the history of creation some two thousand four hundred years after it, by the same spirit who created it, gives a dismal but brief account of what was before creation, but sufficient to know that our earth was without form and void of all living life or light, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and this deep was a substance of earth and water, having the appearance of water, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of it. Here is described the face of the deep and the face of the waters, showing what a width and depth of water and soil without life or form it must have been, considering that not only the earth, but heaven and all that in them is was made from out of it. In commencing this great work, God divides the material, the one part to form the heaven, and the other the earth, and made a firmament to keep the two portions apart, and becoming a world of themselves; the first portion forms the firmament around us, and is called by God Heaven, and made on the second day, so that the heaven that surrounds us is of the same material of earth and water, as this earth is, because the material that it was made from was taken forth before God had separated any dry land from the original deep, and finished it upon the second day, in the same manner is he did this earth on the third day, of which he records more fully in commencing

upon the second portion of material. "And God said, "let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so: and God called the dry land earth, and the gathering together of the waters called he seas; and God saw that it was good, &c." This is showing that before Creation there were enveloped in darkness an immense breadth and depth of watery fluid, in which were water and substance of earth united, without form and void of life whatever, that the same were divided into two portions, as worlds, called heaven and earth, for habitation, and that the dry land in either was taken from their respective elements, for the inhabitants, and their use and purposes, and consequently, both creations are created alike in form and material.

Genesis 1st

THE FIRST THING CREATED.

"And God said, let there be light,' and there was light, and God saw the light, that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness: and God called the light, day, and the darkness he called night: and the evening and the morning were the first day." In commencing the first morning of the first day, God saw the necessity of creating a good light, as darkness was upon the face of the deep; and this light was made before the original material was touched. Could this light be a light before it was made? It was the only thing made the first day. The light when made was called day, and not before it was seen as such, although the evening and the morning were the first day. What made the evening as soon as the making of the light was finished? It is most probable that the light was not made of the same material as the heaven and earth were, but of the non-created heaven of God, as he was from everlasting, so was the place that contained him, and that is the source of all light whatever, and was that of the sun, and probably was a luminary during the time of making, otherwise it was not a luminary until finished, which would be the evening of the first day, and not giving forth a light at all until the second day morning, so it might have been written-the beginning, and during, and finishing, of the making, were the first day. If we say, the evening and the morning were the first day, it would show there was light and dark to

proclaim the first day, so that it gives us this important knowledge,that the sun was made before the material was touched that the heaven and earth was made from,-that the said material was one immense body of water wide and deep, and enveloped in darkness,-and, consequently, the light that God made and called day was the sun, and the first thing made on the first day. and made from the holy heaven of God, from whence comes all light. And the sun when made was made for and is a tributary of this earth, which is a standard body, and the lesser always serves the greater, and made for that purpose. There is nothing dark in the heaven of God, but all light, then the sun from the beginning of the making to the ending was a light, and immediately divided the darkness. But what made the evening when there was no going down of the sun? for the firmament where it was put was not made until the second day, nor placed there until the fourth, and the sun must have been on earth meantime, and must have faded away at even, or otherwise called even according to limitation only. And as the earth contained the sun before placed where God set it, and has again to return to it at dissolution, it cannot be so large as either of the two creations, but only as servants for the same, as described, 2nd chapter, "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." Moreover, we find that God said when he placed them in position, 1st and 14th verses, "And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years; "so that they are undoubtedly for that purpose

and not the earth to act for them. If we view the sun we find that it makes a larger circle of daily revolutions until it gains its height, and then decreases again the same way as it arose, and, consequently, does not go two ways, but only one way round, rising higher daily and decreasing the same, making in some parts of the globe a very small circle of shadow and on opposite parts darkness; had it been otherwise there would not be a minute part of the earth but what would be at regular intervals without a shadow, and the magnet never right with the horizon, and all points of it would be at every point if the earth moved once round daily, and once yearly, and the sun could not be were God put it, and could not be in accordance with the other parts of scripture, such as standing still at Joshua's bidding, and the sound of his order travelling, and the shadow going back as a sign to Hezekiah, &c. The moon and stars are not made with the same kind of body as