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PRIMEVAL SYMBOLS. 
 
PRIMEVAL SYMBOLS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE ANALOGY 
 
 OF 
 
 CKEATION AND NEW- CREATION. 
 
 WILLIAM FETHERSTON H. 
 
 Harris ttr=at=iLa to, 
 
 FOEMEKLY SCHOLAR, GOLD MEDALIST, 3IATHEMATIC.VL AXD ETHICAL llODEBATOR, 
 AXD HEBREW PRIZEMAN, OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, 
 
 Great God of wonders, all thy ways 
 Are worthy of thyself, — divine : 
 
 But the fair glories of thy grace 
 Beyond thine other wonders shine. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 
 HODGES, SMITH & CO., 104, GRAFTON-STREET, 
 
 BOOKSELLERS TO THE UNIVERSITY. 
 
 1862. 
 
 The Author reserves the right of Translation. 
 
DUBLIN : PRINTED BY EGBERT CHAPMAN, 
 TEMPLE LANE, DAME STREF.T. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It may seem to require a few words of explanation or 
 apology, that a Layman should write on a subject, which 
 — it may be thought by many — would have been more 
 jDroperly left exclusively to the Clergy ; among whom, 
 I am free to admit, there would be found many, much 
 more competent than I to deal with this subject. And 
 yet, the Clergy, most properly, have their attention 
 directed, in general, more particularly to the heart, or 
 spiritual part of Eeligion, and less towards the extremities, 
 or regions where Eeligion touches upon Science and 
 Philosophy. And as the subject I have selected apper- 
 tains rather to the latter, than to the former regions, I 
 have been emboldened to adopt it, without intending 
 at all to interfere with, or intrude upon the province of 
 the Church. It may, then, be allowed me — like a subor- 
 dinate labourer — to clear away some of the rubbish 
 from the foundations of religious truth, leaving it to 
 the Clergy — like wise master-builders — to erect, on the 
 one true foundation, a superstructure of sound doctrine. 
 I have selected this subject, because it is one of more 
 general interest and of more importance — both to 
 myself and to my readers — than any mere professional 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 or technical subject could be. In endeavouring to 
 develop this subject which I have chosen, I have not 
 been unmindful of the exhortation of St. James, "If 
 any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that 
 giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not ; and it 
 shall he given him." — James i. 5. To what extent I have 
 been answ^ered, it is not for me to judge. To God be 
 all the glory (if any) arising from this work ; the errors 
 and imperfections which may be found in it, are my 
 oAMi ; I must plead guilty of them, and throw myself 
 upon the indulgence of the Christian Public ; to Avhich, 
 however, I may lay some grounds for a claim, first, 
 because this work has been composed and written at 
 broken and irregular intervals, during the remission, 
 from time to time, of professional duties ; and secondly, 
 because it is a first attempt at authorship. And, as a 
 member of Parliament always meets more indulgence 
 from the House of Commons for his maiden speech, 
 than can afterwards be expected ; so, perhaps, an 
 author may rely — to some extent at least — upon a 
 similar claim to the indulgence of the Public. On 
 these grounds, then, I commit this work — with some 
 confidence — to the candour and favourable consideration 
 of the Christian Public, knowing that those who are 
 most free from errors and imperfections themselves, are 
 ever most disposed to view with leniency the errors and 
 imperfections of others. 
 
 Dublin, NovEMnER, 18G1. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 Introduction . 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 The Chaos 30 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The First Day 86 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 The Second Day 136 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 The Third Day 157 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 The Fourth Day 182 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Fifth Day 209 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 The Sixth Day 229 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Thk Seventh Day 20 L 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Conclusion 334 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the 
 north; it whirleth about continually; and the wind returneth again 
 according to his circuits. The thing that hath been, it is that which 
 shall be ; and that which is done, is that which shall be done ; and 
 there is no new thing under the sun." — Eccles. i. 6, 9. 
 
 In these days of Revivals, -vvlien the work of New 
 Creation is being so extensively carried on in our midst 
 that even the most godless and sceptical must necessarily 
 have their attention aroused, and cannot avoid perceiving 
 the wonderful agitation of all men's minds on the subject 
 of religion, when it is pre-eminently true — even more so 
 than it was in the days of John the Baptist — that the 
 Kingdom of Heaven suftereth violence and the violent 
 take it by force, it has occurred to me that it would not 
 be unprofitable or uninteresting to endeavour to draw 
 attention to the wonderful analogy that exists between 
 the work of Creation, as recorded in the first chapter of 
 the Book of Genesis, and the work of New Creation, as 
 likewise traced out in many different portions of the 
 
l IXTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 Inspired Volume. By the word ' Creation ' I do not mean 
 the act of the Great Creator by which matter Avas origin- 
 ally called into existence, as described in the words 
 "God created the heavens and the earth;" this was a 
 simple act of the Divine Will or at all events an act for 
 the analysis of which we have no materials ; but I mean 
 by the word ' Creation' that wonderful process by which 
 the Divine Architect formed, embellished, and replen- 
 ished this magnificent w^orld out of the dark and formless 
 Chaos, as described in the subsequent portion of the 
 chapter from the time God said, " Let there be light," 
 down to the creation of man : so likewise by the w^ord 
 ' New Creation' I do not mean new-birth. Conversion, or 
 the act of God by which a soul is born again, but the 
 series of acts and dealings of God with the soul from 
 the moment of its new birth until the work of New 
 Creation is perfected, and the new man has arrived at 
 the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. 
 
 It is but natural beforehand to suppose that such an 
 analogy should exist, for both works are by the same 
 author ; and surely when the practised eye of a critic 
 can detect the style of a first-rate author, the skilful 
 touches of a great painter, or the peculiar characteristic 
 marks of genius in any other excellent works of art, 
 executed by the same hand ; we might expect to discover 
 many striking featui^es and distinctive marks common 
 to these two glorious works of the Great Artist, who with 
 a master hand has published the Book of Creation and 
 the Book of Salvation, and painted with inimitable skill, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 alike the gorgeous canopy of the heavens, and the deli- 
 cate tints of the butterfly's phimage ; who has carved 
 out alike the great mountains and the earth itself which 
 he has suspended upon nothing, and the microscopic 
 veinings of the midge's wing. 
 
 The love of knowledge is one of the strongest feelings 
 of our nature. Lord Bacon has remarked that it was by 
 the love of knowledge that man fell, and we have daily 
 experience that this same love of knowledge has survived 
 the Fall, and however perverted and depraved, still re- 
 mains one of the deepest seated principles of our nature ; 
 now all our knowledge arises from the study of the 
 works and the Word of the Great Creator and consists 
 in the perception of the various relations (taking the 
 word in its widest signification) which His works bear 
 to each other and to Himself; and these works are full 
 of analogies and of analogies within analogies, or in the 
 language of the son of Sirach, " all things are made 
 double one against another ;" it cannot then fail to be 
 interesting to trace out one of these analogies, perhaps 
 the most striking and important of them all. 
 
 Some of the analogies between the dealings of God 
 with our world and with individuals are so obvious that 
 they must often have occurred to many persons ; for 
 instance, to take one remarkable analogy from many 
 which will readily occur to every reflecting mind, how 
 strange an analogy is presented by the fact that as the 
 individual Christian is first baptized with water and 
 afterwards with the Holy Ghost and with fire, so the 
 
 a2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 world on wliich we live, underwent its first baptism with 
 water in the days of Noah, and will 3'et undergo its 
 baptism with the Holy Ghost and Avith fire at the time 
 of the restitution of all things ! and the effects of these 
 baptisms appear to be strictly analogous. In each case 
 the baptism with water produces no radical or internal 
 change, but only works a removal of the grosser exter- 
 nal impurities, while the baptism with the Holy Ghost 
 and with fire alike in the individual, as it shall do in the 
 earth on which we live, produces a radical and internal 
 change, and a purity and a beauty which were unknown 
 before. 
 
 Bishop Butler was the great modern Apostle of the 
 mode of reasoning from analogy, and every one familiar 
 with his great work " The Analogy of Religion" must 
 admit that the method he adopts and so ably applies, is 
 an admirable mode of answering objections and solving 
 difticulties in rehgion ; but in truth this mode of reason- 
 ing did not originate with Butler ; a greater than Butler 
 in the person of the Saviour had used this method of 
 communicating instruction nearly seventeen centuries 
 before Butler's birth, in His teachings about spiritual 
 things, which were so constantly conveyed by parables 
 and analogies taken from earthly things, with which His 
 hearers were familiar ; and indeed the whole system of 
 Types and Sacrifices, which commenced from the Fall of 
 our first parents, and the Jewish Ceremonial Law were 
 only instances of the same method of conveying instruc- 
 tion by analogy ; and this will not surprise us when we 
 
IXTKODUCTIOX. 5 
 
 consider that the course of our knowledge is always 
 from the external to the internal^ from the natural to the 
 spiritual^ as it is wa'itten, " Howbeit that was not first 
 which is spiritual, but that which is natural ; and after- 
 wards that which is spiritual," 1 Cor. xv. 46 ; and strange 
 though it may seem, one of the very last things we 
 come to know is ourselves : yvmOi aeavrov — Know thyself 
 — w^as the precept of an ancient philosopher, and no 
 man ever fully solved that problem or carried out that 
 precept, until, in the fulness of time. He came of w^hom 
 it is testified in a certain portion of the Sacred Volume 
 that " He knew what was in man." John ii. 25. 
 
 As analogies abound so plentifully in the works of 
 God, so, just as Ave might expect, they exist in equal 
 abundance in His Word, in fact the Scripture is full of 
 them. God's dealings with the Children of Israel, w^itli 
 the Christian Church, with individual believers, the 
 restoration of Israel and the general exaltation of the 
 saints of God, and again the dealings of the Lord with 
 the world in the days of Noah, with the Egyptians in the 
 time of Moses, with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah 
 in the days of Abraham, with the ancient literal Israel 
 at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, and finally 
 Avhat is foretold of His dealings with the w^orld at the 
 Second Advent are so obviously analogous respectively 
 to one another, that what is spoken in Scripture of one 
 of these matters or events is often equally applicable to 
 the corresponding event which is yet future ; and the 
 Prophets and Sacred Writers often pass from one of these 
 
6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 corresponding events or dealings of God, to the other 
 and corresponding one, with so rapid and abrupt a 
 transition as to make it extremely difficult, if not im- 
 possible to tell how much of what they write has refer- 
 ence to the one, and how much to the other of these 
 corresponding events or dealings of the Lord ; and this 
 forms one of the great difficulties in the interpretation 
 of unfulfilled Prophecy. He who was wiser than Solomon 
 has noticed some of these analogies, for instance, where 
 He says, " As the days of Noe were, so shall also the 
 coming of the Son of Man be." Math. xxiv. 38. 
 
 Having now said or suggested thus much to show the 
 probability of there being a close analogy between the 
 work of God in Creation and in New Creation, as respec- 
 tively described in His Holy Word, I may say that the 
 main object of this little work is the tracing out of this 
 analogy and making such deductions therefrom as may 
 suggest themselves, Avhich — if it be given me success- 
 fully to develop it — will be both pleasant, instructive 
 and useful ; pleasant and instructive it will be, as all 
 our studies must be, which lead us to know more of our 
 Great Sovereign and His glorious works, and sure I am 
 that Ave can never know too much about Him or His 
 works ; and the more we know of Him and them, the 
 more we will wish to know, and the more we will love 
 Him ; for to know Him is to love Him, as it is written, 
 " This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only 
 true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." John 
 xvii. 3 ; and again, " Great and marvellous are thy 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 works, Lord God Almighty ; true and just are tliy ways, 
 thou King of Saints ; who shall not fear thee and glorify 
 thy name," &c. Eev. xv. 3. 
 
 Such being the subject on which I wish to write, I 
 will assume the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, 
 consequently this work is not addressed to the Sceptic 
 or the Infidel or to any who questions the inspiration 
 and authority of the Sacred Volume ; such unbelievers 
 I leave to Butler and Paley and to the other eminent 
 writers who have made the inspiration of the sacred 
 page so clear, that we may say of such persons as still 
 disbelieve, " If they hear not them, neither will they be 
 persuaded though one rose from the dead ;" further 
 argument with such obstinate unbelievers is useless, and 
 the ancient maxim may fairly be applied to them, 
 " Principia neganti non est disputandum ;"* or as the 
 same truth is expressed in other words in the Sacred 
 Volume, " A man that is a heretic after the first and 
 second admonition, reject." Tit. iii. 10. Not that we 
 are warranted in giving up all hope of any in this life, 
 but herein we should imitate the conduct of the patriarch 
 Noah, who shut not himself into the Ark nor shut out 
 the unbelieving world to their fate, but left it to God, 
 when His long suffering was at length exhausted, to 
 shut the door ; so we may well be patient towards all 
 men, as indeed we are commanded, " Be patient towards 
 all men." 1 Thes. v. 14, remembering that we our- 
 
 * There is no arguing with one who denies first principles. 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 selves also were one time unbelievers and " foolish, 
 disobedient, deceived," &c. Tit. iii. 3 ; but, on the other 
 hand we are not justified in squandering on such persons 
 the time and labour which might be turned to good 
 account in convincing and edifying many others whose 
 souls are as precious as the Infidel's. One word more 
 however as to the inspiration of the Sacred Volume : 
 some men, who do not go the length of directly attacking 
 the inspiration and authority of Scripture, are fond of 
 reminding us that the authorized version of the Scrip- 
 tures is only a translation and that the translators were 
 not inspired, and this no doubt is literally true ; but we 
 may reniind them in return that we know that the 
 authorized version is a very faithful and exact transla- 
 tion, on the whole, of the original, and though not 
 altogether free from some comparatively trifling imper- 
 fections — as indeed what can be that fallen and imper- 
 fect man has anything to do with ?' — yet by the good 
 providence of God has been almost miraculously kept 
 pure and uncorrupted in the midst of corruption and 
 decay : what other volume of equal antiquity with even 
 the translation known as the authorized version (not to 
 mention the original work itself) is of any practical use 
 in the present day ? Where are the volumes in which 
 was stored up the learning of the ancient Egyptians, in 
 which Moses was instructed ? Would we have even 
 guessed at their existence had it not been for the scanty 
 mention of them contained in the Sacred Record ? 
 I assume, then, the plenary inspiration of the Holy 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 Scriptures, by which I mean, that every word, so far 
 as it faithfully represents the original, is inspired, and 
 bears a special meaning, Avhich, in many cases, Hes far 
 deeper than has ever been fathomed, and, in many 
 more cases, much deeper than ever will be fathomed. 
 Indeed, when we consider the vast multitude of books 
 that have been written by uninspu^ed, but highly in- 
 tellectual and gifted men, commenting on the Sacred 
 Volume, and explaining and developing different por- 
 tions of it, and the innumerable sermons that have 
 been preached by men of education and ability upon 
 almost every portion of the same single volume, and 
 all the labour and the vast intellectual resources that 
 have been expended upon it, and yet how men have 
 never been able to exhaust it or fathom its depths, 
 although ever making some progress and fresh dis- 
 coveries from age to age, and from generation to 
 generation, we will have before our minds almost 
 irresistible internal evidence, that a book which con- 
 tains, as it were, infinite depths of wisdom within a 
 finite and comparatively narrow compass, was never 
 penned by uninspired man, but is, in truth, the written 
 Word of God, exactly as the Saviour is the hving Word 
 of God, and contains all the infinite treasures of wis- 
 dom, and all the fulness of the Godhead bodily in a 
 finite human form. In truth, there is, in this very 
 respect, as we might have expected for the reasons 
 above mentioned, a very remarkable analogy between 
 the Inspired Volume and another of the generally ad- 
 
10 IXTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 mitted works of God, namely, the earth on which 
 we live, the treasures of Avhich have never yet been 
 exhausted, notwithstanding all the capital and labour 
 that have been expended in bringing them to light. 
 For thousands of years it has fed its millions audits 
 hundreds of millions of inhabitants, and yet it is still 
 as well able to feed them with inexhaustible profusion 
 as it was Avhen Noah and his family came forth from 
 the Ark ; and so, in like manner, its mineral treasures 
 are unexhausted and inexhaustible. And of the Sacred 
 Volume, it is true, as of the earth, that, by the mercy 
 and goodness of the bountiful Creator, those things 
 which are absolutely essential to life lie on the surface. 
 We have not to dig deep into the earth to procure our 
 daily bread, so neither have we to dig deep into the 
 sacred page to find the bread of life, which the liberal 
 hand of the Creator has made attainable by the most 
 superficial and unlearned reading of His Holy Word ; 
 in which circumstance we have another instance of His 
 benevolence and kindness to our fallen race, and a 
 fresh proof that, in the words of His own inspiration, 
 " God will have all men to be saved, and to come unto 
 the knowledge of the truth," 1 Tim. ii. 4; for how 
 Avould the unlearned, the ignorant, and the careless 
 ever arrive at the knowledge of Salvation, if it were 
 deep buried in the unsearchable depths of the Scrip- 
 tures ? but the gracious and bountiful Giver of all 
 good things, knowing the indolence of mankind, and 
 the ignorance in which the majority of men are un- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 11 
 
 avoidably sunk in our present state and condition, has, 
 with liberal hand, spread on the surface of the spiritual 
 soil the bread of spiritual life, as from the surface of 
 the natural soil is procured easily and abundantly the 
 bread of natural life. And again, as in the natural 
 earth, we have to dig deep, and expend much time, 
 and labour, and capital, and apply all the resources of 
 our ingenuity to procure the coal that warms us, that 
 lights our cities and our houses by night, and cheers 
 our firesides; the iron that creates and defends our 
 wealth; the gold and jewels that adorn and enrich us, 
 and many of the other luxuries of life ; so if we explore 
 the hidden depths of the spiritual soil of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, w^e may expect to find spiritual coal to warm and 
 light us, and spiritual iron, gold, and jewels, to defend, 
 adorn, and enrich our souls, and the other luxuries of 
 spiritual life ; always taking care, however, that we have 
 not forgotten to provide ourselves with the bread which 
 lies on the surface, and is comparatively easy of attain- 
 ment, but, nevertheless, absolutely necessary to support 
 life. Men can live without the metals and without 
 jewelled ornaments, and even without coal, but they 
 cannot exist without bread; and so men may live 
 spiritually without spiritual luxuries, but they cannot 
 exist without the bread of life. 
 
 Inasmuch then as I believe the Scripture to be 
 absolutely inexhaustible in its hidden treasures, I have 
 been emboldened to make an effort to sink a mine and 
 to explore therein, if perchance it might be given me 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to happen upon and bring to light some yet undiscovered 
 jewels and treasures out of its hidden depths; for 
 although so many mighty intellects, and so many great 
 and good men have, before me, undertaken a similar 
 task, and have made such wonderful and glorious 
 discoveries, yet I have no doubt that what ice know of 
 the deep things and hidden treasures of the Scripture 
 hears no proportion to that which is yet undiscovered ; 
 just as is the case in the natural world, where, although 
 so much energy and ingenuity has been expended, and 
 Avith such success, in bringing to light and making 
 available the hidden things of the earth, yet the portion 
 of its hidden depths and treasures which man has ever 
 been able to reach and make available, bears no pro- 
 portion to that which is still undiscovered. And as it 
 would be considered no disparagement to, or reflection 
 upon the energetic and enterprising men who, in days 
 gone by, have opened any of the mines which have 
 hitherto been discovered in the natural world, nor would 
 it be set down to overweening vanity, if a man were to 
 endeavour to open a new one at the present time, so let 
 him who endeavours to open a new mine, or rather to 
 work at a new vein in a mine already opened, in the 
 spiritual soil, which is common property, the gift of our 
 common Father and Sovereign, meet with equal justice 
 and candour. 
 
 I propose then, with all the aids to be derived from 
 an occasional reference to the original Hebrew, and the 
 comments of learned men upon it, to compare the 
 
INTKODUCTION. 13 
 
 inspired account of the Creation of the natural world 
 read by the light of modern Science, with the inspired 
 account of New Creation read (as far as may be) by the 
 light of Christian Experience, and to trace some at least 
 of the more remarkable analogies between them ; I say 
 some of the analogies, because I have no hope of 
 exhausting this one subject or of working out this one 
 vein of rich ore, so as not to leave abundance of precious 
 metal behind me for future investigators ; and there is 
 no doubt that the tracing out of these analogies (if it be 
 given me successfully to develop them) will be not only 
 pleasant and instructive but preeminently useful, for 
 it will be equivalent to setting up milestones and sign- 
 posts on the road to Heaven — or more properly, to 
 directing attention to those which God has already set 
 up — and will be an additional help towards enabling 
 each one to judge of his own situation with reference to 
 the things of eternity, whether he is on the right road 
 at all or not ; and if he be, then, to some extent at least, 
 to judge of his progress and position on the way : it will 
 afford some helps to those anxious inquiring souls who 
 may be in doubt whether they are on the right road or 
 not ; it will afford much consolation and encouragement to 
 those who know that they are on the right road, and 
 some warnings to those who know they are not on the 
 right road ; and lastly it will afford some guidance and 
 directions to those Avho may have mistaken the road or 
 who may fancy themselves to be on the right road when 
 they are not : by the study of the Analogy of Creation 
 
14 INTllODUCTIOX. 
 
 and New Creation, some will be saved from writing hard 
 things against themselves and setting themselves down 
 as " barren fig trees," when in truth they shall yet bear 
 much fruit, only the season for the fruit is not yet come 
 with them ; and, on the other hand, some may be saved 
 from deceiving their own selves, and laying the flattering 
 unction to their souls that they are " the garden of the 
 Lord," when in truth they have not been grafted into 
 it, but are in their wild unreclaimed condition bearing 
 only natural fruit, like the sour grapes and crab apples, 
 which, however theij may resemble the genuine fruit in 
 external appearance, are of a disagreeable flavour and 
 unfit for the Master's use ; and moreover by the assistance 
 derived from a consideration of this same analogy of 
 Creation and New Creation, we may expect to be enabled 
 to solve some difiiculties as to Christian Experience and 
 other questions which have perplexed and divided the 
 Religious World, such as, for instance, ivhether Sancti- 
 fication be progressive or not; ichether Second Conversion 
 be a reality or not; and if it be, ivhat is the nature and 
 cause of it, and whether it be necessary to salvation 
 or not; and many other phenomena of Christian Expe- 
 rience, which we may expect to find illustrated and 
 explained by their counterparts or corresponding phe- 
 nomena occuring in the progress of the creation of the 
 natural world. We shall thus make God his own inter- 
 preter, and let in a flood of light upon many obscure 
 passages of Scripture, and doubtful and perplexing 
 Christian Experiences ; we shall thus explain the spiritual 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 by the natural, and discover some of the laws by which 
 the development of the phenomena of the spiritual world 
 are regulated, by showing that they have their exact 
 types and counterparts in the laws of Nature ; and, m a 
 word, we shall find that Creation, with all its wonders 
 and all the excellent wisdom displayed in it, is but a 
 symbolical representation and preparatory rehearsal of 
 the more wonderful and perfect work of New Creation, 
 or, in the language of Scripture, that " the Lord by 
 wisdom hath fomided the earth, by understanding hath 
 he established the heavens, by his knowledge the depths 
 are broken up and the clouds drop down the dew," 
 Prov.iii. 19 (referring to Creation), but (referring to New 
 Creation) " in whom," that is in Christ, " are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Col. ii. 3. 
 
 Before proceeding with the subject proposed, there is 
 one matter on which it may be necessary to say a few 
 words, and that is, the question whether the days of 
 Creation were natural days of twenty-four hours each 
 or not ; this is a question on which there has been a 
 great division of opinion, some holding that it was 
 impiety and argued a want of faith in God's power and 
 a leaning to sceptical philosophy, to suppose that the 
 days of Creation were other than natural days, while 
 others have held that it opened a wide door to the 
 Infidel and the Sceptic to cavil at, and object to the 
 authority and inspiration of Scripture altogether, and 
 showed a great want of reason and enlightened Chris- 
 tian intelligence to suppose that they were natural days : 
 
16 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in this conflict of opinion, it happens fortunately that 
 the analogy which I propose to develop, does not depend 
 upon the truth or falsehood of either of these opposite 
 opinions, but is, to some extent at least, consistent with 
 either of them ; nevertheless I may state my decided 
 conviction that the latter view, namely that the days 
 of Creation were not natural days, is more conformable 
 alike to Scripture, to the discoveries of modern Science, 
 and to Analogy, than the former: it is not the object of 
 this work to reconcile and mutually illustrate the 
 Scripture record of Creation and the stony record of the 
 rocks which Geology unfolds to our wondering view, 
 that subject having been already ably and philosophically 
 developed by a brother Barrister, Dominick M'Causland, 
 Esquire, now one of Her Majesty's Counsel in Ireland, in 
 his useful and entertaining little work " Sermons in 
 Stones," to which I refer those who may be desirous 
 of acquainting themselves mth the arguments from 
 Geology which prove almost irresistibly that the days 
 of Creation were not natural days but vast periods of 
 time comprising probably many millions of years : I am 
 aware that in adopting this view of the subject, I shall 
 go contrary to the opinions of a vast multitude of highly 
 respectable old ladies, by whom it will be considered 
 almost impious to doubt that the world was made in 
 six natural days, and also (which is more alarming) I 
 shall go contrary to the opinion of no less eminent a 
 Christian writer than Dr. Gumming, who in his " Scrip- 
 ture Readings on the Book of Genesis," lays it down, and 
 
INTEODUCTION. 17 
 
 endeavours to establish that the days of Creation were 
 literal days, and even goes the length of saying that he 
 does not think those who support the contrary inter- 
 pretation " use plain fair dealing with the Word of God" : 
 notwithstanding this high authority to the contrary 
 however, the other interpretation, which makes the days 
 of Creation not to have been natural days, appears to 
 me not only to be the only one which is reconcileable 
 with the established facts of Geology, but to be more in 
 accordance Avith the written Word of God and with 
 Analogy than that adopted by Dr. Gumming. It is not, 
 I need hardly say, from any doubt of the power of God 
 to make the world in six natural days, or even in a 
 single moment, if it had so pleased Him, that I have 
 adopted this view of the days of Creation ; I have not 
 so far forgotten the words of the Angel who, speaking 
 from the experience perhaps of millions of years, said 
 to the Blessed Virgin Mary on the occasion of the 
 annunciation of the Saviour's birth, " For with God 
 nothing shall be impossible," Luke i. 37 ; that was the 
 inference he drew from his long experience of the Divine 
 power, not only that he had never known any thing 
 impossible to God, but that nothing such should ever 
 be discovered during all the countless ages of eternity. 
 This I apprehend is the force and meaning of the future 
 tense used by the Angel in the words above quoted, 
 which are very expressive in the original Greek. But 
 we are not left to depend on the experience or the word 
 of Angels for this truth, we have the more sure word 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of God Himself, wlio said to Abraham, " I am the 
 Almighty God walk before me and be thou perfect," 
 Gen. xvii. 1 ; and again, " Is anything too hard for the 
 Lord?" Gen. xviii. 14. It is not then from any doubt 
 of the power of God, that I adopt the view that the days 
 of Creation were not literal days, but first and chiefly, 
 because this interpretation accords better with the 
 written words of the original inspired Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures ; secondly, because it is the only one reconcileable 
 with the established facts of Geology, unless we should 
 adopt the extravagant supposition that certain rocks 
 and formations were created for the mere purpose of 
 deceiving Geologists ; and thirdly, because this inter- 
 pretation makes the Creation more in harmony with the 
 analogy which is observable in the other works of God, 
 which come under our observation : the argument to 
 be derived from the original Inspired Word however is 
 first, best, and most conclusive ; for one line of inspired 
 Scripture, when we can read, " Thus saith the Lord" is 
 worth a whole volume of philosophical inference and 
 reasoning from apparently incontestible premises ; and I 
 hope to be able to show that this interpretation, which 
 makes the days of Creation to have been long periods of 
 time, does accord better with the original Inspired Word 
 than the other interpretation which makes them to have 
 been natural days of twenty-four hours each ; for, let 
 us, for a moment, turn to the original and consider its 
 meaning ; the passage we are considering runs thus : — 
 " and God called the light yome (day) and the darkness 
 
INTRODUCTION. 1 9 
 
 he called laila (night), and there was an herev (evening) 
 and there was a voker (morning), one yome (day)." 
 Gen. i. 5. 
 
 Now, the first observation that I would make on this 
 passage is, that the word " yome," which is translated 
 " day" in our version, is, in the original language, by no 
 means confined in its meaning or application to a literal 
 or natural day of twenty-four hours, but is frequently 
 used by the sacred writers to denote a definite period of 
 time, of greater or less duration, characterised by any 
 particular mark or distinction ; and we have an instance 
 of this very use of the term, without turning over the 
 page of the Sacred Volume which lies open before us ; 
 for, in the second chapter of Genesis and the fourth 
 verse, we have this expression : — " These are the gene- 
 rations of the heavens and of the earth when they were 
 created, in the yome (day) that the Lord God made 
 the earth and the heavens." In this passage, taken 
 from the immediate context of the former one, the word 
 yome (day) cannot be understood as a literal day, but 
 must comprise the Avhole of the six days or periods of 
 Creation described in the first chapter, so that there is 
 no presumption that the same word was used in the 
 sense of a natural day in the earlier passage we are 
 considering, but, on the contrary, the presumption is 
 rather the other icay, that the word was used in the 
 same sense in both passages, as signifying a period of 
 time of greater or less duration. But this is not all w^e 
 can discover from a reference to the original inspired 
 
 B 2 
 
20 INTRODUCTIOX. 
 
 text. We may, in the next place, observe, with refer- 
 ence to the Avords translated in our version, evening 
 (herev), and morning (voker), that the primary meaning 
 of the Hebrewroot from which the former of these words, 
 ' herev/ is derived, denotes mingling or mixture, and the 
 primary meaning of the Hebrew root from which the 
 latter of these words, ' voker,' is derived, denotes split- 
 ting^ cleaving, or breaking, conveying, when used in 
 reference to the day, the same idea which is embodied 
 in our word ' daybreak ; ' and from this consideration 
 we may perhaps obtain a clearer insight into the 
 proper meaning of the inspired original, and be enabled 
 to see what an expressive and beautiful delineation 
 of the true process of Creation it will open to our minds. 
 Let us then turn our attention for a moment to the 
 picture of the first day delineated by the original 
 expressions. Before the first day, darkness was upon 
 the face of the deep, dense darkness, without the 
 smallest intermixture of light. Then came at length 
 the first day, at the first moment of which the fiat 
 of the Almighty went forth — "Let there be light," 
 and the first faint ray obedient came, struggling 
 through the dense gloom, and mingling with the dark- 
 ness, rendering it less intense, while God is described 
 during that first day as " dividing the light from the 
 darkness ;" or, as it might be more literally translated, 
 " making a distinction between the light and the dark- 
 ness ;" that is to say, the first faint distinction between 
 day and night then became perceivable, which before 
 
INTRODUCTION. 2 1 
 
 that, had been undistinguishable in the unvarying 
 blackness of primeval night ; and so the light con- 
 tinued sloAvly but gradually to increase through the 
 long ages which composed the first day, until at length 
 at its close the light had sufficiently cleft or hrokm its 
 way through the darkness, to be described by the 
 Hebrew word, 'voker,' or daybreak^ which again opened 
 into the evening of the next day, and so the light still 
 continued to increase during its vast ages, until it 
 arrived at the daybreak of the second day, which again 
 opened into the evening of the next day, and so on 
 through the whole six days. This interpretation, then, 
 is perfectly conformable to the original, and explains 
 why the evening is imt before the morning^ and why 
 there is a total omission of night (lailci) in the descrip- 
 tion of the days of Creation ; two matters, of which it 
 would not be easy to give a satisfactory explanation 
 on the supposition that the days of Creation were natu- 
 ral or literal days. If, indeed, t?ie original had run 
 thus — " And there was morning (voker), and there was 
 night (laila) one day (yome)," then, indeed, Dr. Cum- 
 ming might have relied triumphantly on the Avritten 
 Word of God against all " the oppositions of science, 
 falsely so called," as he would say, and against all the 
 most stubborn facts of the Geologist ; but Scripture, as 
 well as Geology, is against his theory in this respect. 
 But Dr. Gumming appeals to Analogy and — I quote his 
 own Avords, for a purpose I will presently mention — he 
 says, "and this seems to be the method of God's deal- 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ings in all things. Great good is achieved in nations, 
 not by a sudden start — by a vast revolution — but by a 
 gradual and progressive reformation. The human 
 heart seems to undergo its change, and to be con- 
 verted and made fit for heaven, not by a sudden stroke, 
 but by a progressive process. Summer comes on gra- 
 dually and slowly. In fact, God takes time for all his 
 work ; and in general we do not see, in the course of 
 our experience, anything done well by fits and starts." 
 Scripture Readings on the Book of Genesis, Chap. II., 
 p. 10, from which he deduces that the making of the 
 world in six natural days^ is in perfect accordance with 
 the analogy of God's other dealings ! ! I Now, if I 
 were appealing to Analogy, to prove that the world was 
 not made in six natural days, I could not select better 
 expressions, or aj)peal to better facts, than those above 
 selected by Dr. Gumming to illustrate an opposite con- 
 clusion ; which affords an illustration of hoAv differently 
 the same facts or circumstances may appear to different 
 minds, and what opposite conclusions may be deduced 
 from the same premises : and also I think of this prin- 
 ciple in our nature, that when once we have taken a 
 notion strongly into our heads, it will go hard with us 
 if we do not make the Scriptures bear us out in it, if 
 we have any regard for their authority. But as the 
 old proverb runs, " Aliquando bonus dormitat Home- 
 rus,"* so we cannot expect the most Scriptural writer 
 
 * That prince of poets, Homer, is sometimes a little prosy. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 to come up to the level of Inspiration, without ever 
 falling into an error. I, therefore, fearlessly appeal to 
 Analogy for evidence that the days of Creation were not 
 natural days ; and I ask, does God generally accomplish 
 any of the changes above alluded to by Dr. Gumming 
 in six natural days ? Does He in general make an 
 animal, a tree, or even a plant in six natural days ? 
 How much less, then, a world with its millions of 
 animals, and trees, and plants, in the same period ? 
 Analogy as well as Reason revolts against such a sup- 
 position ; and in this respect I apprehend Scripture, 
 Science and Analogy coincide (as they always do when 
 rightly understood) in leading irresistibly to the con- 
 clusion that the days of Greation were not literal or 
 natural days, of twenty-four hours each, but vast geo- 
 logical periods. 
 
 Now, if it be true that a close analogy exists between 
 Greation and New Creation, w^e should expect to find 
 six icell defined periods of Christian Experience charac- 
 terized respectively by their peculiar distinctive marks, 
 and bearing a close analogy to the six days of Greation ; 
 and in this matter I must appeal to the Experience of 
 Christians, whether this deduction from analogy be 
 well-founded in fact, and verified in experience, as I 
 believe and shall endeavour to prove it to be ; and I 
 venture to expect that any Christian of ordinary intel- 
 ligence, who will carefully and honestly consider the 
 distinguishing marks of the respective periods, and 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 apply them to himself, will be able to form a tolerably 
 accurate judgment of which of the six days of New 
 Creation he himself has arrived at. Although, it is 
 true, that there are many unavoidable causes of error 
 which tend to make the Christian form an inaccurate 
 estimate of his own position and that of others, some of 
 which we will advert to more particularly in the sequel. 
 No doubt it is true that the six days of Christian Expe- 
 rience are not marked out by any abrupt and sharply - 
 defined divisions, the one from the following one. Like 
 the days of Creation, they have their evening first, then 
 their morning, which gradually and continuously opens 
 into the evening of the following day, and then its 
 morning, without any sudden or abrupt transition ; 
 and so, a Christian observer, the most careful, honest, 
 and intelligent, will not be able to note exactly, 
 when, within himself, the one day terminates and the 
 succeeding one begins : and this same impossibility we 
 find exemplified in natural things ; a man the most 
 intelligent and careful cannot, by the aid of his senses 
 alone, tell exactly when the natural day terminates and 
 the night begins ; and if this cannot be done in the 
 case of the comparatively sudden change from day to 
 night, how much less could an observer have detected, 
 by his senses, the transition from one of the vast 
 geological periods, called the days of Creation, to the 
 succeeding one ? And just so it is with the days of 
 Christian Experience — in which case we are without the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 aid of instruments to detect the transition — and it is 
 accordingly impossible to say exactly when the one day 
 ends and the next begins, but this does not prevent a 
 Christian from being able to form a tolerably accurate 
 estimate of which of the six days of Christian Experience 
 is actually passing within himself, just as an intelligent 
 man, by the aid of his senses alone, can make a tolerably 
 accurate estimate of the hour of the day, from its par- 
 ticular distinctive natural marks and signs. It is also 
 true, no doubt, that these days or periods of Christian 
 Experience vary very much in length, and in strength 
 or faintness of development in different individual 
 Christians — in some the progress is much slower than 
 in others, and the earlier days longer ; in some the 
 experiences are much more faintly marked, in others 
 more strongly and better developed — v/hich may arise, 
 in part at least, from differences of natural disposition 
 and education. Conversion at an earlier or later period 
 of life, and many varying external circumstances, more 
 or less favourable to the development of Christian cha- 
 racter. 
 
 But, notwithstanding all these disturbing causes, I 
 think it will be found that the analogy I have suggested 
 for our consideration holds in general with surprising 
 exactness ; and as the Geologist verifies his theories by 
 the fossil forms of animals stereotyped on the rocks of our 
 Globe, so I propose to verify my theory by applying it 
 to the fossil remains of men stereotyped on the pages 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the Sacred Record, and I hope, moreover, to be able 
 to support it by the express authority of the Inspired 
 Word itself. I may remark, hoAvever, that it is by no 
 means true that these six periods actually take effect 
 within every Christian. Death may intervene and 
 interrupt the natural course of the days during any 
 one of them ; some may be cut off by death in the first 
 day, some in the second, and again, others not imtil 
 the sixth : but if the chain of continuity be unbroken 
 by death, then the six days of New Creation will 
 undoubtedly be developed in their proper order, more 
 or less quickly, and more or less perfectly marked in 
 every Christian. In confirmation of the preceding 
 remarks, I may observe that this division into six days 
 or periods is not confined, even in the natural world, to 
 the mere work of Creation, but may be traced there 
 much more extensively in the works of God; thus, 
 for instance, we have the natural life of man divided 
 into six well-recognized days or periods, perfectly dis- 
 tinct from each other, each characterized by its pecu- 
 liar distinctive marks and characteristics, and yet the 
 one of them developing itself into the next following 
 one, without any break of continuity or abrupt tran- 
 sition ; namely, 1, Infancy ; 2, Childhood ; 3, Boyhood ; 
 4, Youth; 5, Manhood; 6, Old Age; which respective 
 days or periods bear a strong and well-marked analogy 
 respectively to the six corresponding days of Creation, 
 and also to the six corresponding days of New Creation. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 Again, we find the natural or literal days of which 
 man's life is composed, each divided into six well-recog- 
 nized periods, perfectly distinct, and yet developing 
 themselves one into the other, without any break of 
 continuity ; namely, 1, Dawn; 2, ^lorning; 3, Fore- 
 noon ; 4, Noon ; 5, Afternoon ; 6, Evening ; in which 
 divisions we again recognise a similar well-marked 
 analogy to the six corresponding days of Creation and 
 of New Creation. Thus we see the same six-fold divi- 
 sion reappearing in analogy within analogy ; first we 
 have the Great Day (mentioned in the fourth verse of 
 the second chapter of Genesis), in which God made the 
 earth and the heavens ; which comprised the six days of 
 Creation ; each of which had again its six periods of 
 evening, afternoon, noon, forenoon, morning, and day- 
 break (although only the first and the last of these 
 periods are expressly mentioned in the Scripture nar- 
 rative), and again, each of these six divisions of the 
 days of Creation comprised many times the duration of 
 human hfe ; which is again divisible into the six corre- 
 sponding periods of infancy, childhood, boyhood, youth, 
 manhood, and old age ; each of Avhich periods of human 
 life is agam composed of many days ; each of which is 
 again divisible into the six corresponding minute periods 
 of daybreak, morning, forenoon, noon, afternoon, and 
 evening ; which might be found again in their turn 
 further divisible, were we able to pursue the analogy 
 further ; but traced out even so far in its minute sub- 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 divisions, it is very remarkable, and reminds us of the 
 oak, which contains many acorns, each of which again 
 contains another oak, which in its turn contains many 
 acorns, and so on until the mind is bewildered in the 
 attempt to follow the minute sub-divisions of infinite 
 successive developments. 
 
 I have now fairly introduced the subject to the 
 reader's notice. I have opened the mine or vein of 
 rich ore which I wish to explore ; and I have shown, I 
 trust, to some extent, how interesting, instructive, and 
 useful the results attainable, by working it out, are 
 likely to prove. If I can succeed in extracting any of 
 the hidden treasures from the depths of the sacred soil, 
 I shall enrich both myself and my readers ; and even, 
 if I cannot succeed, through my own infirmity — for the 
 gold certainly is there, although I may not be able to 
 extract it — I may at least have the satisfaction of 
 directing attention to the treasure that lies hid in this 
 place ; and, perhaps, of stirring up some mightier and 
 more energetic spirit to bring it to light, and, it may 
 be, to point out the errors which may have prevented 
 me from reaching it. And if in that Great Day when 
 our absent Sovereign Lord shall return to take account 
 of his servants, one soul shall be found to testify that 
 this little book shall have been made the honoured 
 instrument of directing him into the right road, of 
 clearing his views, or removing his doubts, or if a single 
 Christian shall then stand up and allow that he owes 
 
INTRODUCTIOX. 29 
 
 to it one word of Avarning, or the smallest help, encou- 
 ragement, instruction, or even gratification, it will not 
 have been written in vain, and I shall by no means 
 lose my reward, for He who cannot lie has said, "Who- 
 soever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones 
 a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, 
 verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his 
 reward" — Matt. x. 42 ; and again, " Inasmuch as ye 
 have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, 
 ye have done it unto me" — Matt. xxv. 40. 
 
[30] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CHAOS. 
 
 " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth ; and 
 the earth was without form and void ; and darkness was upon the 
 face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 
 waters." — Gen. i. 1,2. 
 
 There is more true philosophy, and more real satisfying 
 information as to the origin of tlie Universe, in this 
 one short sentence, than is to be found in all the 
 voluminous writings of the philosophers, and all the 
 elaborate deductions of unassisted reason. Let any 
 one, who doubts this, read the treatise of Cicero, " De 
 Natura Deorum," where he will find the opinions of the 
 giant intellects of the ancient world, who were left, 
 without the aid of revelation, by the unassisted light 
 of reason, to work out the problem of Creation, col- 
 lected, compared, and commented on. The reader will 
 there find all darkness, all confusion, all uncertainty 
 and contradiction, all their theories unsatisfying, illo- 
 gical, and terminating in inconsistency and absurdity. 
 And, indeed, the perusal of this relic of ancient philo- 
 
THE CHAOS. 31 
 
 sophy ^vill abundantly repay any intelligent Christian, 
 who may have leisure and opportunity to read it, by 
 the vivid and practical light in which it exhibits, hy 
 contrast, the Divine origin, and consequently the sim- 
 plicity, beauty, and consistency of the account of 
 Creation given in the Scriptures ; and the Christian 
 will rise from the perusal of the ancient treatise with a 
 deeper sense of thankfulness to his Heavenly Father, 
 that he was not left like the ancient Heathen philoso- 
 phers, to grope his way in the dark, by the feeble 
 and uncertain light of unassisted reason, after these 
 sublime and glorious truths, but that he enjoys the 
 advantage of having them shown forth in the full 
 daylight of unerring revelation. 
 
 Let us, in the first place, endeavour to develop some 
 of the profound philosophical truths contained in the 
 depths of this one short sentence, which stands at the 
 head of the present chapter, in order that we may 
 have, as accurately as possible, a view of the physical 
 state of facts in the natural world, indicated by these 
 words of Inspiration, and then we shall be in a better 
 position to trace the analogous facts connected with 
 New Creation, which it is the mam object of the 
 present work to develop and compare. First, then, 
 with reference to the words " In the beginning ;" it 
 has been long a question with philosophers, on which 
 opinions have been much divided, whether matter was 
 eternal or not ; and the same question has been mooted, 
 and conflicting opinions upon it, given by different 
 
32 THE CHAOS. 
 
 Christian pliilosopliers and eminent divines, some re- 
 presenting God to have created the material Universe 
 from eternity, while others have represented the Deity 
 existing alone in infinite space, engaged in the con- 
 templation of His own perfections during the countless 
 ages of the by-gone eternity, up to the period expressed 
 in the passage now under our consideration, by the 
 word "beginning." This opens to our intellects a very 
 deep and mysterious question, on which we should be 
 very slow to lay down any exposition dogmatically, or 
 with positive certainty. However, from a comparison 
 of the passage now under our consideration, with other 
 Scriptures which I shall presently advert to, I would 
 be disposed to take up this view of the question, that 
 there never was a time in which God dwelt alone in 
 the midst of infinite space, without manifesting Himself 
 by works of Creation, or, in other words, that the 
 Universe has teen progressively created hy God from 
 eternity, that is to say, that although there was a time 
 when our earth did not exist ; and a time, still further 
 remote, when the sun did not exist ; and a time, more 
 remote still, when the fixed stars did not exist; and 
 a time, still further back than that, in the by-gone 
 eternity, when the most distant nebula, visible by the 
 aid of the most powerful telescope, did not exist ; yet, 
 that there never was a time when there did not exist 
 an infinite and boundless material Universe, created 
 and governed by Jehovah, which is what I mean by 
 the expression, that the material Universe was pro- 
 
THE CHAOS. 33 
 
 gressively created hy God from eternity; and I see no 
 absurdity in this supposition, which appears to me 
 to harmonize better, both with Scripture, Reason, and 
 Analogy, than either of the conflicting opinions above 
 noticed, and to afford a complete answer to the cavil of 
 the ancient Sceptic, " Cur mundi asdificatores repente 
 exstiterint, innumerabilia seecula dormierint ?"* But 
 let us now turn to the Inspired Word, and see whether 
 it will bear out this theory, w^hich appears to me to be 
 fairly deducible from the folloAving passages of Scrip- 
 ture. First, I think, the Scriptures show us clearly 
 that the earth was not created from eternity, for we 
 read in the 38th chapter of the Book of Job, in the 
 4th and following verses, the words of the Almighty 
 Himself, saying, " Where wast thou when I laid the 
 foundations of the earth ? Declare, if thou hast un- 
 derstanding, who hath laid the measures thereof, if 
 thou knowest, or who hath stretched the line upon it ? 
 AVliereupon are the foundations thereof fastened, or 
 wdio laid the corner stone thereof, when the morn- 
 ing stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
 for joy ? or who shut up the sea Avith doors, when it 
 brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb ? 
 When I made the cloud the garment thereof, and thick 
 darkness a swaddling band for it, and brake up for it 
 my decreed place, and set bars and doors, and said, 
 hitherto shalt thou come, and here shall thy proud 
 
 * Why did the Architect of the Universe suddenly start into 
 activity after sleeping for unnumbered ages ? 
 
 C 
 
34 THE CHAOS. 
 
 waves be stayed." From this passage of Scripture it 
 seems to be fairly deducible that there was a time when 
 our earth did not exist, and when the matter of which 
 it is composed had not been created ; and further, that 
 at the time its foundations were laid, there were certain 
 created intelligences who were spectators at this glorious 
 manifestation of Divine power, who are denominated 
 '^ the Sons of God," and that they had their glorious 
 material habitations denominated " the Morning Stars," 
 and witnessed the first step in the creation of the earth. 
 Again, we read in Proverbs, viii. 22 — 30 (speaking of 
 Wisdom), " The Lord possessed me in the beginning of 
 his way, before his works of old. I was set up from 
 everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth was. 
 When there were no depths I was brought forth ; when 
 there were no fountains abounding with water. Before 
 the mountains were settled, before the hills, was I 
 brought forth, while as yet he had not made the earth, 
 nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the 
 world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there ; 
 when he set a compass upon the face of the deep ; 
 when he gave to the sea his decree, that the waters 
 should not pass his commandment ; when he appointed 
 the foundations of the earth, then I was by him, as 
 one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, 
 rejoicing always before him." Now, in this passage, 
 we have the heavens alluded to as existing and being 
 prepared, when, as yet, the Creator had not made the 
 earth. And this will be more obvious, if we look to 
 
THE CHAOS. OO 
 
 the original inspired words translated in our version by 
 tlie expression, " When he prepared the heavens," the 
 meaning of which is slightly, but still, for our present 
 investigation, materially altered in translation, and 
 would be more literally and properly rendered, " In 
 his building up the heavens," denoting a continuous 
 and continuing act or series of acts, which occupied 
 time, and not signifying a particular point of time, as 
 usually indicated by the English word, " ^'VTien." So 
 we learn from this last passage of Scripture, that before 
 the earth was created, God was engaged " in building 
 up the heavens," that is, in creating the material 
 Universe other than the earth. And further, we may 
 observe, that the expression, " the beginning," is used 
 as synonymous with the by-gone eternity from ever- 
 lasting. And again, we may observe, on this same 
 passage, that although God speaks of a time when He 
 had not created the earth, He does not speak of a time 
 when there were no heavens, as we might naturally 
 suppose He would have done, if it could have been 
 asserted with truth and propriety, in this passage 
 which seems to exhaust all the methods of convepng 
 to our minds the eternal co-existence of the speaker 
 (Wisdom) with the Most High. But, instead of re- 
 ferring to a period when there Avere no heavens, the 
 word of Inspiration represents Wisdom being with the 
 Lord from everlasting in His building up the heavens^ 
 which leads strongly to the conclusion, that the Lord 
 was engaged from everlasting in the progressive crea- 
 
 c 2 
 
36 THE CHAOS. 
 
 tion of the heavens. And the same view of the 
 question is further corroborated by the expression 
 used by the Saviour in speaking to the Jews, "My 
 Father .worketh hitherto, and I work" — John v. 17; 
 where no anterior limit is put to the working of the 
 Father, but only the posterior limit expressed by the 
 w^ord, " hitherto," thus pointing to the same conclu- 
 sion, that God has been working at the creation of the 
 Universe from everlasting. Again, we read, " In the 
 beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God. The same was in the befjin- 
 ning with God. All things were made by him, and 
 without him was not anything made that was made" — 
 John i. 1 — 3. In this passage we have the Uncreated 
 Word of God represented to have existed " In the 
 beginning" with God, and to have taken part in the 
 creation of all things. If, then, Creation had a begin- 
 ning other than the by-gone eternity from everlasting, 
 it would seem to follow that the Word had also a 
 beginning, and is not eternal. From the consideration 
 of these several passages of Scripture, taken in con- 
 nection with, and read by the mutual light of each 
 other, and of the passage quoted at the head of this 
 chapter, the view of Creation which I have adopted 
 and enunciated above, appears to be fairly deducible, 
 and I will assume it to be true ; but if it offend any 
 one, let him adopt his oa\ti view of the matter, and I 
 dare say, that any of the other generally received 
 views of this subject will not interfere with any of 
 
THE CHAOS. 37 
 
 the subsequent portions of this little work; for, in 
 truth, the consideration of the question at all is only 
 incidental, and not essential, to the development of the 
 analogy I have chosen for our consideration j, but, as 
 the question naturally suggested itself in the course of 
 our investigations, I did not wish to pass it over 
 altogether in silence. I will assume, then, that the 
 material Universe was progressively created by God 
 from everlasting, and this view seems to me not only 
 most consistent with Scripture, but also most conform- 
 able to Reason and Analogy. The arguments to be 
 derived from these two sources, however, I shall not 
 discuss, as the consideration of the matter at all is only 
 incidental. 
 
 Returning, then, from this digression to the con- 
 sideration of the passage of Scripture quoted at the 
 head of this present chapter, we find God represented 
 as, in the beginning, creating " the heaven and the 
 earth," by which I understand the whole material 
 Universe, the entire of which, except the earth, I take 
 to be expressed by the word, " heaven ;" and we see^ 
 then, how properly and expressively the earth is put 
 after the heaven. It is not said, " God created the 
 earth and the heaven," but " God created the heaven 
 and the earth," the earth being added as an appendix 
 to the Book of Creation ; and this will appear the more 
 remarkable, when we consider that for many centuries 
 after these words were written, it was universally sup- 
 posed by all the wise men of the world, that the earth 
 
38 THE CHAOS. 
 
 alone composed the Universe, and was the great central 
 body of Creation, while the snn, moon, and stars were 
 supposed to be comparatively small bodies, mere ap- 
 pendages of the earth, made to enlighten and adorn 
 it, and roimd it they were supposed to revolve once in 
 twenty -four hours ; so that if this passage at the head 
 of the present chapter had been written by the wisest 
 and most enlightened philosopher, without the guid- 
 ance of Inspiration ; even if he had been capable of 
 reasoning out the truly sublime and magnificent truth 
 contained in the other parts of the first sentence of 
 Scripture, he would, undoubtedly, have written, " In 
 the beginning God created the earth and the heaven," 
 putting the principal, as it was then supposed to be, 
 first, and the subordinate after; instead of the way the 
 inspired Scripture, with strict philosophical accuracy, 
 has it, the heaven first, being the principal part of 
 Creation — as it is now kno^vn to be — and the earth, 
 the subordinate, in its proper place, after the principal. 
 The inspired narrative having thus enunciated this 
 sublime and yet simple truth of the creation of the 
 Universe by God, drops all further mention of the 
 heaven, or the rest of the Universe, which, as we have 
 seen, God had progressively created and embellished 
 from all eternity, and takes up the account of the pro- 
 gressive formation and embellishment of the earth in 
 these words, " And the earth was without form, and 
 void." Of course it is hardly necessary to observe, 
 that the expression, " without form," does not mean 
 
THE CHAOS. 39 
 
 that the earth had no shape, or even no regular shape, 
 for, we believe, the earth then had, and from the 
 earliest moment of its creation — even Avhen it was but 
 a mass of attenuated vapour, as some philosophers, 
 probably with truth, tell us it once was — it must have 
 had very much its present spherical, or nearly spherical, 
 shape. But the word, " form," appears to have been 
 used by our translators, in this passage, in the sense ol 
 the root from which the word is derived, namely, the 
 latin word, "forma," signifying beauty or elegance. So 
 there was no beauty then in the appearance of our 
 world, and it was "void" or empty of all inhabitants ; and 
 as if it were ashamed to show its face in the presence 
 of its sister orbs throughout the Universe of God, 
 " darkness was upon the face of the deep ;" and the 
 Spirit of God "moved upon," or, as it might be more 
 literally rendered, " was brooding over" the face of 
 the waters. We have here an accurate picture of the 
 physical condition m which our earth once was ; it was 
 without beauty, empty of all inhabitants, its whole 
 surface covered with a shoreless ocean, on whose bosom 
 rested darkness, the most utter and complete of which 
 we can have any conception, for there was no admix- 
 ture of light whatever with the murky gloom of that 
 primeval night ; and in this condition our earth then 
 revolved upon its axis, as it now does, causing the 
 alternations of day and night, which, however, were 
 not then perceptible upon its surface, by reason of the 
 garment of cloud, that dark swaddling band which 
 
40 THE CHAOS. 
 
 God had spread over it, as described in tlie passage 
 above quoted from the 38th chapter of Job. And it 
 also, then, as now, pursued its annual path around the 
 sun, which had been created long before, and which 
 then, as now, poured down his beams of light and heat 
 upon that portion of Creation known as the Solar 
 System; but both alike were absorbed and utterly 
 quenched by that dense covering of thick cloud which 
 then rested on the watery surface of the thermal ocean 
 which covered our Globe from pole to pole. All was 
 then confusion, all was darkness on the surface of our 
 Planet ; not one vibration of a single ray of light dis- 
 turbed the thick impenetrable darkness of that primeval 
 night ; the elements were all mingled in Avild confusion, 
 and waged eternal war, and yet there Avas a kind of 
 peace there too, but it was the peace of death and 
 darkness. Unprofitable alike to the Creator, and to all 
 His intelligent Creation, our Globe then was ; a dark 
 spot amid His bright and glorious works, where the 
 Prince of Darkness (if he then existed) may have 
 reigned supreme, with undisputed and despotic sove- 
 reignty. I do not pause to show how fully this picture 
 of the former condition of our earth is verified by the 
 researches of the Geologist, but I shall content myself 
 with referring those who may be desirous of tracing 
 its truth and accuracy, as evolved from the rocky re- 
 cords of the earth to the books of Geologists, where 
 that subject is particularly discussed ; and I shall now 
 proceed to consider the analogous state of things which 
 
THE CHAOS. 41 
 
 ■\ve may expect to find in the spiritual world, before the 
 process of New Creation begins by the utterance of that 
 word of the Most High, " Let there be light." 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to proceed to demonstrate 
 from Scripture the utter ruin of man's moral nature 
 produced by the Fall, for the most careless reader of 
 the Word of God cannot fail to have more or less fully 
 deduced from it this truth — the most fundamental and 
 primary one in the w^hole Scripture — that every man 
 in his natui'al unregenerate state, is a vast moral ruin, 
 with all his magnificent powers of mind and body 
 directed and devoted to debasing and unworthy objects, 
 all his affections and passions mingled in wild confusion, 
 and Avaging eternal war ; his understanding darkened, 
 his motives all springing from, and terminatmg in Sel- 
 fishness, that great substratum of every natural unrege- 
 nerate character ; his heart polluted by Sin, and his soul 
 the palace of the Prince of Darkness, who reigns with 
 unresisted and despotic sway over his willing slaves 
 and victims. But it may not be altogether useless to 
 remind some of my readers of a few of these Scriptures 
 — I say a few of them, for to give them all, or even all 
 the most remarkable, would altogether transcend the 
 limits of this work. First, then we find God saying of 
 man before the Flood "That the wickedness of man was 
 great in the earth, and that every imagination of the 
 thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" — Gen. 
 vi. 5. Could language express more utter depravity, 
 more unmixed evil, or more complete and irremediable 
 
42 THE CHAOS. 
 
 ruin ? and yet these are the true words of the holy, 
 just, omniscient and most merciful God, describing, 
 without the smallest exaggeration, the natural con- 
 dition of unregenerate man. Everj- word in the above 
 short sentence of Scripture intensifies the dark picture, 
 and adds force and weight to the painful description ; 
 there is not only wickedness, but great ivichedness ; and 
 not only wickedness against God, but against his fellow- 
 man — ivickedness in the earth ; and the thoughts of 
 man's heart are described, as not only evil, but all com- 
 posed of evil, and that contimialh/, ivithout the smallest 
 admixture of anything good in them, or any of them, 
 at any time. And that this picture of unregenerate 
 man is not confined to his state before the Flood, 
 we may find by turning to the third chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Romans, from the ninth to the eighteenth 
 verse, Avhere we find the Apostle Paul quoting from the 
 Psalms, to prove this natural and universal depravity of 
 the human heart, " What then, are we better than 
 they ? No, in no wise ; for we have before proved both 
 Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin ; as it is 
 written, there is none righteous, no, not one ; there is 
 none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh 
 after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are 
 together become unprofitable ; there is none that doeth 
 good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre ; 
 with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison 
 of asps is under their lips ; whose mouth is full of 
 cursing and bitterness ; their feet are swift to shed 
 
 a 
 
THE CHAOS. 43 
 
 blood ; destruction and misery are in their ways ; and 
 tlie way of peace they have not known : there is no 
 fear of God before their eyes." This picture, from the 
 Inspired Word, of the natural heart of man, does not 
 show much improvement by the baptism with water, 
 which our earth underwent in the days of Noah ; it is 
 a little more fully developed and brought out in detail, 
 but substantially the same as it was before the Flood : 
 and that man's natural heart shall ever continue the 
 same until the end, we may know from the following 
 passage of Scripture, the last I shall quote on this 
 matter, " This know, also, that in the last days perilous 
 times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their 
 own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, 
 disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without 
 natural affection, truce-breakers, false-accusers, incon- 
 tinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, 
 heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than 
 lovers of God ; having a form of godliness, but denpng 
 the power thereof — 2 Tim. iii. 1-5. Here Ave have 
 again the same picture, a little more fidly developed, 
 of the natural heart of man at the time of the end ; 
 and I forbear to quote any further descriptions from 
 Scripture of this natural state and condition of every 
 man, because the three descriptions above, taken from 
 different extremities, and from the middle portion of 
 the word of God, and relating, as they do, to the early, 
 intermediate, and idtimate periods of the history of our 
 fallen race, are sufficient to convince all who believe in 
 
u 
 
 THE CHAOS. 
 
 the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures, that the 
 state of the Chaos before God said, " Let there be light," 
 presents a most accurate picture and exact symbolical 
 representation of the natural state of every man before 
 his Conversion or new-birth. We find in each case 
 the same want of beauty, the same emptiness of all that 
 is good, the same unprofitableness to the Creator and to 
 allHis intelligent Creation, the same darkness on the face 
 of the deepjAvhich prevents a man from seeing his lost and 
 ruined condition, and looking to the Saviour to deliver 
 him, or, in the words of Inspiration, " He knoweth not 
 that he is wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
 and naked :" there he slumbers on, in contented and 
 unconscious ruin, feeling no need of a Saviour, because 
 the darkness covers and conceals, under its thick and 
 gloomy pall, his lost and ruined condition. Again, the 
 bad passions and appetites of the natural man keep uj) a 
 continual war in his members, which corresponds to the 
 elemental war of Chaos, and is even compared to it by 
 the Spirit of God Himself, for He has said, ''The wicked 
 are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose 
 waters cast up mire and dirt" — Isaiah Ivii. 20. Now 
 it is not true at the present time of the Sea, that its 
 waters cast up mire and dirt, but the Spirit manifestly 
 alludes here to the primitive ocean, on whose surface 
 He moved during that long primeval night, compared to 
 whose countless ages, the years that have since elapsed 
 are but as the small dust of the balance, or the drop of 
 a bucket : and this exactly agrees with the testimony 
 
THE CHAOS. 45 
 
 of Geology, whicli tells us of the vast clouds of mud by 
 which the waters of the primitive ocean were filled, 
 and Avhich now compose the rocks, which testify, with 
 silent, but most convincing evidence of the former 
 existence of that " troubled sea, whose waters cast up 
 mire and dirt." But, to return to the natural man, we 
 find within him also a kind of peace, as there was in 
 his prototype, the unenlightened earth wrapped in its 
 dark garment of cloud ; but in him, too, it is but the 
 peace of darkness and death, undistui'bed by one soli- 
 tary vibration of light, unmoved by one single pulsation 
 of spiritual life, or one movement of Christian conflict. 
 The Sun of Eighteousnes is in the spiritual heavens, 
 pouring down, with bountiful and inexhaustible pro- 
 fusion, his light and heat on all intelligent Creation, as 
 the Sun in the natural world poured doAvn his beams 
 upon the primeval earth ; but the natural man perceives 
 not the light, he feels not the heat, because the dark 
 swaddling-band of spiritual cloud and unbeHef, with 
 which the Prince of Darkness has carefully enshrouded 
 him, shuts out from his perception, and absorbs or 
 quenches all the bright and life-giving influences of the 
 Saviour's love, or as the Scripture expresses it, " The 
 light shineth in darkness, and the darkness com- 
 prehended it not" — John i. 5. We may see, too, 
 from the last of the three descriptions of the natural 
 man above quoted from the Scriptures, that he has " a 
 form of godliness," and this feature in his character. 
 
