iately the food of animals, it
must have had a previous existence. The latter part of the azoic age
in geology we therefore regard as the age when the plant kingdom was
instituted, the latter half of the third day in Genesis. However short
or long the epoch, it was one of the great steps of progress."

In concluding the examination of the work of the third day, I must
again remind the reader that, on the theory of long creative periods,
the words under consideration must refer to the first introduction of
vegetation, in forms that have long since ceased to exist. Geology
informs us that in the period of which it is cognizant the vegetation
of the earth has been several times renewed, and that no plants of the
older and middle geological periods now exist. We may therefore rest
assured that the vegetable species, and probably also many of the
generic and family forms of the vegetation of the third day, have long
since perished, and been replaced by others suited to the changed
condition of the earth. It is indeed probable that during the third
and fourth days themselves there might be many removals and renewals
of the terrestrial flora, so that perhaps every species created at the
commencement of the introduction of plants may have been extinct
before the close of the period. Nevertheless it was marked by the
introduction of vegetation, which in one or another set of forms has
ever since clothed the earth.

At the commencement of the third day the earth was still covered by
the waters. As time advanced islands and mountain-peaks arose from
the ocean, vomiting forth the molten and igneous materials of the
interior of the earth's crust. Plains and valleys were then spread
around, rivers traced out their beds, and the ocean was limited by
coasts and divided by far-stretching continents. At the command of the
Creator plants sprung from the soil--the earliest of organized
structures--at first probably few and small, and fitted to contend
against the disadvantages of soils impregnated with saline particles
and destitute of organic matter; but as the day advanced increasing in
number, magnitude, and elevation, until at length the earth was
clothed with a luxuriant and varied vegetation, worthy the approval of
the Creator, and the admiring song of the angelic "sons of God."

CHAPTER IX.

LUMINARIES.

"And God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of
heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let