uch special
condensation of luminous matter, nor for any precise stage of the
process as that in which the arrangements of light and darkness should
be completed; but under his hypothesis it seems necessary to account
in some such way for the sole luminosity of the sun; and the point of
separation of day and night must have been a marked epoch in the
history of the process for each planet. The theory of accretion of
matter which has in modern times been associated with that of La Place
would equally well accord with the indications in our Mosaic
record.[45]

It is further to be observed that so long as the material of the earth
constituted a part of the great vaporous mass, it would be encompassed
with its diffused light, and that after it had been left outside the
contracting solar envelope, it might still retain some independent
luminosity in its atmosphere, a trace of which may still exist in the
auroral displays of the upper strata of the air. The earth might thus
at first be in total darkness. It might then be dimly lighted by the
surrounding nebulosity, or by a luminous envelope in its own
atmosphere. Then it might, as before explained, relapse into the
darkness of its misty mantle, and as this cleared away and the light
of the sun increased and became condensed, the latter would gradually
be installed into his office as the sole orb of day. It is quite
evident that we thus have a sufficient hypothetical explanation of the
light of the first of the creative aeons; and this is all that in the
present state of science we can expect. "Where is the way where light
dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, that thou
shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and know the way to the house
thereof?"

For the reasons above given, we must regard the hypothesis of the
great French astronomer as a wonderful approximation to the grand and
simple plan of the construction of our system as revealed in
Scripture. Nor must we omit to notice that the telescope and the
spectroscope reveal to us in the heavens gaseous nebular bodies which
may well be new systems in progress of formation, and in which the
Creator is even now dividing the light from the darkness. Still
another thought in connection with this subject is that the theory of
a condensing system affords a measure of the aggregate time occupied
in the work of creation. Sir William Thomson's well-known calculations
give us one hundred millions of years as the