46 THE CHAOS. 
 
 traced by the pen of Inspiration, corresponds exactly 
 with tlie deduction of a certain philosopher, Avho 
 described man as " a Religious Animal." Every man 
 is sure to have some kind of religion or other, when he 
 will not accept, or has not been made acquainted A\dth 
 the religion of the Bible, he is sure to invent some 
 form of religion for himself — as St. Paul said to the 
 Athenians, " I perceive that in all respects ye are very 
 religious" Acts xviii. 22 ; for this is a better transla- 
 tion, and conveys the meaning of the original more 
 accurately than that given in our authorized version — but 
 this so far from being a favourable symptom in his cha- 
 racter, only serves to deepen and intensify the gloom, 
 by hardening the heart and darkening the conscience, 
 as expressed by the Saviour Himself, when He said, 
 *' If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, 
 how great is that darkness !" Again, we may observe 
 that as the surface of the natural earth was, at the 
 period we are considering, all covered with water; so 
 we find the natural man described as " using deceit 
 with his tongue," *' a truce-breaker," and " with no 
 faithfulness in his inward parts," and having a heart 
 " deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked :" 
 thus we may observe in fallen man all the vices sym- 
 bolized by the analogous qualities of the treacherous and 
 unstable ocean which covered the primitive earth from 
 pole to pole. 
 
 This picture, traced by the pen of Inspiration, of 
 man's unregenerate heart, is fully verified by Expe- 
 
THE CHAOS. 47 
 
 rience. If we want practical proofs of its truth and 
 accuracy, we have only to look around us in the world, 
 to listen to the testimony of History, or to open our eves 
 to what is passing around us in Society, in our Streets, 
 in our Courts of Justice, aye, and within our oivii 
 breasts. In all these places we may see the practical 
 development of the same character ascribed by Scrips 
 ture to the natural man ; and this character, with all 
 its hideous details, we know, alike from Scripture, 
 History, and Experience, is not confined to a few indi- 
 viduals, but is absolutely universal ; it dwells alike in 
 the rich, and the poor, the learned, and the unlearned, 
 the high, and the low ; the severest punishments will 
 not eradicate it, the Avisest laws will not restrain it, 
 education will not ameliorate it, although it may change 
 the direction of its vices. This character is absolutely 
 universal among our fallen race ; the brightest saint 
 that shall stand before the throne of God hereafter, 
 once answered the descriptions above given in every 
 particular; not that all the revolting details above 
 mentioned have in every particular case been actually 
 developed ; the good providence and restraining grace 
 of God, and the strivings of the Spirit of God may have 
 prevented this; but the germ was there^ only waiting 
 time and opportunity to produce its natural fruit. 
 Abraham, the friend of God, was once a character such 
 as this; and the Apostle Paul tells us of himself, 
 " For I know, that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth 
 no good thing" — Eom. vii. 18. From whence we 
 
48 THE CHAOS. 
 
 learn too, that the saints of God carry about with 
 them, in this life, that same fallen nature, like a dead 
 body linked to a living one, and shall do so until Death, 
 or the Second Advent of the Saviour shall deliver them 
 from the loathsome burden. And here we may observe 
 that the Fall of man seems to have been much more 
 complete and hopeless in his moral nature than it has 
 proved in his intellectual nature ; although even in his 
 intellectual powers, we know from Scripture, and might 
 infer from Eeason and Analogy, the downfall has been 
 great. The first thmg we read of our first parents 
 doing after the Fall — when they attempted to hide them- 
 selves among the trees of the garden, from that all- 
 seeing eye, which searcheth the very thoughts and 
 intents of the heart — does not tend to show any increase 
 of the intellectual powers by the Fall, but a sad down- 
 fall there also. Nevertheless, it is certain that in the 
 intellectual nature of man, the Fall has made less havoc, 
 than in his moral nature, where the ruin is complete 
 and irremediable. We may occasionally witness in our 
 own time a great intellectual giant Avithout the grace of 
 God, yet even here, if that soul were enhghtened with 
 wisdom from on high, it could not be, but that, even 
 in its intellectual poAvers, we should perceive a great 
 elevation and extension ; but ice never see a giant in 
 goodness ivithout the grace of God. 
 
 Lastly, we read in the passage of Scripture quoted 
 at the head of this chapter, that " the Spirit of God 
 moved on the face of the waters :" this describes, and is 
 
THE CHAOS. 49 
 
 typical of the action and office of the Spirit of God on 
 the unregenerate heart of man ; He moves on the deep, 
 dark waters of the natural heart, striving with the soul 
 in mercy, reproving its sin, overruling its purposes of 
 evil, and restraining its guilty excesses. We read 
 accordingly of God saying before the Flood, " My Spirit 
 shall not always strive with man" — Gen. vi, 3. And 
 again, Christ when describing the office of the Spirit 
 with the ungodly world, says, " He shall reprove the 
 world of sin," or as it might be more literally trans- 
 lated, "He shall convict the world of sin." Again, 
 Stephen, the first martyr, speaking to the unbelieving 
 Jews, said, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as 
 your fathers did, so do ye" — Acts vii. 51. And Christ, 
 speaking to the people, said, "Agree with thine adver- 
 sary quickly whilst thou art in the way with him" — 
 Matt. V. 25, manifestly alluding to the Spirit of God, 
 who is the adversary striving with the natural man, and 
 seeking to convince him of sin. In all these passages 
 of Scripture the office and action of the Spirit is de- 
 scribed, which corresponds, in the spiritual world, with 
 His moving on the face of the waters in the natural 
 world, and is strictly analogous thereto. In both cases 
 the Spirit of God is represented as active, which is 
 expressed by the words " moving," " striving," " re- 
 proving," and " being an adversary to," while the 
 natural man strives not with Him, but only opposes a 
 dull, dead, passive resistance, not like the striving of 
 Jacob with the Angel, for Jacob was active and striving 
 
 D 
 
50 
 
 THE CHAOS. 
 
 as well as the Angel ; and if this kind of active striving 
 on the part of the natural man, could once be excited, 
 the object of the Spirit's strivings would have been 
 accomplished) light would have been admitted, and 
 life imparted to the dead soul. And so it is with 
 the infant Christian when the sword of the Spirit, 
 which is the Word of God, is applied to his soul effec- 
 tually by the Spirit of God ; he then begins to strive 
 with God, but it is an active strife — like Jacob's with 
 the Angel — and not a mere dull, dead, passive resist- 
 ance. Thus we read of St. Paul immediately after his 
 miraculous Conversion, " Behold he prayeth" — Acts 
 ix. 11. This Pharisee, who had made long prayers, 
 and conformed to all the strict ritual of the Jewish 
 Law, had never striven with God as Jacob did with 
 the Angel, until the light from heaven shone upon 
 him. But, on the other hand, if a man will con- 
 tinue obstinately to resist the Holy Ghost and the 
 Word of God ; the longer this passive resistance is 
 kept up, the deeper the gloom becomes, and the more 
 confirmed and hopeless becomes that soul's state of 
 death and ruin ; in which we have an illustration of 
 this truth, that, as it is the glorious prerogative of God 
 to bring Good out of Evil : so it is the sad prerogative 
 of fallen man to bring Evil out of Good. And to such 
 an extent does this hold, that there is no one good gift 
 of God which is not continually perverted by fallen 
 man to his own misery and ruin ; even the greatest gift 
 of God, the glorious Gospel, when rejected and per- 
 verted by man, sinks him tenfold deeper in the bottom- 
 
THE CHAOS. 51 
 
 less abyss of ruin and perdition. So, in like manner, 
 the strivings of the Spirit of God, when they do not 
 enhghten, they harden the heart and deepen the gloom, 
 making it even more impossible to be ever enlightened, 
 until at last the long-suffering of the Spirit of God is 
 exhausted, and He Avithdraws from the fruitless contest, 
 leaving the soul to its fate. We have a melancholy 
 instance of this withdrawal of the Spirit in the case 
 of Pharoah ; there, the last plague but one, that was 
 sent upon him — the plague which immediately pre- 
 ceded the final one of the death of the first-born — was 
 that preparatory darkness, which might be felt, not seen, 
 so intense was its murky gloom ; and which was, how- 
 ever, but a faint emblem of that sj)iritual night which 
 is caused by the withdrawal of the Spirit, and in many 
 cases immediately precedes destruction. Indeed, so gene- 
 rally is this the case, that even the ancient Heathen 
 writers have noticed the fact, and it was a well known 
 proverb among the ancients, " Quos deus vult perdere 
 prius dementat."* — even they had noticed the fact 
 although they did not know the cause ; and our Churcli, 
 in order to guard, if possible, against this most awful 
 calamity, puts into the mouth of her professing children 
 the prayer, " Take not thy Holy Spirit from us." And 
 here I may observe, that we do not in general sufiS- 
 ciently estimate the influence of this striving of the 
 Spirit of God, with the natural heart of man in the 
 
 * Those whom God is about to destroy he first sends mental 
 blindness upon. 
 
 u 2 
 
52 THE CHAOS. 
 
 ungodly world, and among the Heathen, where Christ 
 is not known. The state of the world is bad enough 
 even now, with all the restraining influence of the Spirit 
 of God, but what would it he if that injluence were 
 vnthdrawn ? Would not the whole mass of mankind — 
 like the swine when the devils entered into them- — rush 
 down some steep place, into the sea, and perish in the 
 waters ? But, even in the darkest parts of the earth, 
 the Spirit of God now is ; and ever since the Fall of 
 man, has been " moving on the face of the waters," con- 
 tinually exercising His restraining, preserving, and over- 
 ruling influence. True, He has never converted a soul 
 without the Word, as we see that no light came from 
 His moving on the face of the waters of Chaos, until 
 God sent forth the Word "Let there be light;" but He has 
 been continually overruling the sinful purposes of fallen 
 man, and has kept him in every part of the earth from 
 rushing headlong upon his own destruction, as it is 
 written, " Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, 
 the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." — Psalm 
 Ixxvi. 10. And again, "A man's heart deviseth his 
 way, but the Lord directeth his steps" — Prov. xvi. 9. 
 
 To this same cause, namely the strivings of the Spirit 
 of God with the Heathen world, together with some 
 shattered fragments of that noble image originally 
 stamped upon man, we must ascribe the instances of 
 noble disinterested and virtuous conduct on the part of 
 Heathens which are recorded in the history of the ancient 
 world — conduct which should make many modern 
 Christians blush, when they consider that, with all theii 
 
THE CHAOS. O.J 
 
 greater light, privileges, and advantages, tliey can so 
 little (if at all), surpass the goodness, generosity, and 
 disinterestedness of some of the ancient Heathens who 
 never heard of the mercy of God in Christ, but Avere 
 left to walk by the light of Nature without any aid from 
 revelation. This topic leads us naturally to the con- 
 sideration of what the future position of the Heathen 
 world will be ; shall they all be lost and cast into hell, 
 without having ever heard the glad tidings of Salvation ? 
 or on the other hand, shall they all, or any, and 
 which of them, be saved ? and if so, hoAv shall it be 
 determined Avhich of them shall be saved, and which 
 shall be lost ? This presents to our notice a question, 
 which has in all ages invited the curiosity of Christian 
 philosophers, and on which there has been a great 
 division of opinion, some adopting one view of the 
 question, and some another, and all parties appealing 
 to Scripture, in support of their views : and then again, 
 the opinion, on this question, perhaps the most generally 
 received, namely, the loss of the souls of all Heathens, 
 has been turned by Sceptics, into a cavil against the 
 truth of the entire system of Christianity; for the 
 Sceptic appeals to our reason, and all our ideas of the 
 ever blessed Creator, and asks triumphantly ' Is it not 
 inconsistent with all our notions of His goodness and 
 kindness, if not of His justice, to say, that He has con- 
 signed to certain inevitable and everlasting misery 
 and ruin, by far the largest portion of our race, without 
 ever letting them know of the only way of Salvation, 
 
54 THE CHAOS. 
 
 •without ever sending them the message of mercy, to 
 see, if perchance, some at least of them, Avould accept it 
 and be saved ?' And this, when we have the highest 
 authority for saying, that, some at least, of the very 
 worst of the Heathen, would have accepted the offer of 
 mercy, if it had been made to them with the same 
 evidences with which it was subsequently sent to others 
 who rejected it ; for the Saviour Himself has said, "If 
 the mighty works which have been done in thee, had 
 been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this 
 day." Matt. xi. 23. Wliile on the other hand, the 
 opponents of Heathen Salvation have retorted, by asking, 
 ' Are all the Heathen saved ? if so, it is a great ad- 
 vantage to be a Heathen, and a curse instead of a 
 blessing, to a nation, to hear the Gospel ; or, if only some 
 of them are to be saved, how is a distinction to be 
 made between those that are saved, and those that are 
 lost? for all of them have sinned, and come short of 
 the glory of God ; none of them have ever lived up to 
 the standard of the Law of God, as revealed to them in 
 the Book of Nature, nor according to the light given 
 to them.' This, no doubt, is a most difficult and 
 mysterious question, and one on which, it least of all 
 becomes us to be dogmatic or positive in our views ; 
 and, therefore, it is in all humility, and with the most 
 profound sense of my own liability to err, that I 
 venture to propose to the Christian world, a solution of 
 the question, which, I shall endeavour to prove, is not 
 only conformable in every respect to our Reason, and 
 
THE CHAOS. 55 
 
 to the analogy of the Divine dealings, with our fallen 
 race, but also is warranted, by the direct authority of 
 the Inspired Word itself ; and this solution is, that the 
 same Gospel which is preached to us, in this life, is 
 preached to the Heathen dead, after their departure 
 from this life, and before the Judgment: and that on 
 their acceptance, or rejection, their belief or their un- 
 belief of these glad tidings, depends their position for 
 eternity, just as the position of any living man depends 
 on his acceptance, or rejection of the Gospel; or in 
 other words, that no individual, of our entire race Avill 
 be condemned, in the great Day of Judgment, who has 
 not had the offer of a free pardon, and who has not 
 deliberately rejected it. It is true there may be diffi- 
 culties which I may not be able to remove, puzzling 
 questions, which I may not be able to answer, lines and 
 distinctions, I may not be able to define in respect to 
 this theory, but nevertheless, I hope to be able to show 
 that it is in fact, substantially true, warranted by 
 Scripture, and perfectly conformable to Eeason and 
 Analogy. Now, if I can establish this proposition, what 
 a universality, what a glory, what a magnificent libe- 
 rality, does it disclose in the Gospel ! how greatly it 
 exalts the Lord Jesus Christ ! making him in truth, as 
 His own word declares Him to be, "the Saviour of all 
 men, especially of those that believe." 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
 Thus, too, the cavils of the Sceptic will be fully 
 answered ; the difficulties, and objections, of both the 
 opposite opinions above noticed, will be reconciled or 
 
56 THE CHAOS. 
 
 removed ; the justice, and goodness of God vindicated, 
 and harmonized; and his boundless liberality, and kind- 
 ness, to our fallen race, shown forth in a stronger, and 
 clearer light, ivithout compromising His justice, and His 
 intense moral purity. 
 
 Before I proceed to deduce this truth from the 
 Inspired Word, I wish to answer a few of the objections 
 which may most readily occur to its reception ; It may 
 be said : — 
 
 1. "Why is not this truth, (if it be one) more fully 
 and plainly revealed in Scripture ? 
 
 2. Can it be supposed, that if this theory were true, 
 it would not long ago have been discovered, and pro- 
 mulgated authoritatively by the Church ? 
 
 3. Would not the truth of this theory, throw a damp 
 over all missionary enterprise ? 
 
 Now, as to the first of these three objections, I "would 
 say, that the wonder appears to me to be, not that it is 
 not more fully and clearly revealed in Scripture, but 
 that it is revealed at all ; inasmuch as its tendency is 
 more to gratify our curiosity, than to direct or supply 
 motives to action in this life ; and as the Saviour when 
 asked, " Lord what shall this man do ?" replied by an 
 exhortation, mingled with a mild rebuke, " If I will, 
 that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee ? follow 
 thou me ;" and on many other occasions, he rebuked 
 the prying curiosity of his disciples, and replied to their 
 questions by practical exhortations ; so in the Scripture 
 we s2ldom .find our curiosity gratified, except where 
 
THE CHAOS. 57 
 
 some practical duty is involved in the answer to our 
 inquiries ; this inquiry, however, relates to a matter 
 between the Heathen and their Creator, with which we 
 have no direct practical concern ; it is like the Christian 
 asking God, as to the Heathen, " Lord what shall this 
 man do ?" Therefore, as I have before said, the Avonder 
 is, not that this truth is not more fully revealed, but 
 that it is revealed at all. I shall therefore pass to the 
 consideration of the next objection, in reply to which I 
 can cite the exactly analogous case of the admission of 
 the Gentiles into the Christian Church in the days of the 
 Apostles, and the difficulty which many devout men of the 
 Jewish Church, or more properly the whole of the 
 Jewish Church, had at first, in believing in the poss- 
 ibility of such a thing being true, as that God should 
 have given repentance unto life to the Gentiles, and 
 admitted them into His Church, on an equal footing 
 with His ancient people, as we may find the story re- 
 lated in the eleventh chapter of the Acts of the 
 Apostles. If then the calling of the Gentiles took the 
 Jewish Church, and even the Apostles themselves, quite 
 by surprise, although they had the Old Testament 
 Scriptures in their hands, where the event which 
 surprised them so much, is clearly foretold, and 
 although the parting injunction of their risen Lord was, 
 " that repentance and remission of sins should be 
 preached in his name, among all nations, beginning at 
 Jerusalem" — Luke, xxiv. 47 ; this consideration takes 
 away all force from the presumption against the truth 
 
58 THE CHAOS. 
 
 of the theory now under discussion, from its taking 
 the Christian Church by surprise, that God has given 
 to the Heathen also, who never heard the Gospel in 
 this life, the offer of Salvation. Furthermore, in reply 
 to both these objections, it may be said, that if they 
 were valid and well founded, they would for ever 
 oppose a barrier to all new discovery of deep and 
 mysterious truths in the Scriptures. I now turn to the 
 third, and at first sight, perhaps the most formidable 
 objection of the three ; and yet, I think if we reflect a 
 little, we shall find that it is not a valid objection ; for 
 we have the strongest motives to publish the glad 
 tidings of Salvation, to the Pleathen in this life. First, 
 because it is our duty and the express parting com- 
 mand of our Saviour, whose last words to his disciples 
 before his ascension into heaven, were, " Go ye into all 
 the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." — 
 Mark xvi. 15. And, besides this, which ought in itself 
 to be a sufficient motive, and is wholly unaffected by 
 the theory now under discussion, a rich reward is held 
 out to us for so doing, as it is written, " They that be 
 wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
 and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars, 
 for ever and ever." — Dan. xii. 3. 
 
 If a man will not, from these motives, labour for the 
 Conversion of the Heathen, it would not add to his zeal 
 to believe that all the Heathen would be doomed to 
 eternal perdition through his remissness. Besides (even 
 supposing, for a moment, the truth of this theory) is it 
 
THE CHAOS. 59 
 
 not a great mercy to deliver the Heathen, or such of 
 them as will believe, from the miseries and darkness in 
 which they are sunk, at the earliest possible moment ? 
 And is it not cruel and inhuman of us to leave them all 
 their lives long without the knowledge of Salvation, and 
 of the high destiny to which they are called as well as 
 we ? Surely if we were to see a man groping his way 
 in the darkness of night, through the intricacies of a 
 strange country, we would direct him immediately and 
 not leave him to perplex himself in vain until the sun- 
 light should return and enable him to proceed without 
 our assistance ; and in the case supposed, the certainty 
 of the return of the light would be no excuse for our 
 leaving the stranger to lose his whole night in per- 
 plexity and darkness; and just so, the certainty that 
 all the Heathen will one day hear the glad tidings of 
 Salvation quite independently of us, affords no excuse 
 for our neglecting to send them the joyful message at 
 the earliest possible moment. Again, to take another 
 illustration : if we knew^ that a neighbour of ours had 
 unexpectedly come in for a large fortune by the death 
 of a friend in India or some other distant part of the 
 Avorld, and if our neighbour Avere in the deepest poverty 
 and distress, would it afford any excuse for our neglect 
 to communicate the glad tidings, that he would cer- 
 tainly hear it by the next mail ? And is not this but 
 a faint emblem of the infamy of our conduct towards 
 the Heathen, if we neglect to send them the news of 
 their unexpected good fortune, which has devolved upon 
 
60 THE CHAOS. 
 
 them by the death of their elder brother? A child 
 with a great inheritance should be brought up and edu- 
 cated in a manner suitable to his expectations, and 
 should not be allowed to form low and degrading habits 
 and acquaintances unsuitable to his future prospects ; 
 and, in like manner, our brethren, the Heathen, should 
 be informed of their glorious prospects, and educated 
 suitably to their expectations. What will the Heathen 
 say to us, when they come to hear the good news inde- 
 pendently of us ? Will they not reproach us Avith not 
 having made an effort to inform them sooner ? Thus, I 
 think, it will be found that far from throwing a damp 
 upon missionary exertions, this theory, if it be received, 
 will give a new and more powerful incentive to mis- 
 sionary zeal ; and it will be a great consolation to all 
 Christians who are anxious about the eternal state of 
 the Heathen, to think that if, after we have done all we 
 can, there should be some whom we are not able to 
 reach, even they are not eternally lost, but will have 
 the offer of Salvation and a free pardon before they shall 
 be called up for judgment at the bar of God. But it 
 may be asked, ' Will all the Heathen accept this offer ?' 
 Judging by analogy, I would say, not ; some of them 
 may be so blinded by pride and folly as to think they 
 have no need of a Saviour, and that their deeds done in 
 the flesh, so far from requiring an atonement, entitle 
 them to favour as a right from God ; such spirits, of 
 course, would disbelieve and reject the Gospel after 
 death, just as they would have done if the offer had 
 
THE CHAOS. 61 
 
 been made to them in this life, and they would accord- 
 ingly have to stand on their own merits in the Great Day 
 of Judgment, and, consequently, be condemned by the 
 Eighteous Judge and their souls lost ; while those of 
 the Heathen dead, whose eyes were opened to see their 
 own sinfulness which had been mingled with all their 
 best actions, and how they had not walked in the flesh 
 even according to the light of Nature, would gladly 
 accept the offered pardon, would believe on the Saviour 
 and be saved, like men in the flesh, by having the 
 merits of the Saviour imputed to them, and their sins 
 imputed to Him ; they would then be judged like men 
 in the flesh, that is, by the Gospel, and would live from 
 thenceforth to God in the spirit until the resurrection 
 morn. 
 
 The penitent thief on the cross had only a few hours 
 to live when he believed and was saved ; he was already 
 on the very border of the unseen world, when he 
 accepted the offered pardon and was snatched from per- 
 dition by simple faith, without any opportunity or space 
 for displaying his faith by works done in the body ; and 
 yet he received an assurance of his eternal salvation so 
 convincing, that I doubt not there are many Aveak, 
 trembling Christians at the present day who would wil- 
 lingly take his place upon that bloody cross, could they 
 thereby procure such an assurance from the Saviour's 
 lips of their salvation ; does not this come very near 
 the case of the Heathen who believe, after they have 
 crossed the border of the ra]scen world, and are saved 
 
62 THE CHAOS. 
 
 by faith, without any opportunity or space for works done 
 in the flesh to show the genuineness of their faith ? But 
 it may be objected, would not this theory of Salvation 
 afte?' death afford a great temptation to men to reject 
 the Gospel in this life, if they thought the offer of mercy 
 would be repeated after death ? To this I answer, 
 that I am far from supposing that the Gospel will be 
 again offered, after death, to those who have rejected it 
 in this life, but only to those who never have heard the 
 glad tidings in this life; so that, fir from proving a 
 temptation to reject the Gospel Avhen offered to men in 
 the flesh, the theory I have proposed shows most clearly 
 that there is no class of persons so utterly without hope 
 as those who reject or neglect the Gospel ; such persons 
 will, on leaving the flesh, be either thrust into an inner 
 prison within whose gloomy walls the glad sound of the 
 Gospel will never penetrate, or they will be afflicted 
 with judicial blindness which will prevent their accept- 
 ing the offer if made in their presence ; for the Scrip- 
 ture says, " If we sin wilfully, after that we have 
 received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no 
 more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for 
 of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour 
 the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law, died 
 without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how 
 much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought 
 worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, 
 and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith 
 he was sanctified an unholy thing, and hath done despite 
 
THE CHAOS. bo 
 
 unto the Spirit of grace." — Heb. x. 2Q — 29 ; and again, 
 " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?" 
 —Heb. ii. 3. 
 
 This is, in truth, the unpardonable sin against the 
 Holy Spirit, which Christ tells us " shall not be forgiven, 
 neither in this world, neither in the world to come." — 
 Matt. xii. 32 ; which passage affords some argument in 
 favour of the theory I have proposed ; for I think it 
 may fairly be implied from it, that some sins shall be 
 forgiven in the world to come, that is, after death ; 
 although this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, or 
 obstinate rejection of the Gospel, shall not be forgiven. 
 What would be the meaning of Christ saying that this 
 particular sin should not be forgiven in the world to 
 come, if no sin at all could be forgiven in the world to 
 come ? So, even from this passage alone, it might be 
 inferred that there is such a thing, under some circum- 
 stances, as the remission of sins after death, with the 
 exception, however, of this particular sin; and it so 
 happens that this excepted sin, which cannot be forgiven 
 after death, is the verij one of which none of the Hea- 
 then^ who have never heard the Gospel in this life^ can, 
 hij possihilitij, have been guilti/ ; for how could they 
 reject the Gospel, when they have never heard its 
 accents of mercy? How could they speak a word 
 against the Holy Ghost, when they have never heard 
 if there be a Holy Ghost ? Therefore, I would infer 
 from this passage of Scripture, that all the sins of Hea- 
 thens may be forgiven in the world to come, that is. 
 
64 THE CHAOS. 
 
 after death ; this, however, is not all the authority of 
 Scripture I can produce for this theory. I believe that 
 this preaching of the everlasting Gospel to the disem- 
 bodied spirits of the Heathen dead, was first commenced 
 by Christ himself when he was put to death and 
 descended into Hades, or the unseen world, that prison- 
 house where the souls of those Heathens who had 
 departed this life up to that time were kept ; and that 
 he preached to them the same Gospel as we in the flesh 
 now hear, while his body lay in the grave ; and that 
 the same Gospel is still, in some way — perhaps by those 
 Avho received it from him — preached to those Heathens 
 after death, who have departed without having heard 
 its accents of mercy in this life. For this, my main 
 authority is to be found in the first Epistle of Peter, iii. 
 18 — 20, where we read: — "For Christ also hath once 
 suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might 
 bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but 
 quickened by the Spirit : by which also he went and 
 preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were 
 disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God Avaited 
 in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing 
 wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." 
 
 Now, this passage which, as every scholar knows, might 
 be more properly rendered — "//i which time also he 
 went and preached unto the spirits in prison, who were 
 formerly disobedient when, for instance — or when, to 
 take one example — the long-suffering of God waited in 
 the days of Noah while the ark was being prepared," 
 
THE CHAOS. 63 
 
 unto the Spirit of grace." — Heb. x. 26 — 29 ; and again, 
 " How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ?" 
 —Heb. ii. 3. 
 
 This is, in truth, the unpardonable sin against the 
 Holy Spirit, which Christ tells us " shall not be forgiven, 
 neither in this Avorld, neither in the world to come." — 
 Matt. xii. 32 ; which passage affords some argument in 
 favour of the theory I have proposed ; for I think it 
 may fairly be implied from it, that some sins shall be 
 forgiven in the world to come, that is, after death ; 
 although this blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, or 
 obstinate rejection of the Gospel, shall not be forgiven. 
 What would be the meaning of Christ saying that this 
 particular sin should not be forgiven in the world to 
 come, if no sin at all could be forgiven in the world to 
 come ? So, even from this passage alone, it might be 
 inferred that there is such a thing, under some circum- 
 stances, as the remission of sins after death, with the 
 exception, however, of this particular sin; and it so 
 happens that this excepted sin, which cannot be forgiven 
 after death, is the very one, of ivhich none of the Hea- 
 then, who have never heard the Gospel in this life^ can, 
 hy possibility, have been guilty ; for how could they 
 reject the Gospel, when they have never heard its 
 accents of mercy? How could they speak a word 
 against the Holy Ghost, when they have never heard 
 if there be a Holy Ghost ? Therefore, I would infer 
 from this passage of Scripture, that all the sins of Hea- 
 thens may be forgiven in the world to come, that is, 
 
 E 
 
66 THE CHAOS. 
 
 written instruments — which our divines would, perhaps, 
 do well to apply more extensively than they do, to the 
 interpretation of Scripture — namely, that words and 
 expressions are always to he understood in their ordinary, 
 grammatical meaning and construction, unless some obvious 
 inconsistency, some contradiction of the ichole context, or 
 some absurdity inconsistent ivith our reason or the testimony 
 of our senses should he produced by this construction or 
 interpretation. Now, if this canon of interpretation is 
 of universal application in the ascertainment of the 
 meaning of the written communications of fallible 
 men, how much more is it applicable to the written 
 communications of the All-wise Creator? Surely, in 
 construing written communications from Him, it almost 
 amounts to impiety to suppose that He has written 
 one thing and meant another, or that He has not 
 used words proper to convey His meaning. Now, 
 apply this rule to the construction of this passage of 
 Scripture, and there can be no doubt as to the 
 result. Will any one go so far as to say that when 
 God tells us that Christ " went and preached to the 
 spirits" He meant and ought to have written, '"■ went 
 and preached to men in the flesh .?" And when God 
 tells us that those to whom He preached were disobe- 
 dient in the days of Noah, shall we say He meant joer- 
 sons living in the days of Chrisfs sojourn here on earth 
 in the flesh ? Observe, also, that the expression used by 
 the pen of Inspiration is, " Christ luent and preached," not 
 " Christ came and preached to the spirits in prison," &c.. 
 
THE CHAOS. 67 
 
 as it would have been written, if God had meant the 
 preaching to men in the flesh — for the Apostle Peter 
 was still in the flesh when he penned these words — but 
 the Scripture says, " Christ icent and preached to the 
 spirits in prison," that is, ivent away from us ivho are in 
 the flesh, and descended into Hades, and preached to the 
 disembodied spirits there. I, therefore, take this passage 
 of Scripture, in its j^^cdn, ordinary, grammatical meaning 
 and construction,) which any man of ordinary intelligence 
 would give to it, if he were to meet with it in any other 
 book besides the Bible, and if he were untrammelled by 
 the subtleties of ecclesiastical ingenuity. What that 
 prison Avas, where the dead were preached to by Christ, 
 we may learn from His own words on another occasion, 
 " Agree with thine adversary quickly whiles thou art 
 in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary 
 deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to 
 the officer, and thou be cast into prison : verily I say 
 unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence till 
 thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." — Matt. v. 25, 
 2G. I, therefore, call upon those who may deny this 
 theory, to point out any inconsistency of this interpre- 
 tation with the context, or with the other Scriptures, and 
 to show cause why the passage in St. Peter's Epistle 
 should not be understood in its ordinary, grammatical 
 meaning and construction. 
 
 However, this passage, strong as it is, does not form 
 the only Scripture authority for the theory I have pro- 
 posed ; for in the very next chapter of the same Epistle, 
 
68 THE CHAOS. 
 
 at the sixth verse, we read, " For, for this cause was 
 the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that 
 they might be judged according to men in the flesh, 
 but live according to God in the spirit." Now, what 
 is the meaning of this passage, if the Gospel is not 
 preached to the dead ? What right has any interpreter 
 to say, that when God tells us the Gospel was preached 
 to the dead, or — for the expression is still stronger — to 
 them that are dead, He meant living persons who are 
 spiritually dead ; if He meant the spiritually dead, why 
 did He not say so ? But He did not mean tlie spiritually 
 dead, for He tells us the reason the Gospel was preached 
 to them, was, that they might be judged " according to 
 men in the flesh," that is, that they, who were not men 
 in the flesh, but disembodied spirits — being manifestly 
 the same persons who are in the preceding chapter 
 designated "the spirits in prison" — might be judged 
 like men in the flesh, that is, by the Gospel. What 
 would be the meaning of saying, " that they might be 
 judged according to men in the flesh," if they tliemselves 
 were men in the flesh ? Would not this part of the 
 sentence be then reduced to a mere truism, namely, that 
 men in the flesh should be judged like men in the flesh ? 
 or, in other words, the mighty truth contained in these 
 words of Inspiration would be, that men in the flesh are 
 men in the flesh, or more simply still, men are men, 
 flesh is flesh. But if we adopt the plain, ordinary, and 
 grammatical meaning and construction of both the pas- 
 sages above quoted from the Epistle of St. Peter, then a 
 
THE CHAOS, 69 
 
 very important truth is contained in the latter passage, 
 showing the exact analogy which exists between the 
 Salvation of a living sinner and a dead Heathen sinner ; 
 in each case, the Judgment depends upon the reception 
 or rejection of the Gospel ; the difference is, that in the 
 case of the sinner in the flesh who receives the Gospel, 
 he lives to God the rest of his time in the flesh; but the 
 dead Heathen sinner who receives the Gospel, not being 
 able to live to God in the fleshy yet experiences an ana- 
 logous change of character and disposition, and lives to 
 God in the spirit. 
 
 We have not yet, however, exhausted the testimony 
 of Scripture in favour of this theory of Heathen Salva- 
 tion, for the Saviour Himself has said, " He that belie veth 
 in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." — John 
 xi. 25. I ask what is the meaning of the words, 
 " though he were dead," except on the supposition of 
 the truth of the theory I am endeavouring to establish ? 
 Is not the meaning of spiritual death absolutely excluded 
 by the context and general bearing of the conversation? 
 Would it not turn the words " though he were dead" 
 into a mere barren truism which must take place in 
 every case of Conversion^ to give them the meaning of 
 spiritual death ? Must not every soul have been spiri- 
 tually dead before it believed in Jesus? Why then 
 (if the meaning be spiritual death) say, "though he 
 were dead," as if it were a particular case, when it 
 must be universally true ? Does not this interpretation 
 render the words " though he were dead," utterly with- 
 
70 THE CHAOS. 
 
 out meaning, and make them mere surplusage ? Strike 
 them out of the sentence, and its meaning (on this 
 interpretation) will be precisely the same as it Avas 
 before. Thus we see that this interpretation of the word 
 " dead," as meaning spiritual death, is not only quite 
 unwarranted by the context, and, indeed, by the whole 
 tenor of the conversation in which the expression was 
 used — for it was a conversation, not about spiritual 
 deaths but about actual natural deaths suggested by the 
 case of Lazarus, who lay in his grave and had been 
 buried several days — but also puts unmeaning tauto- 
 logy and surplusage into the mouth of Him who spake 
 as never man spake ; and this reasoning is still further 
 confirmed by the passage immediately following, where 
 the Saviour proceeds as follows : — '* And whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in me shall never die ;" or, as it 
 might be more literally rendered, " And whosoever 
 liveth and believeth in me shall not die for ever," that 
 is, shall not suifer the penalty of eternal death. Now, 
 I would ask those who hold that the " dead " alluded 
 to in the first of these sentences quoted from St. John's 
 Gospel, are the spiritually dead, would they also go the 
 length of saying, that the living mentioned in the latter 
 verse mean the spiritually living? for, if so, they only 
 import more tautology and unmeaning surplusage and 
 repetition into the Saviour's words, which will be made 
 thus to convey no substantially different truth in the 
 latter sentence, from that conveyed by the former sen- 
 tence, although they are put in contradistinction to each 
 
THE CHAOS. 71 
 
 Other ; but, on the other hand, if they say, " the living," 
 in the latter verse, mean those in the enjoyment of 
 actual natural life, then I ask them to show me some 
 authority or reason for differently interpreting the word 
 " dead " in the former sentence, as meaning the spiri- 
 tually dead, and not as I say it should be interpret^ 
 to mean, those actually or naturally dead. This little 
 dilemma, therefore, stands in the way of the commonly 
 received interpretation of this passage from St. John's 
 Gospel ; and I do not see how it can be fairly got over 
 without sanctioning the theory I have endeavoured to 
 establish, according to which, the former branch of the 
 sentence will refer to those who believe on the Saviour 
 after deaths and the latter branch to those who believe 
 during this life^ the result, in each case, being eternal life. 
 Again, the Saviour has said, " Verily, verily, I say 
 unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the 
 dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they 
 that hear shall live." — John v. 25. Now, does not this 
 passage also fairly bear out the same view ? It was 
 uttered when the time of His preaching to the spirits in 
 the prison of Hades was drawing nigh — the " hour" in 
 which this wonderful event was to take place, not the 
 moment, had actually arrived; but it was then still 
 future, for the expression is, "the dead shall hear," &c. 
 What authority is there for the interpretation of this 
 passage to mean the spiritually dead ? Does He say, 
 " the spiritually dead ?" Does the context warrant such 
 an interpretation ? Surely not. Many of the spiritually 
 
72 THE CHAOS. 
 
 dead had already heard His literal voice, and lived ; and 
 the spiritually dead had spiritually been hearing His 
 voice, and living thereby, from age to age, and from 
 generation to generation, more or less, ever since the 
 Fall of our first parents ; this would have been no new 
 thing, nor would it have been expressed by the future 
 tense ; and this reasoning is further confirmed by what 
 follows in the 28th and 29th verses, " Marvel not at 
 this, for the hour is coming in the which all that are in 
 the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, 
 they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; 
 and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of 
 damnation." Now, this verse is manifestly an allusion 
 to a further and more Avonderful event of the same kind 
 as, and illustrative of that referred to in the former 
 verse (the 25th) ; and if the former verse (the 25th), is 
 to be interpreted of the spiritually dead, I do not see 
 why the latter verses might not, with equal propriety, 
 be interpreted spiritually, as referring to a general spiri- 
 tual resurrection ; and thus one of the most convincing 
 proofs of the general resurrection of the body, uttered 
 by the mouth of our Lord Himself, will be spiritualized 
 away, by not taking the words of Scripture in their 
 plain, ordinary, natural meaning. 
 
 Furthermore the Apostle Paul, writing under the 
 direction of Inspiration, to the Church at Eome, uses 
 these words, " In the day when God shall judge the 
 secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel," 
 "Rom. ii. 18. Now from this passage of Scripture also, 
 
THE CHAOS. 
 
 I infer that all men shall be judged according to the 
 Gospel, for the Apostle has been speaking of those who 
 had not even the written Law of God, and who therefore 
 certainly never heard of the Gospel of God in this life ; 
 and yet we are told that the secrets of their hearts shall 
 be judged according to the Gospel: how can this be 
 reconciled or explained upon any other supposition 
 than that the Gospel is preached to them after death 
 and before the Judgment ? Again we find the same 
 Apostle, in the same Epistle, alluding to the same great 
 truth, in these Avords, " For to this end Christ both died, 
 and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of 
 the dead and living." — Rom. xiv. 9. And, again, 
 writing to the Galatian Christians, the same Apostle 
 says, " And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would 
 justify the heathen through faith, preached before the 
 gospel unto Abraham, saying. In thee shall all nations 
 be blessed." — Gal. iii. 8; or, as it is in Genesis, "In 
 thee shall all families of the earth be blessed." — Gen. 
 xii. 3. We may learn from this Scripture that all 
 nations and families, under the whole heaven, both 
 those in Abraham's day and those in Christ's day, were 
 blessed in Abraham, or more properly in his seed, that 
 is, in Christ, and not merely those nations or genera- 
 tions who survived to hear the Gospel in this life, but 
 also those families, tribes, and nations, which became 
 extinct before the Gospel was preached unto the nations, 
 and those to which its glad tidings never penetrated 
 while they were in the flesh. Again, we have the 
 
74 THE CHAOS. 
 
 Messiah addressed by God in the second Psalm, " Ask, 
 of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inher- 
 itance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy pos- 
 session." Shall we suppose that the Son did not ask 
 for all the Heathen, or that the Father would not per- 
 form this promise in the luidest sense ? Even among 
 men it is a rule of construction of a covenant or promise, 
 that it is always to be taken most stronghj against the 
 person promising or covenanting. And again, we find 
 it written in the Book of Psalms, "Arise, God, 
 and judge thou the earth: for thou shalt inherit all 
 nations;" or, as it is translated in the version contained 
 in our Prayer Books, " for thou shalt take all Heathen 
 to thine inheritance." — Ps. Ixxxii. 8. To the same pur- 
 port is the expression used by the Angel when announc- 
 ing to the shepherds the Saviour's birth, " Behold I 
 bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to 
 all people ;" and the song of the redeemed heard by the 
 Apostle John in the Apocalyptic vision, " Thou art 
 worthy to take the Book and to open the seals thereof: 
 for thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of 
 every kindred, and tongue^ and people^ and natio7iJ' — Rev. 
 V. 9 ; and the multitude of the redeemed whom he saw, 
 as it is written, " After this I beheld, and, lo, a great 
 multitude, which no man could number, of all nations^ 
 and kindreds^ and people, and tongues, stood before the 
 throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes 
 and palms in their hands." — Eev. vii. 9. 
 
 Is it possible to hold that the miserable minority of 
 
THE CHAOS. /O 
 
 the Heathen who have ever heard the Gospel in this 
 life, can satisfy these expressions or fulfil these prophe- 
 cies ? Have not whole families, tribes, nations, and lan- 
 guages faded away, and become extinct without ever 
 having heard the Gospel while in the flesh ? How then 
 shall they have themselves represented among the com- 
 pany of the redeemed, if the dead hear not the Gospel ? 
 I would, therefore, infer from these passages alone, that 
 the Gospel message would be absolutely universal, and 
 that, not merely potentially, but actually, and in fact 
 tidings which should come to, and be actually heard by 
 all people at some period of their existence. How can 
 the Gospel be truly termed "glad tidings to all people," 
 if the great majority of our race were never to even hear 
 of it, before they were to be called up to be judged by 
 the Holy and Righteous Judge, who must inevitably 
 condemn them, if they have not the King's pardon to 
 plead in bar of judgment ? 
 
 There are also many other expressions in Scripture, 
 which, although they may have had a partial applica- 
 tion or fulfilment in other matters or events, obviously 
 point inimarily to this great truth ; among others Ave 
 may refer to the following ; for instance, on one occasion 
 the Saviour said, " Other sheep have I, which are not 
 of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear 
 my voice," &c. — John x. 16; now the word "bring," 
 in this passage is remarkable; it implies that He was to 
 go somewhere to bring the other sheep ; and, we may 
 remember, we are told in another Scripture, which we 
 
76 THE CHAOS. 
 
 have already considered in reference to this theory, that 
 He '''"went and preached to the spirits in prison." The 
 word " bring" is also used in this sense exactly, in another 
 Scripture, namely, " Now the God of Peace that brought 
 again from the dead, our Lord Jesus, that Great Shep- 
 herd of the sheep." — Heb. xiii. 20. I think, therefore, 
 that on comparing these passages, we can have little 
 doubt, who the other sheep, primarily alluded to, were, 
 and from whence they were to be brought. Again we 
 read, " The people that walked in darkness have seen a 
 great light, they that dwell in the land of the shadow 
 of death upon them hath the light sinned," &c. — Isaiah 
 ix. 2. This expression, although true of our whole 
 race, was primarily and particularly true of the dead 
 Heathen, who had walked in darkness all their lives, 
 and then divelt literally in the land of the shadoiv of 
 death, when they were aroused by the unexpected de- 
 scent of that great luminary, the Sun of Righteousness 
 Himself, into their dark prison house, bringing good 
 tidings of great joy to such of them as would believe 
 and receive the Gospel; and, although this passage, 
 quoted from Isaiah, is declared to have been fulfilled by 
 the dwelling of Christ at Capernaum (Matt. iv. 14), yet 
 this does not prove His dwelling at Capernaum to be the 
 primary and ultimate fulfilment of the prediction ; for we 
 may remember the exactly analogous case of the predic- 
 tion of the descent of the Spirit in the last days : — " And 
 it shall come to pass afterwards, that I will pour out my 
 spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters 
 
THE CHAOS. 77 
 
 shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your 
 young men shall see visions ; and also upon the servants 
 and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my 
 spirit ; and I will show wonders in the heavens and in 
 the earth, blood and fire, and pillars of smoke, the sun 
 shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood 
 before the great and terrible day of the Lord come," 
 (Joel ii. 28-31); which prophecy is, by the Apostle 
 Peter, declared to have been fulfilled on the day of 
 Pentecost (Acts ii. 1 6) ; and yet we look for a more 
 complete fulfilment, yet to come, which may be even 
 now commencing, and is perhaps already showing its 
 effects in the simultaneous Revivals of reUgion which we 
 see taking place in all parts of the earth, and which 
 may be the fi.rst droppings of that great outpouring of 
 the Spirit which is to precede the coming of the Great and 
 Terrible Day of the Lord : so, exactly, in like manner, the 
 dwelling of Christ at Capernaum, may have been a par- 
 tial fulfilment of the prophecy of Isaiah, and yet His 
 descent into Hades may have been the primary and com- 
 plete fulfilment of the prophecy. To the same purport 
 we read also : " That thou mayest say to the prisoners, 
 Go forth ; to them that are in darkness. Show your- 
 selves" (Is. xlix. 9) ; and again, "As for thee also, by 
 the blood of thy covenant, I have sent forth thy 
 prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water" (Zecli. 
 ix. 11) ; we may be the better able to understand, what 
 is meant by the " pit wherein is no water ^'' by referring 
 to the parable spoken by our Lord of the rich man and 
 
78 THE CHAOS. 
 
 Lazarus, where the rich man being in Hades — for that 
 is the Avord in the original, which is translated " Hell" 
 in our version — implored that Lazarus might be sent 
 with one drop of ivater to cool his tongue, as related in 
 the sixteenth chapter of Luke. Both these passages 
 from the Prophets, and many other Scriptures too 
 numerous to be particularly noticed, had, I conceive, a 
 primary reference to the preaching of the Gospel to the 
 Heathen dead, which was commenced by Christ Himself 
 on His descent into Hades — for this is the word trans- 
 lated " Hell " in our Creed, when we say " He descended 
 into Hell" — and, to the offer of a free pardon then com- 
 municated to all of those " spirits in prison," who would 
 believe and accept it ; they were the prisoners in the 
 pit where no water is, and in the da?'kness, and in the 
 shadow of death, even more literally and truly than the 
 inhabitants of the earth could be said to be ; and w^e 
 never find the earth or the land of the living spoken of 
 in Scripture as '' the pit," but Hades is frequently so 
 described. 
 
 Furthermore, this theory of Heathen Salvation is in 
 exact analogy with what we are told, by the Prophets, 
 will be the dealings of God with the Heathen nations 
 at the Second Advent ; for we read, *' And to you who 
 are troubled, rest with us, w^hen the Lord Jesus Christ 
 shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that 
 obey not the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ" — 2 Thess. 
 i. 8 ; so that we may see that those who shall be 
 
THE CHAOS. 79 
 
 destroyed at the Second Advent, will be persons who 
 obey not the Gospel, which presupposes that they have 
 heard the Gospel, and had the offer of a free pardon, 
 but rejected or neglected it. And that there will be, 
 even at the Second Advent, some Heathen nations who 
 have not heard the Gospel, appears indisputably from 
 the prophecy contained in the last chapter of Isaiah, 
 wdiere the Prophet, or rather the Spirit of God, speaking 
 by the Prophet, and referring manifestly to the Second 
 Advent, says, " For behold the Lord will come wdtli 
 fire, and -with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render 
 his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. 
 For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead ^vith all 
 flesh : and the slain of the Lord shall be many. And 
 I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that 
 escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and 
 Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the 
 isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither 
 have seen my glory : and they shall declare my glory 
 among the Gentiles" — Is. Ixvi. 15,16, 19. From this pas- 
 sage again we may learn that the Second Advent, which, 
 to all who have heard the Gospel^ will be of the like 
 effect with death in regard to their position before God 
 in the Judgment, wdll not operate to the destruction of 
 the Heathen who have not heard the Gospel ; and this 
 consideration alone would afford some presumption that 
 death does not fix the position for eternity of Heathens 
 who have not heard the Gospel, since we find that the 
 Second Advent wdll not do so. 
 
 F 
 
80 THE CHAOS. 
 
 Again, we may observe, in tliat picture which our 
 Lord draws of the last Great Day of Judgment, and the 
 description of the last dread sentence of the Righteous 
 Judge upon the wicked, " Depart from me, ye cursed, 
 into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his 
 angels : for I was an hungered, and ye gave me no 
 meat," &c. — Matt. xxv. 41, it is very remarkable that 
 here, the Saviour never once alludes to those sins 
 which are commonly considered among men the greatest 
 crimes, namely, murders, robberies, frauds, perjuries, 
 and adulteries, which we know the wicked do commit 
 abundantly ; but these enormities are not even alluded 
 to in their sentence, nor is it based upon them. But 
 all these sins appear to be swallowed up and merged in 
 the far greater crime of the rejection of Christ's offer of 
 mercy and pardon, evidenced by their personal dis- 
 respect, contempt, and ingratitude towards Himself, as 
 represented by His body the Church : the instances of 
 which disrespect, contempt, and ingratitude are alone 
 mentioned as the sins on which their sentence is 
 grounded. And this agrees exactly with Christ's words 
 on another occasion, where, alluding to the Spirit ot 
 God, which was to be poured out on His Ascension, He 
 said, "And when he is come, he will reprove the world 
 of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment : of sin, because 
 they believe not on me," <fec. — John xvi. 8, 9 : and 
 again, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they 
 had not had sin :" as if this sin of rejecting the Gospel 
 were the only sin^ so far does it transcend all other sins. 
 
THE CHAOS. 81 
 
 which are merged and included in this one unpardon- 
 able crime. Now this is precisely the ordy sin which 
 the Heathen, who have never heard the Gospel, cannot 
 commit. Therefore, I infer that none will have that 
 dread sentence pronounced upon them who have not 
 been guilty of this sin of hearing and rejecting the 
 Gospel — who have not, when offered a free pardon by 
 the Great King, flung back in His face with contempt 
 the proffered pardon. 
 
 Now there are, we all know, numbers of the Heathen 
 who have never heard the Gospel in this Hfe ; and, 
 therefore, as the Heathen will all be judged, and judged 
 by the Gospel, there seems to be no escaping the con- 
 clusion that they must hear the Gospel after death and 
 before the Judgment ; and this conclusion we see also 
 is in perfect harmony with God's other dealings Avdth 
 the Heathen, as disclosed in Prophecy, and is no way 
 inconsistent with Reason, Analogy, or Experience. It 
 also brings out more forcibly His spotless justice. His 
 truly royal liberality and universal kindness to our 
 fallen race, and the glorious harmony of all His attri- 
 butes. But it may be still objected — ' Is not this theory 
 equivalent to the universal Salvation of the Heathen ? 
 for can we suppose any spirit would be mad enough to 
 reject a free pardon ?' And no doubt there would be 
 much force in this reasoning, were it not that Expe- 
 rience and Analogy show that it is fallacious. For I 
 would confidently appeal to any Christian mmister, of 
 any evangelical denomination, I care not what his par- 
 
 2f 
 
82 THE CHAOS. 
 
 ticular views on non-essential points might be, for they 
 would all agree on this matter of experience, and they 
 would all unanimously testify that, every day, they 
 meet ivith spirits in the Jiesh who are mad enough to 
 reject a free pardon, and who prefer trusting to their 
 own merits, if they will even admit they have need of 
 pardon at all : and if we find hy experience that this 
 is so — however strange and contrary to a priori reason- 
 ings or expectations it may be — among spirits in the 
 flesh, Avhat reason have we to think it would be other- 
 wise among the disembodied spirits ? What change in 
 this respect can the putting off of the body produce ? 
 
 This theory of Heathen Salvation gives, I conceive, a 
 universality, a simplicity, and a glory to the work of 
 redemption, which may not have been fully seen before. 
 It exalts the Saviour, and makes Him indeed the Saviour 
 of the whole world — since not one soul will be lost who 
 had not the offer of a free pardon purchased by His 
 blood, and who did not treat that offer with contempt 
 and neglect. It exalts also and shows out more clearly 
 as well the mercy and love, as the justice and impar- 
 tiality of God, to every individual of our fallen race. 
 It is perfectly conformable to Eeason and Analogy, and 
 is, I think, fully warranted and established by Scrip- 
 ture. But if any man should still think that it exalts 
 the character of God, or is more in conformity with the 
 spirit or letter of His Holy Word, to have all the Heathen 
 consigned to everlasting perdition, without ever having 
 had the offer of mercy, I can say no more to con- 
 
THE CHAOS. 83 
 
 vince such an one, nor would I say or Avrite anything 
 uncharitable of him ; early prejudices and precon- 
 ceived notions get so strong a hold upon us all, that 
 the clearest demonstration sometimes fails to shake 
 them, and we find men almost invariably wrest the 
 Scriptures to support their own preconceived notions 
 and opinions. 
 
 I have already noticed how the Jewish Church of 
 Christ "was astonished^ because that on the Gentiles 
 also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost" — Acts 
 X. 45. They had no right to be astonished at this, for 
 they had the Old Testament Scriptures in their hands, 
 where the thing they were astonished at, is so plainly 
 foretold, that Ave Gentiles are now, ivith more reason., 
 astonished at their blindness in not understanding it 
 clearly : and, indeed, Ave are quite at a loss to account 
 for their astonishment, unless, indeed, the JcAvish Church 
 may have transferred all the promises given to the Gen- 
 tiles to themselves, by some spiritual interpretation — 
 that last resort of indolent commentators — such as, 
 perhaps, that the Gentiles spiritually signified Avorldly- 
 minded Jews, or had some such spiritual meaning. 
 But although some may be led by preconceived notions 
 and early prejudices to reject this theory of Heathen 
 Salvation, I doubt not that many Christians Avill accept 
 it as true ; and, indeed, there appears to be about it a 
 simplicity, a grandeur, a universality, and a conformity 
 to the other acknoAvledged dealings of God, Avhich, 
 independently of the passages of Scripture I have quoted 
 
84 THE CHAOS. 
 
 in support of it, will commend it to the understandings 
 of most men. It is not a rationalist theory founded on 
 the deductions of reason alone, for the germ and sub- 
 stance of it is contained in the page of revelation. It 
 is not a theory which exalts the mercy of God, by the 
 Salvation of the Heathen, at the expense of His justice 
 and purity — such as all theories are, which represent 
 the Heathen as accepted by their works, or their walk 
 according to the light which was given to them — nor 
 does it take away the necessity of a Saviour — as all 
 theories do, which represent the Heathen as accepted 
 without His merits and atonement — so neither, on the 
 other hand, is it a theory which exalts the justice and 
 purity of God^ at the expense of His mercy, by offering 
 up three-fourths of our fallen race a horrid holocaust 
 to His implacable justice and spotless purity ; but it 
 harmonizes all His attributes, and gives us fresh 
 occasion to admire His wisdom, and to exclaim, in the 
 words of one of our w^ell-known hymns — 
 
 Deep in unfathomable mines 
 
 Of never failing skill, 
 He treasures up His bright designs, 
 
 And works His sovereign will. 
 
 What Christian, worthy of the name^ even though 
 he should think the evidence in its favour insufficient, 
 would not be glad that this theory "vvere true ? What 
 Christian who accepts its truth, will not join with St. 
 Paul in saying, " For God hath concluded them all in 
 
THE CHAOS. 
 
 85 
 
 unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. O the 
 depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knoAvledge 
 of God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
 ways past finding out ! For who hath known the mind 
 of the Lord ? or who hath been his counsellor ? or who 
 hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed 
 unto him again ? For of him, and to him, and through 
 him are all things : to whom be glory for ever. Amen." 
 
[86] 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 " And God said, Let there be light ; and there was light. And 
 God saw the light that it was good : and God divided the light 
 from the dai-kness. And God called the light day, and the dark- 
 ness he called night. And the evening and the morning were the 
 first day." — Gen. i. 3 — 5. 
 
 We have here a short description of the first scene in 
 the process of Creation. Before this period, designated 
 " The First Day," all had been darkness, confusion, and 
 unprofitableness on the surface of our Planet, from the 
 time it had been called into existence by the Creator ; 
 and so matters would have continued for ever, had 
 there not been a new exertion of Divine power, ex- 
 pressed by the words, " God said, Let there be light." 
 We may observe that God is represented as active and 
 acting in each successive stage of the process of Creation. 
 It was not the earth which of itself gradually grew 
 better, or developed itself into beauty and utility from 
 its primary state of Chaos ; not at all : no such thing 
 is represented by Scripture to have taken place ; and, 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 87 
 
 indeed, it is a first principle of mechanical science, that 
 matter is a dull, dead, inert substance, which can pro- 
 duce no change m its own state and condition, by any 
 inherent development, without the application of some 
 external force ; and Scripture does not lead us to 
 imagine that, when God created the material Universe, 
 He impressed upon matter certain natural laws, by 
 which He left it, like a perfect machine, to work on of 
 itself, and develop its own progressive changes. What 
 are those natural laws by which some men suppose the 
 Universe to be governed ? AVho enacted them, and 
 gives them their force and effect ? What, in truth, are 
 natural laws, but the constant regular actings of the 
 Will of the Most High^ regulating and controlling, in 
 every minute particular, the Universe He has created ? 
 And so the Scripture does not represent the successive 
 stages of Creation to have been mere developments 
 caused by certain natural laws originally impressed 
 upon matter ; but, on the contrary, it represents each 
 successive development to have been caused by a fresh 
 exertion of Divine activity and power. I therefore take 
 this as a more accurate and Scriptural way of express- 
 ing the mode of the development of Creation, than to 
 attribute it to natural laws ; which latter mode of ex- 
 pression, however, if rightly understood, really comes to 
 very much the same thing in the end, and may be some- 
 times a convenient mode of expressing the classification 
 of natural phenomena ; but it is liable to abuse, by 
 leading men to imagine that these so called natural 
 
88 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 laws are independent of the Creator, or control Him in 
 His operations, instead of being merely the regular act- 
 ings of His own Will. 
 
 Let us now consider, for a moment, the physical 
 state and condition of our earth, during this first day, 
 in order that we may be the better enabled to trace the 
 analogous facts in the corresponding stage of New Crea- 
 tion ; the earth was still without beauty, empty of all 
 inhabitants, except some of the lowest specimens of 
 animated existence, Avhich were sunk in the depths of 
 that shoreless ocean which still covered the whole sur- 
 face of our Planet ; — darkness still rested on the face of 
 the deep, but not so intense as that which had hitherto 
 reigned there in undisturbed supremacy ; — for, now the 
 first faint ray of sunlight, obedient to the Word of the 
 Most High, had come struggling through that dark 
 thick mantle of cloud which still closely enveloped the 
 infant earth, and so there was now some admixture of 
 light : before this, the darkness had been so intense 
 that — like the Eg3^tian Plague of Darkness — it might 
 have been felt, but could not be seen ; in fact, previ- 
 ously to this period we are now considering, there had 
 not been even light enough, to make the darkness 
 visible^ but now at length the darkness was made 
 visible, and the Jii^st eiFect of that first faint light was, 
 to disclose to vicAv the darkness, ruin, and desolation 
 which reigned around ; the elements were still mingled 
 in wild confusion, and waged eternal war; and this con- 
 flict must have seemed even increased, for the peace of 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 89 
 
 death and darkness no longer continued undisturbed by 
 the entrance of light, which had now come to contend 
 with the darkness, and to add a fresh combatant to 
 that elemental strife ; the earth was still unprofitable 
 alike to the Creator, and to all his intelligent Creation ; 
 in a word, all ivas unchanged from what it had been 
 during the previous period^ with one solitary exception, 
 and that was light — faint, feeble, and almost impercep- 
 tible at first, but still it was light, and that light gra- 
 dually yet steadily increased during the long ages which 
 composed the first day, interrupted, however, at inter- 
 vals by the periodical returns of night, which now, for 
 the first time, became distinguishable, as " God divided 
 the light from the darkness" — or made the distinction 
 between day and night perceptible on the surface of 
 our earth, which then, as now, revolved on its axis, pro- 
 ducing those alternations of day and night. And in this 
 condition, our earth then, as now, pursued its annual 
 course around the sun, which then as now, poured down 
 its beams of light and heat upon this region of the 
 Universe, but by far the larger proportion of those 
 beams was quenched and absorbed by that dark thick 
 covering of cloud, which still enveloped the whole sur- 
 face of the earth, and only permitted the first faint rays 
 of light from the sun to penetrate its thick folds, when 
 the Word had gone forth from the Almighty, "Let 
 there be light." This is the first word God is repre- 
 sented in Scripture as speaking : and what a good, what 
 a merciful, what a life giving word it is ! How fully 
 
90 
 
 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 does it exemplify and verify the Scripture statement, 
 that, " man shall not live by bread alone but by every 
 word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." — Matt, 
 iv. 4. But, to return to our consideration of the phy- 
 sical condition of the earth during this first day, — no 
 eye placed on any part of our Planet's surface could yet 
 have seen the faintest outline of that glorious luminary 
 from which the light, now first visible, descended ; the 
 dense leaden mass of vapour which rested perpetually 
 on ocean's bosom, would have prevented this ; — but still 
 the light was visible ; and, we read, " God saw the 
 light that it was good ;" — light was the only good tiling 
 He then saw in this portion of His Creation : and that 
 light had come from Himself — an emanation from God 
 — partakmg, as it were, of His own nature, a kind of 
 connecting link between mind and matter, between the 
 Creator and His Creation, and hence arose its goodness, 
 for the Scripture tells us that " God is light." — 1 John 
 i. 5. 
 
