The Worlds Great Sermons, Volume 1 | Page 7

which man's mind can not even
imagine a pleasanter one for our enjoyment It must be well understood
that when we speak of the voice, of the word, of the command of God,
this divine language does not mean to us a sound which escapes from
the organs of speech, a collision of air struck by the tongue; it is a
simple sign of the will of God, and, if we give it the form of an order, it
is only the better to impress the souls whom we instruct.
"And God saw the light, that it was good." How can we worthily praise
light after the testimony given by the Creator to its goodness? The word,
even among us, refers the judgment to the eyes, incapable of raising
itself to the idea that the senses have already received. But if beauty in

bodies results from symmetry of parts and the harmonious appearance
of colors how, in a simple and homogeneous essence like light, can this
idea of beauty be preserved? Would not the symmetry in light be less
shown in its parts than in the pleasure and delight at the sight of it?
Such is also the beauty of gold, which it owes, not to the happy
mingling of its parts, but only to its beautiful color, which has a charm
attractive to the eyes.
Thus, again, the evening star is the most beautiful of the stars: not that
the parts of which it is composed form a harmonious whole, but thanks
to the unalloyed and beautiful brightness which meets our eyes. And
further, when God proclaimed the goodness of light, it was not in
regard to the charm of the eye, but as a provision for future advantage,
because at that time there were as yet no eyes to judge of its beauty.
"And God divided the light from the darkness." That is to say, God
gave them natures incapable of mixing, perpetually in opposition to
each other, and put between them the widest space and distance.
"And God called the light day, and the darkness he called night." Since
the birth of the sun, the light that it diffuses in the air when shining on
our hemisphere is day, and the shadow produced by its disappearance is
night. But at that time it was not after the movement of the sun, but
following this primitive light spread abroad in the air or withdrawn in a
measure determined by God, that day came and was followed by night.
"And the evening and the morning were the first day." Evening is then
the boundary common to day and night; and in the same way morning
constitutes the approach of night to day. It was to give day the
privileges of seniority that Scripture put the end of the first day before
that of the first night, because night follows day: for, before the
creation of light, the world was not in night, but in darkness. It is the
opposite of day which was called night, and it did not receive its name
until after day. Thus were created the evening and the morning.
Scripture means the space of a day and a night, and afterward no more
says day and night, but calls them both under the name of the more
important: a custom which you will find throughout Scripture.
Everywhere the measure of time is counted by days without mention of
nights. "The days of our years," says the Psalmist; "few and evil have
the days of the years of my life been," said Jacob; and elsewhere "all
the days of my life."

"And the evening and the morning were the first day," or, rather, one
day.--(_Revised Vers_). Why does Scripture say "one day," not "the
first day?" Before speaking to us of the second, the third, and the fourth
days, would it not have been more natural to call that one the first
which began the series? If it, therefore, says "one day," it is from a wish
to determine the measure of day and night and to combine the time that
they contain. Now, twenty-four hours fill up the space of one day--we
mean of a day and of a night; and if, at the time of the solstices, they
have not both an equal length, the time marked by Scripture does not
the less circumscribe their duration. It is as tho it said: Twenty-four
hours measure the space of a day, or a day is in reality the time that the
heavens, starting from one point, take to return thither. Thus, every
time that, in the revolution of the sun, evening and morning occupy the
world, their periodical succession never exceeds the space of one day.
But we must believe that there is a mysterious reason for