Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/153

Rh all that in them is, and rested on the seventh day. So if the Hebrew word for day in its relation to creation means an indefinite period of many thousands of years, it forces us to the inference that we are to keep every period of thousands of years each as our Sabbath. This is a conclusion so palpably contrary to the Lord's meaning that the very statement of it contains its own refutation.

Far be it from us to endeavor to cast ridicule or discredit on the holy Word of God. On the contrary my only desire is to elevate it from the absurd position in which it is placed by a baldly literal interpretation, to one which consistency can endorse and rationality can grasp. It is unquestionably true that the development of the earth into a world fit for the habitation of man was about in the order indicated in the first chapter of Genesis. And it is a noteworthy fact that it should be so, considering that when this book was written the science of geology was unknown. But it is still more true that this chapter was never designed as an account of the literal creation of the heavens, the earth, or the heavenly hosts. It is an allegory or parable. It is written in the Divine style which is always symbolic. It was composed, by inspiration, at a time when men were nearer the original sources of language as it came to them freshly from God, and when, therefore, the Divine language was better