 This state of things which existed in the infant earth, 
 as it lay, still wrapped in its dark swaddling band of 
 cloud, during this, its first day, presents, as we might 
 expect an exact symbolical representation of the infant 
 Christian — the babe in Christ — as he lies helpless and 
 unprofitable, still wrapped in his swaddling band of tm- 
 belief, which has been but partially broken through by 
 the first faint perception of the truth, as it in Jesus. 
 And, first, we may observe that the change in each case 
 is of God; He must say to the dark soul, " Let there be 
 
THE FIHST DAY. 91 
 
 light," and immediately neAv birth or Conversion takes 
 place ; this wonderful change is not produced by any 
 effort the soul makes within itself — the light is not 
 evolved from ivithin, but comes from ivithout ; — it is. 
 the work of God alone, and not of the soul itself, for 
 the Scripture speaking of those who have experienced 
 this change, says, " Which were born not of blood, nor 
 of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God." — John i. 13. And again, "No man can come 
 unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw 
 him," (John vi. 44) ; and in truth, Reason and Analogy 
 ought to teach us this truth, were Revelation silent ; for 
 until we see a child unborn in the natural world, caus- 
 ing itself to be born by the mere force of its unborn 
 Will, we shall continue to believe what Revelation, 
 Reason, and Analogy, combine in teaching us, — that 
 such a thing is equally impossible in the spiritual 
 world. Secondly, we may observe that the great in- 
 strument which God uses to produce the wonderful 
 change, alike in the spiritual world, as it was in the 
 natural world, is His Word. As in the natural Creation, 
 no light came from the Spirit of God moving on the 
 the face of the waters during countless ages, until God 
 sent forth the Word, " Let there be light;" so it is in 
 the spiritual world of New Creation, the Spirit of God 
 will strive in vain without the Word of God ; of which 
 truth we may see a great practical demonstration, on a 
 most extensive scale, in the Heathen world, where not 
 one soul has ever been converted by the strivings of the 
 
92 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 Spirit of God without the Word of God. Thus we may- 
 see that not even the Spirit of God — with all reverence 
 to His Holy Name be it spoken — can fight well without 
 His sword. How much less then shall man ever amelio- 
 rate the condition of the Heathen by any civilization or 
 education without the Word of God ? On the contrary, 
 all such attempts must end in utter failure, and only- 
 make matters worse, by introducing the vices and 
 scourges of civilization without its advantages. Even 
 the strivings of God's Spirit have not proved effectual 
 without the Word of God ; and are we stronger than 
 He, that we should expect to be able to effect what all 
 His strivings have not effected ? And here we may ob- 
 serve that the Old Testament saints, even in antedilu- 
 vian times, were not converted Avithout the Word of 
 God, for we read, " God said unto Noah" (Gen. vi. 13); 
 and again, " God had said unto Abram" (Gen. xii. 1) ; 
 so that we may conclude, these eminent saints of early- 
 times were not converted, or born again, without the 
 life-giving Word of God. And, from this consideration, 
 we may learn the great importance of letting the 
 Scriptures — which are the written Word of God — have 
 free course among us : for there is no man in this 
 world, whether Heathen or professing Christian, who 
 has not the Spirit of God within him, striving in mercy 
 with him, and seeking to convince him of sin, as He 
 moves on the face of the dark waters of his unregen- 
 erate soul ; and so, inasmuch as the Spirit of God 
 is thus universally present with all souls, if we can 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 93 
 
 bring the Word of God to bear upon tlie soul of any 
 man, there is every probability that the Spirit wDl take 
 His own sword — which we thus, as it were, put into 
 His hand — and use it to the working out of this 
 wonderful change : and, at all events, we shall have 
 done all in our power to bring it to pass. Next, we 
 may observe, that as the admission of light to the sur- 
 face of our Planet, introduced an element of a totally 
 different nature from anything that was ever in it 
 before : so the change the soul undergoes on Conversion 
 is the introduction of a principle radically and essentially 
 different from anything that ever existed there before, a 
 principle akin to the Divine nature, and like it imperish- 
 able and incorruptible, and of a totally different order 
 from the gross and material elements which make up the 
 fallen human nature. We may also observe, that as the 
 darkness in the natural world was not annihilated by the 
 introduction of light, but, on the contrary, it still 
 existed, and even to the present time does exist in 
 about equal proportions with the light, only it was con- 
 stantly diminished in extent and intensity, in fact " it 
 was being divided from the light," and was, and ever 
 has been, and still is in perpetual antagonism to it : 
 just so it is in the spiritual world. In the brightest 
 Christian, darkness still exists, and even in him, it exists 
 in almost equal proportions with the lights and so shall 
 continue to exist so long as he remains in the flesh, 
 until at length the happy morn of the seventh day of 
 New Creation shall banish darkness, at the same time 
 
94 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 from the natural, and the spiritual Avorld, Avhen the 
 New Jerusalem shall come down from God out of 
 heaven, " for there shall be no night there." — Rev. 
 xxi. 25. Much more then does darkness predominate 
 in the infant Christian during the first day of New 
 Creation, and more especially during the evening or 
 beginning of that first day, when he has only just 
 received the first faint ray of light, which seems so 
 feeble that the least thing would quench it and restore 
 the primgeval night for ever ; but, although this seems 
 likely, there is no fear of its coming to pass, for He who 
 has sent that first ray of light, will surely maintain and 
 increase it, until at last it shall prevail and ultimately 
 expel the darkness altogether, as it is written, " Being 
 confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a 
 good Avork in you will perform it until the day of Jesus 
 Christ."— Phil. i. 6. 
 
 Furthermore, God sees the light that it is good, and, 
 as in the natural Creation, the light — which came not 
 from the earth, but from the sun — was the only good 
 thing which God saw when He looked upon the infant 
 earth ; so it is Avith the infant Christian, the only good 
 thing Avliich God sees in him, is that faint ray of 
 spiritual light — Avhich comes doA\ai from the Sun of 
 Righteousness — that weak, doubting faith Avhich enables 
 him to turn his eyes toAvards Christ his Saviour. All 
 else in the infant Christian — as it was in the natural 
 Creation — is darkness, confusion, emptiness of good, 
 deformity, and ruin to the eyes of Him who looks on 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 95 
 
 that first faint ray of spiritual light and pronounces it 
 good. Thus, we see, that the infant Christian re- 
 sembles very closely the unregenerate souls in the 
 ungodly world around ; no immediate sudden change 
 in general takes place in his habits or mode of living ; 
 the world around, nay, $ven those who are most closely 
 brought in contact with him, may not at first ob- 
 serve any alteration in him ; and in a word, the 
 infant Christian is no better., irnmediately after Conversion^ 
 than he was before, the sole change in him is the 
 existence of that faint ray of spiritual light, which 
 reveals to him, to some extent at least, the ruin pro- 
 duced by the Fall ; he is still, as he was before, dark, 
 but now he knows it, for just enough light has been 
 admitted to make the darkness visible to his eyes ; he 
 is still empty of all that is good, but now he sees it to 
 be so, for the faint light is just sufficient to show him 
 the barrenness and desolation which reigns within him ; 
 now he no longer slumbers on in contented unconscious 
 ruin ; he is no longer self-satisfied ; he will not now, in 
 his approaches to God, say, as the Pharisee did of old, 
 " God I thank thee that I am not as other men are, 
 extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this pub- 
 lican ; I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that 
 I possess ;" but, on the contrarj^, now when the light 
 from above has disclosed to him the total absence of 
 all that is good within him, the deformity, the helpless- 
 ness, and utter ruin of his state and condition, he will 
 instinctively, as the Publican did, smite on his breast 
 
 G 
 
96 THE FIEST DAY. 
 
 and say, " God be merciful to me, a sinner;" or rather, 
 as the original Greek might be more literally and ex- 
 pressively rendered, "God be merciful to me the sinner ;" 
 he will no longer appeal to the justice of God, nor ex- 
 pect commendation from Him, but now he will appeal 
 to His pity and compassion, to His pure undeserved 
 mercy and liberality ; nor will he appeal in vain, for He 
 who has sent that light sees that it is good, and will 
 never suffer it to be extinguished or permanently shut 
 out any more, but will cause the light — although occa- 
 sionally it will be interrupted by the alternations of 
 night — to increase more and more unto the perfect day. 
 But, at first, an ordinary, nay, even a careful and 
 anxious observer, may perceive no change ; of which 
 truth, we have a most remarkable example in the case 
 of the Prophet Elijah, who complained to the Lord 
 thus : — " The children of Israel have forsaken thy cove- 
 nant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets 
 with the sword ; and 1, even I only, am left, and they 
 seek my life to take it away" — 1 Kings, xix. IJ:. The 
 Prophet evidently thought that there was not one child 
 of God in all Israel except himself. Now he must 
 have been a most anxious and careful observer, watch- 
 ing to see if he could detect any, the smallest, signs 
 of spiritual vitality in the people among whom he 
 laboured, who were his brethren according to the flesh ; 
 and yet, this passage of Scripture above quoted, con- 
 tains the result of his observations uttered in the 
 anguish of his heart before God; and still, we may 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 97 
 
 see, how fallacious his estimate was, for the Lord 
 answers him in the 18th verse, "Yet have I left me 
 seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not 
 bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not 
 kissed him." So we see that, although Elijah could not 
 recognize one child of God among the thousands of 
 Israel, there were, at that very time, no less than the 
 large number of seven thousand in whom the Lord saw 
 the light, and pronounced it to be good, and whom He 
 was not ashamed to own as His people. But these 
 children of God — for it is remarkable the Scripture 
 does not call them men — must all have been in the first 
 or second days of their New Creation, and not at a more 
 advanced stage, or it is utterly unintelligible how the 
 Prophet should not have known of the existence of 
 even one of them. Many a minister of the Gospel at 
 the present day would be inchned to make a similar 
 estimate of the result of his labours among his flock, 
 to what Elijah did of old, and, most probably, such 
 estimate would be equally fallacious. And here there 
 is a great source of comfort to all ministers who are 
 really anxious for the spiritual welfare of the people 
 committed to their charge ; they must have patience, 
 they must remember that as when God looked upon 
 the infant earth, He saw no good thing in it^ — no animals, 
 no trees, no fndt, nor even grass, nor the lowest forms 
 of terrestrial vegetation; and as the Prophet Elijah 
 could see no symptoms of spii'itual life among those 
 seven thousand babes in Christ, who were to be found 
 
 g2 
 
98 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 in Israel in his days, so there may he many infant 
 Christians among their flocks, whom they may not be 
 able to discern, though they watch never so closely. 
 We must not look for work from infants, they are a 
 constant source of trouble, a drain on our resources, 
 and utterly unprofitable, during that stage of their 
 existence ; but they will not always remain infants ; 
 the time Avill come, if we have patience, when they will 
 yield us some return. And so it is with the spiritual 
 infant ; he does no work for Christ, he yields no fruit, 
 or next to none, and the most careful and anxious 
 observer cannot, in general, distinguish him from the 
 unregenerate souls around ; man sees little (if any) 
 change in him, but what a change does God see ! He, 
 now, for the first time, sees some good thing in the 
 soul ; He now recognizes a child of His own — weak, help- 
 less, and unprofitable, it is true, but still a child of 
 God — a child born to a great inheritance — an infant 
 Prince, who shall one day sit on the throne of the 
 Universe, with his Father, inherit all His boundless 
 wealth, and rule His vast dominions, for it is written, 
 " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me 
 in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 
 down with my Father in his throne" — Rev. iii. 21. 
 
 We see, then, that we have no right to expect any 
 good works, any fruit, or any usefulness in the infant 
 Christian immediately on his Conversion ; the only good 
 Avork to be expected from him in the first stage of his 
 spiritual existence is, that he believe on the name of 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 99 
 
 the Son of God, which truth is expressly enunciated by 
 the Saviour Himself, when the people asked Him, "What 
 shall we do that we might work the works of Gad?" — 
 John vi. 28 ; to which question He replied, " This is 
 the work of God, that ye should believe on him ivhom 
 he hath sent ;" He did not mean that there Avas no 
 further work Avhich men could do, which would be 
 pleasing and acceptable in the sight of God, but that 
 this was the work, and the only work of the first stage 
 in the service of God, and until this work was done, 
 that no work could be acceptable to God. This was 
 the work, and the only work for those whom He ad- 
 dressed, with whom the first day of New Creation had 
 not yet commenced. Those who attempt to please and 
 serve God without first doing this work, are but labour- 
 ing in vain, they are offering to the Lord the sacrifice 
 of Cain — the fruits of the ground which the Lord hath 
 cursed; and the Scripture tells us, that so far from 
 being pleasing or acceptable to God, "the sacrifice of 
 the wicked is an abomination to the Lord" — Prov. xv. 
 8. And, in truth, even Reason itself confirms this 
 statement of Scripture, for when even the iifant Chris- 
 tian has no good works, no fruit, no usefulness to 
 exhibit to God or man, how much less can we expect 
 any good thing in those who are yet without the light, 
 who have not yet experienced the new-birth, but still 
 continue in their natural darkness and deadness ? And 
 if God sees no good thing in His own infant children, 
 except the feeble ray of light, which He Himself has sent 
 
100 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 into tlieir souls, how much less can He see any good or 
 acceptable thing in tJiose who are not His children^ but 
 His natural enemies, in those who have not received 
 that spiritual ray — that one solitary thing which He has 
 pronounced to be good ? And yet men do not see this, 
 they do not know this great truth ; and some men are 
 even so foolish and blinded, as to think that they can 
 lay the Almighty under an obligation to them, and that 
 He is sometimes unmindful of that obligation. Most of 
 us have heard or read of a celebrated King of France, 
 who, in his earlier years, had been a great voluptuary, 
 and quite careless about even the externals of religion, 
 but towards the close of his long reign, when he must 
 have thought that death might be approaching, he 
 became wonderfidly reformed, he gave large sums of 
 money in charity, and in the endowment of places of 
 worship, and did, as he thought, a great deal for God ; 
 and yet, Louis XIV. — for to him I allude — was not a 
 child of God, nor had he ever experienced new-birth, 
 for Avhen he lay on his death-bed, and his physicians 
 told him he had but a few hours to live, the unfortunate 
 man, in his blindness and utter darkness, replied in 
 these memorable words, " God has then forgotten all 
 THAT I have done FOR HiM ! ! !" What had he done for 
 God ? He had worn a royal crown for God, for nearly 
 three quarters of a century ; he had reigned over a great 
 people for God ; he had enjoyed long life, and wealth, 
 and honour for God ; he had abused the gifts of God, 
 and persecuted God's people ; and yet, he had, at the 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 101 
 
 last, the almost incredible folly to imagine that the 
 Most High lay under an obligation to him, and had 
 been unmindful of it ; as if God could not have found 
 abundance of men, who would have been only too 
 happy to take the royal crown of Louis, and wear it 
 for God, to rule over his kingdom for God, and who, at 
 the last, would not have imagined that they had laid 
 the Almighty under an obligation, by accepting His 
 bounties, and bestowing on Him, in return, a small per- 
 centage on His munificent gifts. 
 
 But, to return to the infant Christian, even in this 
 early stage of his existence, we can trace the beginning 
 of that conflict, which he must wage until the close of 
 the sixth day. Before the commencement of the first 
 day, we have seen, there was no Christian conflict ; 
 the Spirit then strove with the soul, but the unregene- 
 rate soul strove not Avith the Spirit, but now the newly 
 awakened soul wrestles with the Spirit, and that from 
 the very beginning of spiritual life, as Saint Paul tells 
 us of himself, " But when it pleased God, who separated 
 me from my mother's womb, and called me by his 
 grace, to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him 
 among the heathen, immediately I conferred not ivith 
 flesh and hlood'^ — Gal. i. 15, 16. The Apostle here 
 describes that wrestling with the Spirit of God which 
 immediately follows on Conversion ; but this is not the 
 only, or, indeed, the principal conflict which the Chris- 
 tian is called upon to undertake ; there is, besides this 
 friendly strife, a further conflict which the newly- 
 
102 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 awakened soul must cany on against the World, the 
 Flesh, and the Devil, united in hostile array against him ; 
 and it is in order that he may have strength to over- 
 come this formidable array of enemies, that it is so 
 needful to wrestle Avith the Spirit of God for assistance 
 in this trying conflict. Satan soon discovers the change 
 Avhich has taken place on Conversion, and at once turns 
 all his energies to quench the new-born light, and to 
 regain his lost dominion, and forthwith the Christian 
 conflict begins, heing almost coeval with new-hirth ; 
 and many are the advantages which Satan gains over 
 the infant Christian — temporary advantages, however, 
 like the many periodical returns of night which took 
 place during the first day of the natural Creation — but, 
 wonderful to relate, after every overthrow, the Christian 
 rises again, and — like the fabled giant of old, and from a 
 like source — derives fresh energies and renew^ed strength 
 to resume the conflict, until at last that weak, helpless, 
 spiritual infant, that seemed ready to perish of itself, 
 without any hostile interposition, proves itself the victor 
 over that mighty fallen spirit, who, in his attempt to 
 quench its infant life, meets the same fate that — as 
 ISIythology tells us — overtook the fabled serpent, that 
 assailed the life of the infant Hercules in his cradle, 
 as it is written, " I write unto you, young men, because 
 ye have overcome the wicked oiie" — 1 John, ii. 13; 
 and again, " Whatsoever is born of God overcometli 
 the world." And, indeed, it could not be otherwise, 
 for the youngest and weakest Christian has, implanted 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 103 
 
 within him, a germ of the Divine nature which cannot 
 be overcome — he is horn of God ; and yet, the babe in 
 Christ is the weakest and most helpless of all infants, 
 in which circumstance we have a beautiful illustration 
 of a general law of nature, which provides that the 
 nobler, the inore elevated in the scale of Creation, and 
 the more powerful any being is, just in the same 2Jro- 
 portion, will its offspring be iveaJcer and more helpless, 
 at first, on their birth. We see, accordingly, that the 
 offspring of man, in the infant state, is more helpless 
 and weaker than that of any of the inferior animals ; 
 and the offspring of the king is weaker and more help- 
 less than the offspring of the peasant; and the same 
 law holds good with respect to the offspring of the 
 King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise and 
 good God, for they are, at first, of all creatures, the 
 weakest and most helpless in their infant state ; to which 
 truth the Saviour Himself has alluded, when He said, 
 " The children of this world are wiser in their genera- 
 tion than the children of light" — Luke xvi. 8. God's 
 children, in their infant state, can do nothing but cry 
 to their parent for aid, and in Him is the source of their 
 strength, as it is Avritten, " God is our refuge and 
 strength, a very present help in trouble" — Ps. xlvi. 1 ; 
 and again, " All my springs are in thee" — Ps. Ixxxvii. 
 7. But no sooner are God's children forced, by the 
 approach of danger, to cry out to their parent for help, 
 than He sends them deliverance, as we read in His 
 Word, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous. 
 
104 
 
 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 and liis ears are open to tlieir cry ; the righteous cry 
 and the Lord heareth and delivereth them out of all 
 their troubles" — Ps. xxxiv. 15, 17. Indeed, Ave shall 
 find that God's tender care of the youngest of His 
 children is continually noticed in Scripture, and set 
 forth under every possible figure of speech, as for in- 
 stance, " He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of 
 his eye" — Zech. ii. 8 ; and again, "It is not the will 
 of your Father, that one of these little ones should 
 perish" — Matt, xviii. 14. And not only does God pro- 
 tect His children from acts of positive wrong and injur}-, 
 but He even notices the most trifling slight or insult 
 which is offered to the youngest of them ; of which we 
 have a remarkable example in the ""case of the infant 
 Isaac, when Ishmael only mocked^ although he thereby 
 did Isaac no positive harm ; we remember how soon 
 the command went forth, " Cast out the Bondwoman 
 and her son." And we are told that the King, when 
 He takes His seat on His judgment throne, will say, 
 *' Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me" — Matt. 
 XXV. 40. 
 
 This first day of New Creation is, nevertheless, a day 
 of doubts and small things, a day of fears and anxieties, 
 a day of weakness and unprofitableness ; there is, as 
 yet, but little joy or comfort in believing, faith is still 
 very weak, and no fruits or good works are yet visible : 
 there is more fear, than love, of God in the heart, which 
 the wise man has expressed in these words of Inspira- 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 105 
 
 tion, " The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Avisdom" 
 — Prov. i. 7 ; for we shall find, in the sequel, that it 
 might, -with equal truth, be said, 'The love of the Lord 
 is the end of wisdom/ In fact, love to God is but 
 faintly developed until the soul has felt more fully the 
 love of God to the soul ; but in this early stage of New 
 Creation, the heat from the Sun of Eighteousness has 
 but very partially penetrated through the dark garment 
 of spiritual cloud and unbelief, which still surrounds 
 the infant Christian ; the carnal mind still predominates 
 in him ; and we know, on the authority of Scripture, 
 that " the carnal mind is enmity against God" — ^Eora. 
 viii. 7. The infant Christian has, as yet, but faintly 
 felt the love of God in Christ, and therefore he loves 
 but little, for as the Scripture saith, " We love him 
 because he first loved us" — 1 John iv. 19. Jesus is 
 known, it is true, but it is, as yet, only " after the 
 flesh." The views of the infant Christian are always 
 more or less misty and distorted ; he is, as yet, like the 
 man whom the Saviour was restoring to sight, " he sees 
 men like trees walking ;" in fact, he has not yet learned 
 to see, for, we may observe, in the spiritual world, it is 
 true — as philosophers have discovered it to be in the 
 natural world — that we actually have to learn to see, 
 and that the perception of the shapes and distances of 
 external objects is not intuitive, nor a primary effect of 
 the sense of sight, but only the result of experience ; in 
 fact, in this first day of New Creation, as in the first 
 day of the natural Creation, the light is being divided 
 
106 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 from the darkness ; things now appear in a different 
 light from what they ever did before ; many things 
 which before appeared harmless, or even meritorious, 
 are now seen to be sinful ; the spiritual infant is learn' 
 ing to see, and there is in the soul — what was never 
 there before — a love of the light. Natural infants, 
 when they are first born, continually turn their eyes 
 towards the light ; our earth also, in its infant state, 
 turned, as it still does, every portion of its surface 
 successively towards the new-born light ; and so the 
 infant Christian will keep his eyes continually turned 
 towards the spiritual light, which, as it goes on in- 
 creasing during the first day of New Creation, shows 
 him more fully the extent of his own ruin and helpless- 
 ness. And this is one of the causes why, in this first 
 stage of Christian Experience, there is so little comfort 
 in believing, because the sense of sin is then so over- 
 poAvering and faith so weak. However, this state of 
 things varies exceedingly in different individuals, ac- 
 cording to the more or less gradual entrance of the 
 light, and according to differences of disposition and 
 education, and many other disturbing causes. In some 
 the sense of sin is so overpowering, that they are, as it 
 were, smitten to tJie earth — like Saint Paul at his Con- 
 version — and all their powers of mind and body are 
 temporarily prostrated ; hence the physical manifesta- 
 tions at some of the Revivals. In others again — and 
 this is more usual — the light comes more gradually, 
 and faith having somewhat strengthened, before the 
 
THE FIEST DAY. 107 
 
 light has become strong enough to disclose the full 
 extent of their ruin, they have already discovered 
 where to look for help ; but still this painful and deep 
 conviction of sin — although it may, and does, vary ex- 
 ceedingly in intensity and mode of manifestation — is a 
 universal accompaniment, and the first evidence of true 
 Conversion. 
 
 One great instrument, which God constantly uses in 
 bringing about this wonderful change in an individual, 
 called Conversion, or new-birth, is affliction ; the idol 
 of the heart is removed, whether it be the beloved wife, 
 the precious child, the friend who is as one's own soul, 
 or the highly prized wealth : the idol is removed, that 
 the Lord Himself may take the place which it had 
 usurped in the heart. And this, however grievous it 
 may seem, is done in mercy, that those who may have 
 long resisted the preaching of the Word and the gentler 
 strivings of the Spirit, may be awakened by the rude 
 shock, before spiritual death merges in eternal death. 
 These severe wounds are the deep piercings of the sword 
 of the Spirit, and are sent in mercy, like the sharp 
 anguish of the surgeon's knife, when he cuts off a 
 diseased limb to endeavour to save the patient's life. 
 Indeed, I think the Scripture warrants us in saying, 
 that no afflictions, at all events in this life, are sent even 
 upon the wicked, without a mixture of mercy, if they 
 will receive it ; or, in other words, God never sends 
 judgments upon even the most wicked men, in this life, 
 for the mere purpose of piuiishing them, or giving them 
 
108 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 pain, but to awaken them to their danger, if perchance 
 they would repent and be saved ; for He tells us in His 
 own Holy Word, that " He doth not afEict willingly, 
 nor grieve the children of men" — Sam. iii. 33 ; and we 
 have no right to explain away or restrict the meaning 
 of these words of the Most High, to His own children 
 merely ; He does not say " the children of God," but 
 " the children of men," which plainly includes the whole 
 human family ; and, indeed, this Scripture is fully con- 
 firmed in its widest sense by the words of the Saviou 
 Himself, who has said of the Most High, "He is kind 
 unto the unthankful and the evil" — Luke vi. 35. The 
 Scriptures abound with examples of God making this 
 merciful use of affliction, and it would be endless to 
 mention them all ; but we may just notice the case of 
 of Ishmael, who resisted the grace of God when he was 
 in the midst of the abundance and ease of his wealthy 
 father's house ; and it was not until he was cast out into 
 the wilderness, and ready to die of actual want, that 
 we are told " God heard the voice of the lad" — Gen. xxi. 
 17. Again, it was not while Jacob was in the wealthy 
 and luxurious mansion of his father Isaac, but when he 
 was a stranger and an outcast, sleeping on a stone 
 pillow, under the broad canopy of heaven, that the 
 Word of God came to him, " I am the Lord God of 
 Abraham, thy father," &c. — Gen. xxviii. 13. And 
 once more, it was not until the blind man, who had been 
 restored to sight by the Saviour, had been cast out of 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 109 
 
 the synagogue by the chief priests, that he was enabled 
 to worship Jesus — Luke ix. 38. 
 
 The great characteristic feature of this first day of 
 New Creation is, the purification and restoration of con- 
 science — or, in other words, the implanting of virtue 
 in its germ. This is what answers to the discerning or 
 dividing between the light and the darkness in the 
 natural Creation. Before new-birth the conscience or 
 moral faculty was darkened and polluted by sin, and 
 its judgments were not to be relied upon; in fact, it 
 could not discern between the light and the darhieas. It 
 often pronounced that to be light which was in reality 
 darkness, and pronounced that to be darkness which 
 was in reality light. Of which strange truth we have 
 a very remarkable example in the case of the Apostle 
 Paul, who, after his Conversion, speaking of himself 
 during the period before his new-birth, says, " I verily 
 thought Avith myself that I ought to do many things 
 contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth" — Actsxxvi. 
 9. Here Avas the case of an unregenerate man acting 
 most conscientiously^ and yet committing a most grievous 
 sin against God. His conscience misled him, and 
 decided that to be light which was darkness, and dark- 
 ness it pronounced to be light. And, indeed, we find 
 this same truth, which is thus exemplified in the case 
 of St. Paul, laid down generally in another Scripture, 
 where we read, " Unto them that are defiled and un- 
 believing is nothing pure ; but even their mind oind 
 conscience is defiled" — Tit. i. 15. 
 
110 THE FIEST DAY. 
 
 Now the great work which God does during the first 
 day of New Creation, is the restoration of conscience — - 
 that candle of the Lord within a man, which has been 
 darkened by sin, so that it gives no hght which can be 
 relied upon, but often rather tends to mislead a man, 
 as it did the Apostle Paul, before it was re-lighted in 
 him b}^ the Spirit of God, with a pure flame brought 
 doAvn fresh from the Sun of Kighteousness ; and indeed 
 this tendency of the unenlightened conscience to mis- 
 lead has been noticed by the Saviour Himself, when He 
 said, " If therefore the Hght that is in thee be dark- 
 ness, how great is that darkness ! " — Matt. vi. 23. 
 Now the light that is in a man is manifestly his con- 
 science ; and so we see the conscience of every man 
 must be purified by the blood of Christ before it is 
 fitted to direct a man's steps ; as it is wi^itten, " How 
 much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the 
 eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, 
 purge your conscience from dead works to serve the 
 living God" — Heb. ix. 14. Man's way of religious 
 improvement always begins at the outside, and ends 
 there ; but God's way is exactly the reverse : it begins 
 at the inside, by purifying conscience, without at first 
 touching the outside at all^ whereby in due time the 
 outside becomes clean also. The Saviour Himself has 
 noticed this fundamental error of all human systems of 
 religion — I say of all human systems of religion, for we 
 may remark that the system He instanced, was the very 
 best and purest form that could be devised, of a mere 
 
THE FIRST DAY. Ill 
 
 human system of religion — when He said, " Woe nnto 
 you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye make 
 clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but 
 within they are full of extortion and excess : thou blind 
 Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the cup and 
 platter, that the outside of them may be clean also" — 
 Matt, xxiii. 25, 26. 
 
 God commenced in the natural Creation, by intro- 
 ducing light ; and exactly so in the work of New Crea- 
 tion, the^r^^ thing He does, in the little world within, is 
 to relight the candle of the Lord within a man, by the 
 purification of conscience. Then the germ of true 
 virtue has been introduced, which is neither more nor 
 less than acting according to the dictates of an enlight- 
 ened conscience. That great philosopher of the ancient 
 world, Aristotle, made virtue to consist in habit ; he 
 did not see, however, that a habit could never con- 
 stitute virtue, ^vithout some natural foundation. When 
 he perceived, I suppose, by the force of his giant intel- 
 lect, the falsity of all the then generally received 
 foundations of virtue, he rejected them all ; but not 
 having the light of Revelation to point out the only 
 foundation of virtue, namely, an enlightened conscience, 
 he fell into the strange mistake of leaving virtue with- 
 out any foundation at all : and, indeed, this mistake is 
 not to be wondered at, because an imenlightened con- 
 science — which was the only one, he had ever had any 
 experience of — affords no proper foundation for virtue ; 
 and so strongly has this been felt by philosophers, that an 
 
 H 
 
112 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 eminent modern philosopher — feeling that the standard 
 of virtue would fluctuate, if left to be regulated by the 
 consciences of individuals — has had recourse to the 
 ingenious device of referring to the approval of an ideal 
 spectator, as the foundation of virtue : and, indeed, I 
 do not see howwe can, in this life, altogether get rid of 
 the ideal spectator, in our standard of virtue ; for even 
 in the saints of God, while in the flesh, their consciences 
 — although infinitely more accurate than those of the 
 unregenerate — are not infallible, but an appeal lies from 
 their decision to a higher Court ; and even the Apostle 
 Paul could not depend implicitly upon the judgment of 
 his enlightened conscience, as he tells us, " For I know 
 nothing by myself ; yet am I not hereby justified : but 
 he that judgeth me is the Lord" — 1 Cor. iv. 4 ; or, as 
 it might be more idiomatically translated, " For though 
 my conscience should not accuse me of anything ; yet 
 am I not hereby justified, &c." 
 
 If this work of God should once commence Avithin any 
 man, if in fact any man should experience new-birth, 
 he will surely attain to everlasting Salvation. He may 
 and will fall often^ but he will never fall away finally ; 
 for the Scripture tells us " Whatsoever is born of God 
 overcometh the world" — 1 John v. 4 ; and again, 
 " Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down ; 
 for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand" — Ps. xxxvii. 
 24. The moment new-birth takes place, victory over 
 the world and its fruits are certain, for Christ has pro- 
 mised, " To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 113 
 
 me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set 
 down with my Father in his throne" — Rev. iii. 21. 
 But it is nevertheless equally certain — and a very alarm- 
 ing truth it is — that a man may fane?/ that he has been 
 born again, when, in truth, he has not experienced that 
 change ; for we may remember the Saviour's words, 
 " ]\Iany will say unto me in that day. Lord, Lord, have 
 we not prophesied in thy name ? and in thy name have 
 cast out devils ? and in thy name done many wonderful 
 works ? And then will I profess unto them, I never 
 knew you : depart from me, ye that work iniquity" — 
 Matt. vii. 22, 23. These "many" persons mentioned 
 by the Saviour, evidently imagined that they had been 
 born again, and were quite surprised when they were 
 not admitted, with the children of God, into the enjoy- 
 ment of the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and 
 which fadeth not away ; but they had in fact deceived 
 themselves ; which affords another proof — if it were 
 wanting — that the unregenerate heart of man is, in the 
 words of Scripture, " deceitful above all things," when 
 it can deceive even its own self. Hence the importance 
 of the most accurate tests of the genuineness of new- 
 birth, to enable each one to examine his own self, 
 whether he has been born again or not, while yet there 
 is time to correct an error in this matter ; and some 
 such tests, I hope, before I conclude this little volume, 
 to be able to deduce from the Analogy of Creation. We 
 see, however, that it is quite possible for those who are 
 not the children of God, to imagine that they have 
 
 H2 
 
114 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 been born again ; and, in like manner, it is true that 
 those who really a?'e the children of God, and have 
 been born again, may, and almost invariably do, imagine 
 at first, that they are not the children of God. Indeed, 
 I almost think I might lay it down as a general rule, that 
 during the first day of New Creation, God's children 
 are not aivare that they are His children ; and this 
 corresponds exactly with what we observe every day in 
 the natural world. The infant does not, during the 
 first stage of its existence, know Avho are its parents ; 
 and even when it does come to be able to distinguish 
 them personally, it has no idea of their station or posi- 
 tion in society. It has, during infancy, only a dim 
 consciousness of existence, marked principally by painful 
 sensations, by which its different wants make themselves 
 felt : no doubt it has some consciousness, but its con- 
 sciousness fades away quickly, and leaves no trace 
 behind : and so we shall find that the beginnings of 
 spiritual, as of natural existence, are generally lost in 
 the obscurity of the past, and leave no trace upon the 
 memory. During this first stage of spiritual existence, 
 the conviction of sin is more or less strongly and pain- 
 fully present, and the want of a Saviour is keenly felt, 
 but the light is as yet too weak to disclose plainly and 
 clearly the Great Deliverer, and faith is as yet too feeble 
 to take firm hold of Him, even if He could be seen. In 
 fact the spiritual earth is still covered by the unstable 
 ocean, and the dark garment of cloud still rests on its 
 bosom. Besides, Satan, who early discovers the change 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 115 
 
 that has taken place, seeks to bewilder and frighten the 
 newly-awakened soul by his lying discouragements ; and 
 the doctrine of Predestination affords him a favourite 
 and successful weapon on these occasions, so he whispers, 
 * You are certainly predestinated to be lost : you see 
 now, how sinful you are ; and God has said " The soul 
 that sinneth, it shall die," as you may find it written in 
 the 18th chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel, and the 4th 
 verse : look in your Bible— God's own Word — and don't 
 take my word for it, as you may have heard that I do 
 not bear a good name for truth. Now, as you are cer- 
 tainly predestinated to be lost, you may as well have the 
 enjoyment of the pleasures of sin, while you can ; your 
 life and happiness for eternity are already forfeited to 
 God's inexorable justice, and ichat worse can He do to 
 you for sinning a little more.' Thus Satan uses the 
 doctrine of Predestination to endeavour to turn aside 
 the infant Christian ; and as he told the lie to our first 
 parents, " Ye shall not surely die," in Avhich falsehood 
 he has been detected; so he now changes his tactics, 
 and tells the opposite lie to their children, " Ye shall 
 surely die," thinking it more likely to deceive than a 
 repetition of the old lie. But any soul thus assailed 
 by Satan may put him to flight, by taking the sword of 
 the Spirit, and reminding Satan that Christ has said, 
 *' Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast 
 out"— John vi. 37; and again, "The Son of Man is 
 come to seek and to save that which ivas lost'' — Luke 
 xix. 10. 
 
116 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 It may not be altogether out of place here to make 
 a few remarks upon this doctrme of Predestination, 
 which, although it bears a bad name among men in 
 general, and even among many real Christians, is, I 
 conceive, a truth not only warranted by the Scriptures, 
 and sanctioned by the Articles of our Church, but 
 is the only doctrine on the subject, which is consistent 
 with our Reason, and will bear the test of philosophical 
 investigation. The Scriptures plainly lay down this 
 doctrine in its widest and most absolute form, and if 
 they do, it is our duty to believe and accept it, even 
 though it should seem inconsistent with our precon- 
 ceived notions. Our Lord and Saviour taught this 
 doctrine of Predestination, for He has said, " No man 
 can come to me except the Father which hath sent me, 
 draw him" — John vi. 44; and again, "I have mani- 
 fested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me 
 out of the Avorld, I pray for them, I pray not for the 
 Avorld" — John xvii. 6 — 9 : and the same doctrine is 
 incidentally alluded to in the historical account of the 
 Apostolic Church, where we are told, "And as many 
 as were ordained to eternal life, believed" — -Acts xiii. 
 48. Again, the same doctrine is taught by St. Paul, 
 for he has written the words, " For whom he did fore- 
 know, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
 image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among 
 many brethren : moreover whom he did predestinate, 
 them he also called ; and whom he called, them he also 
 justified ; and whom he justified, them he also glorified*' 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 117 
 
 — Rom. viii. 29, 30. And again, " According as he hath 
 chosen us in him before the foundations of the world, 
 that we should be holy and without blame before him 
 in love : having predestinated us unto the adoption of 
 children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the 
 good pleasure of his will . . In whom also we have 
 obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according 
 to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the 
 counsel of his own will" — Eph. i. 4, 5, 11. 
 
 In these Scriptures we find the doctrine of predes- 
 tination according to the election of grace, plainly and 
 unmistakably laid down. And there are other Scrip- 
 tures in which the other branch of the doctrine — namely, 
 the predestination according to the election unto dam- 
 nation — is with equal clearness enunciated ; for instance, 
 St. Paul writes, " What if God, willing to show his 
 wrath and to make his power known, endured with 
 much longsuiFering the vessels of wrath fitted to de- 
 sttmction'*^ — Rom. ix. 22 : and St. Peter writes, "And 
 a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to 
 them which stumble at the word, being disobedient, 
 whereunto also they were appointed" — 1 Pet. ii. 18. 
 And indeed, I think we shall find that if the Scriptures 
 had been silent upon this subject. Reason itself would 
 teach us this doctrine, as a necessary consequence from 
 the other doctrines of Scripture. In fact the doctrine 
 of Predestination is only a particular case of a more 
 general truth which Revelation and Reason alike teach 
 us, namely, that nothing happens ly chance^ but that all 
 
118 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 things, great as well as small, are regulated and predes- 
 tinated by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge 
 of God, and that there is no change of purpose with 
 him. Every event, whether in the natural world or in 
 the spiritual world, even to the minutest circumstance 
 and the most apparently insignificant detail, is equally 
 predestinated. It is just as much, and no more, predes- 
 tinated^ what any individual shall eat for his dinner 
 each day, and how many mouthfuls he shall take, as it 
 is predestinated whether he shall be lost or saved; and 
 one great mistake which men generally make about this 
 doctrine is, to suppose its application is confined to the 
 question of Salvation or Perdition, and that all other 
 things are left at large ; whereas the application of this 
 doctrine is absolutely universal, alike in great things as 
 in small things, and in the natural world as in the 
 spiritual world ; and in all cases this Predestination is 
 founded on the foreknowledge of God. 
 
 If, indeed, the common idea of the doctrine of Pre- 
 destination w^ere well founded, namely, that it teaches 
 that God has predestinated the eternal Salvation or 
 Perdition of each individual, but has left all the other 
 events of his history to chance, or the accidental deter- 
 mination of the Will of the individual, then the doctrine 
 in question would be irreconcilable with our ideas of 
 the wisdom, justice, and goodness of God. But this is 
 not a correct view of the case ; for Scripture and Eeason 
 alike teach us, that the minutest events of every man's 
 life are just as much, and no more, predestinated, as 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 119 
 
 his eternal Salvation or Perdition ; and in every case 
 alike, both in the natural world and in the spiritual 
 world, that Predestination is founded on the fore- 
 knowledge of God. This universal application of the 
 doctrine of Predestination we shall find to be fully war- 
 ranted by the words of Inspiration, for we read in God's 
 Word, " A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord 
 directeth his steps'^ — Prov. xvi. 9. Again, we find it 
 written, " Thou knowest my downsitting and mine 
 uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off, thou 
 compasseth my path, and my lying down, and art 
 acquainted with all my ways ; for there is not a word 
 in my tongue, but lo, Lord, thou knowest it altoge- 
 ther, thou hast beset me hehind and before, and laid 
 thine hand upon me ; such knowledge is too wonderful 
 for me, it is high, I cannot attain unto it " — Ps. cxxxix. 
 2 — 6 : or, as the second verse is translated in our prayer 
 book version, "Thou understandest my thoughts long 
 before.^* And again (referring to Christ) we read, 
 " Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and 
 foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by mcked 
 hands have crucified and slain" — Acts ii. 23. We may 
 learn from these Scriptures that no event is too minute 
 to be foreknown and predestinated by God. The steps 
 a man takes when he walks, the most apparently insig- 
 nificant thoughts in our minds, have been just as much, 
 and no more, predestinated, as that wonderful event 
 which gave Salvation to a lost world. That eminent 
 Christian writer, Dr. Gumming, has clearly seen and 
 
120 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 laid down this same doctrine, that the most insignificant 
 events, as well as the greatest, are predestinated by God ; 
 or, in other words, that nothing happens by chance. 
 In one of his works, I think it is " Redemption draweth 
 nigh," he has used words to this effect, " If you once 
 grant me, that the turning of a withered leaf can happen 
 by chance, I will demonstrate to you, that the over- 
 turning of an empire, or the loss of an immortal soul 
 may happen by chance." 
 
 Now this is exactly the view of the doctrine of Predes- 
 tination which I have been endeavouring to establish ; 
 and it is certain that, as Dr. Gumming has asserted, if 
 you once admit chance, or the absence of Predestina- 
 tion, into any, the most minute event, it follows, as a 
 matter of course, by demonstration plain, that the most 
 important events to nations, or to individuals, may 
 happen by chance. To take an example : we have 
 most of us read, in Roman History, of the goose, which, 
 by its cackling, alarmed the Roman garrison, and saved 
 them from destruction by the Gauls, when the latter 
 were on the point of surprising their great stronghold. 
 Now, what more apparently insignificant event than the 
 cackling of a goose could well be imagined ? And yet, if 
 that goose had not cackled at that precise moment, the 
 citadel would have been surprised, the Romans would 
 have been conquered by the Gauls, and the destiny of 
 the world changed. AYill any man say that such great 
 events might have happened by chance ? If not, the 
 cackling of that goose was foreknown and predestinated 
 
THE FIRST DAY 
 
 121 
 
 from all eternity. Again, our Lord said to Peter, " The 
 cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice" — 
 John xiii. 38. Now the crowing of that cock cannot 
 have happened by chance, but must have been fore- 
 known and predestinated, at the time our Saviour 
 uttered the prediction ; and if it was forekno^vn and pre- 
 destinated then, it must have been equally so, from all 
 eternity, for there is no change of purpose with God ; 
 or, in the expressive words of Inspiration, " With him 
 there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning" — 
 James i. 17. 
 
 Thus we may see from Scripture as well as Reason, 
 that everything^ as well in the natural world as in the 
 spiritual world, is predestinated ; and yet we have 
 practical experience every day, that this great truth 
 does not, in natural things, interfere in the least Avith 
 the Free- Will of man. The farmer does not neglect to 
 sow his seed, until he has first ascertained whether God 
 has predestinated it to produce a crop ; the barrister 
 does not neglect to read his briefs, until he has ascer- 
 tained whether God has predestinated him to succeed 
 at his profession ; at least if he does, he will soon have 
 no briefs to read, and he will thus Avork out the pre- 
 destination of God by his own folly : and the same is 
 true of the physician and all other temporal professions 
 and employments. And — exactly in the same manner — 
 the awakened sinner does not wait to find out whether 
 God has predestinated him to eternal Salvation, before 
 he w^ill believe. But he hears the proclamation of the 
 
122 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 Most High, " God so loved tlie world that he gave his 
 only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life" — John iii. 
 16 ; he takes God at His word, believes, and is saved ; 
 while he who abuses the doctrine of Predestination, by 
 refusing to believe until he can first be satisfied that he 
 has been predestinated by God to eternal Salvation, 
 works out, by his own folly, the predestination of God 
 to his own perdition, exactly in the same manner as 
 a farmer, a barrister, a physician, or an author, who 
 should be mad enough to abuse the same doctrine in 
 reference to temporal things, would work out the pre- 
 destination of God, and destroy his own temporal 
 prospects. And, in tiTith, if we will only consider the 
 subject rationally, we A^dll see in a moment that those 
 who reject the doctrine of Predestination, do not in the 
 least really get over the difficulty, on account of which 
 they reject the doctrine, but only throw back that 
 difficulty a single step. For those who say or think 
 that it is inconsistent with the goodness and justice of 
 God to have predestinated numbers of our race to 
 eternal punishment, do not consider, thatz/it be incon- 
 sistent with His goodness and justice to have done so ; 
 it is equally inconsistent with His goodness and justice 
 to have created such persons ivith a foreknowledge that 
 they would be consigned to eternal punishment ; con- 
 sequently the same difficulty here recurs, and is really 
 only pushed back a single step, namely, from the pre- 
 destination of God, to the foreknowledge of God, on 
 
THE FIUST DAY. 123 
 
 whicli His predestination is founded ; and therefore 
 those persons who object to the doctrine of Predesti- 
 nation, if they would he consistent icith themselves^ 
 ought, on the very same grounds, to object to the doc- 
 trine of God's foreknowledge, or to the doctrine of 
 eternal punishments. But the former of these doc- 
 trines is quite out of the reach of any assault, for, to 
 deny it, would be to degrade the Creator to a level with 
 His creatures, to rob Him of one of His most glorious 
 attributes, and to consign the Universe to the govern- 
 ment of blind chance or necessity. 
 
 The real difficulty, therefore, about this doctrine of 
 Predestination, is reduced to the question of future 
 eternal punishments ; and that is the doctrine, which, 
 men who reject the doctrine of Predestination, ought, 
 if they would be consistent with themselves, to quarrel 
 with, instead of quarreling with the doctrine of Pre- 
 destination, which is a truth deducible, with all the 
 force of mathematical demonstration, from the very 
 fundamental idea of God, independently of the autho- 
 rity of Scripture ; and which is also a truth fully and 
 clearly laid dowii in the Scriptures. Thus we are 
 naturally led to the consideration of the doctrine of 
 future punishments, into which we have traced up the 
 real difficulty which leads men to reject the doctrine of 
 Predestination. 
 
 But it would lead into too long a digression from 
 the main subject of this work, if we were to discuss the 
 various heads of that deep and mysterious subject, at 
 
124 TUE FIRST DAY. 
 
 present ; I sliall therefore leave it to some future occa- 
 sion, when, if this book should meet with some little 
 encouragement, and if time and opportunity should be 
 given me, I might perhaps endeavour to investigate 
 the whole subject of future punishments by the lights 
 of Revelation and Reason — which, in this, as in all 
 other matters, we may be quite certain, if rightly inter- 
 preted and understood, point to the same conclusion — 
 and to correct some of the erroneous notions generally 
 prevalent on this subject, which are the real cwise of 
 the apparent inconsistency between the doctrine of 
 Predestination, and the goodness, justice, and kindness 
 of God ; who — whatever hard things some men, who 
 know Him not, may say and write about Him — is, 
 beyond all question, the kindest, the most benevolent, 
 and the most liberal Being in the Universe — as indeed 
 His name imports — and every one who really knows 
 Him, will bear willing testimony to this great truth ; 
 but we have greater testimony than that of man to 
 this truth, for He Himself has told us that " He 
 delighteth in mercy" — Mic. vii. 18 ; and again. He 
 who knew the heart of God as no other man could 
 know it, has borne this testimony of Him, " He is kind 
 unto the unthankful and the evil" — Luke iv. 35. 
 
 There is, hoAvever, another difficulty connected with 
 the doctrine of Predestination^ which causes some men to 
 reject it, and that is, that they think it inconsistent with 
 the Free Will of man ; thus it is objected, ' How can 
 sins be committed of man's Free Will, when they have 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 125 
 
 all been predestinated ?' And yet, Scripture and Expe- 
 rience, Revelation and Eeason, alike unite in bearing 
 testimony to the truth of these two doctrines, namely, 
 the Predestination of God and the Free Will of man ; the 
 Scripture, speaking of the crucifixion of the Lord and 
 Saviour, says, " Him being delivered by the determi- 
 nate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, 
 and "vvith wicked hands have crucified and slain ;" their 
 hands were wicked, in that they had committed this 
 great and grievous sin, which could not have been truly 
 said of them, unless their Wills were free ; and yet this 
 sin was, as we are expressly told, predestinated by God. 
 Now, this was not the only sin which God predestinated, 
 for every sin, which every child of Adam, or fallen 
 Angel, has ever committed, must have been alike pre- 
 destinated by God ; and yet those sins have all been 
 committed by wicked hands or wicked hearts, possessed 
 of Free Will, to do or not to do, as they pleased ; indeed, 
 we have the testimony of our own internal experience — 
 which is as strong, at least, if not stronger, than the 
 testimony of our senses — concurring with the testimony 
 of Revelation, in telling us, that ourWills are free. We 
 feel and know, by the experience of every moment of 
 our Hves, that ourWills are free ; and at the same time, 
 we have already seen that the truth of the doctrine of 
 God's universal predestination, rests upon an equally 
 immoveable basis ; and, although we may not be able 
 thoroughly to comprehend how these two doctrines are 
 reconcileable, yet, perhaps, we may be able to arrive at 
 
126 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 some dim conception of how this may be the case. 
 In fact, I think this difficulty arises altogether from our 
 necessarily imperfect metaphysical conception of the 
 nature and mode of existence of the Incomprehensible 
 One ; it is caused by that impassible chasm which sepa- 
 rates, and ever must separate, the Infinite from the 
 Finite ; in a word, it is caused by the fruitless effort of 
 the finite human mind to grasp the Infinite, which being 
 impossible, the mind falls back upon the Finite, and, for- 
 getting its OTVTi incapacity, deals with its own idea of 
 the Infinite — which is, in truth, finite like the mind in 
 which it exists — as if it were the true Infinite. In 
 other words, to take one example, we cannot think of 
 God without supposing Him to exist in time, like our- 
 selves, having a past, present, and future ; and yet this 
 is manifestly erroneous, for we know that there is no 
 past nor future to Him. Thus we imperceptibly and 
 necessarily — by a sort of irresistible illusion — substitute 
 the Finite for the Infinite, and thus we fall into mistakes 
 and seeming inconsistencies, as great as a traveller in a 
 railway carriage would fall into, if he were to fancy — 
 as persons sometimes momentarily do, when in a dreamy 
 state of half-wakefulness — that he was at rest, and the 
 country was moving past him, like a great panorama. 
 So it is with us, we look out of the Avindow of our con- 
 sciousness, and Ave fancy that God is moving past us, 
 while all the time He is at rest, and the motion is in 
 ourselves. This illusion of past, present, and future, is 
 just like that of the railway traveller, except that in our 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 127 
 
 case, the illusion is universal and irresistible, while in 
 his case, it is but momentary and feeble. We may also 
 observe, that this universal and irresistible illusion 
 must extend its influence over Angels, and all other 
 created beings, as well as ourselves ; in fact. Time 
 appears to be only one of the conditions of finite intel- 
 lectual existence. From these considerations, we may 
 be able to form some dim conception of how it is, that 
 these two doctrines of Predestination and Free Will may 
 be both true, and perfectly reconcileable with each 
 other; in fact, the very word 'Predestination' involves 
 the fallacy which creates the difficulty, for it imports a 
 future to God^ which is a latent absurdity. 
 
 "While we are on this subject, it may not be altogether 
 out of place here, to call attention to another curious 
 instance of an illusion, which forms, as it were, an inter- 
 mediate link, between the feeble illusion of the sleepy 
 traveller in the railway carriage, and the irresistible 
 illusion of the progress of time, I mean the illusion aris- 
 ing out of the diiTction of gravitation. This, to unedu- 
 cated minds^ is quite irresistible; they cannot bring them- 
 selves to imagine that there is not naturally an ' Up' and 
 a ' Down' all through the Universe ; and they fancy — as 
 the ancient philosophers did — that all material bodies 
 have a natural and necessary tendency do-vvnwards ; and 
 even those who know theoretically that this is but an 
 illusion, are not altogether practically free from its 
 influence, such is the force of early acquired ideas and 
 pre-conceived notions. 
 
 I 
 
128 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 The doctrine of Predestination is, therefore, perfectly- 
 consistent with the Free Will of man ; and this Predes- 
 tination operates, not by constraint upon the Will, but 
 by the foreknowledge of God, who foreknows what a 
 man W\\\ freely do, and has all his arrangements made 
 from eternity, consistent with such foreknown exercise 
 of man's Free Will. Of this great truth, even the ancient 
 Heathens had some dim conception, in proof of which 
 assertion, we may refer to the words of that prince of 
 ancient poets. Homer, with which every schoolboy is 
 familiar, Avhere (referring to a number of events wrought 
 out by the different chieftains, of whom he is about to 
 sing), he uses the words, At6c ck reXeuTo BowX?}:* and one 
 of our own poets also has written to the same purport, 
 in a well-known passage : — 
 
 " There's a divinity that shapes our ends, 
 Rough-hew them how we will:" 
 
 so universally has this great truth forced itself, more 
 or less fully, upon the intelligence of mankind, in all 
 ages ; but, although the doctrine of Predestination is 
 true, and thus clearly deducible from Revelation and 
 from Reason, I am far from thinking that it is neces- 
 sary to a man's Salvation that he should believe in it ; 
 on the contrary, I believe that a man may believe in 
 the doctrine of Predestination, and yet not be saved ; 
 and another may disbelieve the doctrine of Predestina- 
 
 * The determinate counsel of the Great God was being accom- 
 plished. 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 129 
 
 tion, and yet obtain Salvation ; for we read that the 
 Apostles, when addressed in those anxious words, " Sirs, 
 what must I do to be saved ?" replied, " Believe on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." — Acts 
 xvi. 30, 31 — and this is still true; every one who 
 believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved, no 
 matter what doctrine of the Church he may disbelieve, 
 and no matter how illogical his belief may be, 'provided 
 only it he genuine. 
 
 But, some men when forced to admit the truth and 
 consistency of these two doctrines of Predestination and 
 Free Will, then turn round and object to the wisdom 
 and goodness of God in having given man a Free Will. 
 Thus, fallen man ever seeks to cast his own fault, in 
 some way or other, upon God ; and this tendency, we 
 may observe, even from the moment of the Fall ; Avhile 
 yet in the Garden of Eden, oui^ first father, when charged 
 with the commission of the first sin, daringly said to 
 the Holy One, " The woman whom tliou gavest to be 
 mth me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat" — 
 Gen. iii. 12 ; thus seeking to cast the blame of his 
 own transgression upon God, the bountiful Giver of that 
 best of His created gifts to man. And so these modern 
 objectors say to their Creator, 'The Free Will that thou 
 hast given me, it has misled me ;' and like their fallen 
 first father, they pervert the good gift of God ; and 
 then turn round, and seek to convert God's very good- 
 ness in His gift, into an objection against His character. 
 And yet these objectors are so far right in their reason- 
 
 •i2 
 
130 , THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 ings, that the cause why men are not saved, lies, not in 
 the Predestination of God, but in the Free Will of man ; 
 for the Scripture tells us that " Christ is able to save them 
 to the uttermost, that come unto God by him" — Heb. 
 yii. 25. And can we doubt that He is willing to do so ? 
 But the true obstacle to universal Salvation lies, not in 
 the Will of Christ, nor in the Predestination of God, but 
 in the corrupt Free AYill of fallen man, who loves dark- 
 ness rather than light, and evil rather than good ; even 
 as the Saviour Himself has said, " Jerusalem, Jerusa- 
 lem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them 
 which are sent unto thee, how often ivould I\i2iTQ. gathered 
 thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her 
 chickens imder her wing, and ye ivoiild not/'* And 
 again, " Ye will not come unto me that ye might have 
 life"_John V. 40. 
 
 Upon the same principles we may be able to solve 
 the vexed question, of how God is able to answer 
 Prayer without disturbing the arrangements and order 
 of His Universe. This question, which has quite puzzled 
 many profound philosophers, who have attempted its 
 solution by the light of their carnal understandings, 
 admits of a simple solution, which is both Scriptural, 
 and, at the same time, strictly philosophical and con- 
 sistent with our Eeason ; namely, that the Prayers, as 
 ivell as the answers to them, are alike 2^redestinated by 
 God, in perfect consistency with the order and arrange- 
 ments of His general government of the Universe. This 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 131 
 
 is, in fact, only a particular case of the more general 
 truth, which we have already considered, namely, that 
 all the acts and events of every man's life are alike pre- 
 destinated hy God. Prayer is a free act of the AVill of 
 a man, who has been born again ; and yet, in common 
 with all the other free acts of his Will, it is foreknown 
 and predestinated by God : and its predestination no 
 more interferes with its perfect freedom, than the pre- 
 destination of every other act of his Will — even to the 
 very steps a man takes in walking — interferes with the 
 perfect freedom of such acts. And, indeed, Scripture 
 also bears out this view, for we may remember that it 
 is written, "The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous 
 man availeth much" — James v. 16, or, as it might be 
 more literally translated, " The inwrought prayer of a 
 righteous man availeth much." The Prayer which is eifec- 
 tual with God must then be imvrovght or inspired hy the 
 Sjnrit of God, and therefore predestinated, and it must 
 be the Prayer of a righteous man, that is, a justified 
 man, or one M'ho has been born again ; and the answer 
 to it, has been predestinated as well as the Prayer, and 
 this, without in the least disturbing the order or arrange- 
 ment of God's wisdom, or the predestinated harmony of 
 His government of the Universe. ■ 
 
 But, to return from this short digression about 
 Prayer, we see then, that God's Predestination never 
 destroj^ed one soul, who did not, as a suicide, of his 
 own corrupt Free Will, impale himself upon this doctrine, 
 
132' THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 which resembles a sharp sword, in that it has a handle 
 and a blade. And we may add, in the words of the 
 seventeenth Article of our Church, that " as the godly 
 consideration of predestination and our election in Christ, 
 is full of sweet, pleasant, and unspeakable comfort" — 
 for this is, in fact, taking the sword of Predestination by 
 the handle — " so for curious and carnal persons lacking 
 the Spirit of Christ, to have continually before their eyes 
 the sentence of God's predestination, is a most dangerous 
 downfall, whereby the Devil doth thrust them either 
 into desperation, or into wretchlessness of most unclean 
 living, no less perilous than desperation" — for this is 
 taking the sword of Predestination by the blade, and fall- 
 ing upon it ; this mode of abusing the doctrine is, indeed, 
 a " dangerous downfall" — a fallacy of Satan, which 
 he whispers into the ears of his deluded victims. This 
 fallacy may, I conceive, be logically exposed and shown, 
 when analyzed, to be in truth, a mode of reasoning in a 
 vicious circle, thus : — ' I am so wicked, because I know 
 I am certainly predestinated to be lost, and I know I 
 am certainly predestinated to be lost, because I am so 
 wicked.' Let us say to any soul whom Satan has 
 bewildered A\dth this sophism, Awake, Shake off this 
 cursed spell, arise from the dead, and Christ shall give 
 thee life. Who told thee that thou wast predestinated 
 to be lost ? Hast thou penetrated into the secret Council- 
 chamber of the Most High, and seen thine own death- 
 warrant, signed by His own royal hand ? "Well, even 
 if this could be the case, there is no need for despair. 
 
THE FIRST DAT. ] 33 
 
 Eepent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that 
 death-warrant shall be cancelled ; and God will do in 
 respect to you, as he did in respect to Nineveh of old, 
 as we read in the Prophet Jonah, by whom the word 
 of God came to the inhabitants of Nineveh, saying, 
 " Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." 
 There was the warrant, signed, with a stay of execution 
 for forty days ; and the men of Nineveh did not sink 
 into desperation, nor keep on sinning, nor listen to the 
 suggestions of the Evil One, that they might as well 
 have the enjoyment of their sins during the forty days, 
 as they were predestinated to be destroyed, at the end 
 of the forty days, in any event, and that God could do 
 nothing worse to them for their additional sins. But, 
 like men of sense, they took the doctrine of Predestina- 
 tion by the handle, not by the blade, and they repented. 
 And we read in God's own Word, that " God saw their 
 works, th'at they turned from their evil way ; and God 
 repented of the evil, that he had said he would do unto 
 them, and he did it not." Let us all, then, imitate the 
 good example of the men of Nineveh, and obey the 
 voice of God, which saith, "Look unto me and be ye 
 saved all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there 
 is none else" — Isaiah xlv. 22 ; and to the voice of Christ, 
 saying, " Come unto me all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest" — Matt. xi. 28. 
 This doctrine of Predestination is a burden too heavy 
 for us to bear, so long as we attempt to take it by the 
 hlacle, but if we bring it to Christ, He will teach us how 
 
134 THE FIRST DAY. 
 
 to take it by the handle ; and to convert it into a source 
 of comfort and protection. He will reveal to us, how 
 He has sheathed the blade of this terrible sword in His 
 own bosom, in order that the handle of it might be 
 turned towards us. But if we icill not come to Christ, 
 until we can first understand the doctrine of Predes- 
 tination, and its bearing on ourselves, Ave shall imitate 
 the folly of the philosophers in the days of Noah, who, 
 I venture to say, were disputing about the possihilitij 
 of such a thing as a Flood to drown the whole world, 
 at the very time when the Flood — which they had so 
 conclusively demomtrated to be an impossibility — came 
 and interrupted their discussions, by destroying them all. 
 Or, we shall act as a man in modern times would do, 
 who, when roused from his sleejD by the unwelcome 
 news, that the house he was sleeping in was on fire, and 
 the fire-escape at the wmdow, and not a moment to be 
 lost, should seek to imderstand all the miilute parti- 
 culars of the construction of the fire-escape, before he 
 would stir from liis bed. If such a person were to sufier 
 the dreadful death of burning, as the penalty of his 
 folly, surely, no man could be so unreasonable as to lay 
 the blame of his death to the charge of the conductor 
 of the fire-escape ; and still less will any soul, who shall 
 be lost, be able to lay the blame of his perdition upon 
 God or His Christ. Indeed, we believe that no soul, 
 even among the lost, will attempt to do so ; they will 
 then see, when too late, the mercy of God towards 
 themselves, and how they frustrated it — how, like the 
 
THE FIRST DAY. 135 
 
 Pharisees and Lawyers of old, " they rejected the coun- 
 sel of God against themselves.'' — Luke vii. 30. For the 
 Saviour has told us, in His parable of the wedding 
 garment, that when the King addressed the man with- 
 out the wedding garment, " he was speechless" — Matt, 
 xxii. 12. He had not a word to say in his own defence, 
 or even in mitigation of his punishment ; and so, pro- 
 bably, it will be found at the last, that one of the sorest 
 elements in the punishment of the lost, will be their 
 consciousness of the perfect justice of their lot, and the 
 conviction that their sad condition has not been caused 
 by the Predestination of God, but by their own deli- 
 berate refusal and perversion of His mercy. 
 
[ 136 ] 
 
 CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 " And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the 
 waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made 
 the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firma- 
 ment, from the waters which were above the firmament : and it was 
 so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and 
 the morning were the second day." — Gen. i. 6 — 8. 
 
