12. The creative and formative works of the six periods are followed by the seventh, the period of God's resting from them both. That this is still in progress is indicated in the record by no evening being assigned to it. as had been to all of the six, and in the universe by its being simply upheld in existence without the creation of any new worlds or new orders of creatures. And as the Scriptures, at the beginning, declare the fact of God's resting from the work of formation, so, at the close, they announce that the work is to be resumed. He that sitteth on the throne said—" Behold, I make all things new." These six periods of work the account calls "days." For a long time it was assumed, without reflection, that they were only 24 hours long. Consequently when, by examination of the rocks and strata of the earth, scientific inquirers were brought to believe that its formation had been continued through a very long period, there was an apparent and startling contradiction between the new science and the Bible. But the account in Genesis nowhere limits the length of the periods. It uses the Hebrew word Om (to which the English word "day" corresponds) in six different applications. 1. As meaning tight, in opposition to darkness or night, without refer.
ence to duration. 2. The day of 24 hours—the period of the rotation of the earth, indi cated by the apparent rising and setting of the sun and stars. 3. The illuminated por tion of these 24 hours, as distinguished from the dark, making the earth's day and night. 4. The cosmogonic day, the length of which is the question to be determined. 5. The sum of the whole six of these periods—" in the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the earth." 6. The seventh day, without being yet ended, has already been as long as the whole number of years since the earth and heaven were made ready for man—that is, according to the lowest computation, nearly 6,000 solar years. More over, the account does not determine how long the interval was between " the begin ning" and the origin of light, or that between the successive periods of work. If, there fore, the strata of the earth certainly show that they have been formed during a very long period of time, what is there in the Mosaic account that is inconsistent with them? The views on the scientific side of the subject presented in this article have been either taken front the published writings of prof. Arnold H. Guyot or confirmed by comparison with them.