4. The Third Day

 

I. The third day is characterized by two operations: the waters that were under heaven were gathered together so that the dry land appeared, and the earth brought forth the green herb (Gen. i. 9–12). The peculiarities noted by Moses on this day are distinctly marked in the records of geology. In the period preceding this, known as the Silurian epoch, there are no traces of land vegetation or land animals; it is evident also that there was but little light, as the specimens of marine life have no organs of vision. The Devonian system, which corresponds to this day, was conspicuous for great volcanic disturbances and the wholesale upheaval of mountain ranges above the surface of the world-wide sea. The water was still at a very high temperature, as appears from the structure of the fish of that period. They were ganoid, or protected from the heat by a sort of coat of armour of bony material. As the waters gradually cooled these species disappeared and were replaced by others. How marvellous are the records of God’s creative action written in the bowels of the mountains or on the bed of the ocean, and now brought to light with so much ingenuity and patient labour! So God tells us now in another form the same history that He conveyed to earlier men in the simple words of the Hebrew Lawgiver.

II. The second operation of this day was the development of vegetable life from the germs infused into the earth by the spirit of the Lord on the first day. This was supere minently the age of vegetation. The earth was covered with a luxurious abundance of verdure, far surpassing that of the tropical forests of the present epoch. The trees and plants were not those that we are acquainted with; they were chiefly one great family of plants, eight hundred species of which have been identified, while the flora of our times number perhaps a hundred thousand species. Under the conditions of great heat and moisture, subdued light, and an excess of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, thousands of generations of trees shot up rapidly, decayed, and gave place to others. The Carboniferous strata, which contain the compressed and solidified remains of that vegetation, are about ten thousand feet in thickness. The character of these plants as found by us now in coal shows that they did not live in sunlight such as we now enjoy. There are no season rings in them, and their texture shows that the light which fell upon them abounded in actinic rays, but was deficient in the bright ones. Thus did God make provision for the wants of man millions of years before his existence, by the laws which He laid down for the course of nature.

III. This same epoch was marked by the laying down of thick beds of carboniferous limestone; these consist, to the extent of one half, of pure carbonic acid, which was absorbed from the atmosphere. The enormous vegetation that covered the earth had decomposed vast quantities of the same gas and released pure oxygen into the air. By these two means the poisonous heavy atmosphere of the earth was gradually changed into its present condition; at the same time the excess of heat was radiated into space; and thus the earth became a suitable abode for air-breathing animals, the harbingers of man. How wonderful is this gradual progress from stage to stage, during the slow lapse of millions of years, without effort, without error, without the need of interferences and rectifications of the plan and of the laws laid down at first by the great Creator! All was foreseen, all was decreed, and all came about in due course through the action of the irresistible will of God. Do not dare to oppose that calm, eternal, universal, overwhelming force.