"Stand still and consider the wonderful works of God. Dost thou know when God disposes them, And the lightning of his cloud shines forth? Dost thou know the poising of the dark clouds, The wonderful works of the Perfect in knowledge?" We may now consider the words in which this great improvement in the condition of the earth is recorded. The Hebrew term for the atmosphere is _Rakiah_, literally, something expanded or beaten out--an expanse. It is rendered in our version "firmament," a word conveying the notion of support and fixity, and in the Septuagint "_Stereoma_," a word having a similar meaning. The idea conveyed by the Hebrew word is not, however, that of _strength_, but of _extent_; or as Milton--the most accurate of expositors of these words--has it: "The firmament, expanse of liquid, pure, Transparent, elemental air, diffused In circuit to the uttermost convex Of this great round." That this was really the way in which this word was understood by the Hebrews appears from several passages of the Bible. Job says of God, "Who alone _spreadeth_ out the heavens."[71] David, in the 104th Psalm, which is a poetical paraphrase of the history of creation, speaks of the Creator as "_stretching_ out the heavens as a curtain." In later writers, as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, similar expressions occur. The notion of a solid or arched firmament was probably altogether remote from the minds of these writers. Such beliefs may have prevailed at the time when the Septuagint translation was made, but I have no hesitation in affirming that no trace of them can be found in the Old Testament. In proof of this, I may refer to some of the passages which have been cited as affording the strongest instances of this kind of "accommodation." In Exodus xxiv., 10, we are told, "And they saw the God of Israel, and under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire, and as it were the heaven itself in its clearness." This is evidently a comparison of the pavement seen under the feet of Jehovah to a sapphire in its color, and to the heavens in its transparency. The intention of the writer is not to give information respecting the heavens, or to liken them either to a pavement or a sapphire; all that we can infer is that he believed the heavens to be clear or transparent. Job mentions the "pillars of heaven," but the connection shows that this is merely a poetical expression for lofty mountains. The earthquake causes these pillars of heaven to "tremble." We are informed in the book of Job that God "ties up his waters in his thick cloud, and the cloud is not rent under them." We are also told of the "treasures of snow and the treasures of hail," and rain is called the "bottles of heaven," and is said to be poured out of the "lattices of heaven." I recognize in all these mere poetical figures, not intended to be literally understood. Some learned writers wish us to believe that the intention of the Bible in