ven to
the atmosphere, more especially as these were the senses in which the
words were to be popularly used. The intention, therefore, in all
these cases was to affix to certain things names different from those
which they had previously borne in the narrative, and to certain terms
new senses differing from those in which they had been previously
used. Applying this explanation here, it results that the probable
reason for calling the light day is to point out that the word occurs
in two senses, and that while it was to be the popular and proper term
for the natural day, this sense must be distinguished from its other
meaning as a day of creation. In short, we may take this as a plain
and authoritative declaration _that the day of creation is not the day
of popular speech_. We see in this a striking instance of the general
truth that in the simplicity of the structure of this record we find
not carelessness, but studied and severe precision, and are warned
against the neglect of the smallest peculiarities in its diction.

What, then, is the day of creation, as distinguished by Moses himself
from the natural day. The general opinion, and that which at first
sight appears most probable, is that it is merely the ordinary civil
day of twenty-four hours. Those who adopt this view insist on the
impropriety of diverting the word from its usual sense. Unfortunately,
however, for this argument, the word is not very frequently used in
the Scriptures for the whole twenty-four hours of the earth's
revolution. Its etymology gives it the sense of the time of glowing or
warmth, and in accordance with this the divine authority here limits
its meaning to the daylight. Accordingly throughout the Hebrew
Scriptures _yom_ is generally the natural and not the civil day; and
where the latter is intended, the compound terms "day and night" and
"evening and morning" are frequently used. Any one who glances over
the word "day" in a good English concordance can satisfy himself of
this fact. But the sense of natural day from sunrise to sunset is
expressly excluded here by the context, as already shown; and all that
we can say in favor of the interpretation that limits the day of
creation to twenty-four hours, is that next to the use of the word for
the natural day, which is its true popular meaning, its use for the
civil day is perhaps the most frequent. It is therefore by no means a
statement of the whole truth to affirm, as many writers have do