 We liave here a very short, but expressive and inspired 
 account of the second stage in the Creation of the 
 natural world. God is again represented as acting and 
 active in the production of this further progressive 
 change in the state and condition of our Planet, by 
 sending forth His Word, " Let there be a firmament in 
 the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters 
 from the waters." Now, let us first briefly consider 
 Avhat physical change in the natural world was pro- 
 duced by this word of the Most High ; and on this 
 subject there seems to be no diversity of opinion 
 among modem commentators, as all of them agree, that 
 the change here introduced, was the formation of an 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 137 
 
 atmosphere, which gradually lifted up the dense mass 
 of vapour from off the surface of the deep, and thus 
 necessarily made the garment of cloud, which enveloped 
 our earth, less thick and impenetrable to the light of 
 the sun, as it gradually rose higher and higher above 
 the bosom of ocean, and became diffused over a wider 
 surface. And this will appear, even more obviously, 
 to be the true meaning of these verses, if we refer to 
 the inspired words of the original text. The word 
 translated " firmament," in our authorized version, 
 signifies literally — as every Hebrew scholar knows — 
 " an expanse or open space ;" and the words translated, 
 " let it divide," might be more literally rendered " let 
 it be dividing" — for it is the participle which occurs in 
 the original text — importing a contimioiis progressive 
 action^ and not a sudden change. Introducing these 
 more literal translations, the Avords of the Almighty 
 uttered on this occasion will run thus, "Let there be 
 an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it be 
 dividing between the waters and the waters." Prior to 
 the commencement of this second day, there had been 
 no accurately marked division between the waters of 
 the ocean, and the dense mass of watery vapour which 
 rested on the surface of the deep. During the long 
 ages which composed the first day, it would have been 
 impossible to say exactly, where the water of the ocean 
 ceased, and where the watery vapour of the clouds 
 began ; they Avere so intimately blended together, and 
 ran into one another, as it were. Any one who has 
 
138 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 seen the natural phenomenon called a waterspout at 
 sea, will have a very accurate idea of this state of 
 things, except that in the case of the waterspout in 
 modern times, it only extends over a comparatively 
 small portion of the surface of the ocean, whereas, in 
 those primitive ages, it was universal over the whole 
 surface of the deep. And, as in the case of the water- 
 spout at sea, the surface of the ocean appears to be 
 elevated under the cloudy column, and to run into it, so 
 that it is impossible to tell exactly, where the column of 
 cloud begins, and where the water ends ; so it was 
 over the whole surface of the deep, during the long 
 ages which composed the first day. But at its close, or 
 rather at the commencement of the second day, an 
 atmosphere was gradually formed, which, from the 
 commencement of its formation, made a distinct and 
 sharply defined division between the water of the ocean, 
 and the water of the dense aqueous cloud which had 
 hitherto rested upon, and been blended with it ; and 
 this division or separation constantly increased, as the 
 mantle of cloud rose higher and higher, according as 
 the atmosphere was gradually formed. In all other 
 respects, the earth continued exactly as it had been 
 during the previous day; there was still no beauty to 
 be seen in the appearance of our world; it was still 
 covered by a shoreless ocean, which extended itself 
 from pole to pole, and from east to west, in a con- 
 tinuity unbroken by one single spot of land; it was 
 still empty of all inhabitants, except some of the lower 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 139 
 
 forms of submarine existence ; it was still unprofitable 
 alike to the Creator, and to all his intelligent Creation. 
 And, indeed, this appears to be clearly inferrible from 
 the words of Inspiration ; for we are not told that the 
 Creator — when surveying His work at the close of this 
 second day — saw any good thing in the earth which had 
 not been there during the first day ; and yet, He must 
 have seen, in greathj increased measure, that same 
 light which He had already pronounced to be good ; for 
 the natural and necessary consequence of the lifting up 
 of the garment of cloud from ocean's surface, must 
 have been to diminish the density and thickness of that 
 layer of vapour, as it became spread over a wider 
 surface ; and thus light must have been much more 
 freely admitted to the surface of the deep ; and, be- 
 sides, the elevation of the vapour into the atmosphere, 
 must have tended immensely to open and clear the 
 view in the direction of the horizon, so that an eye 
 placed on the surface of our Planet, during this second 
 day, would have had a comparatively wide and clear 
 horizontal view all around, unobstructed by the dense 
 aqueous vapours of the first day; but still, nothing 
 would have met the gaze of that eye, but the intermi- 
 nable watery waste of ocean, disturbed continually by 
 the new born winds, which then first began, as fresh 
 combatants, to agitate the surface of the deep, and to 
 co-operate with the disturbing effects of interna] con- 
 vulsions, in keeping up and increasing the violence of 
 the elemental strife, wdiich then, as in the by-gone age. 
 
140 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 raged without ceasing, throughout our world. Again, 
 we may observe, that the work of this day in the natural 
 Creation, did not consist in the introduction of any new 
 element into the earth ; and in this respect it is ver}' 
 distinguishable from the work of the first day ; and 
 this distinction, we shall find, is very strongly marked 
 in the difference of the language used to describe the 
 operations of these two days. In the description of the 
 work of the first day, after God had said, "Let there 
 be light," the narrative did not go on to tell us that 
 God mad-e the light ; but here, m the description of the 
 work of the second day, after God had said, " Let 
 there be a firmament, &c.," the narrative goes on to 
 tell us that '' God made the firmament." Now this 
 distinction in the language used on these two occasions 
 is very remarkable, and is intended, I conceive, to con- 
 vey the idea, that the light was a totally new element 
 in our Planet, not evolved from anything in the Chaos, 
 but introduced from without, and partaking of the 
 nature of the Uncreated One ; for we are nowhere told 
 that God made the light, nor even that God created the 
 light ; but on the contrary we read in another Scrip- 
 ture that " God is light;" Avhereas, in contradistinction 
 to this, we are here told, that " God made the firma- 
 ment," that is to say, the firmament was not a new 
 creation, nor the introduction of a new element into the 
 earth, but only a new modification or formation of the 
 pre-existing natural elements of the Chaos, out of which, 
 God, by the Word of His wisdom, formed the atmo- 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 141 
 
 sphere. And that primitive atmosphere, we may observe, 
 partook of the nature of the source from whence it 
 came ; it was an atmosphere of death ; no living thing 
 did, or could have existed in it. Nay, more, it was not 
 as yet suitable for the support, even of vegetable life ; 
 and accordingly we do not find, at the close of this 
 day's work, the usual announcement, that " God saw 
 that it was good." The reason of which is, no doubt, 
 that which I have suggested, namely, that the firma- 
 ment was made out of the pre-existing elements of 
 Chaos, without a new creation, or the introduction of 
 any new element : and it appears to be intimated, that 
 not even the power and wisdom of God, could make any 
 good thing out of Chaos, without a new creation, or 
 the introduction of a new element. In this second day 
 of Creation, we find the earth no longer introduced in 
 the garment of infancy ; the swaddling band of cloud 
 is now removed, and no longer covers its surface ; and 
 the earth now enters upon that stage of its existence, 
 which corresponds with that of a little child. But 
 although this garment of infancy was now removed, it 
 would be a mistake to imagine, that an eye placed on 
 the surface of our Planet, could as yet have seen the 
 faintest outline of that glorious luminary from whence 
 the light proceeded. The dense vapour which floated 
 in the atmosphere woidd have prevented that ; but still 
 the light must have been very greatly increased in the 
 course of this second day; and that, to such an extent, 
 that there was probably a greater relative increase in 
 
142 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 the light, in the course of this one day, than in the 
 four succeeding days of Creation taken together. 
 
 Let us now endeavour to trace the corresponding cir- 
 cumstances of the second day of New Creation ; and, 
 first, we may observe, that in the spiritual world it is 
 true, as it was in the natural world, that there must be 
 a fresh exertion of Divine power, or no progress will be 
 made ; in both cases alike, the progressive change 
 w^hich marks the second day, is of God : and, as in the 
 natural world, it was not the case, that the firmament 
 or atmosphere evolved itself out of the elements of 
 Chaos ; so it is not true, that the babe in Christ makes' 
 any progress towards the second stage of his existence, 
 by means of any exertions of his own. Many people, 
 and even not a few of the children of God, imagine 
 that once new-birth or Conversion takes place, the per- 
 son Avho has been the subject of this change, is then 
 left to his own resources, to develop his Christian 
 character, by his own exertions and activity in using" 
 the spiritual life which God has given him ; but this 
 system — however plausible at first sight it may appear, 
 and however much it may commend itself to the natural 
 heart and understanding of man — is not the system of 
 Nature ; for Scripture and Analogy unite in testifying, 
 that the progressive development of Christian character 
 is altogether of God; and here, it may not be altogether 
 out of place, to mention a little anecdote illustrative of 
 this mistake as to the source of spiritual growth — A 
 little child when asked, ' Who made you ? ' gave the 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 143 
 
 following artless and natural reply, ' God made me a 
 little iDaby, and I greiu the rest myself.'' Now, those per- 
 sons who hold, that Christian character is developed by 
 any exertions of the Christian himself — although they 
 will smile at the simplicity of the little child's reply to 
 the question above mentioned, and will see at once the 
 mistake he fell into, as to natural growth — themselves 
 commit a precisely similar blunder in respect to spiri- 
 tual growth. And here we may observe, that there is a 
 very close analogy between natural and spiritual growth ; 
 in both alike, whatever poiver there may he in the 
 individual, to dwarf and stunt his groivth, he has none 
 ivhatever, to promote or accelerate it beyond the natural 
 limits. As the child may, by taking improper or noxious 
 food, or by hurtful practices, hinder his natural growth ; 
 so the young Christian, in like manner, by worldly 
 society and inconsistent practices, may stunt and dwarf, 
 or at all events, retard his spiritual growth, and occa- 
 sion many vexations and troubles to himself. But, on 
 the other hand, as the natural infant cannot by any 
 exertions of his own, cause himself to grow more quickly 
 than Nature appoints ; so the babe in Christ cannot by 
 any exertions or activity of his own, increase the rate of 
 development of his Christian character; he can only 
 abstain from hurtful things, and take the spiritual food, 
 which God has appointed for the natural development 
 of his spiritual life, namely, the sincere milk of the 
 Word, as it is written, " As new-born babes desire the 
 sincere milk of the Word, that ye may groiv thereby,'' 
 
 K 
 
144 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 1 Peter, ii. 2 ; and again, " Dearly beloved, I beseech 
 you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly 
 lusts which war against the soul," 1 Peter, ii. 2. Thus 
 we see, that the young Christian has no direct control 
 over his own spiritual growth; all he can do, is to 
 abstain from things which have a tendency to dwarf 
 and retard the natural course of spiritual development, 
 and to use those means of supporting spiritual life which 
 God has appointed, and here his control over his own 
 spiritual growth, ends ; he must leave the rest to God, 
 who, by the exertion of His own power and wisdom, will, 
 sooner or later, and more or less fully, bring about all 
 the several progressive changes of New Creation, in the 
 soul of each of His children. And, accordingly, we find 
 it recorded, that Avhen the Gentiles had been admitted 
 into the early Church, and it became necessary to pro- 
 vide for their spiritual growth, the Holy Ghost and the 
 Apostolic Church did not direct them to do such and 
 such things, mth a view to promoting their spiritual 
 growth ; but, on the contrary, merely enjoined them to 
 abstain from doing such and such things, which they 
 would otherwise have been likely to have done, and 
 which would have hindered and stunted their spiritual 
 growth, as we may find it written, " For it seemed good 
 to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater 
 burden than these necessary things; that ye abstain 
 from meats .offered to idols, and from blood, and from 
 things strangled, and from fornication, from which if 
 ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well," 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 145 
 
 Acts XV. 28, 29 ; from which passage of Scripture we 
 may learn, that the influence and duty of the Christian, 
 in reference to his own spiritual progress, is rather 
 negative than positive ; it is rather to abstain from in- 
 terfering with the work of God in the soul, than to do 
 anything himself to promote or accelerate it ; and we 
 may thus learn, that the Saviour's words, " Wliich of 
 you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature ?" 
 Matt. vi. 27, are equally true and applicable to spiritual, 
 as to natural growth, although their truth is more 
 obvious, and more generally admitted, in reference to 
 the latter, than to the former. 
 
 In the next place, we may observe, that as the 
 second day of the natural Creation was not marked by 
 the introduction of any new element into the natural 
 world, but the firmament was made by God out of the 
 elements which had pre-existed in a state of Chaos ; so 
 the change which takes place in the soul of the Chris- 
 tian during the second day of New Creation, does not 
 consist of the introduction of any new principle into the 
 soul, at all corresponding to the introduction of spiritual 
 light on the first day; but this second day of New 
 Creation is marked by a great increase of that sarae 
 spiritual light, which was first introduced on the pre- 
 ceding day ; and this increase is brought about, by the 
 lifting up of the spiritual clouds from the soul, which 
 produces a great extension of the field of view in spiri- 
 tual things, and a clearness and accuracy of spiritual 
 perception which never existed before. The things of 
 
 k2 
 
146 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 God begin to take that place in the soul, which their 
 importance demands ; they are no longer placed on a 
 level with the things of time and sense, and blended 
 up with them in the confusion of primaeval Chaos, in a 
 word, the heaven is now being lifted up above the earth ; 
 and this explains and illustrates the emphatic warning 
 with which the Apostle John concludes his first Epistle, 
 " Little children keep yourselves from idols," 1 John, 
 V. 21. This injunction is addressed specially to little 
 children^ that is, to those who are in the second stage 
 of spiritual growth, namely, the second day of New 
 Creation, when the things of God are as yet only par- 
 tially elevated above the things of earth ; and it is 
 addressed to the?n sjyecially, because, as we have seen, 
 they are specially exposed to this temptation of putting 
 the things of earth on a level with the things of God, 
 rvhich is the essence of idolatry. And we may observe 
 further, that although there is a great increase of intel- 
 ligence and clearness of perception in spiritual things, 
 there is, as yet, but little power of action or practical 
 usefulness ; faith is still very weak — the spiritual world, 
 during this second day of New Creation, is still covered 
 by the unstable ocean — and there are, as yet, no more 
 good works, than there were, during the preceding day. 
 "When God looked on the natural world at the close of 
 its second day, He could have seen no animals, no trees, 
 nor terrestrial plants — no, not even a single humble 
 blade of grass — nor anything which He could pronounce 
 to be good, except the light which He Himself had com- 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 147 
 
 mandecl to shine ; and so it is with the Christian at the 
 close of the second day of New Creation, he is as yet 
 unjDrofitable to God and to man, he has as yet no good 
 works, no strong faith, no practical usefulness ; but still 
 there has been aome progress, for his views are now 
 clearer and more enlarged, and his understanding in 
 spiritual things is greatly developed ; in fact, the clouds 
 are being lifted up from the face of the deep, and the 
 low and carnal views of the young Christian are being 
 gradually dissipated. We have in the Gospel histories 
 abundant illustrations and examples of the tendency of 
 the young Christian, to rest satisfied with low and car- 
 nal "vdeAvs of Christ, which was manifested even in His 
 chosen Apostles and most favoured followers. We may 
 remember how, during His lifetime and before the out- 
 pouring^ of the Holy Spirit consequent upon His ascen- 
 sion, His followers were continually looking for, and 
 Avould have been quite satisfied with, a temporal king- 
 dom, of which their ^Master should have been the head ; 
 in a word, they were then passing through the first day 
 of New Creation — the heaven was not, as yet, in them, 
 lifted up from the face of the deep, the firmament was 
 not yet formed in their souls, to divide the waters from 
 the waters — and so, the things of heaven were, as yet, 
 blended up in their minds with the things of earth ; 
 they knew Jesus, it is true, but it was only after the 
 flesh; they were as yet only babes- in Christ, or little 
 children, as indeed they were expressly designated by 
 the Saviour Himself immediately before His passion, as 
 
148 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 it is written, '■^Little children^ yet a little while, &c." 
 1 John, xiii. 33 ; their faith was still weak, and they 
 could not as yet have gone forth from the presence of 
 the Council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy 
 to suffer shame for His name ; so far were tbey from 
 being able to do this as j^et, that even the Apostle Peter 
 — who seems to have been the most remarkable among 
 them, for natural boldness and courage — through fear 
 of a servant maid, denied his Master. 
 
 The great characteristic feature of this second day of 
 Christian Experience is the development of knowledge 
 in spiritual things; this is what answers to the for- 
 mation of the firmament or atmosphere m the natural 
 Creation, and the great increase of light which must 
 have been necessarily consequent thereon. Before the 
 commencement of this second day, there was no know- 
 ledge worthy of the name, the views of the infant 
 Christian about spiritual things, were, as we have seen, 
 misty and distorted; the swaddling-band of infancy 
 was yet closely wrapped around him ; the clouds and 
 dense vapours resting on the very face of the deep, 
 still confined the view ivitJim very narrow limits ; but 
 now, on the second day, those clouds and vapours are 
 lifted up, and made less dense, and a great increase of 
 knowledge in spiritual things is the consequence. Now, 
 on this second day, the children of God begin to know 
 that they are His children, and that they have really 
 been born again ; and they begin to know God, as they 
 never knew Him before ; for now they know Him as 
 
THE SECOND DAY. l49 
 
 their Father and their friend ; not that they have as yet 
 attained to what is called Assurance of Salvation ; for 
 that belongs, as we shall presently see, to a later period 
 of Christian Experience ; but still His little children do 
 know God as their Father, as it is written, " I write 
 unto you, little childern, because ye have known the 
 Father," 1 John ii. 13. The infant does 7iot know 
 the Father^ hut the little child does ; and here is just 
 the distinction between the first and second days of 
 New Creation — between the babe and the little child : 
 the one is as unprofitable, and almost as dependent, as 
 the other ; but the little child knows its father, while 
 the babe does not ; in fact, the little child has know- 
 ledge, while the babe has not ; and yet the little child 
 knows very little about its father, it does not yet know 
 his position in society, his abilities, or his disposition, 
 nor the exact nature of the relationship which he fills 
 towards itself; but still it can distinguish him person- 
 ally, though it may not always feel confidence in his 
 wisdom and goodness ; in fact there is Knowledge but 
 not as yet Assurance. And I think we shall find, that 
 the analogy between these several stages of natural, and 
 spiritual life, is remarkably exact ; the babe in Christ 
 does not as yet know God, but the little child does know- 
 God as its Father, but it has not yet arrived at assurance 
 of its relationship towards Him, nor at an intelligent 
 and logical perception of all the important advantages, 
 which that relationship involves. We see then, that 
 Knowledge, not Assurance, is the characteristic mark of 
 
150 
 
 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 this second day of New Creation ; as we have seen, that 
 a great increase of light was, of the second day of the 
 natural Creation ; and as a great increase of knowledge 
 of natural things, is the great characteristic mark of the 
 corresponding period of natural life. For, I think, any- 
 one who will carefully consider the subject, will find, 
 that there is a greater chasm between the knowledge of 
 the infant and that of the little child, than there is, 
 between the knowledge of the little child and that of 
 the man of mature age, or, in other words, there is, in 
 the second stage of natural existence, a greater relative 
 development of knowledge, than in the four succeeding 
 stages of existence put together ; in fact, the knowledge 
 of the little child appears to differ from that of the infant, 
 not in degree only, but in kind ; not in quantity only, 
 but in quality ; it appears to be of a totally different 
 order from the knowledge of the infant, which is more 
 like the instinct of the lower animals, than the fruit of 
 human intellect. Now, an exactly similar phenomenon 
 may be observed to exist, in the second stage of spiritual 
 life, and therefore, I think, we are warranted in saying, 
 that KNO"UT.EDGE is the great characteristic mark of the 
 second stage of New Creation ; but it is a knowledge as 
 yet fruitless, and without any corresponding increase of 
 practical results. 
 
 In the next place, we may observe, that, as in the 
 natural Creation, when God surveyed the earth at the 
 close of the second day. He saw nothing good in it, with 
 the single exception of the light, which He had seen at 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 151 
 
 the commencement of the first day, and then pronounced 
 to be good ; so it is in the work of New Creation. And 
 this explains, or at least illustrates a matter, which has 
 caused deep pain and anxiety to many a faithful 
 minister of the Gospel, namely, the apparent absence of 
 progress in spiritual life, in the great majority of those 
 members of his flock, who, he may have some reason to 
 believe, have been awakened from the sleep of spiritual 
 death ; and yet, he sometunes has his misgivings about 
 them, because he can see no increase of spirituality in 
 their life and conversation, no zeal, no fruit, no work 
 for Christ, no progress in godliness. When, however, we 
 come to investigate the matter by the light of Analogy, 
 it will cease to surprise us that the minister can see no 
 such results of his labours, in those who have not yet 
 passed through the second day of New Creation ; for even 
 the all-seeing eye of God can see no progress in His little 
 children, except a great advance in knowledge, which 
 does not as yet produce any practical result, for faith is 
 still too weak for that ; in fact, the dry land has not, as 
 yet, lifted itself above the unstable watery waste ; and 
 the faithful minister must wait the coming of the third 
 day of New Creation, before he can hope to observe the 
 commencement of those evidences of Christian life, 
 which he is so fruitlessly, and yet so anxiously seeking 
 for, among the harren waves of ocean: and we may 
 remember, that even the Inspired Volume itself warrants 
 us in this analogy, for it is there written, "Unstable as 
 ivater, thou shalt not excel" — Gen. xlix. -4 ; and again 
 
152 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 " For lie that wavereth, is like a wave of the sea^ driven 
 •with the wind and tossed" — James i. 6. And indeed the 
 same unprofitableness may be observed in the corre- 
 sponding period of natural life ; we do not expect work 
 or any usefulness in little children, any more than 
 in infants ; the former may be a little less helpless and 
 dependant than the latter, but that is all, they are both 
 alike unprofitable ; and so it is with the children of 
 God, during the two first of the six days of New 
 Creation, that is, during at least one third of their 
 spiritual existence in this life ; and if this great truth 
 were kept more in view, by ministers of the Gospel, it 
 would serve to alleviate many an anxious care, many a 
 doubt, and many a fear, with respect to the spiritual 
 state of the souls committed to their charge. The only 
 progress made during those first two days, is a progress 
 in knowledge ; and, knowledge being an invisible thing, 
 more especially while, as we have seen, it leads to no 
 practical results, the minister falls into the natural mis- 
 take, of supposing that there has been no "progress at all^ 
 and that his labours have been lost ; and yet there has 
 been progress, and great progress in knowledge; God 
 has already commenced the education of His children ; 
 in the course of these two days of Christian Experience, 
 in which His ministering servants can perceive no pro- 
 gress. He has already added to Virtue, that Knowledge, 
 which is absolutely necessary to guide Virtue in its 
 actions ; for, without Knowledge, Virtue AvoiUd be blind, 
 and its actions — though done with the best intentions — 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 153 
 
 would, in many cases, be as hurtful and injurious in 
 their effects, as the workings of Vice. But God does not 
 intend His children to grow up in ignorance, He does 
 not neglect the cultivation of the intellect in the educa- 
 tion of His children, although it is true, He does not 
 commence with the intellect. Some persons think it an 
 advantage to a Christian to he ignorant, and that he 
 thus escapes the abstruseness of intellectual perplexities; 
 but such persons forget, that the Scriptures tell us, that 
 " the Lord is a God of knowledge'' — 1 Sam. ii. 3 ; and 
 therefore, His children should strive to be like Him in 
 this respect, and to be children ofknowledge. Again Ave 
 read, that in Christ " are hid all the treasures of wis- 
 dom and knowledge:' — Col. ii. 3 ; now, those treasures of 
 knowledge are not intended to lie hid in Christ for ever, 
 but they are placed in Him, in order that they may be 
 continually brought to hght, appropriated, and enjoyed, 
 by the children of God, through all eternity ; and the 
 more of them we can get at, and appropriate, even in 
 this life, the better; there is no fear of our exhausting 
 them, and not leaving enough for the life to come. And 
 besides we see, that in the education which God gives 
 His children, He does not neglect knowledge. And there- 
 fore, from all these considerations, we may be quite 
 sure, that knowledge is a desirable thing for a Christian to 
 acquire ; it is indeed a treasure, which Avill not only 
 greatly increase the enjoyments of the Christian, en- 
 large his views, and elevate his mind, but it will also 
 immensely extend the sj^here of his usefulness in his 
 
154 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 Master's service, and elevate him in his Sovereign's 
 favour. And here it may not be unprofitable, to mark 
 the course and method of the education which God 
 gives to His children, in order that we may copy Him, 
 and adopt a similar method in the education of our 
 children ; for we may be quite sure, that — in the words 
 of an ancient critic, who has with philosophic accuracy 
 laid down this great truth — " Summa ars est artem 
 celare, naturam sequi,"* or in other words, as it is 
 true, that the best physician will be the one who follows 
 most closely the curative processes of Nature, and the 
 best legislator, the one who copies most accurately the 
 laws of Nature, and the best lawyer, he who interprets 
 the laws in the most natural vfB^j — as the House of Lords 
 has decided, in the case of Gray v. Pearson, which has 
 been already referred to, in a former chapter — so it is 
 true, that the best possible method of education^ ivill be that, 
 which most exactly resembles God's method of education for 
 His own children. And first we may observe, that God's 
 method is, to begin with the heart and then to j^roceed to the 
 head ; to lay the foundation of virtue first, and then to 
 add knoivledge to virtue. Whereas man's way of educa- 
 tion is generally, exactly the reverse ; man begins with 
 the head, and from it goes to the heart ; he seeks to 
 implant knowledge first, and virtue afterivards ; which, 
 we may be sure, is a great mistake ; for if it were the 
 best method, would not the only wise and good God 
 
 * The highest art is to conceal art, and to follow nature. 
 
THE SECOND DAY. 155 
 
 have used it in the education of His children ? Again 
 we may observe, that the great primary instrument^ which 
 God uses in the education of His children^ is His Word, 
 which lies at the root and foundation of all true educa- 
 cation, and is necessary even in the earliest stage, as it 
 it is written, " As new-born hales, desire the sincere 
 milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby," — 
 1 Pet. ii. 2. Whereas in man's system of education, 
 the word of God generally occupies only a subordinate 
 place ; and what shall we say or think of that system 
 of education, which the Legislature, in its wisdom, has 
 established in our country, where the Word of God is 
 ALTOGETHER EXCLUDED ? Sucli a System not only reverses 
 God's method of education, and puts knowledge before 
 virtue, but it even leaves out virtue altogether, by 
 excluding the only means by which the foundation of 
 virtue can be laid in the heart. This is to impart 
 knowledge without virtue ; but those who seek to do 
 this, forget that knowledge is poiver, and that the com- 
 munication of power, without virtue, is hurtful and 
 dangerous ; it is like putting a sword into the hands of 
 a maniac, which he is very likely to use, first in the 
 destruction of him who was fool enough to place the 
 dangerous weapon Avithin his grasp, and then, perhaps, 
 in doing an injury to himself, and to those around him. 
 Such a system of education is not only based on 
 erroneous principles, but it is dishonouring to God, and 
 injurious to man, it has been tried long enough, and 
 far too long, in our Green Island ; as a system of united 
 
156 THE SECOND DAY. 
 
 education, which it 2'>rof esses to he, it has proved a miser- 
 able failure ; like all attempts at compromising truth 
 and principle for the sake of expediency, it has not 
 satisfied any party in the State ; and it is now high time 
 that all parties should make common cause against 
 this common nuisance, and hunt it out of the land. 
 
[ 157 ] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 " And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered 
 together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. 
 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of 
 the waters called he Seas : and God saw that it was good. And God 
 said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and 
 the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, 
 upon the earth : and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, 
 and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, 
 whose seed was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was 
 good. And the evening and the morning were the third day." — 
 Gen. i. 9—13. 
 
 These verses present to our notice, a fuller account of 
 the work of tlie third day of Creation, than was given 
 of either of the preceding days ; no doubt, because there 
 was more to record, and because the work of Creation 
 made a wonderful stride, and exhibited much greater 
 visible progress, during this one day, than it had done 
 during the two preceding days taken together. Hitherto, 
 as we have seen, the earth had been covered, from pole 
 to pole, by the watery waste of ocean ; but now, the 
 
158 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 period had at length arrived, when this state of things 
 was no longer to continue, and accordingly the fiat of 
 the Almighty went forth, " Let the waters under the 
 heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the 
 dry land appear", or perhaps more literally, "Let the 
 dry land be seen." This wonderful change in the 
 appearance of our Globe, was no doubt worked out by 
 God, through the instrumentality of those great internal 
 convulsions of nature and volcanic agencies, which, 
 Geologists tell us, occurred and were at work about this 
 period of our Planet's history, and which gradually 
 pushed up, from the depths of ocean, the continents and 
 islands, and the various great mountain ranges, which 
 mark the surface of our world. Now, for the first time, 
 the surface of the earth began to assume something of 
 the general appearance which it has ever since preserved, 
 arising from the distribution of land and water, and the 
 disposition of its principal mountains, and mountain 
 ranges — those great physical characteristics, which 
 seem, at this period of its history, to have been indehbly 
 stamped upon it. This change in the appearance of 
 our Globe, Avas, no doubt, -progressive — as all the great 
 changes of Nature are — and occupied many ages, which 
 composed the earlier portion of this third day ; and 
 when, at length, the mighty change was completed, and 
 the dry land had fully emerged from the depths of 
 ocean, God saw something beside the light, in our world, 
 which He could pronounce to be good ; two long days 
 and a part of a third had now elapsed, during which no 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 159 
 
 good thing except tlie light, was to be seen in our earth ; 
 but now the work of Creation seems to have made very- 
 rapid progress, and when the waters had been gathered 
 together unto one place, and the dry land appeared, 
 " God saw that it was good." There were now some of 
 the component elements of beauty to be seen in the 
 external appearance of the earth ; there must have been 
 great grandeur and sublimity, in the appearance of 
 those giant mountains — which now, for the first time, 
 lifted up their rocky heads to heaven, and exposed their 
 bleak and barren sides to the new-born winds — and of 
 those bold headlands and rugged promontories, Avhich 
 now first broke through the duU uniformity of ocean's 
 watery waste, as they frowned in proud defiance upon 
 the stormy Avaves, which battled with the rocks beneath. 
 But there were as yet none of the softer elements of 
 beauty visible in the awful majesty of that scene; there 
 was as yet no green carpet of verdure to cover the 
 bleak and rocky plains of earth, newly won from the 
 watery waste ; no waving forests, no underwood, to 
 soften the abruptness, and to take ofi" from the rugged- 
 ness of those barren mountains, which seemed to have 
 been raised up from the unprofitable deep, in vain, and 
 to be as barren and unprofitable as the ocean from 
 whose depths they had been upheaved ; but this state 
 of unprofitableness was not destined long to continue ; 
 for, in the course of the same day, a second time, the 
 Word of the Most High was sent forth, " Let the earth 
 bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit- 
 
 L 
 
160 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 tree yielding fruit after liis kind, wliose seed is in itself 
 upon the earth ;" and thus some of the softer elements 
 of beauty were introduced into the landscape ; and at 
 the same time the earth ceased to be unfruitful and 
 unprofitable, and began to yield some return for all the 
 labour that had been expended upon it, a small return 
 at first, it is true, even the humble and lowly grass, but 
 still a progressively increasing return, for soon the herb 
 yielding seed, was added to the grass, and then the fruit- 
 tree yielding fruit, Avas added to the herb ; and thus, 
 for the first time. Vegetable Life was seen on the surface 
 of the earth. And now the atmosphere, which had 
 been formed on the preceding day, became directly con- 
 tributory to the support of that new-born Vegetable 
 Life, by the carbonic acid, which it supplied in abund- 
 ance, for the nutriment of the plants and trees of that 
 rarlj period ; and it further contributed indirectly to 
 the same effect, by the increase of light and heat from 
 the sun which became perceptible on the surface of the 
 earth, consequent upon the diffusion of the vapours and 
 clouds over the upper surface of the atmosphere. No 
 eye, however, placed on the si^'face of the earth, could 
 as yet have seen an outline of the solar image, for that 
 was still permanently shut out from view, by the veil 
 of cloud, which floated in the atmosphere ; but still the 
 light and heat of the sun must have now penetrated 
 more abundantly to the earth's surface than they had 
 ever hitherto done, and in sufficient quantities to sup- 
 port the vegetation of this third day, which was pro- 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 161 
 
 bably of a nature suited to the mild lieat, which alone 
 could penetrate the cloudy curtain of the atmosphere, 
 and was not as yet capable of enduring the fierce heat 
 of the direct and unclouded sun-beams. The earth was 
 now pbedient to the Word of God, and it brought forth 
 the grass, and the herb, and the trees, at His command, 
 and God saw that it was good ; here we have the iirst 
 instance of the earth bringing forth any good thing ; 
 and this it could not do, until it was first itself seen 
 to be good; and although it was seen to be good, yet, 
 it could not bring forth any good thing of itself, mthout 
 the Word of God. This third day in the Creation of 
 the natural world was essentially a day of progress, a 
 day oi great physical changes of external appearance, it 
 was a day characterised by a great development of 
 heautij and usefulness, a day of the first manifestation of 
 Vegetable Life, and the introduction of that mild heat from 
 the solar orb, w^hich was suitable to the new-born 
 vegetation of the period. The earth during this day, 
 made an amazing stride towards the state and condition 
 in Avhich we find it at the present time : it had now 
 ceased to occupy the position of the little child, and had 
 entered, as it were, upon the state o^ boyhood, that third 
 stage of natural existence, which — like the third day of 
 the natural Creation — is characterised by rapid progress, 
 by great physical changes of appearance, by a great 
 development of all the powers of mind and bod}^, and 
 lastly, by the mild influence of the affections, before 
 the fierce heat of fiery passion, has as yet broken in 
 
 l2 
 
162 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 upon the soul of youth, with all its powerful scorching 
 influence. 
 
 Now turning our attention to the third day of New 
 Creation, we shall there find the counterparts of all 
 these wonderful changes and characteristic marks of the 
 third day of the natural Creation, reproduced in the 
 most exact conformity to the mode of development of 
 their prototypes "in the natural world : and first, this 
 third day of Christian Experience is marked by a great 
 increase of Faith ; there is no longer only the weak 
 doubting faith of the babe, no longer the faith of the 
 little child which terminates in knowledge only, and 
 produces little or no practical fruit ; but we may now 
 observe in the young Christian the strong faith, which 
 worketh by love and overcomeih the world, and which 
 now hegi7is to produce practical results, visible to all men, 
 in the life and conversation of him who has entered 
 upon the third day of New Creation ; in fact, the dry 
 land is beginning, in such a one, to appear above the 
 waters. And how strange it is, that the corresponding- 
 period of natural life should be marked by a precisely 
 similar characteristic sign ! And yet so it is ; for there 
 is, perhaps, no more distinguishing characteristic of the 
 period of childhood, than the facility of belief which exists 
 in all children, more especially where their credulity has 
 not been played upon, and abused by deception ; in all 
 cases where they have not yet discovered the falsehood 
 Avhich exists on all sides of them in the world, their 
 confidence and credulity are unbounded; they will believe 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 1G3 
 
 anything which older people tell them, however strange 
 and contrary to their experience it may be ; in a word, 
 their faith in natural things is very strong; and in this 
 circumstance we have a fresh proof of the wisdom and 
 goodness of God ; for without this principle of faith in 
 respect to natural things, in children, all education would 
 be impossible ; and so Ave find that period of natural life, 
 which is pre-eminently devoted to the development of 
 education, is also characterized by that strong faith, 
 without which education could make no progress. And 
 w^e may observe, that the third period of spiritual life 
 is even more strongly marked by this wonderful increase 
 of faith, than the. corresponding period of natural life, 
 because, in spiritual things, there is no danger of the 
 principle of faith being trifled with, and imposed upon, 
 by the Great Author of Christian education, whom His 
 own Word describes to be, " a God of truth and without 
 iniquity" — Dent, xxxii. 4 : and hence a great distinction 
 in the development of this principle of faith in the same 
 periods of natural, and spiritual life ; in the former case, 
 the faith becomes gradually modified and tempered by 
 experience, induced by the discovery of imposition ; 
 while in the latter case, it continually strengthens, and 
 becomes each hour more implicit and unwavering, until 
 at length, as we shall presently see, at the close of the 
 thii'd day of New Creation, it ripens into Assurance of 
 Salvation. The faith of this third day is not the weak 
 doubting faith, which exists from the moment of new- 
 birth, but it is the shield of Faith, of which Saint Paul 
 
164 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 speaks in his Epistle to the Ephesians. And now we 
 are in a position to appreciate, in his description of the 
 armour of God, the great propriety of making the 
 hehnet of Salvation come immediately after the shield of 
 Faith ; for both these portions of the armour of God are 
 put on in the course of the same third day of Christian 
 Experience, and the hehnet of Salvation at the close of 
 that day, subsequent to the shield of Faith, as it is written, 
 " Above all things taking the shield of faith wherewith 
 ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the 
 wicked ; and take the helmet of Salvation." — Eph. vi. 16, 
 17. The shield of faith, referred to in this Scripture, 
 is plainly the strong practically useful faith that worketh 
 by love, and overcometh the world, which is developed, 
 as we have seen, in the course of this third day of 
 Christian Experience ; and the helmet of Salvation is 
 none other than the Assurance of Salvation which cha- 
 racterises the close of this same third day of New Crea- 
 tion. 
 
 This strong Faith followed by Assurance, is the great 
 characteristic mark of this third day of New Creation, 
 in the eye of God, to whom that Faith and Assurance 
 are visible, and in the consciousness of the individual 
 in whom those internal evidences are developed ; but to 
 all others — to the faithful minister or Christian friend, 
 as well as to the Avorld — these evidences are invisible in 
 themselves, and can only be seen indirectly by their 
 pmctical effects, manifested in the life and conversation 
 of the Christian ; and such visible practical evidences 
 
TPIE THIRD DAY. 165 
 
 do now exists and form tlie visible characteristic marks 
 of this period of New Creation, which is distinguishable 
 from either of the periods which went before it, in 
 having visible evidences, which, in the former periods, 
 were almost entirely deficient. Let us consider, then, 
 some of these visible characteristic marks of the third 
 day of Christian Experience, by which all men may take 
 knowledge of the yonng Christian that he has been with 
 Jesus ; and first there is the coming out and separation 
 from the world, answering to the separation of the land 
 from the water, in the same period of the natural Crea- 
 tion ; the young Christian now hears the voice of God 
 saying, " Wlierefore come out from among them, and be 
 ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean 
 thing, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto 
 you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the 
 Lord Almighty." — 2 Cor. vi. 17, 18, and he obeys that 
 voice, as the dry land of old obeyed its Creator, and 
 appeared above the water on the third day of the 
 natural Creation ; and thus we see, that one of the 
 visible marks of the third day of New Creation is 
 separation from the ivorld. But this is not the only 
 mark or characteristic of this third period of Chris- 
 tian Experience, there is, in the next place, pro- 
 gressively increasing fruitfulness. Faith is no longer 
 barren, or terminating only in knowledge, but the 
 fruit of the Spirit now begins to manifest itself in the 
 Christian ; and first we observe those Christian graces, 
 which have a more immediate reference to the individual 
 
166 
 
 THE THir.D DAY. 
 
 himself — like the lowly grass, which was but little 
 elevated above the surface of the earth, Avhich it adorned 
 — accordingly such Christian graces as Temperance, 
 Soberness, Chastity, and Humility, in a word, Modera- 
 tion in all things, may be first looked for, in the Christian 
 character, at this period of spiritual life. The pleasures 
 and good things of earth, will now be only valued in their 
 proper order, as infinitely subordinate to the things of 
 eternity : and hence the absence of all inordinate affec- 
 tion towards them, and the development of those earlier 
 Christian graces, which have a more immediate reference 
 to the individual himself, than those which follow. Next 
 we shall find, in order of development, that class of 
 Christian graces, which have somewhat more reference 
 to others, and which have besides a special tendency to 
 propagate themselves^ such as Kindness, Courtesy, Bene- 
 volence, and Compassion, which, everyone knowsj^have 
 a tendency to reproduce themselves ; for, all the world 
 over, it is true, that Love hegets Love; and thus we 
 observe, that this class of Christian graces answers 
 exactly to " the herb yielding seed whose seed was in 
 itself ^^ — which was somewhat more elevated above the 
 earth than the lowly grass that preceded it in order of 
 development, and which besides bore within itself, as 
 we are expressly told, the seed which was designed to 
 propagate its species. And lastly we shall find developed 
 in the Christian, on this third day of New Creation, the 
 higher order of Christian graces, which have a still 
 more direct reference to others, and which also bear 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 167 
 
 within them the seeds for their own propagation, such 
 graces, for instance, as Patience under injuries, injustice, 
 and wrong, which enjoys the high pre-eminence among 
 other Christian graces of being, in Scripture, declared to 
 be thankworthy and acceptable with God, as it is written, 
 " For this is thankworthy, if a man, for conscience 
 toward God, endure grief, suffering wrongfully; for 
 what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, 
 ye shall take it patiently ? but if, w^hen ye do well, and 
 suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with 
 God."— 1 Pet. ii. 19, 20. This grace, then, of Patience 
 under injustice, is exactly analagous to the fruit-tree 
 yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself upon the earth. 
 And as, in the description of the natural Creation, it is 
 expressly mentioned of the fruit-tree, that its seed was 
 in itself vpon the earth, so we shall find, that even this 
 minute detail of verbal expression, is not without its 
 corresponding signification, in reference to the analogous 
 class of Christian graces ; for we may observe, that their 
 propagative tendency has only reference to fellow creatures^ 
 and does not at all relate to the Creator ; for no man 
 has ever suffered wrongfully at His hands, nor has the 
 Creator ever suffered at the hands of any ; and therefore, 
 with exact propriety, it may be said of these spiritual 
 trees, that their seed is in themselves upon the earth. 
 And this analogy is the more strildng in its minute 
 exactness, when we find, that the expression, "upon the 
 earth," is not used in connection with the herb yielding 
 seed ; and accordingly we may observe, that the propa- 
 
168 
 
 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 gative tendency of that class of Christian graces which, 
 we have seen, is analogous to the herb yielding seed, is 
 not confined to the creature, but has some reference also 
 to the Creator, as well as to His creatures, as it is writ- 
 ten, " We love him, because he first loved us" — 1 John 
 iv. 19. 
 
 The great visible characteristic, then, of this third 
 day of Christian Experience, is the manifestation of the 
 fruits of the Spirit ; those practical Christian graces 
 — commencing with TE:\rPEiiANCE and progressively 
 advancing to patience — which now, for the first time, 
 develop themselves in the character of the Christian, 
 and begin to shine out in his life and conversation, so 
 as to be seen and recognized by all men. At this period 
 begins to appear the great superiority of God's method 
 of reformation — by commencing at the inside, and not 
 at the outside — in the heart, and not in the life — over 
 man's best method of reformation ; for now the outer 
 man, in the young Christian, begins to be clean also, 
 and the life pure ; and that, in a far higher degree than 
 man could ever effect, by his very best system of refor- 
 mation. And moreover, this purity of life and con- 
 versation which springs from a renewed heart and is 
 the work of God, is distinguishable from the purity, or 
 rather the apparent purity of the reformation which is 
 only the work of man, by its progressive nature. For 
 the righteousness which is the work of man, is station- 
 ary, and not progressive. It is as perfect now, as it Avill 
 be a year hence, and besides it is only external: it is 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 169 
 
 like the paint which covers the outside, and is ever 
 liable to be rubbed off in the conflicts of life, and to 
 disclose the rottenness within ; or, as the Saviour 
 said, speaking of those, who had only man's righteous- 
 ness — although in its purest and best form of develop- 
 ment — to display, and had not been new-created by the 
 power of God, " Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, 
 which indeed appear heautiful outward^ but are within 
 full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness" — 
 Matt, xxiii. 27. And we may observe, that this third 
 day of Christian Experience is the earliest period of the 
 Christian's spiritual life, in which any external and 
 visible evidences of liis union with Christ, may, icith con- 
 fidence, be looked for. Prior to this third day, the 
 unregenerate man, who has been well and skilfully 
 ifhitened or painted on the outside^ may look fairer and 
 more practically righteous, in the eyes of the world, 
 than the young Christian. But in the course of this 
 third day, the illusion is dispelled, and the purity of the 
 Christian now reaches the outside, and far surpasses 
 both in extent, durability, and degree, and in principle 
 as well as in practice, the highest purity and whiteness 
 which man can impart ; as much as the snow, which 
 comes down fresh from the hand of God, surpasses in 
 whiteness the purest shade which the art of man can 
 communicate. But this superiority of the Christian's 
 righteousness — this practical doing of the Will of God 
 — is not manifested in the Christian, until the third day 
 of New Creation, as indeed we may learn from the 
 
170 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 inspired page itself, as it is written, " In this the chil- 
 dren of God are manifest, and the children of the devil, 
 whosoever doeth not righteousness, is not of God, neither 
 he that loveth not his brother" — 1 John iii. 10. Now 
 it is to be observed that the Spirit of God, speaking by 
 the Apostle, does not apply this test, of the practical 
 doing of righteousness, to the little children^ nor to the 
 babes, but expressly confines it to the children of God, 
 that is, to those who have already passed through the 
 condition of infants, and that of little children, and 
 have now reached the third stage of their spiritual 
 existence, namely, childhood — or boyhood and girlhood, 
 which is synonymous with childhood ; and this will 
 appear more plainly, if we consider, that the same 
 Apostle, in the same Epistle, expressly refers to those 
 two earlier stages of Christian Experience, in terms 
 borrowed from the corresponding stages of natural 
 life. 
 
 The third day of New Creation, then, like the third 
 day of the natural Creation, and like the third period 
 of natural life, is characterised by great progress, 
 rapid development, and great external and visible 
 changes in the life and conversation of the Christian ; 
 indeed, I think Analogy and Experience would warrant 
 us in affirming, that there is more visible progress, more 
 rapid development, and a greater external change 
 effected in this one day, than takes place in any of the 
 preceding or succeeding days of New Creation, and 
 perhaps, than in all of them taken together. God now 
 
 I 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 171 
 
 sees in the Christian the strong faith which He pro- 
 nounces to be good, and He also sees in him the 
 beginning of those works and fruits, and of that prac- 
 tical usefulness, which He can pronounce to be good, as 
 they spring from the strong faith which is good. And 
 it is to be remarked, that as the earth had to be made 
 good itself^ before it could produce these good fruits ; 
 so a man must be made good himself^ before he can pro- 
 duce any good fruit, or do any good thing. And it is to 
 be further observed, that as the earth — even after God 
 had seen that it was good — could not, of itself produce 
 any good thing, without afresh exertion of the 'power of 
 God; so it is with the Christian ; even after God sees 
 him to be good, he cannot, of himself without a fresh 
 exertion of Divine power, do any good works, or pro- 
 duce any good fruit ; which deduction from Analogy is 
 expressly confirmed by the Inspired Volume, for it is 
 written, " Without me ye can do nothing" (John xv. 5) ; 
 and again, " For we are His workmanship, created in 
 Christ Jesus, unto good Avorks, which God hath before 
 ordained that we should walk in them" — Eph. ii. 10. 
 So we see, that the Analogy which we are seeking to 
 trace between Creation and New Creation, holds good 
 in this respect, even to the most minute details. The 
 earth was first seen to be good itself, in the third day 
 of the natural Creation, and it immediately showed ifs 
 goodness, by obeying the Word of God, " Let the earth 
 bring forth grass," &c. And in this respect we observe 
 a striking contrast to what took place at an earlier stage 
 
172 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 of Creation, namely, when God said, " Let tliere be 
 a firmament in the midst of the Avaters, and let it divide 
 the waters from the waters," for we afterwards read, 
 not that 'it was so, and the firmament divided the waters 
 from the waters,' lout that " God made the firmament 
 and divided the waters," &c. ; as if the firmament would 
 not obey His word, until God Himself did what He had 
 commanded the firmament to do — and accordingly we 
 do not find that God saw any good thing in the firma- 
 ment. But now, on this third day, after God had 
 looked upon the earth and seen that it was good, we 
 find that the earth showed its goodness by obeying the 
 Word of God ; and when God sent forth His Word, 
 '' Let the earth bring forth grass," &c., Ave read imme- 
 diately afterwards, not that ' God made the grass,' &c., 
 but that the earth, obedient to His AVord, " brought 
 forth grass," &c. And just so it is Avith the Christian, 
 in the course of the third day of Christian Experience ; 
 the Word of God then comes to exercise upon him a 
 practical influence Avhich it never did before, and he 
 shoAvs his goodness, by obedience to the Word of God, 
 in bringing forth those first fruits of good AA'orks, Avhich 
 God had before ordained, that he should Avalk in them. 
 And these good works are not meritorious in the Chris- 
 tian, they spring up naturally from the rencAved heart, 
 at the command of God, as the grass, and herbs, and 
 trees did, from the obedient earth, Avhen God saAv that it 
 Avas good. But CA^en God Himself can make no good thing 
 out of man in his natural state, Avithout new-creating 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 173 
 
 him, though He should govern and chasten him never 
 so Avisely, as it is written " They are like the deaf adder 
 that stoppeth her ear ; -which will not hearken to the 
 voice of charmers, charming never so wisely" — Psalms 
 Iviii. 4, 5. It is also remarkable, that in the course of 
 the third day of the natural Creation, the Word of God 
 w^as twice sent forth, and the second time, in much 
 larger measure, than on either of the preceding days. 
 Indeed, it is curious to remark the gradual increase in 
 the amount of the Word of God expended in the course 
 of these three first days of the natm-al Creation. On 
 the first day we find only the short sentence, " Let there 
 be light" — which is still shorter in the original inspired 
 Hebrew, being there the shortest possible sentence, 
 comprised in tivo ivorcls, instead of four as it is in the 
 English translation. On the second day there were 
 nine words in the original language spoken by God ; 
 in the earlier part of the third day, nine words again ; 
 and the second time on the third day, sixteen words. 
 So that in the course of this third day of the natural 
 Creation, the Word of God was sent forth to an amount 
 more than double of what had been sent forth in the 
 course of the two earlier days taken together ; in which 
 circumstance we see the reason of the rapid iirogress, Avhich 
 the work of the Creation made on this third day ; and 
 ichy it is, that lue are twice told, in the course of the same 
 day, that " God saw that it was good.^^ And so we see, 
 that the great progress, the rapid development, and the 
 twofold goodness of the work of this day, was in exact 
 
174 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 proportion to the exertion of power by the Creator, in 
 sending forth His word in so much larger measure. 
 And exactly so it is, in the third day of New 'Creation ; 
 the Word of God, in the course of that day, acquires a 
 vastly increased importance and influence upon the 
 Christian ; it is much more studied and understood, 
 than it ever was before ; and it produces practical 
 results, in exactly the same proportion. Hence the 
 rapid progress of practical Christianity, in the course of 
 the third day of New Creation ; the Scriptures are 
 no longer known only icith a head knowledge — as they 
 were to a great extent, during the second day of Chris- 
 tian Experience — but they now come to exercise a 
 great practical direction and control over the daily life 
 and conversation, and hence the great development of 
 fruitfulness, which marks that stage of Christian life. 
 
 In the next place, it is to be observed, that, as the 
 third day of the natural Creation was characterised b)^ 
 mild soft warmth, suitable for the vegetation of the 
 period — and intermediate between the almost total 
 exclusion of the heat of the sun, which marked, as we 
 have seen, the earlier days of Creation, and the scorch- 
 ing influence of his direct and unclouded beams, which, 
 we shall presently find, was developed at the close of the 
 following day — and as the third period of natural life 
 is characterised by the development of the milder 
 influence of the affections, before as yet the fiery pas- 
 sions of youth have come to exert their more powerful 
 influence on the actions; so the third day of New 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 175 
 
 Creation is marked by a great development of love in a 
 modified form^ intermediate between the intellectual cold- 
 ness of the love of the second day of New Creation, and 
 the burning love, which we shall presently find to be de- 
 veloped at the close of the fourth day : In fact the heat 
 of the Sun of Righteousness is just beginning to exert a 
 strong practical influence, but the soul does not yet feel 
 the effects of His direct unclouded beams ; the veil of 
 cloud that still floats in the spiritual atmosphere shuts 
 out His direct beams, and only allows the moderate 
 tempered heat to reach the soul, which corresponds 
 exactly with the love of children, and with the heat 
 from the sun which reached our earth during the third 
 day of the natural Creation : and accordingly we find 
 the Apostle John in the passage above quoted from his 
 first Epistle, Chapter iii. verse 10, making love to man, 
 equally with the doing of righteousness, a test of the 
 children of God ; and we know that love to God and 
 love to man always co-exist in almost exactly equal 
 proportions, so that the one may always be taken as the 
 index and measure of the other, as it is written, "And 
 this commandment have we from Him, that he who 
 loveth God love his brother also" — 1 John iv. 21. 
 
 Consequent upon this increased admission of heat 
 from the Sun of Eighteousness, which marks this third 
 period of Christian Experience, there is a corresponding 
 development of beauty, fruitfulness, and usefulness, in 
 the Christian, during this period of his spiritual exist- 
 ence. Like the child, who always imitates the parent 
 
 M 
 
176 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 more or less, the Christian now begins to imitate his 
 Father and do the works of his Father, as it is written, 
 " If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works 
 of Abraham" — John viii. 39. 
 
 We are now in a position to see from Analogy the 
 connection between good works and Salvation; and 
 first, we see the manifest mistake of supposing that good 
 works can be the procuring cause of Salvation. As well 
 might we suppose that the grass, herbs, and trees, and 
 the fruitfulness of the earth — which had no existence 
 until the third day of the natural Creation — were the 
 cause of the entrance of light on the first day ; as well 
 might we suppose that the fruits were the cause of the 
 life of a tree. Indeed, so far is this from being the 
 case, that the truth is almost directly the reverse; the 
 admission of light at the commencement of the first day 
 of the natural Creation, might, with much more pro- 
 priety and accuracy, be assigned as the cause, or one of 
 the causes of the fruitfulness of the earth on the third 
 day ; and the life of a tree is the cause, not the effect of 
 its fruits. And exactly so it is in spiritual things, and 
 accordingly it is much nearer the truth, to say that 
 Salvation is the cause of good works, than to lay down 
 the converse proposition ; for Salvation comes first in 
 the chain of causes and effects — even at the moment 
 of new-birth — and, as we have seen, good works, to any 
 perceptible extent, do not even follow immediately upon 
 that event; but on the contrary, are not manifested 
 until the third day of New Creation. But, perhaps, 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 177 
 
 some one will quote, in opposition to this deduction, the 
 text, " Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling" — Phil. ii. 12. To which objection we may- 
 reply, that this text, ichen rightly understood^ is so for 
 from proving that Salvation is the effect of the Chris- 
 tian's good works, that it establishes directly the reverse. 
 In fact, the Apostle does not mean, in this passage, to 
 call upon Christians to work out their Salvation as an 
 effect of their loorhs ; but he proposes to them a problem, 
 or rather the great problem of practical Christianity, to 
 be worked out ; and Salvation forms the data or pre- 
 mises, not the result of this problem, which may be 
 stated thus: — ' Given your Salvation as the premises, 
 work out these premises to their natural and legitimate 
 conclusion' — exactly like the first problem in the first 
 book of Euclid, with which most school-boys are fami- 
 liar, namely — ' Given the base of an equilateral triangle, 
 construct it' — so this problem Avhich the Apostle pro- 
 poses for our solution may be otherwise stated thus : — 
 ' Given your Salvation, construct your walk in life' — 
 or in other words, ' Will you, Christian, Avho are of 
 the hlood-royo.l of the Universe, who are a child of the 
 Great Universal Sovereign, the King Eternal, Immortal, 
 Invisible, and an heir of all His boundless wealth and 
 glory, will you, whom God has so highly favoured, 
 dishonour His Holy Name, and degrade your own high 
 position, by stooping to commit a mean or an unworthy 
 action, for the sake of a little yellow clay, or of any 
 transient gratification ? Will you follow low and 
 
 m2 
 
178 THE THIRD DAY. 
 
 grovelling pursuits, or debasing habits, or associate 
 with low and unworthy companions ?' This is what the 
 Apostle means, when he calls upon Christians — for, 
 remember, it is to Christians he is "vvriting — to work 
 out their Salvation with fear and trembling ; and he 
 does not mean fear and trembling lest they should come 
 short of Salvation and be cast into Hell, but fear and 
 trembling lest they should do anything dishonouring to 
 their Father s Holy Name, anything unworthy of their 
 glorious prospects, or anything, the recollection of 
 which hereafter, would bring a blush to their cheeks or 
 a sorrow to their hearts. 
 
 At the close of this third day of Christian Experience, 
 comes Assurance of Salvation, which — however some 
 men may doubt the fact — is undoubtedly attainable in 
 this life by the children of God. In fact, as the dry 
 land at the close of the third day of the natural Crea- 
 tion, had been completely and permanently elevated 
 above the water, and had become clothed with fruit- 
 fulness ; so in the spiritual world, the strong faith by 
 which the third day of New Creation is characterized, 
 has, at this period, become fruitful in the works of 
 righteousness, and has already ripened into Assurance, 
 as it is written, '• And the work of righteousness shall 
 be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and 
 assurance for ever" — Isaiah xxxii. 17, and again, 
 " Wherefore the rather brethren give diligence to make 
 your calling and election sure ; for if ye do these things, 
 ye shall never fall" — 2 Peter ii. 10; in both which 
 
THE THIRD DAY. 179 
 
 passages of Scripture, Assurance is placed as an imme- 
 diate consequence of the practical doing of righteousness^ 
 but we have already seen, that this doing of righteousness^ 
 or the first development of good works in the Chris- 
 tian, is the great visible characteristic mark of the third 
 day of New Creation ; and again, we may remember, in 
 the description of the armour of God, how the helmet of 
 Salvation immediately follows the shield of Faith. I 
 think therefore we are justified by Scripture, as well as 
 by Analogy, in placing Assurance of Salvation at the 
 close of the third day of New Creation. The child of 
 God is not, however, thereby freed from occasional falls, 
 occasioned by Aveakness of faith, even after he has 
 attained to Assurance of Salvation ; and we shall find 
 the exact counterpart of this phenomenon, in the natural 
 Creation ; for the waters were only divided from the 
 land, and were not altogether banished out of the natural 
 world on the third day ; but they exist, even to the pre- 
 sent hour, in greater proportion than the dry land ; 
 only they have never permanently regained their lost 
 dominion, nor returned again to cover the earth. And 
 so it is in the work of New Creation, strong faith first 
 manifests itself on the third day of New Creation, and 
 results in Assurance of Salvation at the close of that 
 day ; but still weakness of faith — although it then ceases 
 to predominate exclusively in the soul — is not altogether 
 banished from the Christian's heart ; nor may we expect 
 to find this desirable result attained, during any of the 
 three subsequent days of New Creation, nor until that 
 
180 
 
 THE THIRD DAT. 
 
 long expected period, when the unstable ocean and its 
 antit}^e shall be banished together, as it is written, 
 " And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the 
 first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and 
 there was no more sea^' — Eev. xxi. 1. Some persons, 
 however, doubt the possibility of the attainment of 
 Assurance of Salvation at all in this life, and they object, 
 that if the attainment of it Avere possible in this life, 
 it would lead inevitably to great carelessness of living, 
 and remissness in working for Christ ; for that, when 
 once men knew that they were sure of Salvation quite 
 independently of their own exertions, they would be 
 certain to relax their efforts to live righteously, and 
 Avould cease to work for Christ. This objection to the 
 possibility of the attainment of Assurance, is, however, 
 only an instance of the truth, that, in spiritual as well 
 as in temporal things. Practice occasionally overtakes and 
 corrects Theory ; a remarkable instance of Avhich, in 
 respect to temporal things, occurred, when it was 
 first proposed to use locomotives upon Railroads, the 
 engineers and learned men of the day having arrived 
 theoretically at the conclusion, that the wheels of the 
 locomotive would revolve in the one spot without pro- 
 pelling the train ; and this was assumed as a truth, and 
 thus the practical application of this wonderful inven- 
 tion to the use of mankind, was actually delayed for 
 some time, while the learned men of the day were 
 l^uzzling their brains to invent some means — either by 
 indented rails and cog wheels to match them, or other- 
 
THE TIIIKD DAY. 181 
 
 wise — to get over this difficulty, wliich, after all, existed 
 only in their own imaginations, and resulted from an 
 error in their theory ; until at last some one tried the 
 experiment, and found hj practical experience, that the 
 theoretical difficulty, which had puzzled people so much, 
 did not exist in practice ; and thus the benefit of Eail- 
 roads was no longer withheld from mankind, and a 
 most remarkable example was left on record, of how 
 Practice sometimes overtakes and corrects Theory. 
 Now the difficulty above suggested, as to the possibility 
 of the attainment, in this life, of Assurance of Salvation, 
 admits of a like practical refutation, in fact, it is found 
 not to hold good in p)ractice ; for we shall ever find, that 
 those who are most certain of their own Salvation, are 
 just the people who live most righteously, and do most 
 work for Christ ; and so this formidable objection admits 
 of a plain practical refutation, which, where it is prac- 
 ticable, is ever the best and most convincing method of 
 refuting a theoretical error, and that, equally in reli- 
 gion as in any temporal matter ; for we may remember, 
 that the Saviour Hhnself has sanctioned this method of 
 answering objections against His doctrines, Avhen He 
 said, " If any man will do his will, he shall know of 
 the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak 
 of myself" — John vii. 17. 
 
[ 182] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 " 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 the 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 the 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. 
 
 The physical changes which were worked out in the 
 natural world in the course of this fourth day of 
 Creation, although of a less fundamental character 
 than those which marked, as we have already seen, the 
 preceding day, were yet most hnportant in their ulti- 
 mate effects, and indeed were absolutely necessary links 
 in the chain of causes and effects which were progres- 
 sively developed, as our world was being gradually 
 adapted to the purposes for which it was ultimately 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 183 
 
 intended, by its All-wise and All-powerful Creator. 
 The dry land, as we have already seen, was now perma- 
 nently elevated above tbe waters, clothed with frmtful- 
 ness, and adorned with all the rich luxuriance of 
 vegetable life ; but as yet no eye placed on any part of 
 our Planet, could have seen the faintest outline of the 
 solar orb, from whence proceeded the light and heat 
 which sustained the vegetation of that early period ; the 
 veil of permanent cloud which still floated in the upper 
 region of the atmosphere, would have prevented this ; 
 and consequently the vegetation of the third, and of the 
 earlier part of the fourth day, must have been destitute 
 of all of those rich and beautiful shades of colour, which 
 are developed in the flowers, and plants, and in the 
 foliage of the trees of the present time, chiefly by the 
 action of the direct unclouded sunbeams. There could 
 therefore have been no beautiful variegated flowers in 
 the fields, no lovely tints in the foliage of the trees, and 
 no bright green in the grass of this early period ; the 
 grass, the plants, the flowers, and the trees alike must 
 have been of a sickly monotonous hue, like that which 
 is now found in plants, which are shut out from the 
 direct action of the sunbeams. The atmosphere was 
 also unsuited, as yet, for the support of animal life, 
 being overcharged with carbonic acid gas, such as is 
 found in coal-mines, and other deep places, at the pre- 
 sent day, and which causes almost immediate destruc- 
 tion of animal life by suffocation. But this state of 
 things had now lasted long enough, and had answered 
 
184 THE FOURTH DAT. 
 
 all the ends for wliicli the Creator had suffered it, and 
 the time had at length arrived, when a fresh exertion of 
 Divine power became necessary to carry on the work of 
 Creation ; and accordingly the Word of the Almighty 
 was sent forth, " 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 
 the heaven to give light upon the earth." Now first, it 
 is to be observed, that the word translated " lights" in 
 this passage, is not the same word which occurs in the 
 third verse, when God said, " Let there be light," but 
 is a distinct Hebrew word, which more j^roperly signi- 
 fies " a light-bearer," and is actually used in another 
 passage of Scriptui'e, to signify " a candlestick." The 
 light had been visible from the commencement of the 
 first day, but now the light-bearers were about to be 
 made visible also. Many j^ersons have felt some diffi- 
 culty as to the Scriptural account of the work of this 
 fourth day, because they have thought that the Scrip- 
 tural account implied, that the sun, moon, an'd stars, 
 were not created until this fourth day of the earth's 
 history ; which would be contrary to every principle of 
 Analogy and Eeason. But the words of the original 
 text by no means imply this ; in fact, they imply exactly 
 the contrary ; for the Scripture tells us, that God ^^made 
 two great lights," and the word which is very accurately 
 and properly translated " made," does not imply crea- 
 tion — which is expressed by a different Hebrew word — 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 185 
 
 but rather the production of some change, in reference 
 to the form or disposition of a pre-existing thing. And, 
 no doubt, the change which is here intimated to have 
 been made, in reference to the sun, moon, and stars, 
 was, their becoming visible from, the surface of the earthy 
 in the course of this fourth day. Indeed those persons 
 who insist that the words of Scripture imply, that the 
 sun, moon, and stars, were not created until the fourth 
 day of the earth's history, might, with equal justice, insist, 
 that the Scriptural account also implies, that the sun 
 and moon, if not the stars, are placed within the atmos- 
 phere of the earth ; which can be proved to demonstra- 
 tion not to be the case. The change, then, which Avas 
 effected on this fourth day, was the gradual dispersion 
 and final breaking up of the cloudy curtain, wdiich 
 — although already much diminished in density, and 
 impenetrability to light — still hung suspended in the 
 atmosphere, and shut out the faintest direct view of the 
 heavenly bodies from the earth's surface. This change, 
 no doubt, was a gradual one ; from the first moment, 
 however, of this fourth day, the outline of the greater 
 light-bearer, at least, began to be/a/;2% discernible — like 
 as he is now occasionally seen on a cloudy daj^, when 
 the aqueous vapours in the atmosphere are not sufii- 
 ciently dense, to shut him out altogether from our view ; 
 but a faint dim outline, at least, of his brilliant orb, 
 reaches the eye — and this outline became gradually 
 more and more bright and distinct, during the long ages 
 which composed the fourth day; until at length, the 
 
186 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 continuity of the hitherto permanent veil of cloud was 
 broken, and the direct unclouded sunbeams occasionally 
 reached the surface of the earth, almost as they do at 
 the present time. Hence must have ensued, a gradual 
 development of colour and beauty in the appearance 
 of terrestrial vegetation, as the exquisite tints of the 
 flowers, and plants, and of the foliage of the trees, 
 became more bright and beautiful, under the increasing 
 influence of the sun-light ; while at the same time, the 
 atmosphere became more and more relieved from its 
 carbon, which was absorbed in the profuse vegetation 
 of the period, and converted into those vast beds of 
 coal, which were designed, many ages afterwards, to 
 afford so many luxuries and comforts for the use of 
 mankind. And thus the atmosphere gradually became 
 more suited to sustain animal life, as it continually 
 acquired more and more of the life-sustainmg element 
 of oxygen, which was given out in greater quantities 
 by the profuse vegetation of the period, under the 
 increased stimulating influence and decomposing power 
 of the direct sunbeams. 
 
