And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together place, and let the dry and appear; and it was so. v...

the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: the waters stood above the mountains."-The mountains were there, but the waters covered them." At thy rebuke-that is, at thy word commanding them-they fled; at the noise of thy thunder they hasted away," and the dry land appeared. And then how striking the description of the rivers and fountains of water, and the great sea:-"They go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys, unto the place which thou hast founded for them-(evidently the great ocean);—thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over, that they turn not again to cover the earth. He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills, they give drink to every beast of the field." But we must go back a little to the scene before us. -When the dry land appeared, it doubtless presented all the varieties of mountains, and valleys, islands, and continents; and the waters likewise, all their varieties of oceans and seas, lakes, rivers, and streams. At first the earth must have looked barren, but this could have been but of short duration; for no sooner had the command gone forth, than verdure and beauty covered the face of the land, and this, too, in a state of maturity, ALL having seed in themselves; so that every tree, and every shrub, and every flower we now see, had its first parent there; for

Some have applied this ninth verse to the promise to Noah, that the waters should no more cover the earth; but Creation is surely the subject throughout the whole Psalm.

though the vegetable world has branched out for man's happiness in almost endless variety, yet doubtless the heads of all the respective families sprang into existence that third day. Some have supposed that this creation was confined to one place, the Garden of Eden; and that the winds and waters, and fowl have from age to age carried out the seeds to other lands. Others, that the great leading orders of the three divisions sprang up in the countries where God had destined they should flourish; so that the oak and the pine, and all the hardy families had the north for their first home; and the palm, the vine, the olive, the myrtle, and the more tender trees, the south; and this last idea seems to me to be much the more probable, and this I have endeavoured to exhibit in the plates, though of course, from the smallness of their size, I could but very imperfectly accomplish it.

Having thus endeavoured briefly to explain to you what seems to me to have marked the order of this day's creation, I must now seek to tell you something of the blessings connected therewith, and also enlarge a little on the natural history of the metals and minerals within the heart of the earth, and of the trees and grass on its surface. In the twenty-eighth of Job there is a beautiful remark on this, "As for the earth, out of it cometh bread, and under it is turned up as it were fire; the stones of it, the place of sapphires, and it hath the dust of gold ;" and in the first verse, "Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is molten out of the stone." In these few verses,

what an amazing quantity of information is given to us! and, considering the antiquity of the book of Job, it is of increased interest; and in the close of this chapter, when, inquiring the value of wisdom, he introduces ALL the precious metals and gems of the earth, and then puts them all aside; for the value of wisdom-the wisdom of God, even Jesus-is far above all the glory of the earth. But the verses are so beautiful that I quote them: and they tell us how well the value of these things was known at this early period of the earth's history:-"It cannot be gotten for gold, neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it: and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls: for the price of wisdom is above rubies. topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it, neither shall it be valued with pure gold."

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If you compare Luke xi. 49 with Matt. xxiii. 34 and 1 Cor. i. 24, and then read Proverbs i. 20, 23, viii. and ix., I am sure you will see that in applying the title of the Wisdom of God to the Lord Jesus, we have authority which cannot be gainsaid.

But the knowledge of the metals, with their uses, can be traced back far beyond Job; for Genesis iv. when speaking of Lamech, the sixth from Adam in the line of Cain, says that he had three sons, Jabal, the father of such as dwell in tents, and have cattle, Jubal, the father of

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