mained entirely unpeopled during this lengthened term of years. Another insuperable dilemma arises from the perusal of the second chapter. "Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them;" in which passage some understand the angels to be included: " and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." Thus the seventh day of our week is purposely added to, and spoken of, in connexion with the preceding six; with only this difference, that the Creator is declared to work during the six, and to rest upon the seventh; but the last is surely of the same duration as the rest, and it has been set apart by Divine institution from that time to the present, as an interval of twenty-four hours. If" A Scriptural Geologist" asserts that this seventh period was likewise one of a thousand years, of which whole our week of days is only a reduced and retrospective representation, then I would ask him when did Adam fall? From the context, it seems to me most probable, that he did not sin till after the expiration of the Sabbath, when the first allusion is made to the entrance of evil, as some length of time would be required for the historical transaction; but under the supposition of your correspondent, the birth of Cain would thus be extended till the end of another seventh age. Nor is it likely that there was any inequality of periodical division between each of the seven days; for at the close of each of the six, the same words, "the evening and morning," are added, as if to mark emphatically the time. I am aware that the heavenly luminaries were not them. selves created till the fourth day; but this obscurity will vanish, if we will only reflect that, after the globe emerged from chaos, and after the separation of light from darkness, the same, or nearly the same, lapse of time may have been allowed to pass in the Divine Mind, before light and heat were incorporated and concentrated in the sun, moon, and stars, and time was registered by the construction of the celestial orrery. To make use of a finite similitude, an inhabitant of Tahiti has no doubt of his existence, and can reckon so many days in which the earth has revolved round its axis, being ignorant of astronomy, before the ocular demonstration of the British chronometer is submitted to his inspection, which is a mechanical register of the same duration. Another incongruity is apparent from the succeeding verses of the second chapter, which contain a more particular description of Eden, with a recapitulation of the formation of Adam and Eve, as the crowning work of Jehovah. We there read that God made "every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew." "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them; and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof." Hence we may infer that the manner of first formations can be only very imperfectly known by existing rational phenomena; for here we learn, that during a defined space there was instantaneous produce, contrary to the progressive laws of second causes. I may further illustrate my meaning by other instances derived CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 16. 2 D from the Old and New Testaments. Isaiah applied a lump of figs to the boil of Hezekiah, and he miraculously recovered. Here was the use of physical means, and the lapse of so many minutes during the application of the remedy; but the immediate effect of it is attributable to the revealed purpose of God; otherwise it was no miracle at all. Elijah also stretched himself several times upon a dead child, and uttered certain words before resuscitation took place. Again, our Lord anointed the eyes of a blind man with spittle before he worked a cure; and on another occasion waited for successive days, before he raised a man from the grave by the voice of Omnipotence. In like manner, though the Lord by one fiat could have bad the globe, with all its pre-arranged wonders of nature, exist out of nothing in an instant, yet it pleased him to set apart a certain given duration for the exertion of creative agency. If it had been his will to employ six thousand years instead of six days, we should not have been told that "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years," according to our present mode of calculating time; while in the consecutive clause of the sentence, we are again informed that "the evening and the morning were the fourth day;" which would be a literal deception; but we should have been apprized that he had prolonged the work of the fourth day, and those subsequent to it, if not anterior, for the space of a thousand years each. We likewise read, in the same chapter, "And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat; and it was so." I cannot then credit the destruction of carnivorous animals; since such a propensity was evidently unnatural till after the Fall; nor is it reasonable to believe of Adam, to whom they were subjected, and for whom indeed the whole earthly fabric was framed, (as man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man,) that he should have been called upon to name these very animals, whose genera and species had been swept away for ages prior to his own being. Such a preposterous idea appears almost to be a mockery of his delegated prerogatives and universal sovereignty. That