flowing curtains of a royal pavilion; or the
extended covering of a tent: "his pavilion around him were dark waters,
and thick clouds of the skies;" "the spreadings of the clouds, and the
noise of his tabernacle;" "he spread a cloud for a covering."[248]
Instead of the notion of a single ocean, the "number of the clouds" is
proverbial in the Scriptures[249] for a multitude; and in direct
opposition to the permanence of a vast metallic arch, the chosen emblems
of instability and transitoriness, and of the utmost rapidity of motion,
suitable even for the chariot of Jehovah, are selected from the
heavens.[250]

In short, there is not the slightest vestige of any foundation in
Scripture for the notions long afterward introduced by the Greek
philosophers. Yet Christians, who have read these passages of Scripture
over and over again, allow themselves to give heed to Infidels, who have
not, asserting, without the shadow of proof, that Moses taught
absurdities which were not invented for a thousand years after his
death. The Bible gives hints of many profound scientific truths; it
teaches no absurdities; _and, instead of countenancing the notion that
the sky is a solid metal hemisphere, it teaches, both literally and
figuratively, directly the contrary_.

4. We come now to the fourth objection, _that the Bible represents God
as creating light before the sun_, which is supposed to be an absurdity,
_and as creating the sun, moon, and stars only two days before Adam_.
This is the only astronomical objection to the Bible account of creation
which has any foundation of Scripture statement to rest upon; but we
shall soon see that here, also, Infidels have not done themselves the
justice of reading the Bible with attention.

I have already corrected that confusion of ideas and carelessness of
perusal which confounds the two distinct and different words, _create_
and _make_, so as to make both mean the same thing. God _created_ the
heavens, as well as the earth, _in the beginning_; a period of such
remote antiquity that, in Bible language, it stands next to eternity.
The sun and moon then came into being. Through what changes they passed,
or when they were endowed with the power of giving light to the
universe, the Bible nowhere declares; but on the fourth day, it tells
us, they _were made lights_, or, literally, _light-bearers_, to this
earth. The comparatively insignificant place allotted to the stars, in
the narrative of this ea