"
{p. 318}
"How," it is asked, "could there be night and day and vegetation
without a sun?"
And to this assault religion has had no answer.
Now, I can not but regard these opening chapters as a Mosaic work of
ancient legends, dovetailed together in such wise that the true
chronological arrangement has been departed from and lost.
It is conceded that in some of the verses of these chapters God is
spoken of as Elohim, while in the remaining verses he is called
Jehovah Elohim. This is very much as if a book were discovered to-day
in part of which God was referred to as Jove, and in the rest as
Jehovah-Jove. The conclusion would be very strong that the first part
was written by one who know the Deity only as Jove, while the other
portion was written by one who had come under Hebraic influences. And
this state of facts in Genesis indicates that it was not the work of
one inspired mind, faultless and free from error; but the work of two
minds, relating facts, it is true, but jumbling them together in an
incongruous order.
I propose, therefore, with all reverence, to attempt a re-arrangement
of the verses of the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, which
will, I hope, place it in such shape that it will be beyond future
attack from the results of scientific research; by restoring the
fragments to the position they really occupied before their last
compilation.
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