a decided change passed upon the inferior creation, after the introduction of sin, is evidential from the 14th verse of the 3rd chapter; "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." And again Adam is thus addressed: "cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee." Though animal food was then permitted, it was not divinely ordained till after the flood. The Gordian knot of the whole geological system remains yet to be untied, or the query to be answered, how came it to pass that no human organic relics are discovered? If I put this question to "a Scriptural Geologist," it is probable that he will find it no easier matter to decide than myself. Geology does not aid him in his inquiry; for it confesses itself to be baffled in the pursuit. Here then, at least, we meet upon even ground, and must both of us lay down our swords, as amicable but weary dispu tants, upon the arena of gladiatorship. Before, however, my strength is quite spent, let me demand of your correspondent, whether the sea and land, since that Mosaic deluge, may not have partially changed their relative places; whether he, or any other modern geologist, has searched the bed of the ocean; whether human bones may not have been hurled into its bottom, which is their grave, and their particles have been broken and dissolved, as if it had been the Divine Will that they who perished by the act of a judicial sentence, should have no other burial place, nor be raked out of such a receptacle, and that the event itself should be paradoxically noted by the total want of any such public mark at all, as would have been the result, had so many millions of our fellow beings been hewn out of every quarry, and exposed to view, in the same manner as they may be disinterred from our church-yards? May they not be sunk in an abyss of oblivion, and enveloped with a coverlid from which they cannot be extricated, till, at the same Almighty bidding, "the sea shall give up its dead? I would only quote a few passages from the 7th chapter of Genesis, in proof of the supernatural magnitude and effective potency of the deluge, as recited by the sacred historian : "I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth;" (v. 4.) "All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened." (v. 11.) "And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days." (v. 19, 20, 24.) I would remark, in conclusion, that this question, like that of the plurality of worlds, is not one which involves the veracity of Christianity itself, or overshadows the glories of its promises; but whatever human explanation tends to invalidate Scriptural authenticity, in any parts or part, is more or less deserving of consideration, and ought to be reprehended and discarded accordingly. F. S. ON MEDITATION AS A MEANS OF GRACE. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. WHEN this subject was first presented to me for consideration, I was struck with its novelty. To me it was altogether untrodden ground. And yet it is surprising that a habit so necessary as meditation, to the healthy life of the Christian, and so obviously beneficial, should so seldom form the subject of public instruction,* and be so little cultivated in private life. It is, I conceive, a means of grace much lost sight of, We were not aware that the duty and blessedness of hallowed meditation are so little urged as our correspondent represents. The subject has been often touched upon in our own pages: and one of the present Editor's Family Sermons, as long ago as 1817 (reprinted in "Forty Family Sermons "), was upon it; from Psalm civ. 34, “My meditation of Him shall be sweet." We are glad, however, to revive the subject by the insertion of our correspondent's very useful paper. and neglected. And perhaps to that change in the manners and habits of religious people, which has brought family instruction comparatively into disuse, is it to be attributed that meditation is so little practised. Owing to a variety of causes, the Christian has been drawn of late years more into public life; and time has been occupied in forwarding the spiritual good of others, which, in former days, would have been devoted to reading, meditation, and prayer. And hence it comes to pass, that strong and painful misgivings have crossed the minds of those who have been actively and usefully engaged in a good cause-"They made me keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept." One thing, however, is certain, he cannot be a thriving Christian, growing in grace, in the knowledge and enjoyment of God, and in communion with him and with his Son Jesus Christ, who lives always in public. 