THE AGE OF THE EARTH.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 369, 14 June 1911, Page 6

THE AGE OF THE EARTH.

Mr. Joseph Clayton writes that neither the discovery of ancient Hebrew MSS. nor any other MSS. can determine the age of the earth. Records, he contends, may determine the number of years between the birth of some historical person and the present time, A.D. 1910, but that is not the same as the age of the earth. The historical Adam was not made in six days (or six times 24 hours, or six revolutions of the earth on its axis) after the beginning of the making of the earth ; if we take the sensible, or scientific, or the literal wording of the first verses of Genesis, Chapter I. The days thert mentioned do not mean days of 24 hours, or revolutions of the earth on its axis, as is taught by the acciesiastics of the day. Because, up to the making of the sun on the said fourth day, there was neither morning nor evening, nor day. The writer of genesis was evidently an educated man, or he :ould not have so succinctly described in so few words such a vast operation. He, therefore, could not make such a blunder as to talk of days (24 hours) when he knew there '.vere no days prior to to the sun's appearance. He therefore, must have men! a period for a day. These several periods may have meant millions of years. ?»T;\ Clayton considers that the v.liter of the Creation was a more educated nan than has been seen since, his power of compression being so great. No MSS., he concludes, can tell what occurred before man appeared to be able to make MSS.