in passing, when the true meaning of the record is under
discussion.

SECTION 1. THE DAYS.

The question of the days is beyond all doubt the most important of
those which have to be discussed. On the one hand, the impression
naturally left upon the reader of the first chapter of Genesis is
that natural days are meant, and this impression is not removed by
a cursory inspection of the original. On the other hand, if there
is any one scientific belief which rests on peculiarly solid
ground, it is the belief that the formation of the world occupied
a period which is beyond the grasp of the most powerful
imagination.

There is, indeed, some reason to think that the time claimed by
geologists is somewhat exaggerated. Their views are in many cases
based on the assumption that change is now going on, on the
surface of the earth, as it did in all past time--that it is the
same in character, in intensity, and in rate. But there are good
reasons for supposing that almost all the causes which lead to
change are gradually decreasing in intensity. The chief causes by
which changes are brought about are the upheaval and subsidence of
the earth's surface; the destructive agencies of wind, storms at
sea, rain and frost; and the action of the tides. Of these, all
but the last are directly dependent on the action of heat, and
there is every reason to believe that the heat of the earth is in
process of gradual dissipation. If this be the case, all those
agencies which are dependent on it must