Page:Complete Works of Count Tolstoy - 13.djvu/220

 jects, and in our societies God himself arranges the order and hierarchy, enthrones his anointed ones (Prov. viii. 15), gives all the lower powers (Rom. xiii. 1), and ordains for each man his service and place.” (p. 415.)

For the first time a definite rule is patched on a dogma. 71. Soon after the creation of the angels and the devils, God created the material world in this fashion:

“In the beginning God created from nothing the heaven and the earth. The earth was without form and void. Then God successively produced: on the first day of the world, light; on the second, the firmament or visible heaven; on the third, the gathering of the waters on the earth, the dry land, and the plants; on the fourth, the sun, moon, and stars; on the fifth, fishes and birds; on the sixth, four-footed animals living on the dry land.” (p. 416.)

72. Moses’ account of the origin of the material world is history. A proof is given that history began when there was no time.

73. The meaning of Moses’ account of the creation is six days. It is argued that all of Moses’ words have to be taken in their literal sense.

74. A refutal of the objections made against Moses’ account. In refutal of the false opinion of the rationalists that there could not be any day and night when there was no sun, the following is said:

“Nowadays, indeed, there could be no day without the sun, but at that time it was possible. For that only two conditions were needed: (a) that the earth should turn around its own axis, and (b) that the light-bearing matter, which existed even then, should be brought into a quivering motion. But it cannot be denied that the earth began to turn around its own axis with the very first day of creation; nor that the Creator could in the first three days by his immediate power bring the light-bearing