phrase in Scripture, denoting sometimes the army of angelic beings, of whom, however, in this section we have no mention, and sometimes the heavenly bodies, which are so styled as being, like the ministering angels, marshalled in order as if waiting upon the Great King. But here there is the peculiarity, that we have the host of the earth mentioned as well as of the heavens. But the term is apparently to be taken still with the same turn of meaning. It denotes all the creatures of this lower part of the universe, both animate and inanimate, as waiting in dutiful allegiance upon their sovereign Creator.

"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made." A difficulty has been felt in its being said that God ended (or finished-for the verb is the same as in the first verse) his work on the seventh day, whereas in fact it was completed on the sixth. on the sixth. Various explanations have been offered; but the most probable solution, I venture to think, is this:-that the entire week is to be conceived of as devoted to the creation of the universe-the day of rest as well as the six days of work; the reason for this being, that the refreshment of the day of rest is ordinarily made necessary by the six days' labour which precedes it, and therefore may be reckoned as its proper appendage and completion.

"And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made." Attention is due to the particular expression which is here employed, the proper import of which is, perhaps, sometimes unnoted by the reader, through its being in a measure disguised, partly by the translation, and partly by the pre-occupation of thought with which we read the sentence.

The term work is in the Hebrew melākhah, and is the same as we have in Gen. xxxix. 11-"Joseph went into

the house to do his business," the last phrase, to do his business, being the identical one which is here rendered work which he had made; so that the analogy of that passage might lead us to translate rather thus:-rested from all his business that he had done. So in Exod. xx. 9, 10:-"Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work (or business); but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work (or business)." And Exod. xxxi. 14-17:—“ Ye shall keep the sabbath: whosoever doeth any work (or business) therein, shall be cut off: six days may work (or business) be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed."

In a good many passages melākhah denotes in particular the workmanship of the artificer, whether in building or in other kinds of artisan labour: thus we find it used in Exod. xxxi. 3, 5; xxxv. 35; xxxvi. 8; 2 Kings xii. 11 (work), 14 and 15 (workmen, literally doers of work), and elsewhere. And this notion of the term seems, in the passage before us, to blend with the former general one of business, occupation, giving it the specific sense of business of the kind which appertains to the artificer.

The conclusion is, that the word melakhah, as here employed, is designed to convey to the mind the notion, not merely of a result of operation—in thinking of which we might escape altogether from any associated idea of labour, toil, effort, since we readily and immediately interpolate the thought, that the production of any objects in nature, or of all creation together, would cost the Almighty just no effort whatever-but of work-day occupation and labour, such occupation and labour as is wont to make the seventh day of repose a

sweet solace and refreshment. In the passage just cited from Exod. xxxi., the reader has no doubt been struck by the expression, "he rested and was refreshed." It throws light upon the verse which we are now considering. It shows that by its being said "he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done," more is meant than merely this, on the seventh day he did no work; it brings rather before us the image of a workman, having laboured in his business through the six days of the week, and now rejoicing on the seventh day in the sweetness of repose from his toil; and this image it presents to adumbrate the great Creator as now arrived at the conclusion of His work in creating the heavens and the earth.

And this, again, prepares us to understand the bearing of the next verse: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested (or he rested) from all his work which he had created and made," or rather from all his workmanship which he had created to do (or make). If what has just been advanced is just, the meaning of this, again, is, not merely this:-God set the seventh day apart as a day of rest from labour, because on the seventh day of the week of creation there was no work of creation done;-but rather this :-God found the rest of the seventh day which succeeded the six days of creation so grateful, that, in pleasant recollection (if I may dare so to paraphrase the sense) of the repose, He pronounced His blessing upon the seventh day of the week generally, and set it apart as holy.

How all this is to be interpreted is a matter for subsequent inquiry: our business at present is to ascertain the primary import of the writing; in doing so we should endeavour not only to gather the general sub

stance of the meaning, but also, if we may, to catch the finer hues of tinting (so to speak) belonging to the picture which Heaven has so condescendingly presented to our view.

The words of the 4th verse, "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth," no doubt refer to the preceding record; for in what follows we have no account whatever of the creation of the heavens, and hardly any of the earth, the attention being taken up with the primæval history of man himself. Nevertheless, the words probably form no part of the foregoing record itself, but were added by Moses as a landingplace in the composition, before passing on to the narrative which follows.

III.

RATIONALISING AND GEOLOGICAL EXPOSITIONS.

AFTER thus endeavouring to gain as clear an apprehension as we are able of the import of the several parts of this inspired Record, so far as their sense can be determined on the ground of verbal criticism, we shall presently have to examine into its import and bearing as a whole. But before we proceed to this part of our inquiry it is necessary to clear the ground of certain forced constructions which have been put upon the account by those who, from different points of view, but as agreeing to regard the section as strictly and literally historical, have laboured to bring its statements into harmony with the more or less certainly established truths of cosmical science.

In doing so I shall seem to be working by Mr. Goodwin's side; and, in fact, for a while I must take this position; but it will only be for a while. The end to which the results of my inquiries lead me is far remote from that to which he has been brought. This end will not be that of convicting the "Mosaic cosmogony" of a merely human origin, and, indeed, of almost childish error; but rather, instead, that of conducting our minds to a point of view from which this venerable heirloom of God's people from the beginning of time will be seen to be worthy of the position which the Scriptures have