time, duration without beginning fills the past; and at the expiration of this period,
unending duration opens before the people of God. Eternity is that word which
embraces duration without beginning and without end. And that Being whose
existence comprehends eternity, is he who only hath immortality, the King
eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. ii2
When it pleased this infinite Being, he gave existence to our earth. Out of
nothing God created
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all things; iii 1 "so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear." This act of creation is that event which marks the commencement of the
first week of time. He who could accomplish the whole work with one word chose
rather to employ six days, and to accomplish the result by successive steps. Let
us trace the footsteps of the Creator from the time when he laid the foundation of
the earth until the close of the sixth day, when the heavens and the earth
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were finished, "and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was
very good." iv1
On the first day of time God created the heaven and the earth. The earth thus
called into existence was without form, and void; and total darkness covered the
Creator's work. Then "God said, Let there be light; and there was light." " And
God divided the light from the darkness," and called the one day, and other night.
v2
On the second day of time "God said, Let there be a firmament [margin, Heb.,
expansion] in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the
waters." The dry land had not yet appeared; consequently the earth was covered
with water. As no atmosphere existed, thick vapors rested upon the the face of
the water; but the atmosphere being now called into existence by the word of the
Creator, causing those elements to unite which compose the air we breathe, the
fogs and vapors that had rested upon the bosom of the water were borne aloft by
it. This atmosphere or expansion is called heaven. vi3
On the third day of time God gathered the waters together and caused the dry
land to appear. the gathering together of the waters God called seas; the dry
land, thus rescued from the waters, he called earth. "And God said, Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind,
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so." "And God saw that it was
good." vii4
On the fourth day of time "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the
heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them
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be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years." "And God made two
great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night;
he made the stars also." Light had been created on the first day of the week; and
now on the fourth day he causes the sun and moon to appear as light-bearers,
and places the light under their rule. And they continue unto this day according to
his ordinances, for all are his servants. Such was the work of the fourth day. And
