Page:The Parable of Creation.djvu/82



And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. Gen. I: 14-19. In three previous discourses we have considered the subject of the first three days of creation. We have thus learned for what the Biblical narrative of that event was not designed and for what it was. Thus, it was not designed to be an account of the literal creation of the earth; it was not intended as a lesson in cosmogony or geology or any other branch of natural science. But it had, of course, a Divine purpose and meaning. This purpose was to set forth in parable or sacred allegory a series of spiritual truths.

The seven days of creation were thus found to symbolize the seven stages of progress through