1. The Nature of Meditation. Meditation may be set, and at regular times, or habitual and unprepared. And doubtless those Christians who are favoured with a contemplative habit of mind, have much enjoyment in its exercise, and find it very profitable. While engaged in the ordinary business of life, they can maintain the recollection of spiritual things in the mind. And where persons are so constituted as to possess, in a considerable degree, the power of abstracting themselves from other things, there is never a want of time, place, or subject for meditation. Such "walk with God; " and while their feet tread the earth, their heads are in heaven. But meditation, in the usual sense of the word, means deep, close, and steady thinking-retired and secret contemplation. It is not self-examination nor self-communion, though intimately, if not necessarily, connected with both. It is the settled, quiet, serious thinking over any point or subject;-ruminating upon it;-pondering it in the mind. It is in the beautiful language of the psalmist "musing: " "I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy works; I muse on the works of thy hands." Milton also has "musing meditation : and says that wisdom "Oft seeks to sweet retired solitude, She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings, Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impair'd." In considering meditation as subservient to the best interests of the soul, the subject on which it is employed must be spiritual; some of the "things by which men live, and in which is the life of the spirit." The state of our own souls,-our past lives,-the dealings of God with us,--and the various truths of God revealed to us in the Scripture, may well form subjects for profitable meditation. And by meditation on truths, we would understand the remembering, and retracing, and dwelling on such in our minds, as we have been previously taught, and made acquainted with, rather than the investigation of points which as yet we are but feeling after. We may, with the psalmist, make the law, the precepts, and the works of God, the matter of our meditation; with Timothy, we may meditate on the Apostle's instructions; and with the Virgin mother of our Lord, we may keep the angel's message, and "ponder it in our hearts." II. The Usefulness of Meditation. 1. The practical influence of the truth can only be known and felt, when it is habitually present to the mind. A truth absent from the mind, is for the time of no more influence than if it were altogether unknown, or disbelieved. Whatever be the direct tendency of any truth,-whatever be the effect which it is calculated to produce,— whether peace in the conscience,-joy in the heart,-mortification of sin, the raising of the affections to high and heavenly things,-love to God and Christ,-the patient suffering and cheerful doing of the Lord's will, it cannot have that tendency in us,-it cannot produce that effect in us, if it be as a forgotten thing. But it is not possible that any truth should be thus habitually present to us, unless it be more or less the subject of meditation. The mind does not otherwise become fully imbued with it: though we do understand it, and acknowledge it, and believe it; we are not leavened with it; it is not become a part and parcel of our own minds. If the acquisition of knowledge be compared to the reception of food, then meditation is as digestion, which alone converts it into the means of sustenance and vigour. It is thus also, in no slight measure, by the mind dwelling upon spiritual things, that men become more and more spiritual. The contemplation of the character of our Lord, as revealed in the word of God, is the ordained means of conforming his people to his likeness. (2 Cor. iii. 18). In fact, what is a heavenly-minded man? What is it to be spiritually-minded which is life and peace ? What, but having the thoughts chiefly occupied with spiritual and heavenly things: and how can this be the case with any one, without meditation? 2. Again, it is by meditation that we apply to our own cases the things which we hear and read. Great excitement, or impression and conviction, may be produced by preaching, and yet, unless recalled and revived by meditation, may very soon entirely pass away. Who has not been a wonder to himself, that he should remember so little of a discourse which, at the time, pleased and interested him ; and yet in a week scarcely any traces are retained;—a dim, indistinct, general notion is all that remains floating in the memory. The simple reason is, because it was never digested; never by subsequent meditation made our own. Like a language imperfectly learned, it is soon forgotten. So also of expositions and interpretations of particular portions of Scripture: at the time a difficulty is obviated, and the mind satisfied; but for want of reflection, we find, when we would revive the form and shape and substance of what was said, that all has faded away. Now this is felt more or less by all. If, then, meditation be useful to those who are more accustomed to habits of thinking and investigation, who are in a measure set apart to seclusion and study, how much more so must it be for those who are necessarily involved in the active pursuits of life, and mixed up with the bustle, the cares, and anxieties of worldly business! And is it not to be imputed to the neglect of this duty, that so few are found who really savour of the things of the Spirit ;-who live and breathe in an atmosphere of godliness;-who walk "in the fear of God, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost? And those who are ministers should remember that it is not retirement from their families,-it is not that they are in their studies, which necessarily supposes that they do not forget to meditate :-the question is, how are their secluded hours employed? A man may be entirely dissipated, though books only occupy his time; and as far removed from meditation in his study, as |