them be
for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years. And
let them be for luminaries in the expanse of heaven, to give
light on the earth: and it was so.

"And God made two great luminaries, the greater luminary to
preside over the day, the lesser luminary to preside over
the night. He made the stars also. And God placed them in
the expanse of heaven to give light on the earth, and to
preside over the day and over the night, and to separate the
light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And
the evening and the morning were the fourth day."--Genesis
i., 14-19.

After so long a sojourn on the earth, we are in these verses again
carried to the heavens. Every scientific reader is struck with the
position of this remarkable statement, interrupting as it does the
progress of the organic creation, and constituting a break in the
midst of the terrestrial history which is the immediate subject of the
narrative; thus, in effect, as has often been remarked, dividing the
creative week into two portions. Why was the completion of the
heavenly bodies so long delayed? Why were light and vegetation
introduced previously? If we can not fully answer these questions, we
may at least suppose that the position of these verses is not
accidental, though certainly not that which would have been chosen for
its own sake by any fabricator of systems ancient or modern. Let us
inquire, however, what are the precise terms of the record.

1. The word here used to denote the objects produced clearly
distinguishes them from the product of the first day's creation. Then
God said, "Let _light_ be;" he now says, "Let _luminaries_ or
light-bearers be." We have already seen that the light of the first
day may have emanated from an extended luminous mass, at first
occupying the whole extent of the solar system, and more or less
attached to the several planetary bodies, and afterwards concentrated
within the earth's orbit. The verses now under consideration inform us
that the process of concentration was now complete, that our great
central luminary had attained to its perfect state. This process of
concentration may have been proceeding during the whole of the
intervening time, or it may have been completed at once by some more
rapid process of the nature of a direct interposition of creative
power.

2. The division of light from darkness is expressed by the same terms,
and