Thus far we have proceeded, in our previous lectures, in the elucidation of this parable of the creation. We come now to the fourth day. This symbolizes the fourth stage of regeneration.
"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness."
These great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, are, of course, the sun and moon. But there is a curious feature of this portion of the narrative to which the opponents of the Bible have not neglected to call attention. It is that the sun was not created until the fourth day. Now the sun is the well-known source of all our light. The moon only shines with the borrowed light of the sun. It is the sun which divides the day from the night—light from darkness. Its presence constitutes light and day; its absence is darkness and night. Yet the first