 The great physical characteristic feature of this fourth 
 day of Creation appears to have been the vastly increased 
 amount of solar heat which penetrated to the eartKs surface, 
 consequent upon the gradual attenuation, and ultimate 
 breaking up of the permanent veil of cloud, which had 
 hitherto floated in the upper region of the atmosphere ; 
 but which, during the course of this fourth day, gradu- 
 ally became more and more attenuated, until, at the 
 
THE FOURTH DAT. 187 
 
 close of this day, it was altogether broken up, and the 
 direct sunbeams were allowed to fall upon the earth's 
 surface. The increased admission of solar heat conse- 
 quent upon this, must have been very great indeed, as 
 will be more apparent if Ave remember, that the penetrat- 
 ing power of heat^ when it has to traverse a mass of aqueous 
 vapour^ is immensely less than that of light, under the same 
 circumstances ; of which truth any one may have a 
 simple practical proof, by observing, that a cloud, which 
 will effectually prevent the direct heat of the sun from 
 being perceptible, will not shut out his light, nor prevent 
 the outline of his orb from being visible. And so we 
 may infer, that, although the light of the sun which 
 reached the earth's surface, was undoubtedly increased 
 during the course of this fourth day ; yet the increase 
 of the light, was not at all comparable to the increase of 
 solar heat during the same period. And, indeed, the 
 increase of solar heat which reached the earth's surface, 
 must have been much greater, during the course of this 
 one day, than in any of the previous or subsequent days 
 of Creation, and even greater than in all the other days 
 taken together. And so I think we are justified in 
 making the increased admission of solar heat, the great 
 physical characteristic of this fourth day of Creation. 
 Indeed the solar heat seems to have reached its limit at 
 the close of this fourth day, when the sun for the first 
 time poured dowTi upon the plains of earth his direct 
 scorching beams, without an intervening cloud. The 
 light also, at the close of this day, appears to have 
 
188 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 readied its limit, and we shall not find that there was 
 any direct increase of either light or heat from the sun, 
 upon any of the subsequent days of Creation, nor from 
 the close of the fourth day, even to the present time. In 
 fact, the work — which had been commenced upon the 
 first day of Creation — of dividing the light from the dark- 
 ness, was completed at the close of this fourth day; 
 and since that period, no additional line of division has 
 been drawn between the day and the night, or between 
 the light and the darkness ; but, in the course of this 
 fourth day, that line of division must have acquired a vast 
 increase of distinctness and accuracy of demarcation ; 
 because now, the sun himself became visible during the 
 day, and was not to be seen at night ; and so the com- 
 mencements of the day and of the night, were now /or 
 the first time sharply defined, and accurately marked by 
 the visible rising and setting of the solar orb ; and this 
 is, I conceive, what is meant by saying, that God set 
 the light-bearers in the firmament " to divide the day 
 from the nighty'' and " to divide the light from the darkness^ 
 In the course of this fourth day also, the distinctions 
 of climate and of the seasons, first became perceptible on 
 the earth's surface — the admission of solar heat on the 
 previous days having been insufficient to make any 
 sensible distinction between the climates of polar and 
 equatorial latitudes, or between the temperatures of 
 summer and Avinter. But now, from the commencement 
 of this fourth day, these distinctions began gradually to 
 be more and more perceptible: until, at the close of 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 189 
 
 tbis fourth day, the causes, "which have ulthnately pro- 
 duced the present state of things, in respect to these 
 distinctions, upon the earth's surface, were in full opera- 
 tion. Not that we mean to imply, that, at the close of 
 this fourth day, the distinctions of climate were actually 
 marked out, on the earth's surface, as they are at present ; 
 for this would be contrary to the discoveries of modern 
 Science ; but still the causes, which gradually produced 
 the distinctions of climate, came into full operation at the 
 close of the fourth day ; and the distinctions themselves 
 had then become faintly perceptible. Many ages, how- 
 ever, had to elapse before these distinctions of climate 
 were fully developed ; for we know by modern dis- 
 coveries, that elephants and other animals — natives of 
 tropical climates — once existed in abundance in the 
 polar regions of our Globe, where their remains are 
 still occasionally discovered ; and hence we have evi- 
 dence that at the period when these animals lived — 
 which could not have been earlier than the sixth day 
 of Creation — the distinctions of climate were, as yet, 
 but faintly marked, although the producing causes had 
 then been in full operation during the long ages which 
 composed the fifth day. However, the fourth di?ij first 
 introduced the distinctions of climate and of the seasons; 
 which is expressed in the language of Scripture, when 
 we are told, that God set the light-bearers in the firma- 
 ment to be " for signs, and for seasons, and davs, and 
 years;" or, as the words might perhaps be rendered, 
 *' for climates, and for seasons, and for days, and years ;*' 
 
190 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 and indeed — independently of any alteration in the 
 authorized translation — the passage may well hear this 
 meaning, as we shall see, if we consider, that the posi- 
 tion of the signs of the Zodiac — which mark the trace of 
 the plane of the earth's orbit upon the celestial sphere — 
 has a direct and immediate connexion with the dis- 
 tinctions of climate upon the earth's surface. 
 
 At the close of this fourth day of the natural Crea- 
 tion, the general appearance and condition of the earth 
 must have been very much the same as is to be seen at 
 the present time in the tropical regions ; save only that 
 there was still an absence of terrestrial inhabitants, and 
 of Animal Life. The atmosphere, however, was now at 
 length made suitable for the support of life in air- 
 breathing animals, while the profuse vegetation of the 
 period had provided an inexhaustible supply of food 
 proper for their support and sustenance, preparatory to 
 their introduction upon the scene in the course of the 
 two subsequent days of Creation. On this fourth day, 
 the earth entered, as it were, upon the season of youth — 
 that fourth period of natural existence, which, as every 
 one knows, is characterised by the development of fiery 
 passion ; and indeed the passionate love of youth bears 
 the same relation to the mild love of childhood, as the 
 fierce heat of the unclouded sunbeams which first 
 reached the earth at the close of this fourth day, bore 
 to the milder and more temperate solar heat which 
 alone could penetrate the cloudy curtain of the atmo- 
 sphere during the third day of Creation. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 191 
 
 Now, turning to the fourth day of New Creation, we 
 may expect to find the changes wrought out in the 
 Christian's character during this period, to be of a more 
 spiritual nature, and less marked hy external manifestations 
 than those of the preceding period. The changes 
 wrought out in the corresponding period of the natural 
 Creation, were, as we have just seen, all manifested 
 primarily in the firmament of the heaven, and not in 
 the earth ; we do not read in the Scriptural account of 
 this day's work, that God said, ' Let there be any new 
 thing in the earthy or, ' Let the earth bring forth any new 
 thing;' but that He said, "Let there be lights in the 
 Jii^mament of the heaven f^ and so we shall find, that the 
 corresponding work which God does in the course of 
 the fourth day of New Creation, is primarily and essen- 
 tially spiritual and internal^ without any very marked 
 external manifestations. It is a work which cannot be 
 seen or understood by the world; for the Scripture 
 tells us, that " the natural man receiveth not the 
 things of the spirit of God ; for they are foolishness 
 unto him ; neither can he know them, because they 
 are spiritually discerned." — 1 Cor. ii. 14. No doubt 
 there is some progress in the external manifestations of 
 this fourth day, in the life and conversation of the 
 Christian ; there is a progress of beauty and fruitfulness, 
 which corresponds to the increased development of 
 beauty, in the colours of the plants, and flowers, and 
 trees, which, as we have seen, marked the corresponding 
 period of the natural Creation ; but there is nothing 
 
 N 
 
192 THE FOURTH DAY. . 
 
 generically new in this, and the eyes of the world are 
 far too dull in spiritual things, to be able to mark a 
 mere variation of colour, in the spiritual flowers and 
 foliage of the period. Consequently the world will, in 
 general, perceive little or no change, while the Christian 
 passes through this fourth day of his New Creation ; 
 but God will perceive a great change, and the Christian 
 himself will be conscious of a great, though gradual 
 change in the spiritual world within ; for now God has 
 sent forth His Word, " Let there be lights in the fir- 
 mament of the heaven," and forthwith the Christian be- 
 comes conscious of the ^vs,t faint outline of a direct spiritual 
 manifestation of Christ, and of His Church. These are 
 the two great Ughts in the spiritual firmament, which 
 correspond respectively to the sun and the moon in the 
 natural world. Christ, of course, is the greater light, as 
 it is written, "That was the true light, which lighteth 
 every man that cometh into the world." — John i. 9 ; 
 and again, " I will also give thee for a light to the Gen- 
 tiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of 
 the earth." — Is. xlix. 6 ; as to which latter passage, we 
 may observe that the word which is there translated 
 " give," is exactly the same word which is translated 
 " set" in the passage from the first chapter of Genesis, 
 where, speaking of the sun and the moon, it is said, 
 " God set them in the firmament of the heaven." And 
 the lesser light, which is set in the spiritual firmament, 
 is the Church of Christ, as it is written, "Ye are the 
 light of the world, a city that is set upon a hill cannot 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 193 
 
 be hid." — Matt. v. 14. Christ is the greater light, 
 because His hght is not derived from another, but 
 shines out from the inherent and essential glory of His 
 Divine nature — like the sun in the heavens, which 
 derives not its light from any other created thing, but 
 directly from the Creator. The Church is the lesser 
 light, first, because its brightness is less dazzling and 
 intense, and next, because its light is not inherent in 
 itself, but entirely derived from Christ ; in fact, the 
 Church has but the reflected glory of the Divine 
 Saviour — like the moon in the natural heavens, which 
 has no light of its own, but is a dark body which derives 
 its light entirely by reflection from the sun. And 
 indeed, if the limits of this work permitted, we might 
 trace out this branch of the Analogy into its more 
 minute details ; and we should find the various natural 
 phenomena of the heavens reproduced in the spiritual 
 world, with wonderful exactness ; but let it sufifice to 
 notice briefly one or two instances. When the earth 
 comes between the sun and the moon, the natural 
 phenomenon ensues, which is called an eclipse of the 
 moon ; and precisely analogous to this, is the pheno- 
 menon exhibited in the spiritual world, when the 
 Church suffers the world to come hetiveen herself and 
 tJie Saviour, and to shut out His light from her view; 
 immediately the glory of the Church is eclipsed, and 
 her dark body is exposed to view. But when the 
 Church places herself between the world and the 
 Saviour — when she usui'ps His place, and shuts Him 
 
 N 2 
 
194 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 out from view — tlien ensues the far more alarmina 
 2')henomenon in the spiritual world, which corresponds 
 with an eclipse of the sun in the natural world ; the 
 glory of the Saviour is eclipsed, and His brightness is 
 shut out from view ; while the dark body of the Church 
 is exposed to view, in place of the brightness of His 
 glory. Of this latter strange and alarming phenomenon 
 in the spiritual world, a very remarkable example, on 
 an extensive scale, and in an apparently permanent 
 form, may be observed by all those of mankind, whom 
 God has placed outside the circle of spiritual darkness 
 produced by the eclipse ; Avhich is the converse of what 
 takes place in the natural world, for there, those within 
 the circle of darkness see the eclipse, while those out- 
 side it do not. 
 
 These two great lights in the spiritual firmament — like 
 their prototypes in the natural world — are also " set for 
 signs;" and first, the greater light is set for a, sign, as it is 
 written, " Behold this child is set for the fall and rising 
 again of many in Israel ; and for a sign which shall be 
 spoken against" (Luke ii. 34) ; and again, " Therefore 
 the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold a virgin 
 shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name 
 Immanuel." — Is. vii. 14. And the same is true of the 
 lesser light, the Church, as it is written, " And there 
 appeared a great wonder" — or sign — " in heaven, a 
 woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her 
 feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." — 
 Rev. xii. 1. In this fourth day of New Creation, the 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 195 
 
 Christian first begins to realize what is meant by the 
 * Communion of Saints,' which ^ve all profess to believe, 
 as often as we repeat the Apostles' Creed, but which 
 none can fully realize or comprehend, except those who 
 have passed through the fourth day of Christian Ex- 
 perience, when for the first time the lesser light is set 
 in the spiritual firmaneut ; and then, the soul — when it 
 sees the mild glory of that lesser light — can join wdth 
 the Psalmist in saying to God, "My goodness ex- 
 tendeth not to thee, but to the saints which are in the 
 earth, and to the excellent in whom is all my delight." 
 — Ps. xvi. 3. Christ and His Church are then, I con- 
 ceive, primarily and properly, the two great lights^ which 
 are set in the spiritual firmament on the fourth day of 
 New Creation. Few, indeed, will be disposed to question 
 that the greater light set in the spiritual firmament is 
 Christ ; but some may perhaps prefer to consider the 
 written Word of God to be the lesser light which 
 governs the night — or the period while the Saviour is 
 absent ; and which derives all its light from the reflec- 
 tion of His glory ; for if Christ were struck out of the 
 Scriptures, all their light and glory would depart with 
 Him. And, no doubt, the Analogy holds good in this 
 way also, to a certain extent, for it is written, " Thy 
 word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." 
 — Ps. cxix. 105. And, perhaps, some may prefer to 
 consider the two great lights to be the Old and New- 
 Testaments; the New Testament being the greater 
 light to rule the day — or the period after the Sim of 
 
196 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 Eigliteousness liad risen on our world, by the personal 
 appearance of the Saviour at His First Advent ; and 
 this light being greater, by reason of the fuller and 
 more direct manifestation of Christ, which it contains ; 
 while the Old Testament, which contains a less distinct 
 and direct manifestation of Him, and shines chiefly by 
 the light reflected back upon it from the New Testa- 
 ment, would represent the lesser light, set to rule the 
 night — or the period prior to the rising of the Sun of 
 Eighteousness at the First Advent of the Saviour, as it 
 is written, " We have also a more sure word of pro- 
 phecy ; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as 
 unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day 
 dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts." — 
 2 Pet. i. 19. However, 1 prefer, for many reasons — the 
 discussion of which here, would introduce an unneces- 
 sary digression — to adopt the view of the two great 
 lights in the spiritual firmament, which is above men- 
 tioned, namely, that they are Christ and His Church ; 
 although I admit, that the other two analogies above 
 suggested may both hold good to a certain extent, and 
 may be secondarily indicated by the two great lights in 
 the natural world. 
 
 The great characteristic mark of this fourth day of 
 New Creation, is the vastly increased perception of 
 the love of God, and the corresponding increase of 
 love to God, which takes place in the Christian during 
 this period, and which answers to the increased admis- 
 "sion of solar heat to the earth's surface during the cor- 
 
THE FOURTH DAT. 197 
 
 responding period of the natural Creation ; 'in fact the 
 heat from the Sun of Righteousness now begins to 
 enter the soul, more profusely and more directly than 
 before, as the spiritual veil is gradually attenuated, 
 until at the close of this fourth day of Christian Ex- 
 perience, Christ is, for the first time, seen in all His 
 glory and His beauty, fully and distinctly hy a direct 
 spiritual manifestation of Himself to the soul, as He never 
 was seen before. This is that internal phase of Chris- 
 tian Experience, which has been termed by some 
 Christian writers ' Second Conversion ;' and we shall 
 presently see, that there is much expression and pro- 
 priety of meaning in the name. The world, and even 
 many real Christians, mil say, 'This is mere enthu- 
 siasm, it has no actual reality.' And, no doubt, to the 
 world it will ever be mere enthusiasm, until the pro- 
 mised time shall arrive, when God will pour out of His 
 Spirit upon all flesh ; until then, the world never can 
 be convinced of the reality of this experience of the 
 Christian, and it would be hopeless to attempt its 
 demonstration to them ; but I think that any Christian 
 — who will search the Scriptures on this subject, and 
 candidly weigh the evidence which the Scriptures 
 afford — will find, that this direct spiritual manifestation 
 of Christ to the soul — call it by what name you wiU — 
 is a reality, although the Christian may not as yet have 
 found it to be so, in his own personal experience. It 
 was to this direct spiritual manifestation of Himself to 
 His people that the Saviour alluded, when He said. 
 
198 THE FOUETH DAT. 
 
 " He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and 
 I will love him and will manifest myself unto him.^^ — 
 John xiv. 21. This manifestation of Christ to the soul 
 corresponds with the admission of the direct unclouded 
 sunbeams, and the uninterrupted view of the solar orb, 
 which took place at the close of the fourth day of the 
 natural Creation. And it is remarkable how the 
 Saviour, in the passage above quoted, make this direct 
 manifestation of Himself to the soul, to depend upon 
 the development of love to Himself, in the soul ; but 
 we have seen, that this development of love to God 
 is the great characteristic of the fourth day of New 
 Creation; and consequently Scripture, as well as 
 Analogy, justifies us in placing the direct spiritual 
 manifestation of Christ to the soul — or Second Conver- 
 sion — at the close of the fourth day of New Creation. 
 This same experience of Second Conversion appears to 
 have been alluded to by the Saviour when he said to 
 St. Peter, " And when thou art conveHed strengthen 
 thy brethren." — Luke xxii. 32 ; for certainly, He could 
 not have meant to allude to St. Petei-'s first Conversion 
 or new-birth ; as that, we know, had taken place before 
 these words were addressed to him, as it is written, 
 " Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood 
 hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father Avhich is 
 in heaven." — Matt. xvi. 17; and these latter words 
 were certainly addressed to the Apostle before the 
 former words. Besides it is remarkable that the word 
 translated 'converted* in the sentence addressed to St. 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 199 
 
 Peter, is the same verb in the original, which is trans- 
 lated 'converted' in the passage where the Saviour 
 says, " Except ye be converted and become as Httle 
 children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven." — Matt, xviii. o ; except that, in the former 
 passage, where the word is nsed in reference to St. 
 Peter, the verb occurs with the addition of a prefix 
 which may signify addition or repetition ; so that the 
 words addressed to St. Peter might be well translated 
 thus, " When thou art converted again, strengthen thy 
 brethren." And, indeed, the Psalmist appears to 
 allude to the same spiritual phenomenon, when he says, 
 " He shall convert my soul and bring me forth in the 
 paths of righteousness for his name sake." — Ps. xxiii. 3. 
 This is the translation in the prayer-book version, 
 which seems, in this instance, to be more literal than 
 that given in the authorized version. If this be so, the 
 Conversion to wliich the Psalmist alludes can only be 
 Second Conversion; and it is remarkable, in vv^hat 
 close connexion with it — immediately following the 
 Conversion he speaks of — come " the paths of right- 
 eousness," or the higher Christian life, which, as we 
 shall presently see, commences with Second Conversion. 
 The love by which the fourth day of Christian Expe- 
 rience is characterized, and which attains its maximum 
 at the close of this day, as far surpasses, in strength 
 and fervour, the love of the preceding day, as the love 
 of the youth surpasses the love of the child ; in fact, it 
 rises to all the strength and energy of a burning pas- 
 
200 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 sion, or an insatiable craving appetite, -wliicli cannot 
 be satisfied. We have many expressions of this expe- 
 rience in the Sacred Volume ; for instance, when David 
 said, "As the hart panteth after the Avater-brooks, so 
 panteth my soul after thee, God; my soul ihirsteth 
 for God, for the living God, &c." — Ps. xlii. 1, 2, he 
 was using the language of the latter part of the fourth 
 day of Christian Experience, which cannot be fully ap- 
 propriated or understood by any, except those who 
 have arrived at the close of that period of their spiritual 
 life. Again, the song of Solomon presents us with a 
 singular specimen of an entire book of Holy Scripture, 
 w^hich, from beginning to end, is the expression of the 
 experience of the latter part of this same fourth period 
 of spiritual life, couched in allegorical and highly 
 figurative language horrowed from the corresponding 
 period of natural life. And, to notice one more example, 
 one of the ancient Prophets, adopting the impassioned 
 language of the same period of Christian Experience, 
 was enabled to say, " Although the fig-tree shall not 
 blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines ; the labour 
 of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no 
 meat ; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and 
 there shall be no herd in the stalls ; yet will I rejoice 
 in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation" 
 (Hab. iii. 17, 18) ; just as young men, under the influ- 
 ence of their ardent affections, are content to abandon 
 the most brilliant prospects in life, to despise wealth, 
 and utterly to disregard their worldly prosperity, for 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 201 
 
 the sake of possessing the object of their love ; so the 
 Prophet, under the influence of an analogous strong 
 and disinterested affection, was content to renounce all 
 other good things, so as he might only possess the object 
 of his spiritual passion. 
 
 It will be found, I think, that this love which 
 characterizes the foiu'th day of New Creation attains its 
 limit or maximum at the close of that day, and does 
 not experience any further essential increase, at least 
 until the seventh day; by which, however, I do not 
 mean to convey, that the practical and visible effects 
 and external manifestations of this love, attain their 
 limit at the same period, and are susceptible of no 
 further increase Avhile the Christian remains in the 
 flesh ; for this would be contrary to the recorded expe- 
 rience of Christians in ancient and modern times ; and 
 indeed the analogy which we have been endeavouring 
 to trace out, is singularly and beautifully exact in this 
 respect ; for as we have seen, that the admission of heat 
 from the sun attained its maximum at the close of the 
 fourth day of the natural Creation, and was not sus- 
 ceptible of further increase on the subsequent days, 
 and yet its practical and visible effects and manifesta- 
 tions in producing the distinctions of climate and of 
 the seasons, by no means attained their maximum at 
 the same period ; but, on the contrary, were only then 
 beginning to become apparent, and continued constantly 
 to increase during the two subsequent days of Creation ; 
 so it is in the work of New Creation ; the love of God 
 
202 
 
 THE FOURTH DAT. 
 
 attains its maximum at tlie close of the fourth day 
 of New Creation, and admits of no subsequent increase 
 in its essential strength and power, at least while 
 the Christian remains in the flesh ; but its practical 
 and visible effects and manifestations do continue to 
 increase and to develop themselves^ more and more, 
 during the two subsequent days of Christian Expe- 
 rience. And I would also infer from Analogy, that, as 
 in the natural Creation, the light attained its maximum 
 at the close of the fourth day, and has ever since 
 remained, and still does remain at the same degree of 
 illumination, which it then attained ; so the spiritual 
 light, and the accuracy of the judgments of Conscience, 
 attain their limit at the end of the fourth day of Chris- 
 tian Experience, and are not susceptible of any further 
 essential increase in the Christian, while he remains in 
 the flesh, imtil the morning of the seventh day, when 
 darkness will be altogether and for ever banished alike 
 from the natural, and from the spiritual world of the 
 Redeemed. 
 
 This development of love, however, which marks the 
 fourth day of New Creation, is an invisible thing, which 
 can be directly perceived only by God and by the soul 
 in which it exists ; by all others its existence can be 
 only inferred, from its practical and visible effects in the 
 life and conversation; and these practical and visible 
 effects may be summed up in one word, and that is, 
 GODLINESS, which is nothing but the love of God mani- 
 fested in the life and conversation. Wheresoever the 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 203 
 
 impassioned love of tlie fourth day exists, it will colour 
 all the actions and make them more beautiful in the 
 sight of God, as springing from love to Himself; just 
 as the flowers, and foliage, and all the vegetation of 
 the corresponding period, of the natural Creation, derived, 
 for the first time, bright and beautiful colours from the 
 more copious and unimpeded admission of the sunbeams. 
 GODLINESS then expresses, in a word, the visible character- 
 istic mark of the fourth day of Christian Expetience. The 
 world may not be able to see any distinction between 
 the Godliness of the fourth day and the Christian 
 graces — such as Temperance and Patience — which form 
 the visible marks of the third day ; and, in truth, there 
 is no generic distinction between them ; and we know 
 that the eyes of the world are far too dull in spiritual 
 things, to be able to mark the change of colour, and the 
 increase of beauty which characterizes the latter period ; 
 but the Christian may understand the distinction, which 
 is just this, that in the former period, thei^e is more of 
 the legal spirit in the luorks and actions of the Christian, 
 because the sunbeams from the Sun of Eighteousness 
 have not as yet penetrated in sufiicient power to the 
 surface of the spiritual soil, to call forth the beauty and 
 fragrance which are subsequently to be developed. 
 But, in the fourth period of spiritual life, the works 
 and actions of the Christian, although not generically 
 different from what they were before, yet spring more 
 entirely from love to God, and are, therefore, more beau- 
 tiful and acceptable in His sight, and in the sight 
 
204 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 of His cMdren, than they were in the preceding period, 
 when they were done more " grudgingly and of neces- 
 sity," as it were, and more from a sense of duty, than 
 of a free will and from love to God. 
 
 At the close of this fourth day of Christian Expe- 
 rience, I would place the spiritual phenomenon called 
 ' Second Conversion,' which is the direct spiritual mani- 
 festation of the Saviour to the soul, analogous to the direct 
 unclouded view of the solar orb which was unveiled, 
 for the first time, at the close of the fourth day of the 
 natural Creation. God manifests Himself to the soul 
 invariably, hj His Word only, in the first instance, 
 which verbal manifestation takes place at Conversion 
 or new-birth, or, in other words, at the commencement 
 of the first day of New Creation. But at the close of 
 the fourth day. He manifests Himself directly, by a 
 spiritual manifestation which takes place at Second 
 Conversion. And, indeed, if we turn to the records of 
 the Old Testament Scriptures, we shall find that this 
 method of God's dealings in the manifestations of Him- 
 self to the soul, is not only exactly analogous to the 
 process of the natural Creation, but is in strict accord- 
 ance with the order and method of His dealings with 
 the ancient Patriarchs, and with His saints under the 
 Old Testament dispensation ; for God used to manifest 
 Himself to them, in the first instance by His Word, and 
 after that. He used to appear to them directly. And so 
 Ave read, in reference to God's dealings with Abraham, 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 205 
 
 " Now God liad said unto Abraham, Get thee out of 
 thy country," &c. — Gen. xii. 1. This was the manifes- 
 tation of God to Abraham by His Word, which answers 
 to Conversion or new-birth. And not until Abraham 
 had manifested his faith and love to God by forsaking 
 his kindred and his father's house at God's command, 
 and after an interval of many years, do we read that 
 " the Lord appeared unto Abraham." — Gen. xii. 7. 
 This appearance of God to Abraham was the direct 
 manifestation of God to him, which answers to Second 
 Conversion in modern times. I do not, however, mean 
 to convey, that the appearance of God to Abraham was 
 a merely spiritual appearance, like Second Conversion 
 in modern times ; for we know that God used occasion- 
 ally, in Old Testament times — ^before His Incarnation — 
 to appear in human form to those who were highly 
 favoured by Him ; and no such manifestations are to be 
 looked for in modern times — since His Incarnation ; but 
 still this first appearance of God to Abraham, was strictly 
 analogous to Second Conversion, or the dii'ect spiritual 
 manifestation of the Saviour to a modern Christian. 
 
 Again, to take another example, we read of Solomon, 
 " In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream 
 by night." — 1 Kings iri. 5. Now, in this case also we 
 shall find, that this appearance of God to Solomon must 
 have taken place at the close of the fourth day of Chris- 
 tian Experience in Solomon, and was thus strictly 
 analogous to the direct spiritual manifestation of the 
 
206 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 Saviour, called ' Second Conversion ;' for we find it 
 written immediately before, in the same chapter, " And 
 Solomon loved the Lord." — 1 Kings iii. 3. Now, the 
 development of Love to God is, as we have seen, the 
 great distinguishing mark of the fourth day of New 
 Creation, and attains its maximum at the close of that 
 period. And, therefore, I think, we are Avarranted in 
 concluding, that Solomon had passed through the 
 fourth day of New Creation, and arrived at the close 
 of this period of his spiritual life, when God so ap- 
 peared to him. And here it may not be altogether 
 out of place to notice a curious analogy in this 
 respect between God's dealings with the individual 
 Christian and with the world at large, or the univer- 
 sal Church, namely, that as God manifests Himself 
 directly to the individual Christian at the close of 
 the fourth day of his spiritual existence ; so it was at 
 the close of the fourth millennial day of our world's history 
 — or rather of the Church's existence — that God mani- 
 fested Himself directly and visibly^ in the person of the 
 Saviour. 
 
 It may be asked, ' Is Second Conversion necessary 
 to Salvation?' to which we reply, ' Most certainly 
 not.' ]\Iultitudes will be saved who never have 
 experienced Second Conversion, while they were in 
 the flesh ; in many cases death intervenes, before the 
 slow development of the days of New Creation has 
 arrived at this point ; and even in those who have 
 experienced this change, we doubt not that there are 
 
THE FOURTH DAY. 207 
 
 infinite varieties in the extent and degree of develop- 
 ment to which it has been wrought out — in some it 
 will be clearly and strongly marked, in others very 
 faintly — ^just as, in the natural world, there are some 
 days so cloudy, that the sun is hardly seen at all, or at 
 best but indistinctly; while in others he is visible 
 almost the entire time he is above the horizon ; and as, 
 in some youths, the passions are more strongly deve- 
 loped, while in others they appear rnuch more faintly ; 
 so the phenomena of the fourth period of spiritual life 
 are subject to like variations and degrees of develop- 
 ment. 
 
 This fourth day of Christian Experience, together 
 with the preceding day, forms the great era of spiritual 
 education ; these two days answer respectively to the 
 School time and the College time of natural life ; they 
 have a primary, although not an exclusive reference to 
 the individual himself, to his own edification and prepa- 
 ration for the duties of the subsequent periods ; they 
 are spent in learning how to perform the active duties 
 of Christian life on the two remaining days of his spiri- 
 tual life in the flesh, and in acquiring increased fitness 
 for the duties and enjoyments of that never-ending day 
 which follows his departure from this transitory scene. 
 In fact, up to the close of the fourth period of spiritual 
 life, the Christian has had enough to do to keep down 
 the internal corruptions of the Old Man, backed by the 
 temptations of Satan ; but at this — the turning point, 
 as it were, of his spiritual conflict — the New Man 
 
 o 
 
208 THE FOURTH DAY. 
 
 becomes stronger than his adversaries, and is now 
 enabled to turn from internal conquest to spread his 
 victories in the external world, as it is written, " I have 
 written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and 
 the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome 
 the wicked one." — 1 John ii. 14. 
 
[ 209 ] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the 
 moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the 
 earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great 
 whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters 
 brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl 
 after his kind : and God saw that it was good. And God blessed 
 them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the 
 seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the 
 morning were the fifth day." — Gen. i. 20-23. 
 
 We have seen in the preceding chaj)ter that the physi- 
 cal state and condition of the earth had, at the close of 
 the fourth day, arrived, as it were, at maturity, and had 
 already assumed a permanent form, -which presented 
 very much of the same general appearance which 
 nature wears at the present day in the tropical regions. 
 The atmosphere was also considerably purified from the 
 carbonic acid gas, and other elements antagonistic to 
 animal life, which it had contained, and was now suited 
 for the support of the lower developments of animal 
 life in aii'-breathing creatures. The plains of earth 
 
 2 
 
210 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 were already clothed -with a green carpet of verdure, 
 and the landscape was adorned and diversified by alj 
 the beautiful varieties of colour in the flowers, and in 
 the foliage of the primeval forests, and woods, and 
 trees, which — scattered here and there over the bound- 
 less plains of earth — waved their shady branches in the 
 evening, breeze — sole "witnesses of the glories of the set- 
 ting sun, as they alone beheld his rising ; for the whole 
 earth was as yet one vast solitude ; no feathered songs- 
 ters carol to welcome the returning orb of day, broke 
 the death-like stillness which reigned far and -wide over 
 the earth ; the voice of Nature alone was heard, now 
 whispering in the rustling leaves and rippling waves, 
 scarce moved by the gentle breeze ; now resounding 
 loudly in the tones of the thunder, or of the tem- 
 pest-lashed forest, or the raging ocean. Hitherto the 
 giant monarchs of the forest, had long ruled with undis- 
 puted sway upon the earth ; but the greaf era of Vegeta- 
 ble Life had now drawn to a close, and the vegetable 
 kingdom was now about to be superseded by a higher 
 order of being, and a new element was about to be 
 introduced into the scene, and that element was animal 
 LIFE. All things being now prepared for this wonder- 
 ful innovation, the Word of the Almighty was sent 
 forth, " Let the waters bring forth abundantly the 
 moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly 
 above the earth in the open firmament of heaven ;" or, 
 as the Avords of the original might be better rendered, 
 " Let the waters bring forth abundantly the air-breath- 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 211 
 
 ing reptile, and fowl that may fly above the earth," &c. 
 And then we read, that " God created great whales, and 
 every living creature that moveth, which the Avaters 
 brought forth abundantly," &c. Which latter passage 
 might also be more properly rendered, "God created 
 great whales, and every breathing reptile which the 
 Avaters brought forth abundantly," &c. 
 
 The great characteristic feature of this fifth day of the 
 natural Creation was the introduction of Animal Life 
 upon the scene. This was a great stride, and a most 
 wonderful advance in the process of Creation ; for the 
 chasm which separates Animal Life from Vegetable Life 
 — the living Avorks of the fifth day, from the Avorks of 
 the preceding days — is infinitely greater than that Avhicli 
 separates the vegetable from the mineral kingdom. 
 And it is A^ery remarkable hoAV exactly the same progres- 
 sive method Avas obserA^ed by the All-wise Creator in 
 introducing Animal Life into the earth, Avhich we have 
 already seen Avas observed in the introduction of Vege- 
 table Life upon the third day ; Ave have, in the course of 
 this fifth day, the reptiles, the birds, and the great Avhales, 
 ansAA^ering exactly, in the progressive order of air-breath- 
 ing animals, to the grass, the herbs, and the trees, in 
 the vegetable kingdom. First came the reptiles, which 
 natui^alists class under the generic name of cold blooded 
 animals ; they form the loAvest step in the scale of air- 
 breathing animals, and can exist in a comparatively 
 impure atmosphere, Avhich would be incapable of sup- 
 porting any of the higher orders of animal life ; Avhich 
 
212 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 circumstance is instanced in the case of frogs, wliich are 
 occasionally found alive, immured in rocks, and deep 
 buried in the earth, where they must have been shut 
 up deprived of fresh air for centuries. In the next place 
 — as the atmosphere gradually became purer under the 
 influence of the direct sunbeams — we have the class of 
 birds, which are warm-blooded animals, and can only 
 exist in a purer atmosphere. And lastly, we have the 
 great whales, which — as every naturalist knows — are not 
 fishes^ but warm-blooded animals, occupying a higher 
 rank than birds among aii'-breathing creatures ; for they 
 belong to the class of Mammalia, they bring forth their 
 young alive, and suckle them like the higher orders of 
 air-breathing animals. 
 
 It seems strange that God should have caused these 
 animals of the fifth day to have been produced from the 
 waters ; we should naturally have expected that He 
 would have rather said, ' Let the earth bring forth the 
 reptiles and the birds'. But His ways are not as our 
 ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts. And besides we 
 may remember, that — on the eve of the first day of Crea- 
 tion — we are told, that " the Spirit of God moved on the 
 face of the waters ;" and we do not subsequently hear of 
 His departure from off the Avaters ; and hence, perhaps, 
 it was, that the first beginnings of Animal Life came 
 from the waters, on whose face still moved the hfe- 
 giving Spirit of God, and not — as we should have expec- 
 ted — from the dry land. 
 
 This fifth day is also characterized by the blessing of 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 213 
 
 the Creator, which was not expressly given until there 
 were sentient creatures who were able to feel and enjoy 
 that blessing, although they were not capable of knowing 
 Him from whom it came, or of returning thanks to Him 
 for it. We see then, that this was an unsought blessing, 
 which emanated from the bountiful goodness and gracious 
 liberality of God, who loves to confer enjoyment upon 
 all His creatures, according to their several capabilities, 
 as it is written, " The Lord is good to all, and his tender 
 mercies are over all his works" — Ps. cxlv. 9. There is 
 much encouragement to be derived from this portion of 
 the narrative of Creation ; for, if God freely gave His 
 blessing to the reptiles of the fifth day, who asked Him 
 not, and were incapable of thanking Him for it ; how 
 much more will He give His blessing to us His human 
 creatures, who ask it, and are capable of returning Him 
 thanks for it ? or, in the words of the Saviour, " How 
 much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 Spirit to them that ask him ? — Luke xi. 13. 
 
 The earth had now passed through the period of youth, 
 and entered, as it were, upon its manhood, that fifth 
 period of natural life, which is characterized by active 
 usefulness to our fellow men, and also by those living 
 works, whereby the earth is replenished, and the ravages 
 made by death are repaired. 
 
 Now turning to the fifth day of New Creation, we 
 find it characterized by precisely analogous pheno- 
 mena. The effects and evidences of Second Conversion 
 now begin to develop themselves in the Christian ; and 
 the first and most genuine of these evidences, is an 
 
214 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 ardent missionary spirit, or a strong desire and conti- 
 nual eiFort to communicate the blessings of spiritual life 
 to others. This is what answers to the introduction of 
 Animal Life into the natural world. And the living 
 works, which result from the successful exercise of this 
 propagative spirit, correspond to the different orders of 
 living creatures introduced into the natural Creation in 
 the course of the fifth day. Hitherto the highest excel- 
 lence attained in the Christian character, was only a kind 
 of Vegetable Life, beautiful and excellent of its kind, it 
 is true, but far inferior in order and degree, to that 
 higher Christian life on which the soul enters in the 
 fifth day of Christian Experience. Temperance and 
 Patience, and the other fruit of the Spirit — which, Ave 
 have seen, were first visibly manifested in the course of 
 the third day, and attained their highest form of 
 development in the fourth day of New Creation — were 
 fair and beautiful marks of Christian character, it is 
 true ; but still they had all a primary and principal 
 reference to the individual himself — like the grass, and 
 herbs, and trees, which adorned and sheltered the earth 
 which produced them — and are not to be compared 
 to the nobler aggressive virtues of the Christian Soldier, 
 which have a primary and principal reference to others. 
 And hence the propriety and force of the term ' Second 
 Conversion ;' it implies that a change takes place in the 
 soul, somewhat analogous to the change which takes 
 place on the occasion of Conversion or new-birth ; in 
 fact, it implies that, a second time, a new principle is 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 215 
 
 introduced into the soul — like the light, which was not 
 made out of any of the elements of the Chaos, but was 
 introduced from without, and was of a wholly different 
 nature from anything which had ever existed in the 
 earth before. Now this strong desire and continual effort 
 for the communication of spiritual life to others, is the 
 new principle^ which is introduced into the soul on Second 
 Conversion, and which produces the living works that 
 we shall find characterize the fifth day of New Creation. 
 
 This new principle — which may well be termed 
 ' Brotherly Kindness' — appears to be communicated to 
 the soul by the direct spiritual manifestation of the 
 Saviour, which takes place on Second Conversion. When 
 the soul then sees Christ fully and directly, the sight has 
 a natural tendency to produce a likeness to Him in the 
 beholder ; even as the sight of the Saviour at His Second 
 Advent, shall produce a likeness to Him — more or less 
 exact — in all His people, as it is written, " But we know 
 that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we 
 shall see him as he is.'^ — 1 John iii. 2. 
 
 The great reason why the works and fruit of the fifth 
 day of New Creation so far excel those of the prior 
 periods, is, that they have a principle of life in them 
 which will survive the grave. The virtues, the kind- 
 nesses, and the courtesies of Christian life, which have 
 only a reference to this passing scene, are all very well 
 in their own place ; they are very lovely and excellent, 
 and afford some evidence of spiritual life in the soul 
 where they are found to exist ; but yet their effects, so 
 
216 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 far as others are concerned, will not survive the grave. 
 They are therefore evidently things of a vastly inferior 
 order compared with the higher aggressive Christian ' 
 virtues, the fruits of which have a principle of life in 
 them, that will survive the grave, and last for ever, and 
 afford to the soul which has been the honoured instru- 
 ment of producing them, a well-spring of joy through- 
 out eternity. 
 
 The intense desire to impart spiritual life to others, is 
 the earliest and most genuine evidence of Second Con- 
 version. The introduction of this principle into the 
 Christian's soul is evidently analogous to the introduc- 
 tion of Animal Life into the natural world on the fifth 
 day of Creation, and to the development of the pro- 
 pagative tendencies in the corresponding period of 
 natural life. But this principle is not to be expected to 
 make its appearance in any marked degree^ in the Chris- 
 tian, before the fifth period of his spiritual life. It is 
 not true, as I have sometimes heard it laid down from 
 the pulpit, that on Conversion or new-birth, there is 
 an immediate instinctive impulse to communicate the truth 
 to others. This was true in the case of St. Paul's 
 miraculous Conversion, for we read of him, that 
 ' straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that 
 He is the Son of God" — Acts Lx. 20. But I believe 
 this was almost the only case of Conversion in which 
 this assertion holds good ; and the reason it was true in 
 that case appears to have been, that — in St. Paul's case — 
 the First and Second Conversions were miraculously 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 217 
 
 blended together, and followed, immediately the one 
 after the other, without any appreciable interval. In 
 fact, the Word and the appearance of the Saviour came 
 to St. Paul almost at the same instant ; for we read, 
 "And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying 
 unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" — 
 Acts ix. 4. Now this voice was analogous to the Word 
 of God coming to the Christian on Conversion or new- 
 birth. And a little further on, in the same chapter, we 
 read, " The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in 
 the way as thou camest, hath sent me" — Acts ix. 17. 
 Now this appearance of the Saviour to St. Paul, was 
 analogous to the direct spiritual manifestation of the 
 Saviour to the Christian on Second Conversion. And 
 so, in St. Paul's case, Conversion and Second Conver- 
 sion appear to have been miraculously blended together. 
 And accordingly we find, that thenceforward the 
 residue of his life in the flesh, was marked by the pro- 
 duction of the living fruits which are characteristic of 
 the fifth day of Christian Experience. In fact, it seems 
 as if, in St. Paul's case, the first four days of New 
 Creation had been altogether omitted, or at all events 
 compressed into the space of four natural days, con- 
 sisting of the day on which he was miraculously con- 
 verted, and the three following days, during which he 
 neither eat nor drank. But St. Paul's was a singular 
 case, and indeed presents an exact parallel in respect to 
 spiritual life, to the creation of Adam in respect to 
 natural life. For, as Adam was created at once a man, 
 
218 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 without going through the four earlier stages of natural 
 life ; so St. Paul was new-created at once a new-man, 
 without going through the four earlier stages of spiritual 
 life. And so we see, that because it was true in St. 
 Paul's case, that there was an immediate instinctive 
 impulse, upon Conversion, to communicate the truth to 
 others, we are not justified in inferring, that this will 
 be universally true in every case of real Conversion ; 
 for Analogy and Experience teach us that this is not 
 the case. And, on the contrary, Ave learn from Analogy, 
 that as well might we look for the introduction of 
 Animal Life upon the earth in the first day of the 
 natural Creation ; as well might we expect the develop- 
 ment of the propagative tendencies in the infant, in the 
 first stage of its natural life, as expect to find an imme- 
 diate instinctive impulse to communicate spiritual life 
 to others developed in the babe in Christ, upon his first 
 Conversion. It is, however, to be remembered that this 
 instinctive impulse to communicate spiritual life, makes 
 its first appearance much earher in some individuals 
 than in others — ^justlike the analogous instinct appointed 
 for the propagation of natural life — and in some cases, 
 the first faint traces of this instinct may be observed 
 even in the third periods of natural and spiritual life ; 
 and, occasionally, a very considerable development of it 
 may be found in the fourth periods of natural and spi- 
 ritual life. But still, this is quite consistent with the 
 fifth period being the great era appointed by nature for 
 the full development and exercise of this principle in 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 219 
 
 spiritual, as well as in natural life; and the earlier 
 manifestations of it, which occur much before the fifth 
 period, must be considered more or less exceptional and 
 premature, and are seldom productive of any practical 
 results. 
 
 We must not, then, in general expect any considerable 
 development of the missionary spirit in the Christian, 
 before the fifth day of New Creation ; and indeed, this 
 deduction receives additional confirmation from a con- 
 sideration of the Analogy which exists between the 
 growth in grace of the individual Christian, and of the 
 Church at large. For we all know, that the Church was 
 not a missionary Church under the Old Testament dis- 
 pensation. Nor did it become essentially, or to any 
 appreciable extent, a missionary Church, until the com- 
 mencement of the fifth millennial day of its existence, 
 when the Saviour Himself impressed that character 
 indelibly upon it, by the words, " Go ye into all the 
 world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" — 
 Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 Love to God, we may remember, attained its essential 
 maximum at the close of the fourth day of New Crea- 
 tion ; and we know that love to man, or Brotherly 
 Kindness, always exists in the soul, in almost equal 
 proportions with love to God, so that the one may be 
 taken, for all practical purposes, as the index and 
 measure of the other. The living works, then, of the 
 fifth day of New Creation, spring from, and are the 
 fruits of love to man, in its highest form of develop- 
 
220 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 ment, namely, that of Brotherly Kindness to the souls 
 of our fellow-men. And we see also, that in these livinsr 
 works of the fifth day of New Creation there is a pro- 
 gressive order of development, analogous to the cor- 
 responding forms of Animal Life, which were introduced 
 on the fifth day of the natural Creation ; namely, first 
 the reptile, which is confined to a comparatively narrow 
 and humble sphere of existence ; next the bird, which 
 enjoys a wider and more elevated sphere of existence ; 
 and, higher still in the scale of existence, the great 
 whales, which were not confined to any one region or 
 clime, but could range, at pleasure, though all the 
 boundless empire of the mighty deep. 
 
 The living works of the fifth day of New Creation are 
 the kind of good works which are most pleasing to God ; 
 they enjoy — like their prototypes in the natural Creation 
 — the high distinction of bringing down His special blessing^ 
 which, we have seen, was not expressly conferred upon the 
 works of any of the previous days of Creation, as it was 
 upon the living works of the fifth day. And we know 
 that the works of the fifth day of New Creation enjoy 
 a similar pre-eminence of blessing, as it is written, "They 
 that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firma- 
 ment ; and they that turn many to righteousness as the 
 stars for ever and ever" — Dan. xii. 3 ; and again, 
 " Blessed is that- servant whom his Lord when He 
 Cometh shall find so doing ; verily I say unto you, that 
 He shall make him ruler over all His goods" — Matt. 
 xxiv. 46, 47. And, indeed, we may remember, that 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 221 
 
 the same express fifth-day blessing was given by the 
 Spirit of God to the Universal Church at the opening 
 of the fifth millennial day of its existence, as it is written, 
 " Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from 
 henceforth ; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
 from their labours, and their works do follow them" — 
 Rev. xiv. 13. Now we know, that the dead who died 
 in the Lord were always blessed — even as the works of 
 God on the first four days of Creation had His blessing, 
 although not expressly given — but at the commencement 
 of the fifth millennial day of the Church's existence upon 
 earth, this express pre-eminent blessing was pronounced 
 by the Spirit of God, which consisted chiefly in this, 
 that " their works do follow them," that is to say, the 
 Church was then just entering upon its fifth millennial 
 day, that day which — with the Church, as with the 
 individual Christian — is characterized by the produc- 
 tion of those living works which follow the worker of 
 them beyond the grave. 
 
 The great development of brotherly kindness, or love 
 to the souls of our fellow-men, is then the chief charac- 
 teristic mark of the fifth day of Christian Experience. 
 It is this noble principle which sends forth the Chris- 
 tian missionary — mth a world-wide benevolence — far 
 from the comforts of his home, far from his kinsfolk, 
 his friends, and his father's house, to face dangers, pri- 
 vations, and toils, in the fond hope of rescuing some at 
 least of His fellow-men from Heathen darkness and 
 degrading superstition ; and this is the highest develop- 
 
222 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 ment of the principle of Brotherly Kindness. Another — 
 in whom it may be a little less strongly marked, or 
 who is somewhat less favourably circumstanced — will 
 devote himself to carry the glad tidings of Salvation 
 through the length and breadth of his native land. 
 While another will select a still narrower circle of ope- 
 ration, and confine his efforts to his own immediate 
 neighbourhood or kinsfolk. The same principle of 
 Brotherly Kindness animates them all, only it exists in 
 different degrees of development. Sometimes this noble 
 principle is so largely developed in the saints of God, 
 that it seems to verge upon excess ; of which there 
 exist two very remarkable examples in Scripture his- 
 tory. The one, that of Moses, when he said unto the Lord, 
 "Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin — and if not, 
 blot me I pray thee out of thy book which thou hast 
 written" — Exod. xxxii. 32. The other instance is that 
 of St. Paul, Avho wrote, " For I could wish that myself 
 Avere accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kins- 
 men according to the flesh" — Rom. ix. 3. And it is 
 worthy of observation, that in both these cases, the 
 individuals, in whom this principle of Brotherly Kindness 
 was so largely developed, had seen God face to face, 
 and in the former instance — that of Moses — the words 
 were spoken while he was actually standing in the 
 immediate presence of the Lord, and reflecting the 
 brightness of His glory ; for, after all, these extreme 
 instances of Brotherly Kindness in the saints of God, 
 are only the/mn^ reflection of the far higher develop- 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 223 
 
 ment of kindness to our fallen race which exists in the 
 Most High, and was embodied in the person of the 
 Saviom\ The kindness of God, as manifested in Him 
 towards man, went to the very verge of excess; and this, 
 I apprehend, is what the Scriptures mean to intimate, 
 by designatmg Christ crucified, " the fooHshness of 
 God," and *' the weakness of God ;" as it is written, 
 " Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men ; 
 and the weakness of God is stronger than men" — 
 1 Cor. i. 25 ; just as if God — like an over-fond father 
 dealing with a prodigal son — had, in this one instance, 
 laid Himself open to a charge of foolish excess of affection. 
 and weakness towards His fallen children. And indeed, 
 we shall find, that all through the Scriptures the mercy 
 of God is represented as enjoying a pre-eminence over 
 His other attributes, as it is written, "He delighteth in 
 mercy'^ (Mic. vii. 18) ; and again, " Mercy rejoiceth 
 against judgment" — James ii. 13. 
 
 In the next place, it is worthy of observation, that as 
 the living works of the fifth day of Creation sprang from 
 the waters, on which the Spirit of God moved, and not 
 — as Ave should have expected — from the dry land ; so 
 there exists a precisely similar phenomenon in the work 
 of New Creation. For, it is true of the living works 
 of the fifth day of New Creation — as it was of their pro- 
 totypes in the natural Creation — that they cannot be 
 produced without the special presence of the life-giving 
 Spirit of God. And wherever His special presence is 
 vouchsafed, there, the living works will bless the efi^orts 
 
 p 
 
224 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 of the Christian, however unfavourable the external 
 circumstances may be ; but except the Lord send forth 
 His Spirit, the Christian will for ever labour in vain, 
 be the circumstances never so favourable ; for the 
 Scripture, speaking of these living works, saith, 
 " Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the 
 flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 13) ; 
 and again, " I have planted, ApoUos watered ; but 
 God gave the increase." — 1 Cor. iii. 6. But the 
 analogy does not end here ; for it is, and ever has been 
 true, in the spiritual world, as it was in the natural 
 world, that the earliest specimens of these living works 
 sprin g/ro??i the waters, and not from the dry land; that 
 is to say, it is not to the persons we should suppose, 
 that spiritual life is most easily or quickly imparted, 
 but the very reverse. The Spirit of God passes over 
 the moral man, the honest and honourable man, and 
 the man of good character, and leaves them idthout 
 spiritual life; while he imparts it to the outcast of 
 society, to the degraded, to the polluted, and to the 
 notorious and hardened sinner. And this has ever 
 been God's method of dealing, as it is written, " God 
 hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound 
 the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak things of the 
 world to confound the things which are mighty ; and 
 hase things of the world, and things which are despised 
 hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to 
 bring to nought the things that are." — 1 Cor. i. 27, 28. 
 John the Baptist found this to be so, in the days of his 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 225 
 
 ministry, as it is written, " John came unto you in the 
 way of righteousness, and ye believed him not ; but the 
 publicans and the harlots beheved him ; and ye, when ye 
 had seen it, repented not afterwards, that ye might 
 beheve him." — Matt. xxi. 32. Nay more, even the 
 Saviour Himself found this same truth exemplified in 
 the results of His personal ministry on earth, as we find 
 it recorded by the evangelist St. Luke, " And all the 
 people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, 
 being baptized with the baptism of John: But the 
 Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God 
 against themselves, being not baptized of him." — 
 Luke vii. 29, 30. So we see, that in the apostolic days 
 the well educated, the moral, the upright, and honour- 
 able men — those to whom even the Saviour Himself 
 bore this testimony, that " they outwardly appeared 
 righteous unto men" (Matt, xxiii. 28) — were not the first 
 to receive spiritual life ; but, on the contrary, the first 
 specimens of spiritual life, the first living fruits of the 
 Saviour's teaching, csimejrovi the ivaters — from the un- 
 educated and degraded masses of the common people. 
 And even the Apostles themselves, Avere illustrations of 
 the same truth ; for they were chosen, not from the wise 
 and learned, but from the unlearned and ignorant, and 
 many of them, with almost literal exactness, might be 
 said to have been produced /?'o??z theiuaters, as they were 
 taken from being fishermen upon the waters of the sea 
 of Galilee, and made fishers of men. And the same 
 truth holds good at the present time ; for, I venture to 
 
 p2 
 
226 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 assert, that there will hardly be found one Christian 
 minister of experience in modern times, who would not 
 be able to bear testimony from his personal experience, 
 that the same thing holds good at the present day. 
 Christian ministers of all evangelical denominations, will 
 all unite in testifying, that it is not the upright well- 
 educated man of good character, who appears regularly 
 in his pew every Sunday at Church, Avho conforms to 
 all the external observances of religion, who is guilty 
 of no open or notorious vices or sins, that is most easily 
 or soonest quickened into spiritual life ; but — strange to 
 say, and quite contrary to what we should have ex- 
 pected — this is precisely the class of persons, whom it is 
 most difficult to awaken out of the sleep of spiritual 
 death. And thus we see, that at the present day it is 
 true, as it was of old, and alike in the spiritual, as it 
 was in the natui-al world, that the first specimens of the 
 living works of the fifth da}^ are produced from the 
 ivaters on whose face the Spirit of God has moved. 
 
 In concluding this chapter, we may remark, hoAv 
 applicable the very words of the blessing pronounced 
 on the works of the fifth day of the natural Creation, 
 are to the works of the corresponding period of New 
 Creation ; for, doubtless, the greatest blessing which 
 God can bestow upon any man, is, that he should be 
 fruitful in these living works, and should multiply his 
 spiritual offspring ; of which it may with truth be said 
 " Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, 
 they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with 
 
THE FIFTH DAY. 227 
 
 the enemies in the gate." — Ps. exxvii. 5. This may be 
 often a questionable blessing when understood of literal 
 children, especially in the case of a poor curate, who has 
 to live — or rather starve — on £75 a year ; but when un- 
 derstood of spiritual children — those living works of the 
 fifth day of New Creation — it is to the poor man, as well 
 as to the rich man, a true blessing, worthy of God to 
 bestow, and the greatest which He can confer upon any 
 man ; as it is written, "For what is our hope, or joy, or 
 crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of 
 oiu- Lord Jesus Christ at his coming ? For ye are our 
 glory and joy," (1 Thess. ii. 19, 20) ; that is to say, the 
 Apostle, in looking forward to the joys and glories of 
 eternity, fastened not his thoughts upon the river of 
 God's pleasures, nor upon the great personal dignity 
 and glory, and the vast intellectual enjoyments that 
 awaited himself throughout eternity ; all these things 
 seem to have been forgotten, while he was absorbed in 
 the contemplation of the crowning joy which he should 
 experience, in presenting the vast array of his spriritual 
 children before the Saviour at His Second Advent. 
 This glorious anticipation appears to have thrown into 
 the shade the other glories and joys of Heaven. How 
 much more, then, does it surpass all earthly glories ? 
 Which of them will survive the grave, and send the 
 faintest ray of its lustre into eternity? The mighty 
 conqueror, who has slain his thousands or his millions 
 to gratify selfish ambition, will then retire abashed from 
 the presence of his Judge, with everlasting shame and 
 
228 THE FIFTH DAY. 
 
 contempt upon liis head. The greatest Philosopher of 
 the earth will then find his pre-eminence in Science and 
 intellectual glory — on which he prided himself so much 
 — ^utterly vanished ; for, even in intellectual glory, the 
 least saint in the Kingdom of Heaven will far outshine 
 him. The mightiest Avorks and achievements in the 
 earth, will then be forgotten, or looked back upon with 
 the contemptuous smile with which the triumphs of 
 childhood are regarded in the maturity of manhood. 
 But he who shall have appropriated the fifth-day bless- 
 ing of the Holy Spirit, and can evidence it by the long 
 array of living works — his spiritual children — will 
 alone shine on the resurrection morn with a peculiar 
 and surpassing glory, and will take his place among the 
 Aristocracy of the Universe, in the inner circle, which 
 most closely surrounds the throne of the Great King. 
 
[ 229 ] 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 " And God said, Let the eartli bring forth the Uving creature after 
 his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after 
 his kind : and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth 
 after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that 
 creepeth upon the earth after his kind : and God saw that it was 
 good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after 
 our hkeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, 
 and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the 
 earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 
 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created 
 he him ; male and female created he them. And God blessed 
 them, and God said unto them. Be fruitful, and multiply, and 
 replenish the earth, and subdue it : and have dominion over the fish 
 of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing 
 that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you 
 every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and 
 every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed ; to you it 
 shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every 
 fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 
 wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and 
 it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, 
 behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were 
 the sixth day"— Gen. i. 24-31. 
 
 "We have here a description of the last stage in the 
 stupendous fabric of Creation. And, in the first place, 
 
230 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 we may observe, that the description of this day's 
 work is given at much greater length than that of any 
 of the previous days ; as if it were intended to be 
 intimated, that the work of God done upon this day, 
 was more important, and worthy of being more minutely 
 recorded, than that of any of the previous days of Crea- 
 tion. In fact, the great crowning masterpiece of the 
 whole, was to be added at the close of this sixth day. 
 But first, there were certain links in the chain of 
 existence, which remained to be filled up ; and accord- 
 ingly the creative Word of the Most High was again 
 sent forth, " Let the earth bring forth the living creature 
 after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of 
 the earth after his kind." And thereupon, the earth, 
 obedient to the Divine command, brought forth the 
 different races of terrestrial animals, which had not 
 been produced by the waters on the former day ; and 
 thus the Avork of the Animal Creation was completed. 
 And, we may observe, that although the first specimens 
 of Animal Life did not come from the earth, but from 
 the waters, and although we are not told, that the 
 earth — like the w^aters — brought forth dbundantly the 
 forms of Animal Life produced by it ; yet the races of 
 living creatures produced by the earth, were of a higher 
 order, and more perfect organization, than those pro- 
 duced by the waters. There appears, at first sight, to 
 be in this stage of Creation a break in the continuity of 
 progression, which was uniformly observed in all the 
 prior stages of Creation, as well in the vegetable king- 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 231 
 
 dom — where tlie progress was from grass to herbs, and 
 from herbs to trees — as also, in the Creation of the 
 fifth-day races of animals — where the progress was from 
 reptiles to birds, and from birds to great whales — but 
 in the present stage of God's work, there is, apparently, 
 no such progress observable, in the creation of the 
 cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth. 
 However, this difficulty will vanish, if we consider and 
 contrast the language used on these several occasions ; 
 and we shall find that it denotes, that the creation of 
 the cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth, 
 was simultaneous, and not progressive, nor intended to 
 be progressive ; that is to say, the language of Scripture 
 does not denote, that cattle were first created, then, 
 afterwards-, creeping things of the earth, and later still, 
 another class of terrestrial animals, termed the beasts 
 of the earth. This was what actually took place in 
 respect to the grass, the herbs, and the trees ; and again 
 in respect to the reptiles, the birds, and the great 
 whales ; but, if this were so in the present case, then 
 the Scriptural account of the Animal Creation, would 
 present an unaccountable break in the continuity of 
 progress, which has been uniformly observed in all the 
 earlier stages of Creation ; and there would be, in the 
 present case, an actual retrogression, namely, from 
 cattle to creeping things of the earth. But there is a 
 marked distinction in the language used by the Creator 
 on this occasion, from that used on either of the former 
 occasions, which removes this difficulty ; for on con- 
 
232 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 sidering tlie creative Word, wliicli, on the present 
 occasion, called into existence the different races of ter- 
 restrial animals, we find, that what the earth is com- 
 manded to bring forth, is, " the living creature after his 
 kind ;" this is the general term, which includes under 
 it the three subdivisions which follow, namely, the 
 cattle, the creeping thing, and the beast of the earth. 
 By which peculiarity of the language, it appears to be 
 indicated, that the creation of all the subdenominations 
 comprised in the general term, ' the living creature,' 
 namely, the cattle, the creeping things of the earth, and 
 the beasts of the earth, was simultaneous, and not 
 successive. And thus the continuity of progress in the 
 process of Creation, will be preserved unbroken, in the 
 animal, as well as in the vegetable kingdom, and will 
 advance regularly, from reptiles to birds, from birds to 
 great whales, from great whales to terrestrial animals, 
 and from terrestrial animals to man. 
 
