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created by God in the manner He willed and ordered, and therefore they must be called the creatures of God. And man, the highest and noblest of visible living beings, was created by God; male and female created He them, and He blessed them, and said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth." So we all who now live on the earth, and all who have lived before us and have inhabited the earth, are the creatures of God, for we are descended from the man and woman whom God created and endowed with the power of reproduction. You must admit that to the simple childlike mind of man- and it is to this that the Bible

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first appeals the doctrine of the creation of the world by God is represented in this detailed and concrete manner much more impressively and effectively than if Moses had confined himself to the simple statement, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," although that would be quite sufficient for a dogmatic compendium. Even from this point of view, therefore, we must admit that Moses was justified in amplifying this general statement; at any rate we cannot reproach him with having in the following verses forgotten the object of Holy Scripture -the religious teaching of mankind. And apart from their form in the Mosaic Hexameron, which will be discussed later on, natural science can make no objection to the above statements, for as it cannot dispute the assertion that God created all things, there can be no objection to our tracing back these things to the divine cause, though as to the mode in which this is done we shall come to an understanding later on.

2. When we say God created the world, it follows

as a matter of course that the world coming into being through the will of God, was created as God willed, that the work of the divine creative activity was adequate to the divine idea and plan. But it is often well to repeat a thing which appears to be a matter of course, and Moses had reasons no doubt for insisting on the truth just mentioned. He does this by concluding his account of the separate divine works with the words "and God saw that it was good," that is, that His will had been adequately realized in His works, for God calls that good which corresponds to His idea and to the divine will. Moses repeats this phrase several times, and I cannot help pointing out shortly the peculiarly striking and appropriate way in which he applies the expression. On the first day God creates the light, and divides the light from the darkness, “and God saw the light that it was good,"-not the darkness also, for that is not created by God, it is no Ens, but only the negation of light. On the second day God made the firmament, and divided the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament. The phrase, "and God saw that it was good," is only in the Greek translation here, and it is evidently an unfortunate addition to the text, for the work of the second day is still unfinished and imperfect, and cannot be described as good, because the divine idea has not as yet been realized. It is not till the fourth day that the lights are set in the firmament, and then "God saw that it was good;" the waters under the heavens were all gathered together in one place, and the dry land appeared, and it is only after this separation has taken place and the final condition

has been reached that it is said, " and God saw that it was good." The phrase," and God saw that it was good," is added after each separate perfected divine work, and it is therefore quite right that after the whole divine creation has been finished, and the divine world plan stands realized, not only in its separate details, but as a systematic whole, the observation should follow, "and God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good."

The first meaning then which Moses would convey to us by this often repeated observation is that God's creative will has been completely realized in the creation. But there is another meaning. In the chapters immediately following Moses has to mention creatures which are not good; the serpent, the seducer of man, occurs in the third chapter, and later on many things are described in Genesis which are either morally or physically bad. It is plain that it is partly with reference to this that Moses here lays stress on the. fact that in the beginning all was good; the world as God created it was good, and what of evil there may be found in it later is not the work of God. You see here again we come upon theological truths which find their expression in the Hexameron.

3. According to the account in Genesis, man is not only the last creature in the visible creation, but also evidently the goal of the whole visible creation. The animals were made immediately before him; it is the task and the right of man to rule over them. Before the animals the plants were created; it is expressly said that they were given for food to man and to his subjects the animals. The dry land appears from the

waters, in order to bring forth vegetation, and to be a dwelling-place for the animals and men. The heaven itself is brought into relation with man, for the lights which God has set therein are meant to give light upon the earth, and to serve as signs, especially for signs of the succession of time, for days and for years, of course for the use of man. So that in the Hexameron the Bible remains true to its task, to teach us about religious things. The subject throughout Genesis is man and his relation to God, and this involves religion. It is with reference to man that the dwelling-place prepared by God for man is described in the beginning of Genesis, and the truth that for man's sake God has created the unreasoning creatures is uttered.

4. Lastly, Moses had a special religious or theological reason for not confining himself to the general statement, "God created the world," but for describing the work of creation in detail, and he gives this reason plainly enough. He divides the whole work of creation into six days; in these six days, as it is said in the first verse of the second chapter, the heavens and the earth were finished; and after God had ended in six days His work, He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made, i.e. He ceases to create, cessat ab opere suo, as the Vulgate translates it. And although, as is stated in the New Testament,' and in Holy Scriptute repeatedly, God is working even now, and will always continue to work, yet the work of the first creation of things has long since been finished, and it

2 John v. 17. "Quia nihil additum est creaturæ, requievisse dictus est ab omnibus operibus suis; quia vero, quod fecit, gubernare non cessat, recte dixit Dominus; Pater meus usque nunc operatur."-Aug. Sermo 125. 4; cf. c. Adim, c. 2: de gen. ad lit. 4. 12.

lasted only a certain time, which for the present we will call, according to the expression in Genesis, six days, reserving the discussion of the meaning of this expression until later. The third verse of the second chapter explains why this was insisted on: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made," -or in other words, that on this day His work of creation was ended. The readers of the Pentateuch knew that a divine law commanded them to observe the seventh day as a holy day, to restrict their work and labour to six days, and on the seventh day, in obedience to Jehovah, for His honour, in acknowledgment of His sovereignty, and in gratitude for the divine benefit of the creation, to rest from all earthly work, and devote themselves to religious exercises. And why, they might ask, did God hallow the seventh day? Why not the tenth or any other? Because the Sabbath is specially dedicated to the worship of God as the Creator, and the whole work of the creation is divided into six parts; and it is therefore fitting that human work and occupation should fill six days, and that a regularly returning festival in honour of the Creator should take place after the lapse of six days, and not of ten.

No doubt there are many scientific objections to the six days, and these shall be considered and noticed in due course. The point now is to show that in giving us such details about the creation, and in speaking of the six periods of creation, Moses has not abandoned religious in order to trench upon scientific ground; on the contrary, there is in these very details a religious element, and therefore he could pass from

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