 The Animal Creation was now brought to a close, and 
 God saw that it was good. Up to this point, the work 
 of the sixth day appears to have been a mere continua- 
 tion and completion, as it were, of the work of the fifth 
 day ; that is to say, no new element was introduced — 
 no radical or essential change took place, lil^e the tran- 
 sition from Vegetable to Animal Life ; but only a pro- 
 gressive advance, from the lower, to the highest order of 
 Animal Life — like the progress in beauty and perfection 
 of the vegetation of the fourth day, beyond that of the 
 third day — and this becomes more apparent, when we 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 233 
 
 consider, that no distinct blessing is pronounced upon 
 the animals of the sixth day ; so that they were mani- 
 festly intended to share in the blessing which had been 
 already pronounced on those of the fifth day ; for they 
 certainly were not left without a blessing, when one 
 was bestowed upon their inferiors in the scale of ex- 
 istence. But now, as the sixth day is drawing to a 
 close, there occurs a pause, as it were, in the work of 
 Creation, while the Creator is represented as taking 
 counsel with Himself preparatory to the Creation of 
 man — the monarch of this lower world, and the Vice- 
 gerent of the Almighty. And here we observe a 
 marked distinction in the language used with reference 
 to man's creation, from that used as to the creation of 
 any of the other works of God. It is not said, ' Let 
 the earth bring forth man,' nor is the fact announced 
 simply — as in the case of the whales — that ' God created 
 man ;' but we have, first, the deliberate counsel of the 
 Most High, " Let us make man in our image, after our 
 likeness, and let them have dominion," &c., and then, 
 the carrying into effect of that counsel, is announced in 
 the words, " So God created man in His own image," 
 &c. Here is a truly wonderful progress — a mighty 
 stride in the work of Creation — infinitely greater than 
 the progress made during any one, or during all the 
 prior days of Creation taken together ; for the impassible 
 chasm, which separates man — made in the image of 
 God — from the highest development of mere Animal 
 Life, is immeasurably greater than that which divides 
 
234 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 the animal from the vegetable kingdom, or the vegeta- 
 ble from the mineral kingdom. And accordingly we 
 find, in exact proportion^ a greater expenditure of the 
 Word of God, in the course of this one day, than in all 
 the prior days taken together. We may observe also, 
 that the great whales, and man, alone enjoyed the 
 privilege of being directly created by God ; He did not 
 say of the former, ' Let the waters bring forth the 
 great whales ;' neither did He say of the latter, ' Let 
 the earth bring forth man ;' but both are represented 
 as directly created by God Himself ; just as if the 
 monarchs of the sea and of the earth — the masterpieces 
 of each department of Creation — were alone worthy of 
 being created dii^ectly by the Great Artist Himself, 
 without the agency of any subordinate instrumentality. 
 And, doubtless, it will be found, at the present day in 
 like manner, that those who are new-created most 
 directly by God Himself, with the smallest intervention 
 of human agency — those who are not the sj^iritual chil- 
 dren of this minister or that minister, but directly of 
 the Lord Himself — will ever exhibit the largest develop- 
 ment, and the highest order of spiritual life. 
 
 In this passage of Scripture, which contains the secret 
 counsel of the Almighty preparatory to the creation of 
 man, we have the real root and origin of that restless 
 ambition, which, in all ages, has displayed itself in the 
 human breast, and which, when perverted and misplaced, 
 has so often filled the earth with bloodshed and misery. 
 Man feels naturally and instinctively, that he was born 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 235 
 
 to have dominion: but he forgets, that his title to 
 sovereignty consisted in this, that he was created in the 
 image of God. And from the moment he lost that image 
 by the Fall, the sceptre dropped from his palsied grasp, 
 and all his unaided efforts to regain it since, have been 
 but productive of greater misery and degradation to 
 himself, and to his hapless subjects. In fact, dominion 
 is a natural, necessary, and inalienable incident to the image 
 of God. And this truth is very clearly marked by the 
 language of Inspiration in respect to the creation of 
 man ; for it is not said, that ' God gave man dominion,' 
 nor does the Lord say to man, ' Behold, I have given 
 you dominion;' but, in blessing mankind He said, 
 " Have dominion," that is to say, ' Have it as a right — 
 an inherent inalienable right — necessarily incident to 
 the image of God, which you bear.' And hence we may 
 conclude, that the only possible way in which man 
 can ever recover his lost dominion, is, by being created 
 again in the image of God. And it is evident, that He 
 who originally stamped that noble image upon man, is 
 the only one who can restore it. Man has tried his 
 hand, during nearly six thousand years, to cement 
 together the shattered fragments of the original impres- 
 sion, but in vain. The wax of human nature must be 
 softened again by the warmth of the Saviour's love, and 
 the seal of the Spirit then impressed upon it, and thus 
 alone the image of God will be reproduced in all its 
 pristine perfection, and the lost dominion — which is 
 incident thereto — will then be restored, as it is written. 
 
236 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 " Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom'' — Luke xii. 32. 
 
 The blessing originally conferred upon man, also 
 indicates his compound nature, for it is a compound 
 blessing, composed of two essentially different portions, 
 the former identical with the blessing conferred upon 
 the Animal Creation, the latter portion — namely, the 
 dominion — that which belongs, as we have seen, to man, 
 as having the image of God. And, so deeply impressed 
 on the human mind is this truth, and the necessary 
 connection between the image of God and dominion, 
 that an ancient Roman Historian has tolerably well 
 expressed these truths, in a well-known sentence, 
 which has a remarkable analogy to this passage of 
 Scripture ; he says : — " Sed nostra omnis vis in animo 
 et corpore sita ; animi imperio, corporis servitio magis 
 utimur : alterum nobis cum dis, alterum cum belluis 
 commune est."* This same truth, which the Heathen 
 writer dimly and imperfectly reasoned out by the 
 native force of his intellect, is more clearly and fully 
 revealed to us, in the blessing originally conferred upon 
 man compared with that conferred upon the lower 
 animals. 
 
 In the . next place, it is worthy of observation, that 
 the rich provision made by God for the bodily wants 
 
 * All the energy of our nature is situate in the mind and body ; 
 we use more the dominion of the mind, the service of the body : 
 the former is common to us with the gods ; the latter, with the 
 
 beasts of the field. 
 
TPIE SIXTH DAY. 237 
 
 of mankind, is not added as part of the blessing con- 
 ferred upon man, but is bestowed by a distinct sentence 
 spoken subsequently to the blessing. And this, no 
 doubt, was Avritten designedly, and was intended to 
 teach us the vast inferiority and comparative unimpor- 
 tance of these things, compared with the things which 
 form the principal subject of the blessing, namely, 
 the dominion, and the image of God to which it is inci- 
 dental. And, also, we may infer, that ivherever the 
 image of God and the dominion are found, there will he no 
 loch of these inferior things, which are necessary for the 
 body. Wherever the Great Creator sees the image of 
 God, and the dominion which is incident thereto, 
 whenever He confers His blessing, He will be sure to 
 add such things as are needful for the body ; He will 
 say, as He did at the creation of man, ' Behold I have 
 given you such and such things for meat.' We may 
 be very sure, that our Heavenly Father w^ill not let 
 His children starve ; for He is kind and liberal, even to 
 the unthankful and unworthy, and therefore, He most 
 certainly will not forget His own children, Avho have a 
 prior claim upon Him. And so we shall find, that the 
 experience of the Psalmist is still abundantly verified 
 at the present day, " I have been young and now am 
 old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor 
 his seed begging bread." — Ps. xxxvii. 25. These things, 
 however, which are necessary for the body, occupy an 
 inferior place, and are unworthy of being included in 
 the same sentence with the blessing conferred upon 
 
238 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 man. Therefore they should not be a primary object of 
 our aspirations, we should rather desire to regain the 
 image of God, and the lost dominion which was 
 originally our birthright; and thus we shall most 
 abundantly and certainly regain also these inferior 
 blessings ; or, as the same truth is better expressed, in 
 the words of the Saviour, " Seek 3^e first the kingdom 
 of God and his righteousness; and all these things 
 shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33) ; that is to say, 
 SQek first to regain the dominion, and image of God, as 
 they Avere first bestowed ; and if you regain them, you 
 will have no need to seek for the other things, which 
 are needful for the body, for they will all be freely and 
 abundantly bestowed upon you. Indeed this great 
 truth is not only deducible from the inspired account of 
 man's original creation, and warranted by the express 
 declaration of the Saviour ; but it is perfectly confor- 
 mable with common sense and experience in the 
 ordinary affairs of life. What should we think of a 
 dethroned monarch, who should lead his forces first to 
 endeavour to regain possession of the royal kitchen, 
 leaving all the strongholds of the kingdom, the public 
 offices, and the seat of Government, in the possession 
 of the usurper ? Yet such has ever been the course of 
 conduct pursued by fallen man, as it is written, " After 
 all these things do the Gentiles seek." — Matt. vi. 32. 
 Man ever seeks first, the things needful for the body — 
 he first assaults the royal kitchen — instead of seeking 
 rather to regain his lost dominion and sovereignty. 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 239 
 
 We may also observe, that the provision originally 
 made for man's bodily wants, was a most bountiful 
 and truly royal one ; for then, every herb bearing seed 
 upon the whole face of the earth, and every tree yield- 
 ing fruit — in fact, the whole vegetable kingdom — 
 furnished its dainties, in profuse and varied abundance, 
 to gratify man's palate. And, in order to enable us to 
 form some conception of the richness and luxury of 
 this provision, we should bear in mind, that no curse 
 had as yet fallen upon the ground. There were then no 
 poisonous herbs, no fruitless trees ; and this appears 
 plainly from a reference to the account given of the 
 work of the third day, where the only kind of trees of 
 which we read, are fruit trees, and the only herbs we 
 find mentioned, are herbs hearing seed, such as are here 
 assigned for the food of man. And, no doubt, this was 
 the state of things before the curse fell upon the earth ; 
 every tree was then a fruit tree, and every herb bearing 
 seed was suitable for human food ; and, doubtless, only 
 a very small and degenerate minority of these fruits 
 and vegetable luxuries, has survived the bhghting 
 influence of the curse of God, and come down to our 
 own times ; only just enough to give us some faint and 
 very imperfect conception of the royal luxury and 
 abundance which belonged to man, when he had 
 dominion, and bore the image of God. And all this 
 luxury and abundance then provided for man, involved 
 no pain, no bloodshed, no death to the inferior 
 animals. There were then, no bitter recollections of 
 
240 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 animal suffering, no harrowing or degrading sights, or 
 sounds, or associations — which would have been intol- 
 erable to man in his unfallen condition — to mingle 
 with, or detract from the sweetness of those bloodless 
 dainties, which the bounteous earth poured forth, in 
 rich profusion, from her uncursed bosom. The inferior 
 animals too, Avere not forgotten ; the green herbs — or 
 the various kinds of natural grasses, and, probably, the 
 leaves of the herbs and trees — were assigned for their 
 sustenance ; while the fruits, and the choicer produc- 
 tions of the vegetable kingdom, were reserved for man. 
 So there was no danger of collision, or interference 
 between the lower animals and mankind, in respect of 
 food ; for different departments of the vegetable king- 
 dom were assigned to them respectively. Man's portion 
 is first assigned, to mark his superiority, and the portion 
 of the lower animals is added, to mark the goodness 
 and liberality of God, who careth for the lowest of His 
 creatures, and can supply them all out of His boundless 
 treasures, without encroaching upon the portions, or 
 diminishing the comforts of the higher orders of His 
 Creation. And hence we may derive an additional 
 assurance, that God will not fail to bestow upon us 
 such things as are needful for the body ; for, if He has 
 thus expressly provided food for the inferior animals, 
 how much more shall He provide for us ? as it is written, 
 " Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow not, neither 
 do they reap, nor gather into barns : yet your heavenly 
 Father feedeth them. Are ve not much better than 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 241 
 
 they?" — Matt. vi. 26. And here, we may notice a 
 matter Avhich has occasioned difficulty in the minds of 
 some naturahsts, namely, that the Scripture here repre- 
 sents all the Animal Creation — including hons, and 
 tigers, and other animals now essentially carnivorous in 
 their nature — to have originally subsisted on an exclu- 
 sively vegetable diet ; and no doubt the Scripture 
 account does impl}^, that such was the case ; but Ave 
 may say to those who seek to infer, from the supposed 
 impossibility of this state of things, the falseness of the 
 Scripture Account of Creation, what the Saviour said 
 to the Sadducees, "Ye do err, not kno^dng the Scrip- 
 tures, nor the power of God" (Matt. xxii. 29) ; for not 
 only is it true — as the Scriptures represent — that the 
 carnivorous animals were all originally graminivorous, 
 but we have the sure testimony of Prophecy to the 
 truth, that they shall be so again, as it is written, 
 *'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the 
 leopard shall lie down with the kid ; and the calf and 
 the young lion and the fatling together ; and a little 
 child shall lead them ; and the cow and the bear shall 
 feed : their young ones shall lie down together : and 
 the lion shall eat straw like the ox: and the sucking child 
 shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child 
 shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den ; they shall not 
 hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain." — Is. xi. 6, 9. 
 When God has spoken thus plainly, let Philosophy be 
 silent, unless she is prepared to acquiesce in His decla- 
 rations. We learn from this prophecy, that, as the 
 
 q2 
 
242 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 Fall of man has had a great effect upon the lower 
 Animal Creation ; so shall the restoration of man 
 cause, or be accompanied by, a wonderful and radical 
 change in the nature and habits of the inferior animals. 
 And, indeed, this same truth is confirmed by other 
 passages of Scripture, such as this, " Because the 
 creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage 
 of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of 
 God ; for we know that the whole creation groaneth and 
 travaileth in pain together until now." — Rom. viii. 21 , 22. 
 The Animal Creation suffers for the sin of its sovereign, 
 verifying the ancient proverb, " Delirant reges, plec- 
 tuntur Achivi."* When man ceases to be bloodthirsty, 
 when he ceases to set the bad example to the inferior 
 animals, of shedding their blood, and his own, when the 
 curse is removed, the nature of the carnivorous animals 
 shall also be changed, and restored to what it originally 
 was, so that they shall feed exclusively on a vegetable 
 diet, and forget their thirst for blood. And, after all, 
 why should ^ve think, that there is anything impossible 
 in this ? Is anything too hard for the Lord ? Has He 
 said, and shall He not do it, has He promised, and shall 
 He not bring it to^ pass ? It is remarkable, hoAvever, 
 that nothing is said in the Scriptural account of 
 Creation about the food of fishes, and marine, or 
 amphibious animals ; and so, it is perfectly consistent 
 with that account, that some of those creatures which 
 
 * Kings are guilty of folly, their subjects suffer the consequences. 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 243 
 
 inhabited the ocean, and the amphibious animals of the 
 fifth day, may have been always carnivorous, and 
 formed to prey upon each other ; and, accordingly, 
 evidence that such was the case among those classes of 
 animals, has been discovered by Geologists ; but no 
 similar evidence ever has been, or will be discovered, 
 to show, that any of the terrestrial animals of pre- 
 adamite times, were carnivorous, or in the habit of 
 preying upon each other; and thus we have a fresh 
 testimony from Geology to the truth and inspiration 
 of the Scriptural account of Creation. 
 
 At the close of this sixth day of Creiition, we find, 
 for the first time, the announcement, that " God saAv 
 everything that he had made, and behold it was very 
 good." The work of Creation was now finished, and 
 the Great Artist, on surveying every part of His finished 
 work, saw that it was very good," or, " good exceed- 
 ingly," as the words might be literally rendered. For 
 now God saw His o\\n image reflected in His Creation ; 
 there was no defect in His work, or in any part of it ; 
 and the goodness of the several parts, and their mutual 
 adaptation to each other, united into one harmonious 
 whole, and crowned by the great masterpiece of Crea- 
 tion, produced that exceeding goodness^ which God now 
 saw in every part of His work. 
 
 The great characteristic, then, of this sixth day, was 
 the Creation of man, which formed the finishing touch, 
 and great masterpiece of the whole work; and so, 
 although it was added at the last moment of the sixth 
 
244 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 day, yet, so far did it eclipse and transcend all the 
 other work of the day, as to be justly entitled to be 
 considered the great distinguishing mark and character- 
 istic of the sixth day of Creation. 
 
 The earth in this sixth day, entered, as it were, upon 
 its perfect manhood — for that expresses the essential 
 idea of the corresponding sixth stage of natural life, 
 better than the expression ' old age,' which is more or 
 less associated, in our minds, with the accidents of 
 decrepitude, decay, and the near approach of death — 
 all its powers and capabilities were fully developed, and 
 confirmed by exercise and experience ; it was now made 
 complete in beauty and usefulness, and answered all 
 the ends for which it had been created, in the best 
 possible manner. 
 
 Let us now turn our attention to the sixth day of 
 New Creation, and endeavour to trace a few of the 
 principal features of analogy, which most readily sug- 
 gest themselves from the consideration of the Scriptu- 
 ral account of the corresponding period of the natural 
 Creation. And first, we may observe, that the sixth day 
 of New Creation is not, at the outset, distinguished by 
 any very marked distinctions from the preceding period. 
 Like the corresponding period of the natural Creation, 
 it is not any of the changes which occur during the 
 course of this sixth day, but its closing scene is that 
 which furnishes the distinguishing mark and character- 
 istic of the sixth day of New Creation. It is, in fact, 
 like a continuation, as it were, of the fifth day ; and, 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 245 
 
 like the fifth day, it is marked by the production of 
 living works, only of a higher order, and more fully 
 developed organization. There is, however, no abrupt 
 transition from the fifth to the sixth day ; the relation 
 which the living works of these days bear to each other, 
 is very much the same as that, which subsisted, as we 
 have seen, between the Vegetable Life of the third, and 
 that of the fourth day of New Creation. 
 
 We have seen in the last chapter, that the first speci- 
 mens of spiritual life come from the waters ; that is to 
 say, from the poor, the ignorant, the debased, and 
 degraded masses of the common people. And we have 
 seen, that — contrary to what we should naturally have 
 expected — it is, comparatively speaking, much easier to 
 communicate spiritual life to them, than to the rich, the 
 learned, the moral and respectable members of society. 
 But, by the blessing of God, spiritual life is not confined 
 to the lower classes, or to the outcasts of society ; and, 
 however difficult it may be to communicate it to the 
 rich and great men of the earth, to the learned, the 
 respectable, and the self-righteous ; we know that it is 
 not impossible with God, as it is written, " With men 
 this is impossible, but v/ith God all things are possible." 
 — Math. xix. 26. And God has mercifully willed, that 
 the blessings of spiritual life should not be confined to 
 the waters, for He has said in the spiritual, as He did, 
 of old, in the natural world, " Let the earth bring forth 
 the living creature after his kind." In this command 
 of God, addressed to the earth, there is a remarkable 
 
246 THE SIXTH DAT. 
 
 omission of the word ' abundantly,' which was intro- 
 duced, as we may remember, when the corresponding 
 command was addressed to the waters. And w^e may 
 observe, that, in this respect, the Analogy which we 
 are endeavouring to trace out, holds good in the work of 
 New Creation, with the most literal exactness. There 
 too, the word abundantly is omitted, when the com- 
 mand of God is addressed to the symbolical earth, as it 
 is written, " For ye see your calling, brethren, how that 
 not many wise men after the flesh, 7iot many mighty, not 
 many noble, are called." — 1 Cor. i. 26. We may re- 
 member, however, that the earth in the natural Crea- 
 tion, when, at length, it did hear and obey the 
 command of God, brought forth living creatures of a 
 higher order, a more perfect organization, and a nobler 
 nature, than those which had sprung from the waters. 
 And we shall find, that, in the history of New Creation, 
 there exists a precisely analogous phenomenon. There 
 too, it is true, that the living creatures produced from 
 the earth, although they are more tardy and later in 
 making their appearance, and although thsy do not 
 come forth so abundantly, yet they are of a higher order, 
 and a nobler nature, than those which have sprung from 
 the ivaters. And this truth we find exemplified all 
 through the Sacred Records ; for, we shall find, that all 
 the most eminent saints under the Old Testament dis- 
 pensation, sprung from the earth, and not from the 
 waters. Abraham, the friend of God, was not brought 
 forth by the w^aters ; nor was Noah, nor Daniel, nor 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 247 
 
 Job, nor Solomon. We read also of Moses, " And 
 Moses was learned in all the wisdom of tlie Egyptians, 
 and was mighty in words, and deeds." — Acts vii. 22- 
 So neither did Moses spring from the waters. In the 
 New Testament history also, we find the same truth 
 most remarkably exemplified in the case of St. Paul, 
 who, as we read of him, " was brought up at the feet of 
 Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner 
 of the law of the fathers." — Acts xxii. 3. He was, in 
 fact, the only one of the Apostles, probably, who did 
 not spring from the waters ; and accordingly he sur- 
 passed them all in the extent and variety of his labours, 
 and in the number, and order of his spiritual children, as 
 it is written, "And his grace which was besto"wed upon 
 me was not in vain ; but I laboured more abundantly 
 than they all." — 1 Cor. xv. 10 ; and again, "For I sup- 
 pose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles." 
 — 2 Cor. xi. 5. St. Paul's case is, perhaps, the most 
 remarkable instance to be found of this truth ; because, 
 in those early days of the Church's history, the mira- 
 culous gifts of the Holy Spirit were bestowed upon the 
 children of God, and all the Apostles had received them ; 
 and we might have supposed, that their possession would 
 have levelled all other distinctions, and equalized the 
 living fruits of the waters, with those of the earth ; but 
 we see, that such was not the case ; and, even in the 
 days of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit, the 
 earth produced living creatures of a higher order, than 
 those which had sprung from the waters. How much 
 
248 THE SIXTH DAT. 
 
 more, then, must the same thing hold good at the pre- 
 sent time, when those miraculous gifts have long been 
 ■\\dthdrawn ? Even in the human nature of the Saviour 
 Himself, we find the same truth, to some extent, exem- 
 plified ; for He could not be said to have sprung from 
 the waters ; for although He was born, it is true, in 
 poverty and in an humble station in society, yet He 
 was not, even according to the flesh, a mere nobody, 
 whose lineage could not be traced beyond a generation 
 or two ; on the contrary He was the lineal descendant 
 of an ancient royal house, and the blood of many kings 
 circulated in His veins. Could any of oui' oldest fami- 
 lies of gentle blood, could any of the proudest of our 
 Aristocracy, could even the highest and noblest in the 
 land — our Sovereign Lady the Queen herself — compare, 
 in antiquity of royal lineage, with the Saviour ? What 
 other pedigree, but His, could be traced back, through 
 the misty annals of four thousand years ? The Saviour 
 of mankind, then, was not produced by the waters. And 
 this same truth, we may see constantly exemplified, in 
 our own day. When God does take a man from among 
 the wise, the learned, the great, and the noble of the 
 earth, or from among the upper, and more respectable, 
 and better educated classes of society, and communi- 
 cates spiritual life to such a one ; we may expect to 
 find a higher order of existence, a more perfect develop- 
 ment of spiritual life, and a more extended sphere of 
 usefulness. And, indeed, this same truth may be seen 
 practically instanced, at the present day, among our 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 249 
 
 Aristocracy, and in the ranks of our faithful and active 
 Clergy, who have been taken, for the most part, from 
 the higher and better educated classes of society, and 
 not from the waters. And this is as it should be, for 
 the opposite course would be an imitation of the sin of 
 Jeroboam, as it is written, " After this Jeroboam re- 
 turned not from his evil Avay, but made again of the 
 lowest of the people, priests of the high places ; whoso- 
 ever would, he consecrated him, and he became one of 
 the priests of the high places : and this thing became 
 sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and 
 to destroy it from off the face of the earth. — 1 Kings 
 xiii. 33, 34. Still, however, it is true, that "the har- 
 vest is plenteous, but the labourers are few," that is, 
 comparatively few ; in fact, the symbolical earth, never 
 has, and — while this dispensation lasts — never will 
 bring forth abundantly. This truth was exemplified 
 even among the Apostles themselves, of whom there 
 were twelve that sprung from the waters, for one that 
 sprung from the earth ; and probably the disproportion 
 between the relative productiveness of the waters and 
 of the earth, is even greater at the present day. 
 
 The great characteristic feature of the sixth day of New 
 Creation, is the completion of the image or God, or, in 
 other words, the development of perfect love, in the 
 Christian's soul, for " God is love." This is the wonderful 
 crowning master-piece of the whole work, which answers 
 to the introduction of man, made in the image of God, 
 in the natural Creation, and — like it — takes place, not 
 
250 THE SIXTH DAT. 
 
 at the beginning, but at the last moment of the sixth 
 day, when the Christian is transLated from the Church 
 below, to the Church above ; when he proves more 
 than conqueror over the last enemy, and regains his 
 lost dominion, and the image of God, which is new 
 stamped upon his ransomed spirit in all its pristine per- 
 fection. There is nothing else in the advanced Chris- 
 tian's experience, which is at all comparable to the 
 introduction of man into the natural Creation, except 
 this wonderful and glorious change ; there is no sud- 
 den growth in grace experienced by the aged Christian, 
 while here on earthy which can be at all compared to it. 
 And, accordingly, it is the closing, and not the opening 
 scene of this sixth day's work, which characterizes the 
 whole of the sixth day of New Creation, and reflects 
 back its glory upon the entire of the antecedent work. 
 At the close of this sixth day of Christian Experience, 
 and not till then, can the Christian be said, in the ful- 
 lest sense of the words, " to come in the unity of the 
 faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a 
 perfect man, imto the measure of the stature of the ful- 
 ness of Christ." — Eph. iv. 13. Then only, can he be 
 said to see Christ clearly, and to know him perfectly, 
 and to be made perfect in love, as it is written, " For 
 now we see through a glass darkly ; but then face to 
 face : now I know in part ; but then shall I know even 
 as I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, and love, 
 these three ; but the greatest of these is Zove." — 1 Cor. 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 251 
 
 xiii. 12, 13. This is a better translation of the latter 
 verse, than that given in the authorized version ; for 
 ' charity,' in the ordinary modem sense of the word, 
 will not survive the grave, as there will be no objects 
 for its exercise in the world of the redeemed ; but love 
 will reign there, supreme and for ever. There is, then, 
 no such thing as Christian perfection — understanding 
 the term in its widest and most absolute sense — while 
 the Christian remains in the flesh. Until this last great 
 change, the image of God is not made perfect in the 
 Christian ; or, in other words, love is not made perfect 
 in him, but fear, to some extent, more or less, mingles 
 with his love, and renders it imperfect, as it is written, 
 " There is no fear in love ; but perfect love casteth out 
 fear : because fear hath torment ; he that feareth is not 
 made perfect in love." — 1 John iv. 18. This same 
 truth, that the perfect restoration of the image of God 
 is not to be looked for by any one while he remains 
 in the flesh, is clearly deducible even from the Old 
 Testament Scriptures, as it is written, " As for me, I 
 will behold thy face in righteousness : I shall be satis- 
 fied, i67ie?i / aw-'a^-e, with thy likeness." — Ps. xvii. 15; 
 which plainly implies, that the Psalmist did not expect 
 to be satisfied with the likeness — or image — of God, 
 developed in himself, while he continued in the flesh ; 
 nor, until at the close of the sixth day of his Christian 
 Experience, he should awake from the dream of this 
 mortal life, to bear the image of God for ever. And the 
 
252 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 same truth is even more plainly laid down by St. Paul, 
 when he writes, " Not as though I had already attained, 
 either were already made perfect."" — Phil. iii. 12 ; and 
 yet the same Apostle recognises a kind of perfection in 
 the Christian, even while he remains in the flesh, for he 
 writes a little further on, in the same chapter, " Let us, 
 therefore, as many as he perfect^ be thus minded." — 
 Phil. iii. 15. There may, then, be a kind of relative 
 perfection in the Christian, while in the flesh, and, under- 
 standing the term ' Christian perfection,' in this relative 
 sense, it may fairly be applied to the fifth and sixth 
 days of Christian Experience, which constitute the era 
 of living works, and of the higher Christian life. 
 
 The analogy which we are considering, shows us in 
 a very striking light the wonderful and sudden meta- 
 morphosis which the Christian imdergoes at the close 
 of his earthly pilgrimage ; for Ave see that the chasm 
 ivkich separates man — unfallen man, in his highest perfec- 
 tion — from the beasts of the field, is not wider and more 
 impassible, than that which separates the glorified saint from 
 the greatest and the noblest Christian Soldier icho is yet in 
 the flesh. Even in this sense, the words of the Saviour 
 are most true, " Yerily, I say unto you, among them 
 that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater 
 than John the Baptist ; notwithstanding he that is least 
 in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he." — Matt. 
 xi. 11 ; for the Christian in the flesh, however far 
 advanced he may be in his spiritual life, still carries 
 
THE SIXTH DAT. 253 
 
 about with him the fallen human nature — that enemy 
 ■v\dthin, which is ever ready to betray the citadel — that 
 loathsome thing, which forced from the Apostle Paul 
 the memorable exclamation, " O wretched man that I 
 am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" 
 Rom. vii. 24 ; while the saint, who has passed into the 
 Saviour's immediate presence, has left behind him in 
 the grave the last remains of his fallen nature, and now 
 bears the glorious image of God, developed, in all its 
 pristine perfection, in his emancipated spirit. Some- 
 times, indeed, when this most wonderful and glorious 
 change, in the Christian, is near at hand, some of the 
 rays of the coming glory seem to be reflected back upon 
 him, even while he remains in the flesh, and to surround 
 him with a lustre and a brightness tmkno^vn before ; of 
 which we have a remarkable instance recorded in the 
 last scene of the mortal life of Stephen, the first martyr 
 of the new dispensation ; in whose case, the brightness 
 of his approaching glory, was reflected from his coun- 
 tenance ; and his dying prayer for his murderers, seemed 
 to show forth the highest example of sixth-day perfec- 
 tion, and to raise him nearest to the perfect example of 
 his Divine Master. Thus, occasionally, the dying 
 Christian, when approaching the close of the sixth day 
 of his New Creation, seems almost to have reached per- 
 fection, and to resemble a noble building, completed in 
 all its parts, but with the scafiblding — Avhich was used 
 in its construction — still standing about it, and disfi- 
 
254 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 guring the fair proportions of the architecture — giving 
 the spectators a faint idea of how much more glorious 
 and beautiful the structure will appear when the scaffold- 
 ing is removed. 
 
 The Sovereignty of God in the Salvation of the sin- 
 ner, is also prefigured with wonderful exactness in the 
 work of Creation. When God was about to introduce 
 His own image into the natural Creation, at the close 
 of the sixth day, He acted as a Sovereign ; and accord- 
 ingly, as if to teach us this lesson, the language of a 
 Sovereign is, with the most exact propriety, attributed 
 to Him in the inspired account of Creation. And, 
 indeed, it is not a little remarkable, that this same lan- 
 guage and mode of expression has, at all times, and 
 among all civilized nations, been instinctively appro- 
 priated, almost exclusively, to Sovereign Princes, and 
 is used by them, even at the present day, in their acts 
 of State, and the highest exercises of their Prerogative. 
 The universality of this custom and usage, seems to 
 denote, that Nature has impressed upon all mankind 
 an instinctive sense of the propriety of reserving this 
 mode of expression, for the peculiar and characteristic 
 language of Sovereignty. And we know, from the autho- 
 rity of Scripture, that the analogy between Creation 
 and New Creation, is most accurate and complete in 
 this respect, and that the Sovereignty of God is also 
 pre-eminently displayed, in the corresponding work of 
 New Creation, as it is written, " For He saith to Moses, 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 255 
 
 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I 
 ^vi\\ have compassion on whom I will have compassion : 
 so then it is not of him that willeth, nor of hkn that 
 runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." — Rom. ix. 
 15, 16; and, again, "That as sin hath reigned unto 
 death, even so, might grace 7^e{gn, through righteousness, 
 unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord." — Eom. v. 
 21. In this latter passage, Sovereignty is expressly 
 attributed to that grace by which man is new-created 
 as it was, in the account of Creation, to that power by 
 which man was originally called into existence. 
 
 Furthermore, we may observe, that as, in the natu- 
 ral Creation, man was called into existence by the 
 express determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, so 
 it will be found, that no one individual ever did — or ever 
 will — get to Heaven by chance, or otherwise than by a 
 like determinate counsel and foreknowledge of the Most 
 High. In the case of each individual saint, who shall 
 stand before the throne hereafter, there must have been 
 the deliberate counsel of God, ' Let us new-make him 
 in our image, after our likeness ;' for the Scripture tells 
 us, " For whom he did foreknow, he also did predesti- 
 nate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he 
 might be the first-born among many brethren ; more- 
 over, Avhom he did predestinate, them he also called : 
 and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom 
 he justified, them he also glorified." — Eom. viii. 29, 30. 
 And, again, we read, "No man can come unto me, 
 
 R 
 
256 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him." — 
 John vi. 44, 
 
 This point in the analogy, is also worthy of observa- 
 tion, that as, in the natural Creation, man was born to. 
 dominion^ so the Christian is born to dominion, and a 
 kingdom, and great dignity and glory, as it is written, 
 " Thou hast made us unto our God kings and priests ; 
 and we shall reign upon the earth." — Eev. v. 10 ; and, 
 again, " He that overcometh, shall inherit all things; and 
 I will be his God, and he shall be my Son." — Rev. xxi. 
 7. Here is dignity and dominion enough to satisfy the 
 most insatiable ambition, reserved for the Christian, 
 throughout eternity. But so essential and inseparable 
 is the connection originally established between the 
 image of God and dominion, that even the Christian 
 does not come into possession of his kingdom, until the 
 image of God is perfectly restored in him ; which event, 
 we have seen, does not take place, while he remains in 
 the flesh. 
 
 The last point in the parallel between the sixth days 
 of Creation and of New Creation which remains to be 
 noticed, is the identity of the blessings appropriated to 
 those days respectively. The distinguishing character- 
 istic of the blessing which was pronounced at the close 
 of the sixth day of the natural Creation, and that which 
 distinguished it from the fifth-day blessing, was the domi- 
 nion, which the sixth-day blessing recognized, as 
 belonging to man created in the image of God. At 
 the close of that sixth day of Creation — when God saw 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 257 
 
 His own image reflected in Creation — He said, " Have 
 dominion." And so we shall find, that — in exact analogy 
 to this — the distinguishing feature of the sixth-day bless- 
 ing of New Creation — when God sees His own image 
 reflected in the Christian — is a like i'ecogmtw)i of his title 
 to dominion, as it is written, " Come ye blessed of my 
 Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the 
 foundation of the world." — Matt. xxv. 34. This is the 
 sixth-day blessing of New Creation, pronounced at its 
 completion ; and we see, that its distinguishing charac- 
 teristic is, its recognition of the Christian's title to 
 dominion. The similarity of the language here em- 
 ployed, to that of the sixth-day blessing of Creation, is 
 very remarkable. He does not say, * I give you the 
 kingdom,' nor even, ' / have given you the kingdom,' 
 but " inherit the kingdom," that is to say, ' take it, not 
 as a gift simply, but as your inheritance, or your inherent 
 right, as being new-created in the image of God,' exactly 
 like the expression, " Have dominion," which was ori- 
 *ginally addressed to man created in the image of God. 
 And, indeed, this complete parallelism of the sixth-day 
 blessings of Creation and of New Creation, will appear 
 still more clearly, if we consider another version of the 
 blessing w^iich shall be pronounced at the close of the 
 sixth day of New Creation, which has emanated from 
 the same infallible source as that above mentioned, and 
 in which the language approximates, still more closely, 
 to identity with that of the sixth-day blessing of Crea- 
 
 K 2 
 
258 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 tion, namely, " Have tlioii authority over ten cities?" — 
 Luke xix. 17. In fact, we learn from these expressions 
 of Scripture this great truth, that dominion is a neces- 
 sary incident to the image of God. These two things, the 
 image of God and dominion, can never be permanently 
 separated. Wherever the image of God exists, there, 
 dominion must necessarily and permanently exist also ; 
 and it may likewise be added, as a corollary to this pro- 
 position, that no dominion can he permanent ivithout the 
 image of God. Even in the present imperfect state in 
 which we live, where evil is so largely mingled with 
 good, we may see this great truth dimly exemplified 
 in the ordinary political and social relations of man- 
 kind ; for it is notorious, that the natural and necessary 
 consequence of a bad government — whether in a nation 
 or in a family — is to weaken, and ultimately to 
 destroy itself; and, on the other hand — even in this 
 world — the image of God has a natural tendency to attract 
 to itself dominion. And this, we may remember, was 
 remarkably exemplified in the personal history of 
 the Saviour, during His sojourn here on earth ; for, 
 although He came not then to reign, but to suffer, the 
 just for the unjust, although He sought not, nor would 
 accept of temporal dominion ; yet so strong was the 
 natural tendency of the image of God — perfectly deve- 
 loped in Him — to attract to itself dominion, that He was 
 obliged to hide Himself, and often to prohibit the pub- 
 lication of His glorious miracles, lest dominion should 
 
THE SIXTH DAY. 259 
 
 be forced upon Him before the time appointed, as it is 
 written, " When Jesus, therefore, perceived that they 
 would come and take him hy force, to make him a king^ he 
 departed again into a mountain himself alone." — John 
 vi. 15. 
 
 And the same truth is exemplified, at the present 
 day, in the exalted position Avhich our country occii- 
 pies among the nations of the earth. This is the 
 true cause why she surpasses all other nations in her 
 wealth, in her domestic freedom, in her national pros- 
 perity, in the permanence and stability of her institu- 
 tions, and in the extent and durability of her dominion. 
 It is because the image of God — however imperfectly — 
 is, still, more fully developed in her, as a nation, than 
 in any of the other nations of the earth. There- 
 fore she has a larger share of dominion, which can 
 never be taken from her, until she first loses her pre- 
 eminence in the development of the image of God in 
 the features of her national character. If, then, even 
 in the present mixed dispensation of good and evil, we 
 find this necessary connection betAveen dominion and the 
 image of God, verified and exemplified in the history of 
 nations and of individuals — although the image of God 
 is so faintly and imperfectly developed, even in the most 
 advanced Christian, or in the most Christian nation — it 
 may serve to give us some idea of how much more fully 
 and perfectly the same great truth will be practically 
 exemplified hereafter, when the sixth day of New Crea- 
 
260 THE SIXTH DAY. 
 
 tion shall have drawn to a close, and God — seeing His 
 own image reflected in His work, and pronouncing the 
 whole work of New Creation to be very good — shall add 
 the sixth-day blessing of New Creation, authoritatively 
 recognizing and declaring the Christian's title to have 
 dominion and to inherit the kingdom prepared for him 
 from the foundation of the world. 
 
[261 ] 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 *' Thus the heavens aud the earth were finished, and all the host 
 of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he 
 had made ; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work 
 which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanc- 
 tified it : because that in it he had rested from all his work which 
 God created and made." — Gen. ii. 1 — 3. 
 
 This account of the seventh day of Creation is exceed- 
 ingly concise, it is true, and yet there is a vast depth 
 of expression in these few words. When anatysed they 
 appear to imply, that the seventh day of Creation is 
 characterized by the following distinctive marks, namely, 
 Perfection, Eest, Blessing, Sanctification, and Etee- 
 nalDuration. First, Perfection is a characteristic of the 
 seventh day of Creation ; and this will appear more 
 clearly if we consider the word of the original Hebrew 
 text,^ which is rendered in our authorized version by 
 the expressions, " were finished" and "ended." This 
 word — for it is the same verb which occurs in both 
 places — implies not merely the termination of the work — 
 
262 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 as the translation would seem to denote — but it implies 
 perfection in the highest sense of the term. There is, 
 indeed, an obvious distinction between the meaning of 
 the original word and the translation, for a Avork maj 
 be finished, and yet be very far from perfection. But, 
 in the present case, the meaning of the expression is, 
 not only that the work was finished, but that it was 
 brought to perfection. And so the passage above might 
 be better and more literally translated, "Thus the 
 heavens and the earth were perfected, and all the host 
 of them. And on the seventh day God perfected his 
 work which be had made, &c." The seventh day, then, 
 is characterized by perfection in the highest sense of 
 the term — a perfection of which Ave can form but a very 
 faint and inadequate conception, now that sin has 
 entered and blighted even the physical perfection which 
 existed in our globe at the commencement of its seventh 
 day, when the Creator saw His own image reflected in 
 His work, and had pronounced everything which He 
 had made to be "good exceedingly." Then, indeed, 
 perfection existed in the work of Creation ; nothing 
 more remained to be added, which could increase the 
 excellence and perfection of that glorious Avork : it Avas 
 perfect and complete in every part. But noAv the 
 ravages of sin and the curse have made such havoc, 
 even in the physical perfection of our globe, that scarce 
 enough of its original beauty and excellence remains to 
 enable us to form some faint and very imperfect idea of 
 what it must have been originally, Avhen it came fresh 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 263 
 
 from the hand of the Creator on the morning of the 
 seventh day — a fitting habitation for the sovereign race 
 made in the image of God. We are, most of us, able, 
 from the ivy-covered ruins of an ancient castle, to form 
 in our mind's eye some imaginative picture of its pristine 
 grandeur and magnificence, when, in days long gone by, 
 it formed the abode of royalty and the seat of empire, 
 when its halls resounded with music and revelry, and 
 its saloons were thronged by the fairest and the noblest 
 in the land. And so, in like manner, the ruined 
 remains of perfection, which still adhere to our world, 
 enable us in imagination to picture to ourselves some 
 faint conception, at least, of its original perfection. 
 
 In the next place, Rest is another characteristic of 
 the seventh day of Creation, for we read, " And he 
 rested on the seventh day from all his work which he 
 had made ;" or, as the sentence might be rendered — by 
 transplanting a word directly from the Hebrew into the 
 English — " he sabbathed or kept sabbath on the seventh 
 day from all his work which he had made." This was 
 n-ot the rest of weariness nor the rest of idleness, neither 
 of which suppositions is consistent with our idea of the 
 Divine character, nor indeed with the express declara- 
 tions of Scripture, in which we find God Himself speak- 
 ing by the Prophet Isaiah, and addressing Israel in 
 these words, "Hast thou not known, hast thou not 
 heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator 
 of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary,'' 
 Isaiah xl. 28 ; and again, Christ said to the Jews, 
 
264 ' THE SEVENTH DAT. 
 
 " My Father worlceth hitherto, and I work," John v. 17. 
 Neither does this statement of Scripture imply — as some 
 persons have imagined — that God then, that is, at the 
 commencement of the seventh day, finally and for 
 ever closed the Book of Creation and terminated His 
 works of Creation, generally, throughout the Universe. 
 Indeed, the very language employed seems to be speci- 
 ally qualified and guarded against this error ; for it is 
 not said generally, that " God rested from all his work," 
 which might possibly be construed to mean, that He 
 finally and for ever rested from His works of Creation 
 generally ; but the statement is expressly qualified, and 
 the rest is confined to a rest " from all his work which 
 he had made ;" as if it Avere expressly intended to inti- 
 mate that there might afterwards be other works of 
 Creation ivhich God had not then made, but which might 
 thereafter be created. And, indeed, we should bear in 
 mind, that the exquisitely beautiful microscopic view 
 of Creation with which we are presented in the first, 
 and early part of the second chapter of Genesis, is still 
 only a picture — traced, it is true, by a master-hand, and 
 the most perfect which could possibly be drawn — but 
 still it is only a picture ; and, accordingly, it is subject 
 to all the inhei^ent imperfections of a picture, and can 
 never give a perfect representation of the original work. 
 And, among other imperfections — like every picture — it 
 is limited to a certain definite and limited scene or repre- 
 sentation. God and the works of God are infinite ; and 
 there can be no infinite picture, nor, if there could be 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY, 
 
 265 
 
 such, could we conipreliend or take it in, any more than 
 we could comprehend or take in that of which it would 
 be a representation. And so the only way in which 
 God can convey a representation of Himself or of His 
 works to our minds, is, by breaking them up, as it were, 
 into an infinite number of small portions, and presenting 
 to our view separate pictures of the fragments. And this 
 method God has followed in the account He has given 
 us of Creation. He has separated, as it were, the Crea- 
 tion of our earth from the residue of His works of 
 Creation, and given us a beautiful microscopic sketch 
 of this one fragment of His works of Creation. But, 
 notwithstanding all the exquisite skill with which this 
 sketch is drawn, it still has all the imperfections which 
 are inherent and. essential in a picture, and, among others, 
 that of being limited in extent of representation. And 
 to imagine that the rest attributed to God in the picture 
 of Creation, was absolute and universal, or that it had 
 any other reference but the local and limited one to 
 which it is expressly confined by the very words of 
 Inspiration — of being a rest from all His works of Crea- 
 tion which He had made — is precisely a similar blunder 
 to supposing that the frame of a picture represents something 
 in nature. The rest, then, which is attributed to God, is 
 part of the frame-work of the picture of Creation, or, at least, 
 it is confined to our world, and is not inconsistent with 
 works of Creation being still — and eternally — carried 
 on by the Great Creator in other regions of His bound- 
 less empire. His rest, then, was not the rest of weariness, 
 
266 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 nor the rest of idleness, but it was the rest of satisfaction 
 founded upon the perfection of the work of Creation. 
 
 Blessing is another characteristic mark of the seventh 
 day of Creation ; for, although blessings were expressly 
 pronounced in the course of two of the other days of 
 Creation, yet those days themselves were not pronounced 
 to be blessed, only the creatures produced in those two 
 days received certain definite and limited blessings. 
 But now we read, that, " God blessed the seventh dai/,^* 
 that is to say, the seventh day and everything existing in 
 it — even the whole work of Creation — was pronounced 
 to be blessed. This form of expression, then, appears 
 to denote a universality of blessing which never had 
 existed before. And again, it is remarkable, that we 
 are not told in what particulars this seventh day bless- 
 ing consisted: we are not told that " God blessed the 
 seventh day and said such and such things of it ;" but 
 simply that " God blessed the seventh day," without 
 any statement of the particulars of which the blessing 
 is composed. Which form of expression appears to 
 denote, that the blessing of the seventh day is not — Hke 
 those Avhich preceded it — a limited blessing composed of 
 certain definite particulars, but a general and compre- 
 hensive blessing, composed of an infinite number of par- 
 ticulars, and comprising within itself all other blessings. 
 The two former days, it is true, had blessings, but the 
 seventh day is characterized by the blessing, which com- 
 prises within itself all other blessings. 
 
 In the next place Sanctification is another character- 
 
THE SEVEXTH DAT. 267 
 
 istic mark of the seventh day of Creation ; for we read, 
 that, " God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it,'' 
 that is to say, He made Holy the seventh day and every- 
 thing which existed in it, namely, the whole work of 
 Creation, and set them apart for Himself. This, then, 
 was the natural condition of all things on the morning 
 of the seventh day of Creation ; everything was then 
 Holy to the Lord. But this state of things has been 
 interrupted by sin for nearly six thousand years, and 
 during that long period all things in our world have 
 been placed in an abnormal or unnatural condition, and 
 have become unholy ; so that the Holy things have 
 become the exception and not the general rule, as thev 
 Avere originally : and, by long use and habit, this un- 
 natural and abnormal state of things has come at length 
 to seem to us to be natural ; so that we find it difficult 
 to conceive how all things could ever have been Holy 
 to the Lord. Nevertheless, this is what is meant by 
 the statement that " God sanctified the seventh day." 
 And, moreover, we have the sure word of Prophecy, 
 that this primitive state of things shall ultimately be 
 re-established, and all common things in our world shall 
 become once more Holy to the Lord, as it is written, 
 " In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, 
 HOLINESS UXTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's 
 house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, 
 every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be. hoUness 
 unto the Lord of hosts," Zech. xiv. 20, 2 L The Fall 
 and Eedemption of man appear thus to be but an inter- 
 
268 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 lude in the miglity drama of Creation, which interrupts 
 for a few moments, as it were, the never-ending scene 
 of Rest and Holiness on the seventh-day. And when 
 this interlude is over — as doubtless it soon will be — the 
 opening scene of the seventh day will be resumed at 
 the precise point where it was interrupted ; and all 
 things in our world will be restored to their original 
 and natural condition of Holiness to the Lord for ever. 
 Lastly, Eternal Duration is another characteristic 
 mark of the seventh day of Creation, as appears plainly 
 from a comparison of the language used in reference to 
 this day, with that used in respect to all the former days 
 of Creation. We do not find it written, in reference to 
 the seventh day, ' And the evening and the morning 
 were the seventh day.' Now this seventh day is the only 
 day, in respect to which we do not find such an an- 
 nouncement ; from which peculiarity and marked dis- 
 tinction in the language, I would infer, that the seventh 
 day is a never-ending day, extending its hours through 
 all the boundless ages of the eternity to come. The six 
 former days had, each its evening and its morning ; and 
 however long the intervals may have been, which sepa- 
 rated the evenings from the mornings of the six working 
 days of Creation, — however many millions of years may 
 have been comprised in each of them — they all have 
 successively come to an end and passed away. But the 
 seventh is an eternal day — a morning which shall have 
 no evening. And indeed, this same conclusion — as to 
 the eternity of the seventh day of Creation — may be 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 269 
 
 otherwise demonstrated thus: — The reason why the 
 former six days of Creation came to an end, was, because 
 they attained not to perfection ; for whatsoever is imperfect 
 must come to an end; and, on the other hand, ivhatsoever 
 is perfect must naturally and necessarily endure for ever, 
 as it is written, '* For if that first covenant had been 
 faultless, then should no place have been sought for the 
 second." — Heb. viii. 7, and again, " But when that 
 which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall 
 be done away." — 1 Cor. xiii. 10. In both these passages, 
 this truth is assumed as an axiom by the Apostle Paul, 
 that whatsoever is perfect will endure for ever, and 
 that whatsoever is imperfect must come to an end, and 
 make way for that which is perfect. Now if we apply 
 this same axiom to the days of Creation, we shall have 
 thus an additional independent demonstration, that the 
 seventh day must be an eternal day. For the seventh 
 day alone, as we have seen, is characterized by perfection. 
 True it is, that the seventh day is at present darkened, 
 as it were, by sin, and its perfection is obscured. But 
 still we shall find, I think, that this arises from merely 
 temporary causes — it is like an eclipse of the seventh day 
 sun, or a cloud passing over its surface, which, for the 
 time, produces phenomena analogous to those which 
 would ensue, if the day were actually drawing to a close. 
 And yet, when this cloud has passed away — when 
 this dispensation is over — the sun of eternity will shine 
 out in all its pristine brightness, and the seventh day 
 of Creation will resume its course, unaffected by the 
 
270 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 momentary interruption, and will thus continue un- 
 changed, without coming to a close for ever. 
 
 The above brief and imperfect analysis of the inspired 
 account of the seventh day of Creation, shows us that 
 this day is characterized by Perfection, Rest, Blessing, 
 Sanctification, and Eternal Duration. And we may 
 also observe, that the Word of God — which had hitherto 
 occupied a prominent place in the history of all the 
 prior days of Creation, and had gradually increased 
 from the shortest possible sentence of two words, which 
 was uttered on the first day ; until, on the sixth day, it 
 had attained its extreme development, to an extent more 
 than equivalent to all that was spoken on the five prior 
 days taken together — now on the seventh day, suddenly 
 disappears from the scene ; and we do not read, in the 
 account of that day, that God said anything whatsoever. 
 Now we shall find, I venture to assert, all these same 
 distinctive marks and characteristics reproduced in the 
 most exact analogy in the seventh day of New Creation. 
 And first, the seventh day of New Creation is character- 
 ized by Perfection. Then, and not till then, the Chris- 
 tian attains to perfection in the highest sense of the term. 
 When the wise man of old — speaking under the direction 
 of the Holy Spirit — said, " The path of the just is as 
 the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the 
 perfect day." — Prov. iv. 18, doubtless, " the perfect day" 
 to which he alluded, was none other than the seventh 
 day of New Creation, whi(ih — like its prototype in the 
 natural world — is alone characterized by perfection. 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 271 
 
 God says to each of His children, as He did to the 
 Patriarch Abraham of old, " I am the Almighty God, 
 walk before me and he thou perfect'' — Gen. xvii. 1 ; and 
 indeed, the very same command is generalized and 
 expressly addressed, by the Saviour, to His Avhole 
 Church, as it is written, " Be ye therefore perfect, even 
 as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." — Matt, 
 v. 48. When this command is addressed to any man, 
 God gives him the power to obey it, as He did of old to 
 those to whom the Saviour, when on earth, addressed 
 the commands, " Be thou clean," or, " Arise take up thy 
 bed and go to thine house." The effects, however, of 
 the former command, do not fully manifest themselves 
 at once, as the latter did ; for although the command of 
 God, in the former case, begins to take effect from the 
 moment it is addressed to any individual, yet its effects 
 are more gradual and progressive, and are not fully 
 accomplished while the Christian remains in the flesh, 
 nor until the seventh day of New Creation. It may be 
 objected, however, that the Patriarch Job is declared 
 by Scripture itself to have been a perfect man, as we 
 find it written, " There was a man in the land of Uz, 
 whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and 
 upright." — Job, i. 1. But it is plain, that the perfection 
 here attributed to Job, was not the absolute perfection 
 of the seventh day of New Creation, but only the modi- 
 fied or relative perfection of the fifth and sixth days — 
 like that which St. Paul claimed for himself and the 
 Philippian elders, when he wrote the words, " Let us 
 
 S 
 
272 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 therefore as many as he iierfeci^ be thus minded." — Phil. 
 iii. 15 ; for we may reniember, that in another place the 
 Patriarch Job has left on record this testimony concern- 
 ing himself, " If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall 
 condemn me : i^ I say I am perfect^ it shall also prove me per- 
 verse.'" — Job ix. 20. Which plainly proves that even this 
 most eminent saint did not arrive at seventh-day or 
 absolute perfection while he remained in the flesh. 
 Neither did St. Paul attain to perfection while he was 
 in the flesh, for he expressly repudiated the claim to its 
 attainment, when he wrote, " Not as though I had 
 already attained, either ivere already perfect,'' &c. — Phil, 
 iii. 12. And yet, the Avord " already" plainly shows, 
 that he expected one day to arrive at perfection. Now 
 if these most eminent saints did not arrive at perfection 
 while they were in the flesh, it affords an a fortiori 
 argument, that others — who were less eminent for their 
 Christian virtues — could not have attained to perfection 
 in this life. Perfection, then, is a characteristic of the 
 seventh day of New Creation, and is not to be looked 
 for in any of the earlier days, although there may be a 
 kind of relative perfection — a similitude, as it were, of 
 the true perfection — attainable, even in this Hfe, by the 
 children of God, in the fifth and sixth stages of their spiri- 
 tual existence. And here we may observe, in passing, that 
 this apparent inconsistency, relative to the attainment of 
 perfection, is illustrative of another apparent inconsis- 
 tency to be found in the Scriptures, which, however, ad- 
 mits of a similai' solution : God said to Moses "Thou canst 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 273 
 
 not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live," 
 Exod xxxiii. 20 ; and yet, we read in another place, 
 " Then went up Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu 
 and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the 
 God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a 
 paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body 
 of Heaven in His clearness ; And upon the nobles of the 
 children of Israel he laid not his hand ; also thei/ saw God 
 and did eat and drinlj,'' Exod. xxiv. 9, 14. But to return 
 to our subject, seventh-day or absolute perfection is not 
 to be looked for in this life. Nay more, even those saints 
 who have entered into their rest and are free from sin 
 and sorrow for ever, have not yet attained the fulness 
 of perfection — although they are infinitely nearer to it 
 than the best and holiest upon earth — nor will even the 
 dead in Christ attain to full perfection until the Second 
 Advent of the Saviour-, when the seventh-day sun shall 
 appear above the horizon, never more to sink beneath 
 it, as it is written, " God having provided some better 
 thing for us, that they ivithout us should not be made per- 
 fectJ^ — Heb. xi. 49 ; and again, " For this we say unto 
 you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive 
 and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not pre- 
 vent them which are asleej); for the Lord himself shall 
 descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of 
 the archangel, and with the trump of God : and the dead 
 in Christ shall rise first ; then we which are alive and re- 
 main shall be caught up together with them in the clouds 
 to meet the Lord in the air." — 1 Thes. iv. 15, 17. The 
 
 s2 
 
274 THE se\t:nth day. 
 
 dead in Christ, then, have only attained to the dawning of 
 the morning of that perfect day which shall know no 
 evening. But the sun of the perfect day has not yet 
 risen upon them, nor have they yet fully entered upon 
 the seventh day of New Creation, which shall commence 
 at the same moment for all the children of God, namely 
 at the Second Advent, when the Saviour shall come 
 again without sin unto Salvation. The earlier days of 
 New Creation may have been infinitely varied in dura- 
 tion, in period of commencement, in distinctness of de- 
 velopment, and other^vise, in each individual Christian ; 
 but the seventh day of their New Creation will be one and 
 the same to all. For they will all then be one, and the 
 Saviour's Prayer will then be fully answered, " That 
 they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them, and 
 thou in me, that they may he made perfect in o?ie." — John 
 xvii. 22, 23 : and the bond which will unite them into 
 one, will be love — perfect love, as it is written, " And 
 above all these things put on love, which is the bond of 
 perfectness" — Col. iii. 14. 
 
 Rest is another characteristic of the seventh day of 
 New Creation ; but — like the rest of God upon the 
 seventh day of Creation — it will not be the rest of 
 weariness nor of idleness, but the rest of satisfaction 
 founded on the perfection, which, as we have seen, will 
 characterize that day. Eest is the great object which 
 all mankind are, and ever have been seeldng to attain; 
 lor the truth of which assertion, I may even appeal to 
 the testimony of an ancient Heathen poet, who had 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 275 
 
 not the light of Revelation to guide him, but -who had 
 carefully studied human nature, and knew it well, in 
 all its various phases; and he gives us this, as the 
 result of his experience : — 
 
 Otiiim divos rogat in patenti 
 Prensus Aegaeo siraul atra nubes 
 Condidit lunam neque certa fulgent 
 Sidera nautis : 
 
 Otium bello fdriosa Thrace 
 Otium Medi pharetra decori 
 Grosphe non gemmis neqne purpura 
 Venale neque auro.* 
 
 that is to say, all mankind — as well the civilized, as the 
 barbarian nations, the peaceful merchant, as well as the 
 most warlike tribe, and the rich, as well as the poor-— 
 are in pursuit of one object, and that object is Eest ; or, 
 as the same truth is laid down by a higher authority, 
 "When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he 
 walketh through diy places seeking rest.'' — Luke xi. 24. 
 This passage of Scripture, fully confirms the accuracy of 
 the above statement made by the Heathen poet — the 
 result of his OAvn observation, experience, and native 
 
 * Rest is what the mariner, overtaken by a storm in the open ocean, 
 Asks of the Gods, as soon as the dark cloud has obscured the moon 
 And the stars no longer shine clearly, 
 To guide the sailors ; 
 
 Rest is sought after by warlike Thrace, 
 Rest by the quiver-bearing Medes, 
 Rest which cannot be purchased by gems, 
 Nor by purple, nor by gold. 
 
276 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 sagacity. And it is remarkable, that altliough lie men- 
 tions so many different classes in pursuit of this object, 
 he does not allude to any who have attained it ; and 
 here also he is confirmed by Scripture, for the Saviour 
 adds to the words above quoted from St. Luke's Gospel, 
 " Audi finding none^' for no man has ever yet found it in 
 this life. And indeed, I think I may appeal with con- 
 fidence to the experience and observation of every in- 
 telligent man, Avhether it is not at the present day as 
 true as it was in the days of Horace, that all mankind 
 are still in search of rest. They are all — the children of 
 God, as well as the men of the world — looking forward 
 to some future rest, which they hope one day to attain. 
 But there is just this distinction between the child of 
 God and the man of the world, that the latter — dis- 
 regarding alike the Avarning voice of Scripture, and 
 the united testimony of all former ages, recorded by even 
 Heathen writers — is looking for a rest in this icorld ; 
 while the child of God — remembering the words of the 
 Saviour, " In the world ye shall have tribulation^^^ John 
 xvi. 33 — looks not for his rest before the dawn of the 
 seventh day of New Creation — when sin and sorrow 
 shall have fled for ever, and he shall have entered into 
 that world, where " the wicked cease from troubling, and 
 the weary are at rest." In truth, the care of this world 
 is antagonistic alike to spiritual, and to natural life — it 
 prevents the word of life taking root in the soul, as the 
 Saviour Himself has declared, " lie also that received 
 seed among the thorns, is he that heareth the word ; 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 277 
 
 and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, 
 choke the word, and he beeometh unfruitful." — Matt, 
 xiii. 22. And every day's experience may convince 
 anyone who will reflect for a moment, that the care of 
 this world is equally destructive of natural life. It is 
 this which kills half the men of business — the active, 
 hard-working, intelligent members of society. It is not 
 old age which terminates most of their lives, nor any 
 known forms of disease, but the care of this world, the 
 perpetual worry of business, the constant strain upon 
 their minds, and in a word, the want of rest is that 
 which gradually wears out most men of business and 
 consigns them to a premature grave. The voice of 
 antiquity proclaiming, 
 
 Beatiis ille qui procul negotiis,* 
 teaches us, that this state of things is not altogether 
 peculiar to modern times. Although, undoubtedly, the 
 evil appears in a very aggravated form in these days of 
 rapid progress, of constant competition, and of inces- 
 sant activity — when the human mind seems to be taxed 
 to the uttermost, and all men appear to be searching 
 and striving for that long sought, and still undiscovered 
 rest, with tenfold energy and earnestness, as if they 
 were instinctivehj conscious, that hut a short time now 
 remains, in ichich to find it. Indeed, so inseparable is — 
 and always has been — the connection between care and 
 business of all kinds, that a celebrated ancient Heathen 
 
 * Happy is he who is far removed from the cares of business. 
 
278 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 philosopher, Epicurus, was misled into imagining, that 
 this connection was natural, necessary, and universal. 
 And so he asserted of God Himself, 
 
 Nil agit, nullis occupationibus est implicatus, 
 
 Nulla opera molitur, sua sapientia et virtute guadet* 
 
 Epicurus attributed rest to God, it is true, and so far 
 he was right, and Eevelation confirms his deduction ; 
 but he was led into the gross error of attributing to 
 God the rest of idleness, lest he should destroy His 
 happiness by involving Him in the care which he sup- 
 posed to be inseparable from business and work of 
 every kind. 
 
 Rest, then, is not to be looked for this life, but is a 
 characteristic of the seventh day of New Creation. 
 This great blessing — which all mankind are, and ever 
 have been seeking for — God has reserved for His chil- 
 dren, Avho shall all ultimately find it where alone it is 
 to be found; for they shall all hear and obey the 
 gracious invitation of the Saviour, "Come unto me, all 
 ye that labour and are heavy laden, and / icill give you 
 rest ; take my yoke upon you and learn of me ; for I 
 am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto 
 your souls" — Matt. xi. 28, 29. But even the children 
 of God do not come into the possession of rest, until the 
 seventh day of their New Creation. It is not to be at- 
 tained — -even by the Christian — in any of the earlier days 
 
 * He does nothing, He is engaged in no occupations, He perforins 
 no works, His joys result from the contemplation of His own wisdom 
 and virtue. 
 
THE SEVENTPI DAY. 279 
 
 of New Creation ; although there may, it is true, be found 
 by the Christian, a kind of relative rest, even in this life, 
 Avhich bears exactly the same relation to the seventh- 
 day rest, that we have already seen, subsists between 
 the perfection attainable in this life by the children of 
 God, and the seventh-day perfection which they shall 
 attain to hereafter. But rest, in the proper and high- 
 est sense of the word, is peculiar to the seventh day of 
 New Creation, as it is written, " There remaineth there- 
 fore a rest to the inojAe of God. — Ileb. iv. 9. This ex- 
 pression " remaineth" is a peculiar one, and, I conceive, 
 is meant to intimate, that the title of the people of God 
 to this rest, is what lawyers Avould call, in technical 
 language, ' an estate in remainder,' that is to say, they 
 have no immediate right to possession, until the out- 
 standing life estate is first determined. This same truth 
 — that REST is peculiar to the seventh day of New Crea- 
 tion — may also be inferred from many other passages 
 of Scripture, among others, we may refer to the follow- 
 ing, " The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to 
 heart; and merciful men are taken away, none con- 
 sidering that the righteous is taken away from the evil 
 to come ; he shall enter into peace : they shall rest in 
 their beds, each one walking in his uprightness." — Is. 
 Ivii. 1, 2. And again, "Thou shalt keep him in per- 
 fect peace whose mind is stayed on thee." — Is. xxvi. 3. 
 The future tense used in both these passages of Scrip- 
 ture, points unmistakeably to the conclusion, that " the 
 perfect peace" and " rest" promised in them to the people 
 
280 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 of God, is only to be found on the other side of Jordan, 
 and will not be reached until the dawn of the seventh 
 day of New Creation — that day in which God the 
 Saviour, having perfected His work of New Creation in 
 His Universal Church, shall rest from His labours of 
 New Creation, as He did, of old, from His labours of 
 Creation, as it is written, " He shall see of the travail 
 of his soul and shall be satisfied.^' — Is. liii. 11. 
 
 Blessing is also a characteristic of the seventh day of 
 New Creation ; and — like the corresponding blessing of 
 the seventh day of the natural Creation — this is a 
 universal blessing, extending to all who have part in 
 the seventh day of New Creation, as it is written, 
 " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
 resurrection." — Rev. xx. 6. And, indeed, the same 
 comprehensiveness, which marked the blessing of the 
 corresponding day of the natural Creation, is observ- 
 able in the seventh-day blessing of New Creation. We 
 are not told in what the blessedness consists, but only 
 that those who have part in that day are blessed. From 
 whence we may infer, that the blessing of the seventh 
 day of New Creation — like its prototype in the natural 
 world — is a general and comprehensive blessing, com- 
 posed of an infinite number of particular and limited 
 blessings, and comprising within itself all other bless- 
 ings. It would, therefore, be an endless task, to seek 
 to analyse and develop all that is contained in that 
 seventh-day blessing of New Creation ; but we may, 
 perhaps, with advantage consider a few of the particu- 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 281 
 
 lars of which it is composed. And first, it includes that 
 great blessing, eternal life, which is, perhaps, the most 
 prominent among the numberless components of which 
 this comprehensive seventh-day blessing of New Crea- 
 tion is made up. So much so indeed, that in a certain 
 passage of Scripture, it is spoken of as the blessing, 
 as it is written, " As the dew of Hermon, and as the 
 dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion ; for 
 there the Lord commanded the blessing^ even life for 
 evermore." — Ps. cxxxiii. 3. This blessing of Eternal 
 Life is manifestly a portion of the seventh-day blessing 
 of New Creation ; for the passage of Scripture we have 
 just quoted, informs us, that it is in Zion — that is, in 
 the sanctuary of God — that this blessing is commanded ; 
 the word Zion, being plainly used in the same sense in 
 which it is used by St. Paul, w^hen he writes, " But ye 
 are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the 
 living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumer- 
 able company of angels." — Heb. xii. 22. Eternal Life 
 is thus designated " the blessing," just as if there were 
 no other blessing worthy of being compared to it. And 
 -\ve know that the same blessing of Eternal Life is, in 
 another Scripture, spoken of as " the gift of God," as it 
 is written, " For the wages of sin is death ; but the gift 
 of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 — Eom. vi. 23. As if the Scriptures would teach us 
 that all the innumerable gifts, which God every day 
 showers down upon all His creatures, are accounted as 
 nothing in His sight, in comparison to this great gift, 
 
282 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 wliicli alone is designated ' the gift of God.' And so, 
 in like manner, we know that there are other wages of 
 sin besides death — for all our sicknesses, and pains, 
 and sorrows, all our cares, and wants, and anxieties, are 
 wages of sin — but death is " the wages of sin," the 
 ultimate and tremendous reward of iniquity, which 
 infinitely surpasses and outweighs all the others. 
 
 Eternal Life, then, is among the first and most pro- 
 minent components of the blessedness — or happiness — 
 of the seventh day of New Creation. And what a great 
 and wonderful blessing would that be which marks the 
 seventh day of NeAv Creation, even if it consisted in this 
 alone, which is only one, out of innumerable elements 
 of which it is in fact composed! We all instinctively 
 shrink from death. And so powerful and universal is 
 this feeling, that if there were a physician on earth, 
 who — by long and deep study into the secret properties 
 of drugs and medicines — had discovered some wonder- 
 ful elixir of life, which could really prolong this present 
 life — say, even to one hundred years; all mankind 
 would flock to him to save them from death. Were his 
 fee never so large, were the distance never so great, the 
 dangers and difficulties, and the expense of the journey 
 would be thought nothing of, and his reception-rooms 
 would be ever crowded by the rich and great from all 
 parts of the earth, and even by the comparatively poor, 
 who would wilHngly sacrifice all their substance to 
 obtain this great good ; for Satan told truth for once, 
 when he said, " All that a man hath ivill he give for his 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 283 
 
 Ufe.''^ — Job ii. 4. And yet, when the Great God of 
 Heaven offers life — not for one hundred years only, but 
 for ever and for ever — not for a large fee, but, of His 
 own royal bounty and liberality, without money and 
 without price — not to a chosen few only, but to everyone 
 who will accept it — when He issues, by His Prophet, 
 the gracious and universal proclamation, "Ho everyone 
 that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath 
 no money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine 
 and milk iiitliout money and ivithoiit iwice. Incline your 
 ear, and come unto me : hear, and your soul shall live J* 
 — Isaiah Iv. 1, 3 ; and again, by His Son. "If any man 
 thirst, let him come unto me and drink." — John vii. 37 ; 
 and lastly, Avhen He gives the final and pressing invita- 
 tion, '• And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let 
 him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
 come. And ivhosoever ivill, let him take of the zcater of life 
 freely.'" — Rev. xxii. 17; such is the perversity of fallen 
 man, that the offered blessing is almost universally dis- 
 regarded — how must the holy Angels regard with 
 astonishment and dismay, and the fallen Angels with 
 amazement and exultation, this extraordinar}- result ! — 
 and fallen man rejects as a free gift from the hand of God, 
 Eternal Life and Happiness ; while he is willing to give 
 his fellow man all that he has, for a trifling extension of 
 the term of this transient mortal life, with all its cares, 
 and pains, and sorrows. But such is the deep-seated 
 enmity of the natural heart to God, that even the best 
 gifts, coming from his hand, are looked upon with sus- 
 
284 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 picion and dislike ; for they are the gifts of an enemy, 
 and such are ever looked on with suspicion, as the Latin 
 poet has — ^^dth much ability and knowledge of human 
 nature — put the same truth into the mouth of one of his 
 Trojan Councillors, who is represented as saying, 
 Timeo Dauaos et dona ferentes.* 
 Eternal Life, however, is only one — though perhaps 
 the most prominent — among the numberless component 
 parts of the blessedness — or happiness — of the seventh 
 day of New Creation. No doubt, there are many of the 
 enjoyments of Heaven of which we can form no more 
 conception, than a blind man can of the enjoyments of 
 sight, or a deaf man of the enjoyments of sound ; as 
 indeed the Scriptures appear to intimate, for it is 
 written, " Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath 
 prepared for them that love him." — 1 Cor. ii. 9. But still 
 we may — from what we have experience of here — form 
 some imperfect conception of a few of the enjojonents 
 of Heaven. And it is of great importance, that we 
 should form a conception of Heaven and its enjoyments, 
 which — however imperfect and incomplete — may not be 
 positively erroneous. For we are all of us prone, from our 
 earliest childhood, to form not only imperfect views of 
 Heaven — as all our views must necessarily be — but 
 distorted 2indi positively erroneous ones. We imagine to 
 
 * I view the Greeks with suspicion aud fear, even when they 
 bring gifts. 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 285 
 
 ourselves a Heaven which few would care to inhabit, and 
 then we naturally come to despise its enjoyments. We 
 read or hear, in early childhood, that Heaven is the House 
 of God, as it is written, "In my Father^ house are 
 many mansions" John xiv. 2, and we also hear the place 
 of worship we are in the habit of attending, called the 
 House of God ; and thus — by a natural process of asso- 
 ciation of ideas — most of us come to imagine that life in 
 Heaven is something like constant attendance at church. 
 And as we all — more especially in early life — have felt 
 the weariness and exhaustion consequent upon being 
 shut up for some hours — possiblyin a close, ill- ventilated, 
 and crowded Chui-ch or Chapel — during a long service, 
 and few of us have escaped the infliction of a dull prosy 
 Sermon occasionally, we say — or think — to ourselves, 
 ' If this be a sample of the enjoyments of Heaven, I would 
 prefer Hell itself, if I coidd ouhj find some corner beyond 
 the reach of the fires."* And thus we come to despise God's 
 invitations and the enjoyments of Heaven, mainly through 
 the force of early prejudice and erroneous ideas about 
 Heaven. Hence the importance of correcting — as far as 
 possible — the many distortions and errors in our idea of 
 Heaven, in order that we may know, at least, what it is 
 we are rejecting and despising, and how very different 
 a place Heaven is in reality, from the hideous caricature 
 which we form of it in our own imaginations. We need 
 not, however, fear the exhaustion induced by the close 
 air and long service of a Church in Heaven ; for there 
 will be no such building as a Church there, as it is written, 
 
286 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 " And I saw no temple therein^ for the Lord God Almighty 
 and the Lamb are the temple of it." — Eev. xxi. 22. If 
 an uninspired man had set about drawing a picture of 
 Heaven, he would, no doubt, have represented it as full 
 of Churches and Temjjles. And yet we see, that this is 
 directly the reverse of the fact^ as represented by the 
 infallible word of Inspiration ; which thus affords the 
 means of correcting this error in our idea of Heaven. 
 And we shall find, that our fears of the other infliction 
 above alluded to — namely the dull prosy Sermon — are 
 equally groundless ; for there will he no Sermons in Heaven. 
 They would be useless there, for the great object of all 
 Sermons will have been already accomplished in every 
 inhabitant of that world, as it is written, " And they shall 
 teach no more^ every man his neighbour, and every man his 
 Irother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all knovj me, 
 from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith 
 the Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity and remember 
 their sin no more" Jer. xxxi. 34. We see then, that 
 life in Heaven will not at all resemble constant attendance 
 at Church. So neither will Heaven be a place where 
 people will sit for ever, vvith golden crowns upon their 
 Iieads, and branches of palm trees in their hands, leading 
 a dull, listless, inactive life, doing nothing else but 2^raising 
 God and singing Psalms and Hymns, through all eter- 
 nity. This is not a just or accurate representation of 
 the Home which our Heavenly Father has provided for 
 His children, but a most infamous caricature ; as we 
 shall see in a moment, if we ask ourselves this question, 
 
THE SEVENTH DAT. 287 
 
 ' Where do all the pleasm-es of this life come from ?' 
 Are they not all prepared and given to us by the Great 
 and Bountiful Author and Giver of all good things ? 
 And can any rational man for a moment suppose, that 
 God has exhausted all His resources and ingenuity, in 
 providing pleasures for fallen sinful creatures, and that 
 He has not reserved much greater, more intense and 
 ecstatic pleasures for His reconciled children ? Doubt- 
 less, the intensest pleasures with vhich we are acquainted 
 in this life, are infinitely inferior in degree of enjoyment 
 to the least pleasures which will belong to the Redeemed 
 in endless profusion and variety for ever, as it is written, 
 " They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of 
 thy house ; and thou shalt make them drink of the river 
 of thy pleasures^ — Psalm xxxvi. 8. Which passage of 
 Scripture confirms, Avhat even Reason and Analogy 
 would teach us, that only a few driblets or small drops 
 of pleasure are attainable in this Hfe, which bear no 
 comparison to the abundance, the depth, the variety, 
 and the intensity of the pleasures which the Redeemed 
 shall enjoy freely and abundantly out of the river of God^s 
 pleasures^ when all the resources of Omnipotence and 
 Omniscience will be placed at their command to minister 
 to their enjoyments, and to provide pleasures in endless 
 variety and profusion for the children of God throughout 
 eternity. There will be, then, in Heaven pleasures of 
 every variety, pleasures of the mind, and pleasures of 
 the body. For, Ave must beware, that in steering clear 
 of the unworthy and erroneous views of the Mahometan 
 
 T 
 
288 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 and his sensual paradise, we do not fall into the oppo- 
 site error of banishing bodily pleasures from Heaven 
 altogether. We must not forget, that the resurrection of 
 the body is a leading, and almost a peculiar doctrine of 
 Christianity. The bodies of the redeemed, then, will be 
 in Heaven as well as their souls — almost as essential 
 portions of themselves as their souls — and doubtless, 
 the pleasures of Heaven will have reference to the body 
 as well as to the soul. Regenerated man will still be a 
 compound being — consisting of soul and body — and we 
 must take care that in avoiding the error of the ]\Iaho- 
 metan, in making man in the future state practically to 
 consist entirely of body ; we do not run into the opposite 
 error, oi practically mslung him to consist entirely of soul, 
 leaving out the body altogether. AVhich latter error 
 would be even more mischievous than the other ; because 
 all mankind can understand and appreciate bodily plea- 
 sure ; whereas, those whohave any considerable acquaint- 
 ance with other kinds of pleasure, are comparatively few. 
 And thus, if we leave out bodily pleasures from Heaven, 
 we shall make it — to the great majority of mankind — 
 a dull insipid sort of place, of whose enjoyments they 
 can form no idea at all — a vague, ideal, dreamy kind of 
 spiritualized existence, which they can neither under- 
 stand nor desire. 
 
 Pleasure, then, in every variety, will be another 
 component element of the blessedness or happiness of 
 the seventh day of New Creation. There will be plea- 
 sures of the mind, and pleasures of the body, intellectual 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 289 
 
 pleasures, social pleasures, and every other kind of 
 pleasure ofivhich we have any experieme here ; only, they 
 will be all intensified an hundred fold, and purified ; 
 and there will doubtless be, besides, an infinite variety 
 of new pleasures of which we can have no conception at 
 all. The pleasures of the Redeemed at God's right hand, 
 will surely exceed the greatest pleasures of this life, in 
 afar higher ratio, than the pleasures of manhood surpass 
 those of childhood. This present life, in reference to 
 eternity, is, as it were, the childhood of mankind. The 
 riches, and honours, and pleasures of this life, are ana- 
 logous to the toys of childhood; and our Bountiful 
 Heavenly Father — knowing that toys are suitable for 
 children — has provided these toys, more or less, for all 
 His children. And as, in this life, we see those children 
 who are most occupied about their toys, and who devote 
 the whole energies of their minds to them, for that very 
 reason, as a natural consequence, have least of the sub- 
 stantial good things of after-life ; so we may fairly infer 
 from Analogy, that those men who devote the whole, or 
 an undue portion of their attention to the acquisition 
 and enjoyment of the honours and riches and pleasures 
 of this fleeting life — those toys of the childhood of 
 Eternity — will, in exact proportion, and by way of natural 
 consequence, suffer loss of the honours, and riches, and 
 pleasures of Eternity — those substantial good things of 
 the life which shall be hereafter. 
 
 Pleasures, then, in endless variety and profusion, will 
 exist in Heaven, aud will constitute one element of the 
 
 T 2 
 
290 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 happiness there. And if we would form a conception 
 of what life in Heaven will be, let us, for a moment, 
 banish from our thoughts Sermons and attendance at 
 Church, with all the other ideas Avhich are commonly 
 supposed to have the closest connexion with the life 
 hereafter ; and I think we shall be able to arrive at some 
 idea — exceedingly imperfect, of course, but still a distinct 
 positive idea — of Heaven, and certainly a much more 
 just, rational, and Scriptural one, than either those sug- 
 gested by the mistaken associations of childhood, or 
 the merely negative ideas which it is so constantly — but 
 I think, erroneously — affirmed, are the only ones which 
 Scripture affords us of the life hereafter. Of course, 
 any idea we form, must be derived from things ofivhich 
 we have experience in the j^i^esent life; for, the course of 
 our acquired knowledge must always be, from the known 
 to the unknown; but still it will be a distinct ^yositive 
 idea, and not merely negative. Let us see, then, whether 
 we can collect and combine some of the elements of a 
 positive idea of life in Heaven. And first. Pleasure is a 
 positive idea ; we all naturally love pleasure, and know 
 what it means ; it is something very different from the 
 mere absence of pain, which would be merely negative. 
 Wealth is another positive idea, and we all naturally 
 desire to possess and enjoy it. Honour is a positive idea, 
 and every man desires it. Beauty is also positive, and 
 naturally desirable. Health and Strength are also 
 positive ideas, and universal objects of desire. And the 
 same may be said of Knowledge, Power, and Wisdom. 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 291 
 
 Now, if we -wish to form a positive idea of life in Heaven, 
 let us combine all these positive ideas ; and — in order 
 to make the result a little less ideal and unsubstantial — 
 let us introduce a substratum of flesh and blood, and 
 imagine a Prince living here upon earth, in the full 
 enjoyment of youth and personal beauty ; let him have 
 also an iron constitution, health, and strength ; let him 
 be held in honour not only by his own subjects, but by 
 other princes ; let him have almost fabulous wealth, 
 great power, and far spreading dominion ; suppose, 
 besides, that he has a capacious and cultivated mind ; 
 and that he is surrounded by all the enjoyments with 
 which we are acquainted, and possessed of all that the 
 heart of man can desire ; let him be also beloved by his 
 subjects, vnse, good, liberal, and kind; imagine him 
 constantly surrounded by all the noblest, the ^^dsest, the 
 purest, and the best upon earth, who form — we will 
 suppose — the society in which he moves, the ornaments 
 of his Court, the inner circle among whom are to be 
 found his relatives and most intimate friends ; let the 
 reader add whatever else his imagination may suggest, 
 to fill up the deficiencies of this picture, and make it as 
 perfect as possible, and then say, which of us would not 
 be willing to change place with such a one as we have 
 supposed ? And yet, there is still a dark shadow in the 
 hack ground^ which casts a chilling influence over the 
 warmth and brightness of the picture ; for. Death stands 
 there, watching for his prey ; and all the enjoyments we 
 have supposed, only resemble, after all, the dainties of 
 
292 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 the man who was condemned to feast with a drawn 
 sword suspended, hy a single hair^ over his head. Let 
 us, however, remove this unwelcome guest, and introduce 
 into our conception the element of Eternal Life, and the 
 constant sunshine of God's countenance. And we will 
 then have a faint and very imperfect, but still a distinct 
 and positive, and — so far as it goes — a tolerably accurate 
 idea of life in Heaven. And we will thus be better 
 enabled to understand what a mighty object of ambition 
 and desire is held out to mankind in seeking to attain to 
 that life ; and how the words of the ancient Greek poet 
 Sophocles ought with tenfold force and propriety to be 
 applicable to it : — 
 
 w TrXovre Kal rvpavvi Kai Tsxvt] rkx^VQ 
 VTrepcpspovcra t<^ Tro\v^r]\iii /3/^ 
 OGOQ Trap vfilv 6 (pOovog (pvXdafferai* 
 
 Away with the idea, then, that life in Heaven will 
 be a dull monotonous spiritualized kind of existence, 
 in which the only employment or enjoyment of the 
 Redeemed, will be that of singing psalms and hymns of 
 praise to God, all day long ; shut up, as it were, in a 
 great temple, like canary birds in a golden cage. Such 
 a supposition is equally unscriptural, and irrational, it 
 is equally dishonouring to God, and injurious to man, 
 
 * Wealth, and Royalty, and Art surpassing Art, 
 In a much coveted existence, 
 
 What an enviable object of intense desire do you hold out 
 to mortals ! 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 293 
 
 and can have originated but from one source, namely, 
 the Father of lies, whose constant aim it is, and ever 
 has been, to misrepresent God, and God's Word, and 
 God's Works, and thus maliciously to cheat men out of 
 the good things which God has provided for them. 
 But the Scripture affords us the means of confuting his 
 deceptions, and of pro\dng, that every portion of the 
 sketch of life in Heaven above suggested, is not the 
 mere unauthorized invention of our own imagination, 
 but is warranted by the infallible authority of God's 
 own Word, which tells us that the Eedeemed shall be, 
 in fact, Princes, and shall recover more than their lost 
 dominion, as it is Avritten, " Thou hast made us unto our 
 God kings and priests : and we shall reign on the earth.'^ 
 — Eev. V. 10 ; and also, that they shall enjoy plea- 
 sure for evermore, as it is A\Titten, " In thy presence is^ 
 fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for 
 evermore,'' — Psalm xvi. 11. The Scriptures also teach 
 us, that the Redeemed will have boundless wealth, far 
 beyond what fancy ever pictured in the highly-coloured 
 fictions of Eastern fables, as it is written, " Wealth and 
 riches shall be in his house ; and his righteousness en- 
 dureth for ever." — Psalm cxii. 3 ; and again, " He that 
 overcometh shall inherit all things'' — Eev. xxi. 7. They 
 ^vill also enjoy Honour, compared to which the highest 
 distinctions of earth fade into insignificance ; for, they 
 will have the high honour of being the children of the 
 Highest^ as it is written, " I will be a Father unto you, 
 and ye shall he my son^ and daughters, saith the Lord 
 
294 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 Almighty." — 2 Cor. vi. 18. They will also enjoy Power 
 and great authority, as it is written, " And he that 
 overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him 
 will I give power over the nations r — Kev. ii. 26. They 
 will have Beauty also, for they will all be like Him of 
 ■whom it is testified, " Thou art fairer than the children 
 of men ; grace is poured into thy lips : therefore God 
 hath blessed thee for ever." — Psalm xlv. 2 ; as it is w^rit- 
 ten, " But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall 
 he like himJ^ — 1 John iii. 2. We were also warranted in 
 removing the dark shadoAv from the background of our 
 picture, for it is ^\T:itten, " There shall be no more deathJ' 
 — Rev. xxi. 4. And so, in like manner, Ave might go 
 through all the other details of the sketch of life in 
 Heaven which we have suggested, and verify them in 
 every minute particular from the pages of Inspiration ; 
 but let the quotations already given suffice to show, that 
 the picture is not overdraivn, but quite the reverse : so that 
 those who shall be allowed an entrance into that King- 
 dom will be constrained — like the Queen of Sheba of 
 old — to exclaim, " It w^as a true report that I heard in 
 mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit 
 I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes 
 had seen it ; and, behold, the half was not told me : thy 
 wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I 
 heard." — 1 Kings, x. 6, 7. 
 
 The seventh-day blessing of Ncav Creation, then, will 
 be — like its prototype in the natural Creation — a compre- 
 hensive blessing: it will certainly comprise all these 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 295 
 
 particular blessings above mentioned, and innumerable 
 other particulars additional to — or subdenominations of 
 — those already mentioned, which the Eedeemed ^vill 
 enjoy throughout the endless ages of eternity. They 
 will move in the highest and noblest society — among 
 the Aristocracy of the Universe — among the best, the 
 purest, the most gifted of mankind, gathered from every 
 age, and country, and clime, and nation. Their social 
 circle will comprise the greatest philosophers, the noblest 
 patriots, the most disinterested philanthropists, the wisest 
 statesmen and legislators, and all the master spirits and 
 true benefactors of the human race. Besides, the chosen 
 friends and companions of each individual saint while 
 here on earth, will be there ; all purified, all sanctified, 
 all made immeasurably more lovely, and worthy of 
 being loved, than they ever were when on earth. Add 
 to this, the society and personal friendship of the Great 
 Universal Sovereign, the King Eternal, Immortal, but 
 no longer Invisible — the rightful head of our race — who 
 will then be found to be the greatest philosopher, the 
 wisest legislator, and the most disinterested philan- 
 thropist among them all, as it is written, " That in all 
 things he might have the pre-eminence." — Col. i. 18. 
 True, He did not manifest Himself as a philosopher, 
 when He was here on earth ; because He then came, 
 not to teach men Philosophy, but to do that which 
 Philosophy could never accomplish — namely, to save 
 them from their sins. But when that first and most 
 necessary work shall have been fully accomplished — 
 
296 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 when he comes again to preside among His blood-bought 
 people — we may find Aristotle, and Plato, and Newton 
 sitting at His feet, and learning the elements of Philosophy 
 from Him^ in whom all the treasures of Science are hid. 
 So, in like manner, the Saviour, at His First Advent, did 
 not manifest Himself as a King ; and yet we know, that 
 when He comes again, He will come as a Sovereign, 
 with a title compared to which the best and most ancient 
 title of any earthly Sovereign, even the title of our own 
 gracious Queen — the descendant of a hundred kings, in 
 whose veins flows the blood of William the Conqueror — 
 fades into insignificance. 
 
 There will be no sin, no care, no anxiety, no pain, 
 no sickness, no death, to interrupt the harmony, or mar 
 the enjoyments of that social circle. And everything 
 that can satisfy the desires of the mind and of the body 
 of each one, will be provided, in lavish abundance, at the 
 cost of the Imperial Treasury of the Universe. For, then 
 God will open His Treasures. In the present life He 
 only opens His hand, as our University has expressed 
 it, in the benediction that she pronounces by the mouth 
 of one of her Scholars every day before dinner in the 
 College Hall, which, along with some trashy matter, 
 contains this one beautiful sentence taken from Scrip- 
 ture : — 
 
 Aperis tu manum tuam et imples omne animal benedictione tua.* 
 
 * Thou opeuest thine hand, and fiUest all things living with plen- 
 teousness. 
 
THE SEVENTH DAT. 297 
 
 The idea involved manifestly being, that in this present 
 dispensation God has not to resort to His purse, much 
 less to His Treasury, in order to satisfy abundantly the 
 wants of all His creatures. So vast is his wealth, so 
 boundless His resources, that it costs Him nothing to 
 give all these good things which come from His hand. 
 One gift alone He has given us, which cost Him dear, 
 which came, not from His hand, but from His heart — 
 when, for our sakes. He answered not that prayer, '* O 
 my Father, if it be possible, let this cup -pass from me: 
 nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." — Math.xxvi. 
 39. 
 
 The intellectual powers and capabilities of the Ee- 
 deemed will, no doubt, be enlarged and elevated beyond 
 what we can have any idea of. Doubtless, it will be 
 true, even of the great Newton, that the least m the 
 kingdom of Heaven will be greater, in intellectual 
 powers, than he was when upon earth. And so, the 
 delights of Science, and all those intellectual enjoyments, 
 which are among the highest, the purest, and the most 
 entrancing, with which we are acquainted here below, 
 will not only be intensified an hundred-fold, but will 
 be 'placed within the reach of all. In this world, com- 
 paratively few can drink deep of the cup of intellectual 
 pleasure ; for, the vast majority of mankind are shut out 
 by poverty, by want of ability, or of energy, from the 
 means and opportunities of attaining to it. And even in 
 the case of those few who are more favourably circum- 
 stanced, no sooner have they begun to taste the sweets 
 
298 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 of that cup, than sickness, or sorrow, or death, or some 
 other disturbing agent steps in, and interrupts their 
 enjoyment, before it is well begun. But in that world 
 every one mil be more or less a votary of Science, and a 
 partaker of its enjoyments. 
 
 What wonderful discoveries will then be made of the 
 secret properties and relations of material bodies, of the 
 laws which regulate the Universe, and of the manifold 
 wisdom of the Creator in heaven and on earth ! Let 
 us imagine, if we can, what heights and depths of 
 scientific discovery would be reached in a thousand 
 years by such a mind as Sir Isaac Newton, or our own 
 Professor M'CuUagh — that gifted man, whose vast and 
 capacious intellect overbore its frail earthen tenement, 
 and snatched him prematurely from our midst. How 
 many doubtful questions in Science will then be decided ! 
 How many difficulties resolved ! And might we not 
 suppose, that the classical scholar, too, might have his 
 peculiar enjoyments ? How many doubtful readings 
 will then be set right ! How many obscure passages 
 in ancient authors, and even in the Scriptures them- 
 selves — which have caused volumes of learned criticism 
 to be written, in the, too often, vain attempt to ascertain 
 the exact meaning or reading of the original text — will 
 then be restored to their original state, or explained by 
 the authors themselves, or by some of their contem- 
 poraries ! The student of History, too, and the man of 
 antiquarian research, will have their peculiar enjoy- 
 ments. How many a blank in the records of our world 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 299 
 
 will then be filled up ! How many an unwritten page of 
 History will then be brought forth ! How many a lost 
 one restored ! The records and History of the antedi- 
 luvian world — of which we know little or nothing — will 
 then be brought to light ; and all the difficulties in 
 ancient History — including the historical portion of the 
 Scriptures — will then be explained. For, surely, we can 
 all understand, that five minutes conversation mth our 
 first parents, would throw more light on the state of 
 things in Paradise, and on that momentous scene in the 
 Garden of Eden which led to the downfall of our race, 
 than all the learned criticisms and disquisitions which 
 have been written respecting it taken together. And, 
 in like manner, a short personal interview with the 
 Patriarch Noah, would do more to solve the doubts and 
 difficulties connected with the Deluge, and to convey 
 an accurate idea of the actual state of things before, and 
 during, and after that tremendous visitation, than all 
 the ingenious reasonings, conjectures, and suggestions 
 of the wisest men. 
 
 We may be able, perhaps, to form some conception, 
 too, of the intense interest which will be awakened in 
 every breast among the Eedeemed, by some of the 
 opening scenes of that life to come — for instance, by the 
 wonders of the Day of Judgment. Let us not suppose, 
 that the Day of Judgment will be a natural day of 
 twenty-four hours. It will, doubtless, be a vast period 
 of time, comprehending many years — perhaps a millen- 
 nial day, comprising a thousand years. Now, we all 
 
300 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 know what intense and absorbing interest is sometimes 
 excited in the public mind by interesting Trials and 
 judicial proceedings in this life. Mankind seem to have 
 a natural love for this kind of enjoyment. When one 
 of these interesting Trials — whether in a civil or a 
 criminal Cornet — is proceeding, all the Newspapers are 
 full of it ; everyone we meet speaks of it ; those who are 
 fortunate enough to secure seats in Court, are the objects 
 of envy to the many who are necessarily excluded ; and, 
 in a word, the Trial seems, for a time, to absorb the 
 whole attention of the Public. Now, this may help us 
 to form some idea of the all-absorbing interest which 
 will be felt among the Redeemed, when a somewhat 
 similar scene, on a gigantic scale, wilj be enacted — when 
 the Assizes of our World will open — when the Great 
 Supreme Judge shall take His seat upon His Judgment 
 Throne, and some great offender shall be brought before 
 Him for judgment. How many mysteries of iniquity 
 will then be unravelled, which have perplexed, and per- 
 haps misled the ablest judges here on earth ! What 
 wonderful and sui'prising disclosures will then take 
 place! Every long buried secret crime will then be 
 exposed, and punished. Every erroneous judgment 
 pronounced on earth, ^vill then be reversed by the 
 Great Ultimate Court of Appeal. Every wrong will 
 then be redressed; every right vindicated; and the 
 Justice of God will be manifested to all His intelligent 
 Creation. Happy they who shall then be recognized as 
 the friends of the Judge. They shall have seats upon 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 301 
 
 tlie Bench, and will be able to -witness the tremendous 
 scene without alarm. This is not an exaggerated or 
 overdrawn sketch of that wonderful scene ; for, we find 
 it written in the Word of Inspiration, " And I saw a 
 great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose 
 face the earth and the heaven fled away ; and there was 
 found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small 
 and great, stand before God : and the books were 
 opened : and another book was opened, which is the 
 book of life : and the dead ivere judged out of those things 
 which were written in the hooks, according to their ivorks.'' 
 — Rev. XX. 11, 12 ; and again, " And I beheld till the 
 thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did 
 sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of 
 his head like the pure wool : his throne was like the 
 fiery flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery 
 stream issued and came forth from before him : thou- 
 sand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand 
 times ten thousand stood before him : the judgment was 
 set, and the hooks were opened." — Daniel \\\. 9, 10. And 
 we have it on the authority of the Judge Himself, that 
 " there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed ; 
 neither hid, that shall not be known." — Luke xii. 2. We 
 know also, that the saints shall take part in the Judg- 
 ment, sitting in the seat of the Judge, as it is written, 
 "Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?" 
 — 1 Cor. vi. 2 ; and again, " Until the Ancient of days 
 came, and judgment teas given to the saints of the Most 
 High : and the time came that the saints possessed the 
 
302 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 kingdom." — Daniel vii. 22. Who can tell how soon the 
 tremendous realities of that scene may burst upon our 
 view ? We know that the Judge's Commission is already 
 signed^ as it is written, " The Father judgeth no man, 
 but hath committed all judgment to the Son." — John v. 
 22. And who can tell how soon He may come to 
 execute it ? 
 
 Again ^ we see, in this life, how fond mankind are of 
 theatrical representations, how they rush in crowds to 
 the little insignificant Theatre which man has estab- 
 lished, to witness the performances of some favorite 
 actor. Now, from this we may infer, by analogy, one of 
 the enjoyments of the Redeemed throughout eternity. 
 They will have seats in the mighty Theatre, which God 
 has established, whose stage is the Universe, in which 
 all created beings are actors, and even the Almighty 
 Creator Himself condescends to take a part. 
 
 Furthermore, we all know what a luxury a Newspaper 
 is. We all like to hear or read the news, and to know 
 something of what is going on in every part of the 
 world. And this desire is natural to human nature, and 
 is not sinful, provided it be not allowed to predominate 
 to excess, as among the Athenians of old, who, in St. 
 Paul's time, as we read, " spent their time in nothing 
 else, but either to tell, or hear some new thing." — Acts 
 xvii. 21. Now, the very strength and universality of 
 this principle in the human breast, and the enjoyment 
 arising from it, may help us to form some idea of another 
 of the enjo^Tiients of the Redeemed hereafter. This 
 
THE SE^^NTH DAY. 303 
 
 ■world — during the present dispensation — is like a re- 
 volted province ; all the communications with the rest 
 of God's Empire are cut off; and we know nothing of 
 what is going on in the other provinces of our Sovereign's 
 dominions. The rebels have cut the telegraph wires — 
 except one which they cannot reach, but which is not 
 appropriated to the conveyance of news — and inter- 
 rupted all the communications. But this will not 
 always be the case ; for, the Sovereign has already com- 
 missioned His Son to take a sufficient force to reduce 
 the rebellious province to submission, to punish the 
 rebels, and to restore the commiinications. And when 
 this has been done — as doubtless will soon be the case 
 — then the loyal inhabitants of this province, will have 
 free communications with the inhabitants of all the 
 other provmces of the Almighty's Empire. Nay more 
 — they may even be enabled to visit those distant 
 regions, and to behold the strange scenes and untold 
 wonders which must there be found — surpassing, each 
 the other, in grandeur and magnificence — and all the 
 glorious manifestations of their Sovereign's power and 
 Avisdom, which must necessarily exist, in endless variety, 
 throughout every portion of th e Universe. And certainly 
 they ivill know something of what is going on there, as 
 it is written, '• Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter 
 ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending 
 and descending upon the Son ofmanr — John i. 51. 
 
 Thus we see that, so far from the life hereafter beinsr 
 dull, or devoid of objects of interest, all or nearly all the 
 
 u 
 
304 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 greatest sources of interest and enjoyment with which 
 mankind are acquainted in this life, will hereafter be 
 reproduced on a gigantic scale, and doubtless many new 
 sources of enjoyment will be conferred upon the Re- 
 deemed, of which we have, at present, no ideas at all. 
 
 This present world has been well compared to an 
 Hospital, within whose walls every human being is 
 affected with a dangerous — and often fatal — disease, but 
 in very different stages of the disorder, some being in a 
 horrible state of raving delirium, dangerous to be 
 approached, some in a loathsome putrid state, others in 
 a lethargic condition, some progressing towards recovery, 
 and others nearly ready to be discharged cured, but 
 retained, for a while, to minister to the rest, on account 
 of the infectious nature of the disorder to any who have 
 not suffered from it. Again, this w^orld may be compared 
 to a Reformatory Prison, containing prisoners in every 
 stage of progress towards thorough reformation. Or to 
 a Nursery, in which the children of the Great King are 
 brought up, while they are too young to be allowed to 
 appear in the Drawing-rooms of the Palace, -without 
 risk of soiling the magnificent carpets and costly furni- 
 ture. All these comparisons are more or less accurate 
 and illustrative. But they all unite in illustrating the 
 truth which we have been endeavoui'ing to develop — as 
 to the immense superiority, in grandeur, beauty, luxury, 
 and enjoyment, of the world to come, over this present 
 world. We may, from the pleasures which we are 
 allowed in this Hospital, be enabled to form some faint 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 305 
 
 conception of tlie pleasures we shall have in our own 
 Home, when we are discharged perfectly cured. And, 
 from the indulgences Ave are allowed in our present 
 Prison-house, we may, if we can, conjecture what will 
 be the luxury of the King's Palace, when the Redeemed 
 shall enter it with rejoicing, as it is written, " With glad- 
 ness and rejoicing shall they be brought ; they shall 
 enter into the King's Palace." — Ps. xlv. 5. And lastly, 
 when we look around us, and behold the beautiful carpet 
 of verdure which God has spread upon the floor of His 
 Nursery, the magnificent landscapes with which it is 
 adorned, and the matchless ornaments of its ceiling, we 
 may give loose rein to our imagination to suggest what 
 Avill be the grandeur and magnificence of His Drawing- 
 rooms. 
 
 The personal friendship of the Creator, however, will 
 be the great crowning source of enjoyment to the 
 Redeemed. They will be His friends, as it is written, 
 " Henceforth I call you not servants ; for the servant 
 knoweth not what his Lord doeth : but / have called 
 you friends ; for all things that I have heard of my 
 Father, I have made known unto you." — John xv. 15. 
 And, what is more, they will be all true friends, tried 
 friends, and valued friends, not merely fair-weather 
 friends, who would do homage to Him in His prosperity 
 and glory, but those who remained firm in their allegi- 
 ance and love, under adverse circumstances^ and who are 
 valued accordingly on this very account, as it is written, 
 "Ye are they which have continued with me in my 
 
 u2 
 
306 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 temptations. And I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my 
 Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye may eat and 
 drink at my table, in my kingdom, and sit on thrones 
 judging the twelve trilies of Israel." — Luke xxii. 28-30. 
 One of the penalties naturally attached to wealth and 
 greatness in this world, undoubtedly is, the insincerity 
 of the vast majority of its many friends ; as the wise 
 man said of old, " Wealth maketh many friends." — 
 Prov. xix. 4. In this one respect, poverty undoubtedly 
 has the advantage, for it is not worth anyone's while to 
 pretend friendship for a poor man, unless it be sincere. 
 Adversity and poverty, then, are the natural tests of 
 friendship. The rich man or the great man, who is 
 suddenly overtaken by these, Avill find but little assist- 
 ance or sympathy from his fair-weather friends. He 
 will find himself — like Timon of Athens, of old, when 
 poverty overtook him — deserted by them all, and he 
 will discover that their friendship was altogether for his 
 gold, his table, or his influence, and not for liimself. 
 If, however, one or two should be found, nobly to stand 
 by the fallen great-man in his poverty and humiliation, 
 their friendship would be proved to have been sincere — 
 they would be thenceforth tried and valued friends. 
 And, if — by any of those extraordinary revolutions of 
 circumstances, which sometimes occur — the same indi- 
 vidual were again to be restored to wealth or power, 
 he would, no doubt, know how to appreciate the friend- 
 ship of his fair-weather friends at its just value. But 
 how much more highly would he value the friendship- 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 307 
 
 of those who had stood by him in his adversiiy! We all 
 desire to be liked and valued for ourselves^ and not for 
 mere mercenary inducements, and the advantages to be 
 gained by us. And doubtless the Great Creator Him- 
 self — in like manner — values most highly the love and 
 friendship which is most sincerely felt for Himself and 
 not for the riches, and pleasures, and good gifts, which 
 are at His command. And accordingly, He submitted 
 Himself to adversity and poverty, when — like the Sul- 
 tans, of whom we read in Eastern story — He entered 
 our city in the disguise of a peasant. His viziers and 
 other great officers of State — coming down from their 
 thrones on high — accompanied Him only to the gates 
 of the city, and then returned to the Palace, leaving 
 the ]\Ionarch to proceed alone, as it is written, " And 
 suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the 
 heavenly host, praising God and saying, Glory to God 
 in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards 
 men. And it came to pass when the angels were gone 
 away from them into heaven^ &c." — Luke ii. 13 — 15. 
 Doubtless, one object of that lowly disguise assumed by 
 the King of Kings, and of the depressed condition of 
 His Church — which has existed, more or less, at all 
 periods of this dispensation — has been to test the sincerity 
 of the friendship professed for Him hy the visible Churchy 
 and to separate the true and tried friends who love Him 
 for Himself, from those who love Him only for His bound- 
 less wealth. His omnipotent power, and for the thrones 
 ^nd kingdoms, the wealth and honours, the pleasures, 
 
308 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 and the other good things which He bestows, which 
 would naturally procure Him many friends, as it is 
 written, " Many mil entreat the favour of the prince ; 
 and every man is a friend to him that givethgifts^ — Prov. 
 xix. 6. And we know that, in the morning, when the 
 Sovereign appears in His robes of state, and seated on 
 His throne, He will recognize, in presence of His whole 
 Court, His tried and valued friends ; while all the false 
 friends will be detected and utterly confounded, before 
 the whole intelligent Universe, as it is written, " Who- 
 soever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son 
 of man also confess before the angels of God : But he that 
 denieth me before men, shall he denied before the angels of 
 God.^^ — Luke xii. 8, 9. And all Creation, with one 
 voice, will applaud the righteous retribution manifested 
 in the public exposure and discomfiture of His false 
 friends. 
 
 The sunrise of the seventh day of New Creation will be 
 the Second Advent — that wonderful event still looming 
 in the future, towards which the eyes of the Church are 
 more and more directed in anxious expectation, as each 
 year rolls by. In what different aspects will this same 
 great event appear to the Church and to the world ! 
 In this respect, it will resemble the pillar of cloud and 
 fire, which led the Israelites, of old, out of Egypt. To 
 the one, it will be triumph and exaltation ; to the other, 
 it will be despair and destruction. And we may find 
 this twofold aspect of the event in question, specially 
 noticed in the closing prophecy of the Old Testament, 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 309 
 
 which predicts that sunrise, as follows, " For, behold, 
 the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven ; and all the 
 proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : 
 and the day that cometh shall hum them tqy, saith the Lord 
 of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. 
 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of right- 
 eousness arise with healing in his wings." Mai. iv. 1.2. 
 Those alone who fear the name of the Lord, or — in other 
 words — those in whom the work of New Creation has 
 been commenced — for " the fear of the Lord is the begin- 
 ning ofivisdom'^ — can look forAvard with pleasure to that 
 day. All the children of God do not, however, in fact 
 look forward to it with pleasure. Many of them regard 
 it with dread. But this is not as it should be. They have 
 no occasion for fear. They should rather remember and 
 obey the injunction of the Saviour, as the time draws 
 near, " AVhen these things begin to come to pass, the7i 
 look up, and lift vp your heads ; for your redemption 
 draiceth nigh." — Luke xxi. 28. But, on the other hand, 
 are there not many among us to whom that day is, and 
 ought to be, an object of dread and aversion ? Those in 
 whom the work of New Creation has not been commenced, 
 cannot look forward with pleasure to that day, nor desire 
 its coming. And consequently, they are but moclcing 
 God everytime they repeat the Lord's Prayer and say, 
 " Thy kingdom come." For, the very last thing they would 
 desire, would be, that their request should be granted, 
 and that the Lord should come in His kingdom. To 
 such is addressed the emphatic denunciation to be found 
 
310 THE se^t:nth day. 
 
 in the Prophet Amos, " Woe unto you that desire the 
 day of the Lord! to what end is it for you ? the day of 
 the Lord is darkness, and not light. As if a man did flee 
 from a lion, and a bear met him ; or went into the house, 
 and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 
 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? 
 even very dark, and no brightness in it ?" — ^Amos, v. 1 8-20. 
 There is in all mankind a love of pomp, and of the 
 external display of power and grandeur. Hence the 
 crowds of spectators who are ever to be found collected 
 to witness our military and naval Keviews and tri- 
 umphal Processions. Who is there amongst us, w^ho 
 does not feel a thrill of pleasure, when we behold our 
 gallant soldiers marching by, accompanied by martial 
 music and all the pomp of war, attesting the power and 
 glory of our Sovereign ? or when we gaze on the mighty 
 leviathans of the deep, the iron bulwarks — not now the 
 ivooden walls — of our Island Home ? And these feelings 
 are even more intensely developed upon occasions of 
 public triumph and rejoicing — when, for instance, a great 
 victory has been achieved, a powerful enemy overcome, 
 and new laurels added to our national glory. We are 
 all, more or less, subject to the influence of feelings like 
 these; which seem to be not merely acquired or accidental, 
 but deeply rooted in human nature. And shall not the 
 saints of God look with similar — but far more intense — 
 feelings of pleasure and exultation, upon the glories of 
 the Second Advent ? — when the majesty, the grandeur, 
 and the magnificence of God's Kingdom will be exhibited 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 311 
 
 before all mankind — when the triumphant shouts of 
 the angelic host, the loudest thunders, and all the 
 artillery of heaven shall announce the coming of the Son 
 of God, surrounded by all the pomp and glory of the 
 Universe — when Earth shall quake to her very centre, 
 and restore the bodies of His saints to swell the triumphs 
 of His train, as it is written, " For the Lord himself shall 
 descend from Heaven tcith a shout, ivith the voice of the 
 archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ 
 shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall 
 be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
 the Lord in the air." — 1 Thes. iv. 16. 17 ; and again, 
 " His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, 
 which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount 
 of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the 
 east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great 
 valley ; and half of the mountain shall remove toward 
 the north, and half of it towiird the south. And ye shall 
 flee to the valley of the mountains ; for the valley of 
 the mountains, shall reach unto Azal : yea, ye shall flee, 
 as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah 
 King of Judah : and the Lord my God shall come, and all 
 the saints with thee" — Zech. xiv. 4, 5. It was a great day 
 for England, and doubtless was marked by a wonderful 
 triumphal Procession, when the Black Prince — the idol 
 of the Nation — returned home, accompanied by the 
 captive King of France. All the train-bands of London, 
 no doubt, turned out to do him honour, and the whole 
 population of the City assembled to welcome him home. 
 
312 THE SEVENTH DAT. 
 
 Now, wlien such a triumph was given to an earthly 
 Prince, the son of an earthly King, how much more 
 shall the Great Universal Sovereign, the King Eternal, 
 Immortal, Invisible, provide a triumph for His Son, such 
 as no earthly Prince ever enjoyed — a triumph which 
 shall cast into the shade of insignificance all former 
 triumphs ? Shall not God turn out all the Royal Guard 
 of Heaven, and assemble all the population of earth to 
 do honour to His Son — the idol of the Universe — the 
 mighty Conqueror of Death — the Prince of Peace ? 
 
 The consideration of this wonderful event, the Second 
 Advent, naturally leads us to seek for an answer to that 
 most important and interesting question, asked more 
 than two thousand years ago in the Book of the Prophet 
 Daniel, " How long shall it he to the end of these loondersT' 
 — Danl. xii. 6. This is a question, which — in almost all 
 ages of the Church's history — has, naturally enough, 
 excited the curiosity, and exercised the ingenuity of the 
 saints of God, in the endeavour to find the answer, 
 according to the proverb of the Avise man, *' It is the 
 glory of God to conceal a thing : but the honour of kings 
 is to search out a matter.^'' — Pro v. xxv. 2. But, more 
 especially in these latter days — when the clues to the 
 interpretation of Prophecy are multiplying and develop- 
 ing themselves, and the end is approaching — many 
 volumes have been written, and many ingenious theories 
 have been devised and promulgated, by learned men, 
 for the interpretation of the dark symbols and obscure 
 Hieroglyphics of Prophecy. The authors of these many 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 313 
 
 conflicting theories, have generally succeeded in convinc- 
 ing themselves of the truth of their respective opinions. 
 And yetj their theories — ^however ingenious — are all 
 inconclusive, and, for the most part, far-fetched in some 
 one or more particular irderpretations^ which they respect- 
 ively involve. So that, although some of their keys 
 almost fit the lock, yet not one of them appears to fit all 
 the wards of this mysterious lock, and to open it, icWiout 
 forcing or straining some of the minute and complicated 
 ivards. It is, therefore, with much diffidence that I 
 approach this momentous and most interesting subject, 
 and venture to say a fcAV words upon it, and endeavour 
 to suggest an answer to this important and difficult 
 question, " How long shall it be to the end of these 
 wonders ?" The principle of solution, by means of which 
 I shall endeavour to suggest an answer to this question, 
 is not a new and ingenious method for making the pre- 
 dictions of unfulfilled Prophecy square with the facts of 
 History. It is not like an exquisitely wrought key to 
 unlock the complicated symbols of Prophecy ; but more 
 resembles a picklock, which may enable us to arrive at 
 the same result hy a simpler process. In fact, it has 
 occured to me, that the same method which we have 
 hitherto been endeavouring to apply to the exposition 
 and development of the phenomina of spiritual life, in a 
 word. Analogy, may also afibrd us an answer to this 
 question put in the Book of the Prophet Daniel. And 
 methinks. Analogy seems to indicate not obscurely that 
 the end will not be immediately, nor within the period 
 
314 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 of the present generation ; but that one hundred and 
 forty years, or thereabouts, still remain, during which 
 the whole Creation shall groan and travail in pain 
 together, waiting for the Second Advent of the Great 
 Deliverer. For, I think we shall find, that then the 
 sixth millennial day of the Church's history will have 
 drawn to a close, and the seventh millennial day — com- 
 monly known as ' the millennium' — will commence, 
 ushered in by the personal Advent of the Saviour, and 
 ultimately merging in the seventh day of New Creation 
 — that perfect day — that morning which shall know no 
 evening. Many independent analogies seem to point to 
 this same conclusion. The symmetry of the whole 
 system of Creation and New Creation would thus be 
 preserved and fulfilled ; and we would then have — cor- 
 responding to the six days of Creation — six days of New 
 Creation, not only in each individual Christian, but in 
 the Church at large. Thus, the six working days of the 
 week followed by the seventh day of rest, and the six 
 working days of Creation followed by the seventh day 
 of rest, and the six working days of New Creation in the 
 individual Christian followed by the seventh day of rest, 
 all combine — as in the mystic Apocalyptic number 666 
 — and lead almost irresistibly to the conclusion, that the 
 same symm.etry and analogy will be developed in refer- 
 ence to the Church at large, and that there also, there 
 shall be six working millennial days followed by a 
 seventh millennial day of rest. And this same conclu- 
 sion is confirmed by the well known text, " But, beloved, 
 
THE SEVENTH DAT. 315 
 
 be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the 
 Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one 
 day" — 2 Pet. iii. 8; and by many minor incidental 
 analogies and obscure hints to be found in Scripture — 
 take, for instance, the eleventh chapter of the second 
 Book of Kings, Avhere we read, that the young King 
 of the Jews remained hid in the Sanctuary of God, for 
 six years, while a murderer reigned over the land ; and 
 at the opening of the seventh year, the young King of 
 the JeAvs was brought forth, and shoicn to the people, 
 and solemnly crowned, with great public rejoicings. Fur- 
 thermore, the analogy of the direct unclouded manifes- 
 tation of the source of light and life in the natural world 
 at the close of the fourth day of Creation, and the type 
 of the Paschal Lamb, appear to fix the First Advent, as 
 having taken place at the close of the fourth millennial day 
 of the Church's history. For we know, that the Paschal 
 Lamb was directed to be set apart four days before he 
 was to be sacrificed — as we read in the twelfth chapter 
 of Exodus, verses three and six — as if for the very 
 purpose of pointing to the fact, that the Lamb of God 
 was set apart in the Garden of Eden — when God said, 
 that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's 
 head — four millennial days before He actually suiFered. 
 Assuming, then, that the First Advent took place 
 at the close of the fourth millennial day of the Chui^ch's 
 history, computed, not from the Creation, but from 
 the Fall of man, as the analogies above suggested 
 appear to indicate — for it is not so easy directly to estab- 
 
316 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 list this point with exactness (altliougli we all know it to 
 be true approximately) on account of apparent errors in 
 the dates of Scripture history, and the absence of any 
 means of ascertaining how long our first parents re- 
 mained in the Garden of Eden before the Fall, whether 
 one year only or one hundred years — we are led at once 
 to the conclusion, that two millennial days of the Church's 
 history have to be fulfilled, subsequent to the First 
 Advent, before the Second Advent is to be looked for, 
 ushering in the seventh millennial day — commonly known 
 as 'the millennium' — which shall ultimately merge into 
 the seventh day of New Creation — that perfect and 
 sanctified day of rest, which shall last for ever and for 
 ever. We also read in the Gospel according to Saint 
 John, " When he had heard therefore that he was sick, 
 he abode two days still in the same place lohere he was. 
 Then after that, saith he to his disciples, Let us go 
 into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, Master 
 the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest 
 thou thither again." — John xi. 6 — 8. Now, these two 
 days, during which Jesus remained in the place 
 where He was, before returning again to where the 
 Jews had sought to stone him, seem obscurely 
 to indicate a period of two millennial days which shall 
 intervene between His First and Second Advents. 
 Again, the Saviour hung six hours upon the Cross — an 
 hour for each thousand years of sin — and other minor 
 points of analogy and symmetry there are, which point 
 to the same conclusion ; but we cannot stop to discuss 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 317 
 
 tliem now. Add to this, the tradition among the Jews, 
 that this dispensation should last for six tJiousand 7/ears, 
 and we shall have enough evidence to show, that it is 
 at least very probable — for, absolute and demonstrative 
 certainty, in such a matter, is out of the question — that 
 the Second Advent will take place about the period 
 above suggested, having been preceded by a period of 
 unparalleled suffering and persecution of the Church. 
 And indeed, Analogy itself would lead us to infer such 
 an antecedent period of persecution and suffering. For, 
 as the period which immediately preceded the exalta- 
 tion of the Saviour, was marked by His greatest suffer- 
 ings ; so we might naturally expect, from analogy, that 
 the same would be the case with His body — the Church. 
 We are not, hoAvever, left to spell out this truth from 
 analogy ; for, Scripture expressly declares, " And at 
 that time shall Michael stand up, the .great prince which 
 standeth for the children of thy people : and there shall 
 be a time of trouble, such as never ivas since there was a 
 nation even to that same time : and at that time thy peo- 
 ple shall be delivered, every one that shall be found 
 written in the book." — Dan. xii. 1 ; and again, " For 
 then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the 
 beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 
 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the 
 sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, 
 and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of 
 the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall appear the 
 si'T-n of the Son of man in heaven : and then shall all 
 
318 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son 
 of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and 
 great glory."— Math. xxiv. 21, 29, 30. 
 
 And here, it may not be altogether out of place, to 
 notice two or three errors, which appear to have crept 
 into the dates of the Old Testament, whether accident- 
 ally or by design, it is impossible now to determine, but 
 somehow there is a correspondence between the errors, 
 which seems to indicate design. And, sui-ely, the Jewish 
 Hierarchy — who gave large money to the Roman soldiers, 
 for the purpose of propagating a deliberate falsehood 
 among their countrymen — would have been capable of 
 corrupting the historical dates of Scriptui'e, with a like 
 object of counteracting the general expectation of the 
 Messiah's coming at that period of the world's history, 
 and preventing the people from believing on Him. 
 But however this may be, in the first Book of Kings, 
 we read, " And it came to pass in the four hundred and 
 eightieth year after the children of Israel were come out 
 of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon's 
 reign over Israel, in the month Zif, which is the second 
 month, that he began to build the house of the Lord." 
 — 1 Kings vi. 1. Now, this date cannot be reconciled 
 with the dates and periods mentioned by St. Paul in the 
 thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles — a Chris- 
 tian Record, over which the Jewish Hierarchy had no 
 control, and which therefore they had no -opportunity of 
 tampering with. Now, the difference between the date 
 given in the Book of Kings, and that calculated accord- 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 319 
 
 ing to St. Paul's account, would probably be about a 
 hundred years. And it is a curious circumstance, that 
 in the prophetic dates of the Prophet Daniel a similar 
 error of an hundred prophetic days, seems to have 
 somehow arisen ; for, there is a variance between the 
 Septuagint and the Hebrew versions, to that extent, in 
 the reading of Daniel viii. 14 — the Septuagint version 
 making the number of the days 2,400, instead of 2,300. 
 And again, there is a like variance of one hundred years 
 between the Septuagint and the Hebrew versions, in the 
 reading of Gen. v. 3 — the Septuagint version making 
 the number of Adam's years before the begettmg of 
 Seth, 230 instead of 130, and his years after the beget- 
 ting of Seth, 700 ; so that the whole length of Adam's 
 life is the same according to either version ; but a differ- 
 ence, in the chronology, of one hundred years, exists be- 
 tween the two versions. And we may add, that 
 Josephus — the famous Jewish Historian — confirms the 
 Septuagint version of this passage, and asserts that the 
 Hebrew text originally agreed with it. 
 
 To return, however, from this rather lengthy digres- 
 sion. We have now shown, that the seventh day of 
 Creation and the seventh day of New Creation, exactly 
 correspond with one another in the three characteristics 
 of Perfection, Rest, and Blessing ; but the analogy does 
 not stop there. Sanctification also is a characteristic 
 of the seventh day of New Creation, as it is Avritten, 
 " Holiness becometh thine house, Lord, for ever." 
 Psalm xciii. 5 ; and again, " Blessed and holy is he that 
 
 X 
 
320 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 hath part in the first resurrection : on such the second 
 death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God 
 and of Christ." Rev. xx. 6. And we may observe, that 
 as the Sanctification of the seventh day of Creation was 
 universal, and extended to every portion of Creation ; so 
 the Sanctification of the seventh day of New Creation 
 will have a like universality, and \vill extend to every 
 portion of New Creation — to all who shall have a part 
 in that glorious day — and to all the things which are 
 now considered common ; for, nothing in that world will 
 be common or unclean, as it is written, "And there 
 shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither 
 whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie ; but 
 they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.'' 
 Rev. xxi. 27. We may observe also, that as it was 
 God who sanctified the seventh day of the natural Crea- 
 tion ; so He is, in like manner, the author of the Sanc- 
 tification which characterizes the seventh day of New 
 Creation, as it is written, " I am the Lord which sanctify 
 you,^^ Lev. xx. 8 ; and again, " But of him are ye in 
 Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and 
 righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. 
 i. 30. And yet, the saint of God must himself strive 
 after Holiness — he must hear and obey the voice of his 
 Creator saying to him, " I am the Lord your God : ye 
 shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy ; 
 for I am holy." Lev. xi. 44. And, doubtless, the power 
 of obeying that command, will accompany the word, just 
 as it did, when the Saviour said to the sick of the palsy, 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 321 
 
 "Arise, take up thy couch, and go unto thine house." 
 Luke V. 24. It is true, no doubt, that the children of 
 God are sanctified even in this life^ during the six earHer 
 days of their New Creation — as indeed one of their 
 common appellations imports, for they are called ' saints' 
 or ' sanctified persons' — and yet this Sanctification ante- 
 cedent to the seventh day, is imperfect — for a reason 
 we shall presently see — and unworthy to be compared 
 to the perfect Sanctification which characterizes the 
 seventh day of New Creation. And, accordingly. Chris- 
 tians are exhorted by the Apostle Paul to follow after 
 Holiness, as it is written, " Follow peace with all men, 
 and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." 
 Heb. xii. 14; which would be an unnecessary thing for 
 Christians to do, if they had already attained it. 
 
 This consideration leads us to say a few words on the 
 question, Avhether Sanctification be progressive or not. 
 And, I think, we shall find by a little reflection, that those 
 Christians who hold opposite opinions on this subject, 
 are contending about ivords more than about doctrine, 
 and do not really differ substantially in opinion from 
 each other. To understand this, we must remember, 
 that the child of God — for He alone has any Holiness 
 at all — is a compound being, composed of two essentially 
 distinct and antagonistic natures — the old nature re- 
 ceived from Adam, and the new nature which is born 
 of God. Now, all the Holiness of the Christian results 
 from, and consists in his new nature, which is essentially 
 and perfectly Holy. There is, therefore, no progress in 
 
 x2 
 
.322 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 the Sanctification of the new nature ; although there 
 may be, and is, a growth and an increased development 
 of its inherent tendencies. An example or two will 
 perhaps make this more clear. A young child has within 
 itself all the essential germs of human nature, and the 
 lapse of any length of time will not make the child 
 more human than he is ; although time may, and will, 
 develop his strength and inherent powers of mind and 
 body. Again, in like manner, the Lord Jesus Christ 
 was perfectly Holy from the moment of His birth, as it 
 is written, " Therefore also that holy thing which shall 
 be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." — Luke i. 
 35. He is not at this moment a particle more Holy than 
 He was then ; and yet there was a great development 
 of the inherent powers of mind and body of His human 
 nature, for we read, "And Jesus increased in wisdom 
 and stature, and in favour with God and man." So — in 
 like manner — the new nature in every Christian, is per- 
 fectly Holy from the moment of its birth, and conse- 
 quently makes no progress in Sanctification, neither in 
 this Avorld nor to all eternity ; although it does make 
 progress in strength^ and in the development of its inherent 
 tendencies. And so we find it written, " Wliosoever is 
 horn of God doth not commit sin : for his seed remaineth 
 in liim : and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 
 1 John iii. 9. Now, we know, that every Christian does 
 commit many sins continually. But, the meaning of the 
 Apostle is, that the new nature — from its very birth — 
 does not and cannot sin at all. And therefore the new 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 323 
 
 nature, from its birth, is perfectly Holy. To the same 
 effect, writes the Apostle Paul, "Now then it is no more 
 I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." Rom. vii. 17, 
 that is to say, it is not I (the new nature), but sin (the 
 old nature) that commits the sins. The new nature, 
 however, is capable of develo^Duient and increase of 
 strength, exactly analogous to the natural growth of a 
 child. And so, the Apostle Paul — writing to the 
 Galatians — says, " My little children, of whom I travail 
 in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desh^e to 
 be present with you now, and to change my voice ; 
 for I stand in doubt of you." Gal. iv. 19, 20, that is to 
 say, I am almost in doubt whether Christ (the new 
 nature) is implanted in you at all, so weak and doubt- 
 ful are the evidences of its existence ; and even if the 
 new nature be in you, it must be only in its germ, very 
 slightly developed. In like manner, the old nature — 
 in the Christian, as well as in the unregenerate man — 
 is perfectly and essentially unholy, and never can become 
 better ; although there may, and must be — if unchecked 
 — an increase of its strength and of the development of its 
 inherent tendencies. For, the old nature, too, grows and 
 develops itself in time. And hence the immense im- 
 portance of Conversion in early life ; because then — the 
 new nature being implanted before the old nature has 
 become strong — the inherent tendencies of the latter are 
 checked before they are fully developed and confirmed 
 by habit, and so the victory becomes more easy. For, 
 although the new nature will certainly overcome the old 
 
324 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 nature in its most strongly developed and inveterate 
 form, yet the struggle, in that case, ^vill be much more 
 painful, protracted, and aj)2')arently doubtful in its ulti- 
 mate issue. These two natures are also essentially 
 antagonistic to each other — more so, than fire and 
 water, or light and darkness — so that they cannot co- 
 exist, except in a state of continual conflict. Now — 
 taking these things to be so — we are in a position to 
 answer the question, whether Sanctification be progres- 
 sive or not ; and we see, that if we look upon the 
 Christian as consisting exclusively of his new nature — as 
 the Apostle Paul does, when, speaking in the person of 
 his new nature, he says, " Now it is no more I that do 
 it, but sin that dwelleth in me :" and as St. John does, 
 when he says, " Whosoever is born of God doth not 
 commit sin" — then it is true, that Sanctification is not 
 progressive. But, on the other hand, if we look upon 
 the Christian — in the popular sense of the term — as the 
 whole visible or apparent man, combining the two natures 
 in one jyerson — as the Apostle Paul does, when he says, 
 "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me 
 from the body of this death ?" and as St. John does, 
 when he says, " My little children, these things Avrite I 
 unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have 
 an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 
 1 John ii. 1 — then it is true, that Sanctification is pro- 
 gressive, that is to say, progressive in its practical develop- 
 ment and visible effects, according as the new nature 
 develops its strength, and gradually overcomes and keeps 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 325 
 
 under the old nature, more and more effectually. And 
 accordingly, in this sense, the Apostle Paul writes to 
 the Corinthian Church, " Having therefore these pro- 
 mises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all 
 filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the 
 fear of God." 2 Cor. vii. 1 ; which would be utter non- 
 sense and absurdity, if Holiness — or Sanctification — in 
 the Christian were not progressive. We see, then, that 
 in one sense — the strict and philosophical — Sanctifica- 
 tion is not progressive ; while in another sense — the 
 popular — Sanctification is progressive. For both these 
 seemingly contradictory propositions, the authority of 
 Scripture may be relied on. There is, however, no real 
 inconsistency between them ; and the question accord- 
 ingly resolves itself altogether into a dispute about words. 
 While we are thus considering some of the effects of 
 the compound nature of the Christian, it may not be 
 altogether out of place here, to make an observation 
 arising out of that most remarkable passage of Scripture 
 in the seventh of Komans, portions of which we have- 
 just quoted, namely, " If then I do that which I would 
 not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it 
 is no more I that do it, but sm that dwelleth in me. 
 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth 
 no good thing." — Rom. vii. 16-18; in which we have 
 an example — the only one, I believe, to be found in all 
 Scripture — of the same individual, in three consecutive 
 sentences, speaking in three different persons or charac- 
 ters, and predicating matters of himself in each of those 
 
326 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 characterSj which would not be true of him in either of 
 the other two characters. Thus, when the Apostle uses 
 the word "I" in the first sentence, he speaks in the popu- 
 lar sense, in the person of his compound nature, as if he 
 consisted of the new and the old natures combined in one 
 person. In the very next sentence — the second — when 
 he uses the same word " I", he speaks in the person of his 
 new nature, as if he consisted exclusively of his new nature. 
 And lastly, in the third sentence, when he uses the word 
 " me," he speaks in the person of his old nature — as 
 indeed he himself expressly tells us — ^just as if he con- 
 sisted exclusively of his old nature. Now, from this 
 remarkable passage, we may derive a key to many a 
 difficult sentence of Scripture spoken by, or of the 
 Saviour. It would lead too far away from the main 
 subject of our investigation, to follow up and apply this 
 principle, but we may just notice it in passing — verbum 
 sapientibus sat est.* The Saviour's is a compound nature 
 also, composed — not like the Christian's, of the old and 
 new natures — but of the Divine nature and the per- 
 fect human nature. And we shall find, that the Saviour — 
 as St. Paul did, in the passage above quoted — sometimes 
 speaks in the person of one of His natures, and some- 
 times in the person of the other of His natures, and 
 again, at other times, in the person of His compound 
 nature. And so, also, He is spoken of, in Scripture, in 
 these three different characters ; and the transition from 
 
 * A word to the wise is sufficient. 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 327 
 
 one to tlie other, is sometimes almost as rapid, as in the 
 sentence above quoted from the Epistle to the Romans. 
 The consideration of the compound nature of the 
 Christian, also shows us whj it is, that the Sanctification 
 of the seventh day of New Creation so far excels the 
 Sanctification of any of the earlier days of Spiritual life. 
 It is, because in the seventh day of New Creation the 
 Christian ceases to have a compound nature in this re- 
 spect ; for, he leaves the old nature behind him in the 
 grave, and thus becomes in the strictest sense perfectly 
 Holy. Whereas, the most advanced Christian, who has 
 most effectually overcome the old nature, still carries it 
 about within him, " as the fiint bears fire ; when much 
 enforced, he shows a hasty spark, and straight grows 
 cold again." The old nature is there, "vvithin his breast 
 — suppressed, and mortified, and dormant, it may be — 
 but still it is there ; and it sins continually, because such 
 is its essential nature. And therefore, the Christian, while 
 in the flesh, is not perfectly Holy — he has not yet attained 
 to the perfect Sanctification of the seventh day of his 
 New Creation. Thus we see, that as, in the natural 
 Creation, Sanctification was the finishing touch which 
 God gave to His work ; so it is, in the work of New 
 Creation; and not until the seventh day of New Creation, 
 will the prayer of the Saviour he fully answered " Sanc- 
 tify them through thy truth : thy word is truth." — John 
 xvii. 17. Then, and not till then, the work of New 
 Creation -will be perfected alike in the Universal Church 
 and in every individual member of it ; and the whole 
 
328 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 Church shall be presented to Christ, a glorious Chui'ch, 
 perfectly Holy, as it is written, " That he might present 
 it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or 
 wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy 
 and without blemish." — Eph. v. 27. 
 
 From the page of the Record of Creation, which now 
 lies open before us, and which we are now engaged in 
 considering, we may also learn the close and essential 
 connection which subsists, and must always subsist, 
 between Sanctification and Blessing — between Holiness 
 and Happiness. AVe read, " God blessed the seventh 
 day, and sanctified it." The Blessing and the Sanctifica- 
 tion are blended together in the same short sentence, which 
 seems to be so framed as to express, that the Blessing 
 and the Sanctification were conferred, as it were, by a 
 single indivisible act of the Divine Will. The same close 
 and essential connection between Holiness and Happiness, 
 is also expressly marked by the language of Scripture 
 in respect to the seventh day of New Creation, as it is 
 written, " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the 
 first resurrection." — Eev. xx. 6. There can, therefore, 
 be no Happiness without Holiness, and vice versa, 
 Holiness must ever be attended by Happiness. For, these 
 two, from the beginning, have been united in even a 
 closer and more indissoluble connection than the conju- 
 gal union. And, what the Saviour said of the latter, will, 
 even more forcibly, apply to the former, " What there- 
 fore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." 
 — Matt. xix. 6. Hence it is, that no amount of exter- 
 
THE SE^^:^'TH day. 329 
 
 nal prosperity — no amount of Pleasure — without Holi- 
 ness, can ever constitute Happiness. This is one reason 
 of the unsatisfying nature of all worldly pleasures, and 
 wealth, and honours. And hence, too, we may deduce 
 this truth, that unsandified prosjierity — so far from 
 being a blessing — is one of the direst calamities that ever 
 hefell any man; for, it serves only to lull the soul into 
 fancied security, until — like the rich man in the Parable 
 — "in Hades he lifts up his eyes being in torments ;" 
 he there awakes from his dream of wealth and pleasure, 
 and finds his hands fall of emptiness ; and he then learns, 
 too late, that his fancied wealth was like the counters 
 which children use in their games, which bear a fictitious 
 and conventional value during the game, hut are worth- 
 less once the game is over. Hence, also, we may infer, that 
 the holiest Christian ivill ever he the happiest. And we 
 may deduce — as another corollary from the same pro- 
 position — that the happiest life that was ever enjoyed hy 
 any man upon earth., was that of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ. All the persecutions, all the bodily and 
 mental sufierings that He underwent for our sakes, could 
 not outweigh the happiness necessarily resulting from His 
 perfect Holiness. For the same reason, the Christian 
 Sabbath is — or, at least, ought to be — to the children of 
 God, the happiest day in the week. So inseparable is 
 the connection between Holiness and Happiness. Even 
 the ancient Heathen Philosophers, who were without 
 the light of Eevelation, had some dim and imperfect 
 apprehension of this great truth ; for, we find the propo- 
 
330 THE SEVENTH DAY. 
 
 sition laid down in Cicero's Treatise De Natiira Deorum, 
 
 Beatus autera esse sine virtute nemo potest.* 
 For, virtus is the word in the Latin language which 
 comes nearest to expressing w^hat is meant by the word 
 ' Holiness.' Virtus was the highest degree of excellence 
 of which the ancient Heathens had any idea. Its attain- 
 ment was the end of all their systems of Philosophy — 
 the ' Summum Bonum' of the noblest sect of the ancient 
 Philosophers, the Stoics. But, with the Christian, virtue 
 no longer holds that elevated place ; it is the first, and 
 not the last step in the Christian's course — it is learned 
 by the babe in Christ, as the first effect of Faith, while 
 as yet in the far distance looms the unapproachable pin- 
 nacle of Holiness, which, as we have seen, forms the 
 LAST step in the Christian's course — the perfection of 
 human nature — the restoration of the image of God — the 
 ' Summum Bonum' of the Christian. 
 
 Lastly, Eternal Duration is also a characteristic of 
 the seventh day of New Creation, as it is written, " Lift 
 up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth 
 beneath : for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, 
 and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they 
 that dwell therein shall die in like manner : but 7ny 
 salvation shall he for ever, and my righteousness shall 
 not be abolished." — Isaiah li. 6 ; and again, " For by 
 one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified." — Heb. x. 14. 
 
 * No one can be happy without virtue. 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 331 
 
 Thus the parallelism is complete between this seventh 
 day of New Creation and the seventh day of the natural 
 Creation — both alike are characterized by Perfection, 
 Eest, Blessing, Sanctification, and Eternal Duration. 
 In the seventh day of New Creation, God the Saviour 
 shall rest, and rejoice over His finished work, as God the 
 Creator does on the seventh day of Creation, and Christ 
 shall see of the travail of His soul and he satisfied. New 
 Creation is as much the work of God as Creation was ; 
 and therefore, when perfected, it shall last for ever, as it 
 is written, "I know that ivliatsoever God doeth, it shall 
 be for ever : nothing can be put to it, nor anything 
 taken from it." — Eccles. iii. 14. The image of God will 
 then be perfected in all His children ; each of whom will 
 be a perfect little miniature of Himself, exhibiting all 
 the same characteristic features which mark the seventh 
 day of New Creation, namely Perfection, Eest, Bless- 
 ing, Sanctification, and Eternal Duration. For, these 
 are, in fact, the five essential elements which make up 
 the fundamental idea of God. Two of these elements, 
 the ancient Philosophers all agreed in attributing to the 
 idea of God — they all admitted that the Gods must be 
 *' beati et eterni."* Epicurus — as we have already seen 
 — went a step further, and added Rest; but then he fell 
 into the gross error, of making the rest he attributed to 
 God, the rest of idleness. But, the other two elements 
 of the idea of God — namely. Perfection and Holiness 
 
 * Hapi-'y aiul eternal. 
 
332 THE SEVEXTH DAY. 
 
 — none of tlie ancient Philosopliers were able to reason 
 out from the pages of the Book of Creation, which was 
 the only one they could consult on the subject. And 
 indeed, it is no wonder they were unable to reason out 
 these components of the idea of God ; for, Sin — which 
 was an element unsuspected by them, and which never 
 entered into their calculations — has so marred and blot- 
 ted the pages of the Book of Nature, that it would be 
 difficult to decipher, from it alone, the Perfection and 
 Holiness of God. 
 
 In the inspired account of the seventh day of Creation, 
 it is remarkable, that the Word of God suddenly dis- 
 appears from the scene, and we no longer meet the 
 expression " God said." Now, it is worthy of observa- 
 tion, that there is a precisely analogous circumstance 
 developed in the sketch of the seventh day of New 
 Creation given in one of our Lord's most celebrated 
 Parables — that of the Prodigal Son. It has been Avell 
 said, that silence is sometimes more expressive than the most 
 eloquent language. And if ever there was an occasion upon 
 which that remark held good, it was that represented 
 by the Parable — the Father's heart was too fuU for 
 utterance, and so. He addressed no words to His returned 
 prodigal son, but — in the exquisite language of the 
 Parable — "He ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." 
 — Luke XV. 20. We communicate with others by means 
 of words, not with our otvn selves ; but the Spirit of God 
 will then dwell within each child of God ; and so, there 
 will be no more occasion for communications from God 
 
THE SEVENTH DAY. 333 
 
 by means of words — so intimate will be that union 
 between God and His returned prodigal children — when 
 the Saviour's prayer shall have been fully answered, 
 " That they may be one, even as we are one ; / in them, 
 and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." 
 — John xvii. 22, 23. 
 
[334. ] 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 " And beside tliis, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue ; 
 and to virtue knowledge ; and to knowledge temperance ; and to 
 temperance patience ; and to patience godliness ; and to godliness 
 brotherly kindness ; and to brotherly kindness charity. — 2 Pet. i. 5-7. 
 
 I HAVE selected this passage of Scripture to stand at the 
 head of this, my concluding chapter, because it expressly 
 contains — as I hope to be able to show — an inspired, 
 and therefore an authoritative confirmation of the 
 principal results relative to the progress and develop- 
 ment of the work of New Creation, at which we have 
 arrived by a more circuitous method — namely, by the 
 analogy which we have traced between Creation and 
 New Creation. Let us, then, endeavour concisely to 
 analyze this passage of Scripture. And first, we observe, 
 that these words contain precepts and exhortations 
 addressed by the Apostle Peter to the true Universal 
 Church of Christ, and not to the visible or professing 
 Church — for, this Epistle is addressed, not to the 
 
CONCLUSION. 335 
 
 Church at any particular place, but expressly " to 
 them that have obtained like precious faith with us," 
 (2 Pet. i. 1), that is, to those in whom the work of New 
 Creation has been i^eallf/ commenced — and accordingly 
 the Apostle pre-supposes " Faith," in all those whom 
 he is addressing ; for, Faith stands at the very outset of 
 the Christian life ; it is the commencement of the work of 
 New Creation — not strong Faith, not the shield of Faith, 
 but weak, doubting, trembling Faith — like the first faint 
 struggling ray of light, Avhich made its way through 
 the dense gloom of primeval night, on the evening of 
 the first day of Creation. The weakest faith is suffi- 
 cient to Salvation, provided only it be genuine ; and 
 accordingly the Apostle rightly terms it ^'•precious 
 faith ;" for, those who have obtained it, Avill certainly be 
 saved; although none of them at first, and many of 
 them at no period of their sojourn upon earth, feel 
 certain of being saved. This precept and exhortation, 
 then, is addressed only to those in whom the work of 
 New Creation has commenced ; but, it is addressed to 
 Christians in every conceivable stage of iwogress. The 
 first precept and exhortation of the Apostle, is addressed 
 to those who have only just "obtained" this weak, trem- 
 bling, 3^et "precious faith*' — to those who have, as yet, 
 added nothing to their faith — to those who have not, as 
 yet, taken a single step in the Christian course. To 
 these babes in Christ, who have but just entered upon 
 the first day of New Creation, the Apostle addresses 
 the precept and exhortation, " Add to your faith virtue." 
 
 Y 
 
336 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Virtue, then, is the very first step in the Christian life ; 
 it follows immediately after faith ; it is learned by the 
 babes in Christ during the first day of New Creation. 
 As in the natural Creation, during the first day, " God 
 was dividing the light from the darkness ;" so it is 
 during the first day of New Creation. God is then 
 adding to faith virtue — He is purifying the Conscience — 
 He is dividing the moral light from the moral darkness. 
 The next precept and exhortation is addressed by the 
 Apostle to those who have already " added to their faith 
 virtue" — or, in other words, who have already accom- 
 plished the first stage in the Christian course. To 
 these little children in Christ, who have but just entered 
 upon the second day of New Creation, the Apostle 
 addresses the precept and exhortation, " And to virtue 
 knowledge." Knowledge, then, is the second stage 
 in the Christian course; it follows immediately after 
 VIRTUE ; it is learned by the little children in Christ 
 during the second day of New Creation. As in the second 
 day of the natural Creation, God was making the firma- 
 ment — or atmosphere — and thereby was lifting up the 
 lieaven above the earth, and causing a vast increase of 
 light, and an amazing extension of the field of view ; 
 so it is during the second day of New Creation. God 
 is then adding to virtue knowledge — He is raising the 
 things of heaven to their proper position of paramount 
 importance, far above the things of earth, and com- 
 municating clearer and more extended views of Himself 
 and His ways to the soul. 
 
CONCLUSION. 337 
 
 The next precept and exhortation is addressed by the 
 Apostle to those who have already " added to their 
 virtue knowledge" — or, in other words, who have 
 already accomplished the second stage in the Christian 
 course. To these cJdldren in Christ, who have but just 
 entered upon the third day of New Creation, the 
 Apostle addresses the precept and exhortation " And 
 to knowledge temperance." Temperance, then, follows 
 immediately after knowledge; it is learned by the 
 children in Christ during the earlier part of the third day 
 of New Creation. As in the earlier part of the third 
 day of the natural Creation, God made the dry land 
 appear, and commence to manifest its fruitfulness by 
 bringing forth the grass ; so it is in the earlier part of 
 the third day of New Creation. God is then adding to 
 knowledge temperance — He is causing a great increase 
 of faith, which worketh by love, and manifests itself 
 practically in the production of the various Christian 
 graces in the character ; those which have most refer- 
 ence to the individual himself, such as Temperance and 
 Moderation in all things — like the grass, which was 
 but slightly elevated above the earth, whose surface it 
 covered and adorned — being the earliest in order of 
 development. Then follov/s, in reference to this same 
 third day of New Creation, the next precept and exhor- 
 tation, which is addressed by the Apostle to those who 
 hsLve already "added to knowledge temperance" — or, in 
 other words, who have already accomplished the first 
 portion of the third stage in the Christian course. To 
 
 Y 2 
 
338 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 these more advanced children in Christ, who have ah'eady 
 passed through the earHer portion of the third day of New 
 Creation, the Apostle addresses the precept and exhorta- 
 tion, "And to temperance patience." Patience, then, 
 follows immediately after temperance ; it is learned by 
 the more advanced children in Christ during the latter 
 jwrtion of the third day of Neiv Creation. As in the latter 
 part of the third day of the natural Creation, God made 
 the dry land bring forth the trees last of all, being the 
 highest order of created things on that day ; so it is 
 during the latter part of the third day of New^ Creation. 
 God is then adding to temperance patience — He is caus- 
 ing the strong faith of that day to bring forth the higher 
 order of Christian graces, which then, for the first time, 
 begin to be practically manifested in the character, 
 namely, those which have a greater reference to others, 
 and less to the individual himself — like the trees which 
 Avere vastly ??iore elevated above the earth, than the humble 
 grass wdiich covered its sui^face ; and these Christian 
 graces are the latest of their kind, in order of development. 
 These two precepts and exhortations of the Apostle, 
 namely, " And to knowledge temperance," and the 
 following one, namely, " And to temperance patience," 
 both have reference, I conceive, to the third day of New 
 Creation. In which opinion, I am borne out by the 
 Analogy of Creation ; for, in the course of the third day 
 of the natural Creation, Ave may remember, that two 
 distinct creative words were sent forth by the Almighty ; 
 and this circumstance was peculiar to the third day of 
 
CONCLUSION. 339 
 
 Creation ; for, although God is represented as having 
 spoken more than once on some of the other days, yet we 
 shall find, that in every other instance the additional 
 words were words of blessing or Avords of consultation^ 
 and not words of creation. As, then, the third day of 
 the natural Creation was characterized and distinctively 
 marked by two distinct creative Vv^ords ; so we perceive, 
 that — in the most exact and beautiful analogy — the 
 third day of New Creation is also characterized and 
 distinctively marked by two distinct neic-creative words, 
 namely, first, " And to knowledge temperance," and 
 secondly, " And to temperance patience." 
 
 The next precept and exhortation is addressed by 
 the Apostle to those who have already " added to 
 temperance patience" — or, in other words, who have 
 already accomplished the third stage in the Christian 
 course. To these young men in Christ, who have now 
 entered upon the fourth day of New Creation, the 
 Apostle addresses the precept and exhortation, " And 
 to patience godliness." Godliness, then, follows imme- 
 diately after patience ; it is learned by the young men 
 in Christ during the fouHh day of New Creation. As in 
 the course of the fourth day of the natural Creation, 
 God made the two great lights become visible, by 
 gradually dissipating the dense vapours of the atmos- 
 phere, until at the close of that day the direct un- 
 clouded beams of sunshine reached the earth's surface, 
 causing a vast increase of solar heat, and of the beauty, 
 fragrance, and luxuriance consequent upon it ; so it is 
 
340 CONCLUSION. 
 
 in the fourth day of New Creation. God is then add- 
 ing to patience godliness — He is causing a vastly in- 
 creased perception of the love of God in Christ, which 
 now comes to pervade all the actions, and communi- 
 cates to the whole character a moral beauty, fragrance, 
 and luxuriance, which may best be expressed in a word 
 by the term ' godliness.' 
 
 The next precept and exhortation of the Apostle is 
 addressed to those who have already ' ' added to patience 
 godliness" — or, in other words, who have already 
 accomplished the fourth stage in the Christian course. 
 To these men of mature age in Christ, who have now 
 entered upon the fifth day of New Creation, the Apostle 
 addresses the precept and exhortation, " And to godli- 
 ness brotherly kindness." Brotherly kindness, then, 
 follows godliness ; it is learned by men of mature age 
 in Christ during the fifth day of New Creation. As in 
 the fifth day of the natural Creation, God introduced 
 into the earth animal life, and the propagative instinct 
 which invariably accompanies it ; so it is in the fifth 
 day of New Creation. God is then adding to godliness 
 brotherly kindness — He is introducing a new and irre- 
 sistible tendency to endeavour to communicate spiritual 
 life to others, which is the highest form of brotherly 
 kindness. 
 
 The last precept and exhortation is addressed by the 
 Apostle to those who have already " added to godliness 
 brotherly kindness" — or, in other words, who have 
 already accomplished the fifth stage in the Christian 
 
CONCLUSION. 341 
 
 course. To these fathers in Christ, who have now 
 entered upon the sixth day of New Creation, the 
 Apostle addresses the precept and exhortation " And to 
 brotherly kindness charity," or, as it would be better 
 translated, "And to brotherly kindness love ;" Love, then, 
 follows BROTHERLY KINDNESS ; it is learned by fathers in 
 Christ during the sixth day of New Creation. As in the 
 sixth day of the natural Creation, God introduced 
 into the earth man made in the image of God ; so it is in 
 the sixth day of New Creation. God is then adding to 
 brotherly kindness love — He is giving the last finishing 
 touches to His own image in the soul, by mtroduciug 
 there perfect love, for God is Love. Thus, the several 
 characteristic marks of the six days of New Creation — 
 which we had already developed and traced out from 
 the analogy of Creation, and verified by other Scrip- 
 tures — are here expressly and authoritatively confirmed 
 by the word of Inspiration itself. 
 
 We are now in a position to take a comprehensive 
 view of the wonderful parallelism and exact analogy 
 which exists between Creation and New Creation 
 Both are alike the work of God, not only in their incep- 
 tion, but in every successive step of their development. 
 The instruments which God uses in developing His work 
 are the same in both, namely the Word of God, and the 
 Spirit of God. These were the only instruments which 
 He used in executing His work of Creation. And, in 
 like manner, the instruments which He uses in His 
 work of New Creation are: — 1st. His word, as it is 
 
342 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 written, " Of his own will begat he us with the word of 
 truths — James i. 18 ; and, 2ndly. His Spirit, as it is 
 written, " Except a man be born of water and of the 
 Spirit^ he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." — John 
 iii. 5. Again, in each case, the work is regularly com- 
 pleted in six tvell defined and distinct jKriods or days. 
 And the days of New Creation present, as we have 
 seen, the most surprising parallelism, in every rtiinute 
 particular^ to the corresponding days of Creation. 
 
 We may, however, from a consideration of the ana- 
 logy between Creation and New Creation, derive advan- 
 tages far beyond the mere intellectual pleasure arising 
 from the perception of this wonderful relation between 
 these two works of God ; for, we may derive from it 
 more practical advantages in the shape of Warnings, 
 Tests, Landmarks, and Encouragements. And first, this 
 analogy furnishes warnings to those who may be care- 
 less and indifferent as to the things of God ; for, it holds 
 out to such persons the primeval Chaos, as an exact 
 picture and symbolical representation of their own state 
 in the sight of God ; however well they may think of 
 themselves, and however highly esteemed they may be 
 among men ; for, we have the authority of the Saviour 
 Himself that the esteem of man is no adequate test of 
 human uprightness, as it is written, " That which is 
 highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight 
 of God." — Luke xvi. 15. Agam, the same analogy 
 supplies to anxious enquiring souls — who are really 
 desirous of ascertaining whether the work of New Crea- 
 
CONCLUSION. 343 
 
 tion has commenced mtliin themselves — many valuable 
 and accurate tests for ascertaining this all-important 
 point ; two of the principal of which, we may briefly 
 advert to ; they are, First, Consciousness of the guilt and 
 degradation of sin, and sorrow for having committed it, not 
 mere sorrow for the consequences of sin — for that mil 
 be felt sooner or later hy every human being, and is often 
 felt, even in this life, by many in whom the work of 
 New Creation has not commenced — but sorrow for sin 
 itself apart from its consequences ; and Secondly, Pro- 
 gress in the ivorJc of New Creation. As, in the natural 
 Creation, the first effect of the light, was to render visi- 
 ble the darkness, ruin, and desolation, that reigned 
 around ; so it will ever be when God commences the work 
 of New Creation within any soul — when He says, " Let 
 there be light" — the first effect of that faint ray of spi- 
 ritual light, must ever he to disclose, more or less fully, to 
 the soul into which it is sent, its own darkness, sinful- 
 ness, degradation, and utter ruin. And, indeed, this 
 test of New Creation is expressly sanctioned by Scrip- 
 ture ; for, we may remember how, in the book of Job — 
 when the commencement of the work of New Creation 
 is described — the consciousness of sin and of its un- 
 righteous and unprofitable nature, is expressly men- 
 tioned as the very first indication of the commencement 
 of the work, as it is written, " He looketh upon men, 
 and if any say, / have sinned, and perverted that which 
 vjas right, and it profited me not ; He will deliver his soul 
 from going into the pit, and his life shall see the light.'' — 
 
344 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Job xxxiii. 27, 28. In some persons, these feelings are 
 more faintly, in others more strongly developed, but I 
 believe the universal experience of modern Christians, 
 as well as Reason, Analogy, and Scripture, will bear me 
 out in asserting, that this spiritual phenomenon — more 
 or less fully developed — is a universal accompaniment 
 and characteristic of neAv-birth, or the commencement 
 of the work of New Creation. And, accordingly, we 
 are justified in making it one of the earliest and most 
 accurate tests of the genuineness of the work of Ncav 
 Creation. Wlioever has not passed through — or en- 
 tered upon — this phase of his internal experience, may 
 well doubt the genuineness of the work within himself. 
 Progress in the work^ is also another valuable test of the 
 genuineness of the work of New Creation. As God did 
 not rest from His work of Creation, until it was per- 
 fected — ^until then, there was constant progress, not 
 only from day to day, but during the course of each 
 particular day — for, although the progress of the work 
 of Creation was, doubtless, at some periods much greater, 
 more visible, and apparent, than at others; yet the 
 work did not stand still /o?' a single moment^ until it was 
 perfected. And so it is in the work of New Creation, 
 there must be constant progress, or the work is not genuine. 
 The progress may be, however — and, in fact, is — much 
 more rapid and apparent at some periods than at others ; 
 but still there is constant progress. The work of New 
 Creation — ^like that of Creation — may, at times, appear 
 to stand still ; but it really does not do so. And the 
 
CONCLUSION. 345 
 
 way to test the progress of the work, is by comparing 
 it with itself, after a considerable interval of time; by 
 which means, one will be the better enabled to mark the 
 change. No doubt, the progress of the work of New 
 Creation, is much slower in some individuals than in 
 others, by reason of differences of disposition, of natu- 
 ral abilities, of education, earlier or later Conversion, 
 and many variations of external conditions and circum- 
 stances, more or less favourable to spiritual growth. 
 In some cases, the force of habit is so strong, and the 
 chains of sin have been so long riveted upon a man, 
 that he is cramped, as it were, by long confinement, 
 and stunted in his spiritual growth ; and even after the 
 Saviour has given life to such a one, He must also say 
 to those who stand by — as He did, in the case of Lazarus, 
 of old — " Loose him, and let him go." But, although 
 the rate of progress varies between very ivide limits in 
 different individuals, still there must be progress. That 
 man who can mark ?w j^rogress in his religious condition, 
 from year's end to year's end — who has no clearer and 
 more enlarged views of the things of God, no better 
 acqf aintance with, and understanding of the Scriptures, 
 no larger supplies of the Holy Spirit, no warmer love 
 to the Saviour, and to the brethren, no closer walk and 
 communion with God, and no greater joy in the Holy 
 Ghost, this year, than he had a year or two ago — may 
 well doubt the genuineness of the work of New Creation 
 within himself. What should we think, if we were 
 told of a child that had made no progress whatever^ in 
 
346 CONCLUSION. 
 
 mind or body, in the course of two or three years ? 
 Would it not be a most unnatural and incredible thing ? 
 Unless, indeed, the child were dead^ and the body pre- 
 served by some artificial method. And yet, it is even 
 more unnatural and incredible^ that there should be no 
 progress in spiritual life, in the same period of time. 
 Progress, then, is another test of the genuineness of the 
 work of New Creation. If the work be of God, it will 
 certainly progress ; if it be of man, it will as certainly 
 stand still, or rather retrograde. 
 
 This same Analogy of Creation and New Creation, also 
 furnishes to those in whom the work of New Creation 
 has really commenced, certain Landmarks, by which 
 they can examine their progress in the Christian course, 
 and ascertain which of the six days of New Creation is 
 actually passing within themselves. And, the better to 
 enable all Christians to apply these Landmarks, furnished 
 by this Analogy, to measure their own progress in the 
 Christian life, Ave may observe, that by grouping the 
 six days of New Creation together in twos, we will have 
 three exceedingly well defined and easily distingidshahle 
 periods of Christian life, which it is hardly possible to 
 mistake or confound, the one with the other. The first 
 two days of New Creation taken together, will thus 
 give the first, or what we may term the period of Inor- 
 ganic Life. This period commences with new-birth, and 
 is characterized by weakness of Faith, unfruitfulness, 
 worldliness, and coldness of love to God; answering 
 exactly to the state of our earth during the first two 
 
coxcLusiox. 347 
 
 days of Creation ; -when, as yet, its whole surface Avas 
 covered by the unstable ocean ; when, as yet, it produced 
 no visible fruits ; when, as yet, its dry land had not 
 emerged from the unprofitable watery waste ; and the 
 dense curtain of permanent cloud still excluded by far 
 the greater portion of the solar heat from its surface. 
 The next two days of New Creation taken together, Avill 
 give the second, or what we may term the period of 
 Vegetable Life. This period commences with the 
 coming out or separation from the world ; in the middle 
 of it comes Assurance of Salvation ; and at its close 
 comes Second Conversion ; this second period is charac- 
 terized by separation from the world, and by a great 
 increase of Faith and of Love to God, which are mani- 
 fested by fruitfulness in good works and Christian graces 
 — commencing with such, as have a more immediate 
 reference to the individual, and progressing gradually to 
 those which have, more and more directly, a reference to 
 others. The Christian, in this second stagej will always 
 be known as such; the world will take knowledge of 
 him that he has been with Jesus ; his Christianity will 
 be no longer like a candle put under a bushel — as is 
 too generally the case with Christians, during the former 
 period of their spiritual life — but, he will be " like a city 
 set upon a hill," and all men with whom he is brought 
 into contact, will see his good works and his godly Hfe. 
 This second period answers exactly to the state of our 
 earth during the third and fourth days of Creation 
 — that great era of Vegetable Life — when the firm dry 
 
348 CONCLUSION. 
 
 ground had, at length, appeared above the unprofitable 
 deep, and was overspread by a green carpet of verdure, 
 and clothed in constantly increasing fruitfulness ; and 
 when the solar heat was admitted in constantly increas- 
 ing abundance, consequent upon the gradual dispersion 
 of the cloudy curtain of the atmosphere ; until at the 
 close of this period, the direct unclouded beams of the 
 solar orb found access to its surface. Lastly, the two 
 remaining days of New Creation taken together, will 
 form the third, or what we may term the period of 
 Animal Life. This period commences with Second 
 Conversion, and terminates with the entrance into that 
 rest, " which remaineth for the people of God." This 
 third period is characterized by the development of that 
 spiritual propagative instinct — or intense irrepressible 
 desire for spiritual offspring — which results in the pro- 
 pagation and communication of spiritual life, and the 
 production of those living works which follow the 
 Christian beyond the grave. There may, no doubt, be 
 found occasional instances of the development of this 
 instinct during the fourth period of spiritual life, but 
 scarcely ever at an earlier period than the fourth day 
 of New Creation. In fact, it almost amounts to an 
 impossibilUy, that this spiritual propagative instinct should 
 be practically developed during the third daj- of New 
 Creation ; for, the close of that day is marked, as we 
 have seen, by xVssurance of Salvation ; and it is very 
 evident, that no effectual and earnest exertion or effort 
 on behalf of the Salvation of others, can possibly be 
 
CONCLUSION. 349 
 
 developed in any one who is not sure of his o-vvn Salva- 
 tion. We have, most of us, heard of the ancient 
 mathematician, who discovered the principle of the 
 Compound Lever, and was so filled with joy and exul- 
 tation at the discovery of its amazing power, that he 
 exclauned : — 
 
 Abg TTOV <TT& Koi TTfv yriv Ktvrjauj.* 
 The only insurmountable difficulty he saw, in the attempt 
 to move even the vast mass of the earth by his lever, 
 was the want of a standing place — some fulcrum, distinct 
 from the earth itself — on which to rest his lever, and 
 support himself; and just the same impossibility will 
 meet any man in the attempt to apply the lever of the 
 Gospel to move the soul of another, until he has the 
 firm standing place of Assurance of his own Salvation, 
 on which — as a fulcrum — to rest his spiritual lever. 
 This third period of Christian life answers exactly to 
 the state of our earth during the fifth and sixth days of 
 Creation — that great era of Animal Life — during which 
 the various races of animals — commencing with the 
 lower, and progressing towards the higher orders of 
 Animal Life — were successively brought into existence, 
 and in which the propagative instinct — which invariably 
 accompanies Animal Life — was first manifested in our 
 world. 
 
 This same Analogy of Creation and New Creation, 
 holds out, also, great encouragement to those in whom 
 the work of New Creation has really commenced. God 
 
 * Give me some standing place, and I will move the earth itself. 
 
350 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 did not leave the creation of tlie earth half finished. 
 However dark, unfruitful, and unpromising, it may have 
 looked during the earher days of Creation — however 
 slow the progress of the work may have seemed at times, 
 yet God steadily carried it on, and did not rest until He 
 had brought it to perfection. And so — in like manner 
 — He will do, in reference to the work of New Creation, 
 He will not rest, imtil He has perfected His work — 
 until out of darkness He has produced light, out of cold- 
 ness warmth and zeal, out of unprofitableness fruitfulness, 
 out of death life, and out of Sin Holiness — which deduc- 
 tion from Analogy is abundantly confirmed by the more 
 sure word of Inspiration, as it is written, "Being confident 
 of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work 
 in you Avill perform it" — or, perhaps, more literally, will 
 perfect it — " until the day of Jesus Christ." Phil. i. 6. 
 Hence a great and constant source of encouragement to 
 all who have good reason to beheve that the work of 
 New Creation has actually been commenced within 
 themselves. What a great encouragement it is, in any 
 pursuit, avocation, or business, to be sure of ultimate 
 success ! Now, this is the privilege of every individual 
 in whom the work of New Creation has been really 
 commenced. I do not say, that all such persons are 
 enabled practically to realize^ and avail themselves of 
 this privilege — the faith of many is too weak for that — 
 and yet, it is the privilege of every Christian to be sure 
 of ultimate success. Some people think, that religion is 
 a gloomy thing, antagonistic to pleasure and enjoyment 
 
CONCLUSION. 351 
 
 in this life of every kind, and that all religious people 
 should constantly wear a gloomy face. Now, this may 
 be — and is, in fact — true of all human systems of reli- 
 gion according to which a man gets to Heaven by his 
 good works. Every one who professes and believes such 
 a system of religion, naturally ought to wear a gloomy 
 face ; for, he is engaged in a hopeless task — he never 
 can be sure of ultimate success — he never can be certain 
 whether he has done enough to earn the great reward ; 
 and possibly, after all his strivings and good works, he 
 may — nay more, he certainly will — come short at the 
 last, and lose all his labour. Such a religion as this, 
 ought naturally to be productive of a gloomy expression 
 of countenance ; for, it is a very gloomy kind of religion. 
 But, is it a gloomy thing to be certain of ultimate success? 
 Is it a gloomy thing to have God for one's Father and 
 Heaven for one's Home ? Is it a gloomy thing to have 
 a great inheritance ? Surely it would not make any man 
 wear a gloomy countenance to hear that a large estate 
 had devolved upon him by the death of a distant 
 unknown relative. And is there any conceivable reason 
 why a man should look gloomy at the contemplation of 
 his title to "the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled 
 and that fadeth not aw^ay" ? It was not a very gloomy 
 thing to the sick of the palsy, when Jesus said to him, 
 "Arise, take up thy couch, and go unto thine house" ; nor 
 to the blind man, when Jesus said to him, " Receive thy 
 sight, thy faith hath saved thee" ; nor to another, when 
 Jesus said to him, " Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be 
 
 z 
 
352 CONCLUSION. 
 
 forgiven thee." The dying thief — I venture to assert — 
 did not find it a very gloomy thing, when the Saviour 
 said to him, "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou 
 be with me in paradise." And just as little reason is 
 there, why any man in modern times should wear a 
 gloomy countenance because Jesus has said to him, 
 " Thy sins be forgiven thee." We may conclude, there- 
 fore, that any religion which has a tendency to make 
 its professors wear a gloomy countenance — whatever 
 source it may have come from — is certainly not of God. 
 Neither is there any aiitagonism between true religion and 
 pleasure. This is a truth which it is most important 
 that all men, but more especially the young^ should be 
 made aware of; for, we are all naturally fond of pleasure, 
 and more especially so, in the season of youth ; and if 
 there were really any opposition between religion and 
 pleasure, it would present a serious obstacle to the pro- 
 gress of religion among all men, but more especially 
 among those in the enjoyment of youth. Religion, 
 however, is really in no way opposed or antagonistic to 
 pleasure. On the contrary, it is highly favourable and 
 conducive to pleasure — and that, not only in the world to 
 come, but even in this present life. For, although the 
 connection between religion and pleasure is much less 
 obvious, and less universally and practically realized, in 
 this life, than it will be hereafter, and although there 
 are many disturbing influences in this world which will 
 have no place in the world to come, yet it is nevertheless 
 true, that religion is favourable to, and productive of 
 
CONCLUSION. 353 
 
 pleasure, even in this life, as it is written '^ O fear the 
 Lord, ye his saints ; for there is no loant to them that fear 
 him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger ; but 
 they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." 
 Psalm xxxiv. 9, 10 ; and again, " Godliness is profitable 
 unto all things, having promise of the life that noiv is, and 
 of that which is to come." 1 Tim. iv. 8. Religion, then, 
 is not opposed to pleasure, even in this life ; but, on the 
 contrary, it is really and essentially opposed to pain, 
 and sorrow, and death, and to all the other consequences 
 of sin, which are obviously and universally admitted to 
 be undesirable, and from which human nature instinc- 
 tively shrinks, as it is written, " He that sinneth against 
 me, ivrongeth his own soul ; all they that hate me, love 
 death." ^Tov. viii. 36. And if this truth were more 
 generally and practically realized, it would necessarily 
 lead to a great increase and spreading 'of religion, 
 especially among the young. 
 
 The Analogy which we have been engaged in investi- 
 gating, shows us also, in a very striking manner, the 
 close connection which subsists between Science and 
 Religion ; for. Science is to Creation exactly what Reli- 
 gion is to New Creation, or, in other words. Religion is 
 the Science of New Creation. The same close connection 
 and exact parallelism, then, which subsists, as we have 
 seen, between Creation and New Creation, must also 
 hold good between Science and Religion. There is, 
 therefore, no antagonism between Science and Religion. 
 On the contrary, the most perfect harmony, and more- 
 
 z 2 
 
354 CONCLUSION. 
 
 over, a great general resemblance and parallelism exists 
 between them. We see thus, more clearly, the divine 
 and noble nature of Science — that handmaid of Religion, 
 as Lord Bacon has well termed her — and the close con- 
 nection which subsists between Science and Religion. 
 This very closeness of connection and great general 
 resemblance, however, suggests this caution, that we 
 must not be led by it to suostitute Science for Religion, 
 or Knowledge for Faith ; for, this would be to ignore the 
 Fall of man altogether. Science may have done well 
 enough for the Religion of our first parents, in the 
 Garden of Eden, before the Fall ; but, ever since that 
 event, man needs an atoning and restorative power which 
 Science does not possess. Religion has all the grandeur, 
 the sublimity, and the simplicity of Science, and she 
 has in addition — that w^hich Science has not — a resto- 
 rative power — even an atonement for, and deliverance 
 from the guilt and power of Sin. This is what Science 
 can never accomplish ; because she is weak, through the 
 fallen nature of man — because she lacks the purifying 
 restorative power of Religion. This is a truth which we 
 may see demonstrated and exemplified, on an extensive 
 scale, in the ancient Heathen world, where some of the 
 most exalted intellects and most ardent votaries of 
 Science, were notoriously addicted to some of the most 
 degrading vices which ever disgraced the fallen nature 
 of man. This caution against substituting Science for 
 Religion, is the more needful, because there is a uni- 
 versal and powerful tendency in the human mind to do 
 
CONCLUSION. 355 
 
 so. As Naaman the Syrian, of old, exclaimed, "Are 
 not Abana and Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than 
 all the waters of Israel ? May I not wash in them, and 
 be clean ?" So, every man — but more especially the man 
 of education and of exalted intellect — is apt to say, or 
 think to himself, ' Are not Science and Moral Philosophy, 
 rivers of this world, better than all the waters of the 
 Gospel ? may I not wash in them, and be clean ?' The 
 answer to this enquiiy must ever be in the negative ; 
 for, the broad and crystal streams of Science and Philo- 
 sophy can never wash one sin away — they can never 
 give peace to the guilty conscience, nor restore the 
 fallen nature of man. The narrow and comparatively 
 insignificant stream of water mingled with blood, which 
 descends from ISIount Calvary, can alone do this. There 
 alone, can the sinner wash and be clean. The very 
 grandeur, beauty, and attractiveness of Science — to those 
 who have been given intellects capable of seeing and 
 admiring her — tends to produce the substitution of 
 Science for Religion. Besides, it is a hard lesson and 
 humbling to the pride of human intellect, that the wise, 
 the learned, and the intellectual, must be saved in the 
 same way as the foolish, the ignorant, and the degraded, 
 the felon, the polluted, and the outcast of Society, and 
 must accept their Salvation as a free undeserved gift from 
 God, or reject it altogether. For — however strange it 
 may seem — it is undoubtedly true, that the very freeness, 
 liberality, and unconditional nature of the gift of God, 
 forms one of the principal obstacles to its acceptance — 
 
356 CONCLUSION. 
 
 at all events, by tlie great men of the earth. They 
 ■would prefer — like Naaman of old — " to do some great 
 thing," and themselves to assist in working for their own 
 Salvation ; and indeed, so much so, that if God had — 
 as He might have done — made His gift conditional 
 upon the giving to the poor the half — or even the 
 whole — of one's worldly goods, abstaining from all — or 
 certain — of the pleasures of this life, and attending a 
 Prayer Meeting every day in the week ; or if He had 
 annexed any other — the most stringent conditions — and 
 limitations to His gift ; it would have been much more 
 acceptable to the great men of the earth, and indeed to 
 every natural man, than it is at present, when the gift 
 is offered freely and unconditionally, and all these sup- 
 posed conditions are left to every man's own discretion. 
 But, we can see a very good reason Avhy God did not 
 impose any such conditions. It w^ould have been 
 derogatory to His dignity, as a Sovereign, to have done 
 so ; just as it would be derogatory to the dignity of our 
 Sovereign Lady the Queen, if she were to accept a 
 pecuniary benefit to herself from a criminal, as a con- 
 dition of the exercise of her royal prerogative of mercy 
 in remitting or commuting his sentence. 
 
 The work of New Creation in any individual Chris- 
 tian, is — as we have seen — regularly perfected in six 
 days or periods, each of which is characterized by cer- 
 tain distinctive marks. Now, it is worthy of observa- 
 tion, that in the personal history of the Saviour during 
 
CONCLUSION. 357 
 
 His sojourn here on earth, ^xe can trace certain analo- 
 gous periods, Avith veiy similar distinctive marks, which 
 were successively developed in His human nature. Of 
 course, there was no New Creation in Him, inasmuch 
 as He was not a fallen sinful being like ourselves, and 
 so, He had no need of New Creation, being already per- 
 fectly holy. But still, the six stages of the development 
 of His human nature, present a most remarkable ana- 
 logy to the six days of New Creation, with some slight 
 variations, which we can readily explain by taking into 
 account His sinless and Holy nature. And first, in 
 contemplating His infancy — which is analogous to the 
 first day of New Creation — we need not be surprised at 
 not finding it characterized — like that day — by Virtue ; 
 for, Virtue implies self-denial — it implies a tendency 
 to evil — it belongs to fallen imperfect creatures, in 
 whom there exists a mixture of good and evil — not to 
 Holy and sinless beings, in whom Virtue is merged, as 
 it were, in the far higher attainment of Holiness. The 
 first stage, then, of the life of Jesus was characterized, 
 not by Virtue, but by Holiness in its germ, as it is 
 written, "Therefore also that lioly thing which shall he 
 horn of thee shall be called the Son of God." Luke i. 35, 
 and again, " For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, 
 whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius 
 Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were 
 gathered together." Acts iv. 27. The records of the 
 Saviour's childhood are very scanty indeed ; tut it is 
 
358 CONCLUSION. 
 
 curious, that — even in those scanty fragments of His 
 early history — enough is preserved to show, that the 
 second stage of His life, was characterized — like the 
 second day of New Creation — by a wonderful develop- 
 ment of Knowledge ; for, the x^rj first thing we read of 
 Him during His childhood is : — " And the child grew, 
 and waxed strong in s^irit^ filled with wisdom,'' Luke ii. 
 40 ; and indeed, the only authentic anecdote of His 
 childhood which has survived the lapse of time, affords 
 an astonishing practical manifestation and an indispu- 
 table proof of the knowledge by which the second stage 
 of His life was characterized, as it is written, " And it 
 came to pass, that after three days they found him in 
 the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both 
 hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that 
 heard him were astonished at his understanding and 
 answers." Luke ii. 46, 47. We have also evidence, 
 that the third stage of natural life in Him — like the 
 third day of New Creation — was characterized by the 
 practical manifestation of the Christian graces of Humi- 
 lity and Patience in the very highest form of develop- 
 ment ; for, the very next thing that Scripture records 
 of His boyhood is: — "And he went down with them, 
 and came to Nazareth, and ivas subject unto them." Luke 
 ii. 51. Now, His parents were — like all other human 
 beings — fallen and sinful creatures, and they must 
 necessarily have given many occasions of offence ; and 
 yet. He was subject to them. So — in like manner — we 
 
 1 
 
CONCLUSION. ^^^ 
 
 have evidence that the fourth period of the natural life 
 of Jesus was characterized by a burning love to God 
 and zeal for His honour, very analogous to those pheno- 
 mena, which-as we have seen— mark the fourth day of 
 New Creation; for, it was at the very outset of His 
 public ministry— when as yet " His hour was not fully 
 come"— that remarkable manifestation of His zeal to- 
 wards God occurred— as recorded in the second chapter 
 of St. John's Gospel— which caused His disciples to 
 remember, that it was .vritten of Him, "The zeal of 
 thine house hath eaten me uf or rather " hath consumed 
 me." And indeed, it will appear the more plainly, that 
 this burning zeal was strictly characteristic of the close 
 of the fourth stage of His natural life, and was not 
 developed at an earlier period, if we reflect, that He 
 must have seen— year by year, during His former visits 
 to the temple— the very same traditional practices 
 dishonouring the house of God; and yet, we have 
 no reason to believe, that the sight of them, at any 
 earlier period of His Hfe, provoked a similar mani- 
 festation of zeal for the house of God. Lastly, the 
 period occupied by the public ministry of our Lord, 
 was plainly analogous to the fifth and sixth days of 
 New Creation, . and— like them— was characterized 
 by the production of livtiig works and qnritual off- 
 spring. The Saviour Himself appears to have alluded 
 to these last two days of His life, when He said to the 
 Pharisees, "Behold, I cast out devns,anddo cures to-day 
 
360 CONCLUSION. 
 
 and to-morrow^ and the third day I shall be perfected." 
 Luke xiii. 32. The '^ to-day and to-morrow," to which 
 He alluded, appear to have been the two last working 
 days — or periods — of His life, which answer to the fifth 
 and sixth days of New Creation in the Christian, and — 
 like them — were to be followed by the perfect day, in 
 which He was to be perfected. Analogous to Second 
 Conversion in the Christian, was the outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit upon Jesus at His baptism, which took place 
 at the close of the fourth period of His natural life. And, 
 as in the Christian, living works and spiritual offspring 
 are- not in general, or to any appreciable extent, to be 
 looked for, until this phenomenon of Second Conversion 
 has occurred, at the close of the fourth day of New 
 Creation ; so we see, that even the Saviour Himself, did 
 not, to any considerable extent, manifest or produce 
 these living works and sj)iritual offspring, until the fifth 
 period of His life — namely. His manhood — which was 
 ushered in by that great outpouring upon Him of the 
 Holy Spirit, which answered in Him, to Second Con- 
 version in the Christian. 
 
 This close analogy and parallelism between the days 
 of New Creation and the stages of development of the 
 human nature of the Saviour, is very remarkable, and 
 serves to confirm many of the deductions which we 
 have arrived at, from the analogy to the days of Cre- 
 ation. And particularly, it confirms us in making 
 the spiritual propagative instinct a characteristic of 
 
CONCLUSION. 361 
 
 the fifth day of New Creation, and the earliest and best 
 evidence, not of first Conversion, but of Second Con- 
 version. For we see, that — even in the Saviour Him- 
 self — this tendency Avas not developed in any marked 
 degree, until the fifth period of His life, and after that 
 phenomenon had occurred, which, in Him, answered to 
 Second Conversion in the Christian. It is, therefore, a 
 false test of Conversion, to assert, that it is always fol- 
 lowed immediately by an instinctive irresistible impulse 
 to communicate the truth to others. Such an assertion 
 is calculated to discourage many of the children of God? 
 who, on hearing such a test of true Conversion laid 
 down from the pulpit, will naturally look within, and 
 seek to apply it to themselves ; and when they find no 
 such irresistible instinctive impulse within themselves — 
 as will be the case with all those in whom the work of 
 New Creation has not gone beyond the third day ; and 
 even those in whom the fourth day has commenced, will 
 in general find only a comparatively imperfect develop- 
 ment of this instinct — they will be discouraged, and led 
 to doubt that they are the children of God at all; 
 instead of being edified and encouraged to persevere, 
 and make greater progress in the Christian course. No 
 doubt it is true, that wherever this instinctive irresist- 
 ible impulse to communicate spiritual life to others is 
 foimd to exist, there we may be quite certain that Con- 
 version has taken place ; but — on the other hand — the 
 converse proposition is not true, and the absence of this 
 spiritual instinct, does not prove the absence of Conver- 
 
362 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 sion ; it only proves, that the soul in which it is not 
 manifested, has not yet arrived at the close of the fourth 
 day of New Creation, and has not yet experienced 
 Second Conversion. 
 
 Again, it is very remarkable, that in the principal 
 expressions which are recorded to have been uttered by 
 our Saviour during the six hours while He was sus- 
 pended upon the Cross, we can trace a marked analogy 
 to, and curious correspondence with the six days of New 
 Creation. The first expression He is recorded to have 
 uttered, was the prayer for His murderers, " Father, 
 forgive them ; for they know not what they do." Luke 
 xxiii. 34. Now, this corresponds with the first day of 
 New Creation, when the sense of sin is so overpowering 
 that the thing of all others most needed, is Forgiveness, 
 and when, as yet, the babe in Christ has not attained 
 unto Knowledge. The Saviour's next words, namely, 
 " Woman, behold thy son" and " Behold thy mother," 
 John xix. 26, correspond with the second day of New 
 Creation, when the little child in Christ has attained 
 unto KnoAvledge, and begins to recognize his loving parent 
 in the person of his Heavenly Father. The next words 
 spoken by our Lord, namely, " Verily I say unto thee, 
 To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise." Luke xxiii. 
 43, correspond unmistakeably with the close of the third 
 day of New Creation, when Assurance of Salvation has 
 been attained; and it is most remarkable, that these 
 words of the Saviour were actually spoken at the close of 
 
CONCLUSION. 363 
 
 the third hour of His suiFering on the Cross ; for, we read 
 in St. Mark's Gospel, " And it was the third hour, and 
 they crucified him." Mark xv. 25, that is to say, He 
 Avas suspended on the Cross at the third hour — or, 
 according to our mode of reckoning, at nine o'clock in 
 the morning — and in St. Luke's Gospel, where these 
 words of the Saviour are recorded, we find it written, 
 " Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day 
 shalt thou be with me in paradise. And it was about the 
 sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth 
 until the ninth hour." Luke xxiii. 43, 44 ; from which 
 we may reasonably infer, that these words were spoken 
 about the sixth hour — or about twelve o'clock at noon 
 with us — at the close of the third hour of His suffering. 
 Again, the next words spoken by our Lord, namely, 
 " I thirst," appear to correspond with the fourth day of 
 New Creation, at the close of which, that burning thirst 
 and zeal for God is developed in the Christian, which is 
 expressed by the Psalmist in the well-known verse, " O 
 God, thou art my God ; early will I seek thee ; my soul 
 thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and 
 thirsty land, where no water is." Psalm Ixiii. 1. And 
 lastly, the words, " It is finished," or — as the expression 
 might, at least equally well, be rendered — '^ It is per- 
 fected," correspond with the fifth and sixth days of New 
 Creation, during which the Christian attains to a kind 
 of relative perfection which was unknown before, and which 
 immediately precedes the fidl perfection of the seventh 
 day of New Creation. 
 
364 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The patli of Christian life 
 and the progress of the work 
 of New Creation towards per- 
 fection, may be mathemati- 
 cally illustrated by an Equi- 
 lateral Hyperbola, which is 0' 
 an infinite curve, represented 
 in the diagram by the line 
 B A C, extending to infinity 
 in the directions A C and 
 A B. The two straight lines 
 J and O S are called its Asymptots. The curve is 
 entirely comprised between these two lines ; and pos- 
 sesses the curious property of continually approaching 
 nearer and nearer to its Asymptots — as we advance in 
 the directions from A to C and from A to B — without 
 ever actually meeting them. Thus, the curve becomes 
 less and less curved, and more and more straight, and 
 nearer and nearer to being coincident with its Asymptots, 
 as we ascend or descend from the vertex A. Now, let 
 us take the ascending Asymptot O J to represent the 
 path of the Saviour when here on earth. At right 
 angles to this — which is the mathematical, and indeed 
 the popular expression of the most complete antagonism 
 and opposition possible — is the descending Asymptot 
 O S, which may be taken to represent the path of Satan. 
 And the curve will, then, represent the path of human 
 life. The ascending branch of the curve — as it ap- 
 proaches nearer and nearer to becoming a straight line 
 
CONCLUSION. 365 
 
 and coinciding with the ascending Asyniptot — will 
 represent the course of New Creation — as the path of 
 the Christian becomes more and more conformable to 
 that of his Saviour, without ever (during this life) 
 actually attaining to that high standard of perfect recti- 
 tude. While, on the other hand, the descending branch 
 of the curve — as it approaches nearer and nearer to 
 coinciding mth the descending Asymptot — Avill represent 
 the easy and natural descent of the broad road which 
 leadeth to destruction — as the path of the unregenerate 
 sinner becomes more and more conformable to that of 
 Satan, without ever (during this life) actually attaining 
 the same directness of purpose towards evil, which is to 
 be found in the Prince of Darkness. And Death will, 
 then, be the shock and rupture of continuity, by which 
 an individual is translated from the curve to the adjoin- 
 ing Asymptot — when the image of God, or the image of 
 Satan — as the case may be — is, at a stroke, i^erfected in 
 him. 
 
 Every unregenerate man is moving more or less 
 rapidly, impelled by a sort of natural gravitation, down 
 the descending branch of the curve, unless and until he 
 is arrested in his downward course by the Spirit of God, 
 and converted or born again ; when he forthwith com- 
 mences to move in the du-ection of the ascending branch 
 of the curve. These two branches — the ascending and 
 the descending — are perfectly symmetrical ; and accord- 
 ingly we may observe, that as the course of progress in 
 the ascending branch may be divided into six days or 
 
366 CONCLUSION. 
 
 periods, characterized respectively by Virtue, Know- 
 ledge, Faith, or its visible fruits, Godliness, Brotherly 
 Kindness, and Love, followed by " the perfect day;" so 
 — ^in like manner — the course of progress in the de- 
 scending branch may also be divided into six days or 
 periods — the exact counterparts, in the opposite direction, 
 of those which mark the course of progress in the 
 ascending branch of the curve — that is to say, we 
 have ; 1st. Simple Darkness ; 2nd. Wilful Ignorance ; 
 3rd. Positive Unbelief, manifested by the works of the 
 flesh ; those which have a more immediate reference to 
 the individual — such as Intemperance and want of 
 Moderation in all things — being first in order of develop- 
 ment, and afterwards those which more directly offend 
 others; 4th. Ungodliness ; 5th. Malice and confirmed 
 Wickedness ; 6th. Love of Evil — the full development 
 of the Image of Satan — followed by the " blackness of 
 darkness for ever." 
 
 The material Universe — as we all know — is regu- 
 lated and controlled by that universal attraction — or 
 gravitation of matter towards matter — which pervades 
 all space, and keeps in their orbits all the heavenly 
 bodies. Nothing is too remote, too vast, or too minute, 
 to be within the range of its all-pervading influence. 
 It controls alike the motions of the earth, the sun, and 
 even of the stars themselves ; and — at the same time — 
 regulates the movements of the falling stone, the apple 
 which drops from the tree, the withered leaf, and even 
 of the smallest mote which dances in the sunlight. 
 
CONCLUSION. 367 
 
 Now, it is worthy of observation — as completing the 
 parallel between Creation and New Creation, or rather 
 between the material and the spiritual Universe — that 
 in the latter. Love — Avhich is the attraction or gravita- 
 tion of spirit towards spirit — exercises a like universal 
 influence, and pervades and regulates the whole spiri- 
 tual Universe. 
 
 It remains to be noticed, that in the application of 
 the landmarks furnished by the Analogy we have been 
 investigating, to measure or test the spiritual state or 
 progress of ourselves, or of others, there are many 
 sources of error in our estimates and calculations, 
 which must be allowed for, and taken into account, if 
 we would arrive at accurate results. As, in the mate- 
 rial Universe, the observer must allow for the effects of 
 Parallax, Refraction, Spherical and Chromatic Aberra- 
 tion, and other sources of error in his observations, if 
 he would obtain results at all approximating to accuracy ; 
 so, the observer in the spiritual Universe will find, that 
 there are precisely analogous allowances to be made, 
 before his observations will give accurate results. And 
 first, we may observe, that all our observations in the 
 spiritual Universe, unavoidably have reference to our 
 own standard, as if it were the true central point of 
 view, from which every thing ought to be looked at. 
 Hence arises a spiecies of spritual Parallax, which must 
 be allowed for in all our observations. Again, we are 
 all, more or less, surrounded by an atmosphere of spiri- 
 tual pride, which has a tendency to depress external 
 
368 . CONCLUSION. 
 
 objects below tlieir true places; and hence arises a 
 species of spiritual Refraction, whicb operates to de- 
 press objects below tlieir true places. And it is worthy 
 of observation, that this effect of spiritual Refraction — as 
 was also the case with respect to the spiritual Eclipse — 
 is the converse of what takes place in the natural world ; 
 for there, Refraction elevates objects ahove their true 
 places, instead of depressing them. This spiritual Refrac- 
 tion, however, must be allowed for in all our observa- 
 tions. And so — ^in like manner — the imperfections of 
 that spiritual lens through which all our observations 
 of ourselves or others must come, lead to erroneous 
 results analogous to the errors produced by Spherical 
 and Chromatic Aberration in observations in the mate- 
 rial Universe. Thus, all — or nearly all — the sources of 
 error in observations made in the natural world, will 
 be found reproduced, with the most wonderful exactness, 
 in observations made in the spiritual world, and must 
 be equally allowed for, if we ivould approximate to accu- 
 racy of result. And indeed, the difficulty of estimating 
 the proper allowances to be made for these several 
 causes of error, is much aggravated in the latter case ; 
 because there are no mathematical formulas for calcu- 
 lating the precise amount of these errors in the spiri- 
 tual world, as there are in the natural world. Hence, 
 the difficulty of arriving at accuracy in the results of 
 our observations, is infinitely greater in the spiritual 
 world than in the natural world. 
 
 I have now — very imperfectly, I fear — gone through 
 
CONCLUSION. 369 
 
 the task I had assigned to myself, and traced out the 
 Analogy of Creation and New Creation, through all 
 their successive stages of development. We have seen 
 how accurately these two great works correspond and 
 clove-tail, as it were, into each other, leading irresistibly 
 to the conclusion — even were it not expressly revealed 
 — that both are the productions of the same master- 
 hand ; for, the same wisdom, the same genius, the same 
 characteristic marks — nay more, a great general simi- 
 larity of plan and design — are to be foimd in both. 
 From whence, we may deduce this great truth, that the 
 Gospel of Jesus CliiHst — far from being an unphilosophical 
 or unscientific method of Salvation, as some men have 
 ignorantly objected against it — is the most intensely philo- 
 sophical and accurately scientific method of Salvation that 
 could possibly he devised; for, it closely resembles, and 
 accurately corresponds with the method and process of 
 Creation. And so — ^unless men are prepared to impugn 
 the work of God in Creation, as unscientific or unphilo- 
 sophical — they must admit, that His work in New Crea- 
 tion is executed, in like manner, on the most philosophi- 
 cal and accurately scientific principles, and that Christ 
 Crucified is indeed — as the Word of Inspiration declares 
 Him to be — the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. 
 
 Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. 
 THE END. 
 
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