In the second creative day God made what Genesis 1.6-8 calls the 'firmament' the expanse of air which surrounds the earth. The Hebrew word is raqia, which means something stretched and beaten out, as a piece of gold beaten out into a thin wide sheet, or a veil stretched out over an empty place. The A.V. term comes from the Vulgate, and is the Latin 'firmamentum' meaning something solid or firm; this was due to the early belief that the sky was a solid vault in which the sun, moon and stars were fixed and which had portals through which the winds could blow upon the earth. Yet there is wonderful truth in the Genesis record. The firmament or atmosphere was to divide the waters below from the waters above. It is a familiar sight to watch the rain clouds sail by floating upon the upper air like ships on the sea; it is not always so easily recognised what colossal forces are involved. The amount of water vapour carried by the atmosphere over each square mile of the earth's surface amounts to the staggering total of 70,000 tons. If it all came down at once there would be some extensive floods, but no, the air holds it up and allows that which is necessary for the welfare of the world to come down as rain. Truly Job said "dost thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge. hast thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong, as a molten looking-glass" (mirror) — Job 37. 16-18. The air we breathe is so familiar a thing that we do not stop to consider how vital it is to life and what evidence there is of Divine planning in its provision. There is just a sufficiently thick belt of it around the earth to suit the needs of man and all animals. Two miles up breathing becomes difficult; at an altitude of six or seven miles human life is impossible without artificial aids. We must live and move and have our being in this close compass. And yet this atmosphere of ours is enough to shield us from so many natural forces which would otherwise harm or destroy us. Cosmic rays reaching us from outer space would speedily destroy all life upon earth were it not for the atmosphere that captures and renders them harmless before reaching the ground. Meteors and shooting stars are burned up and disintegrated by the air long before they reach the earth's surface. That is just as well, for every day some twenty-five million meteors, mostly tiny ones, enter the earth's atmosphere and unless burned up would finish on the surface of the earth. The air tempers the sun's heat by day and conserves it by night; without it we should be alternately scorched and frozen. It provides oxygen for men and animals to breathe and carbon dioxide for plants to take. It was when air was breathed into Adam's nostrils that his bodily organism went into action and he awoke and became a living soul. It is when a man's breath goes forth that he returns to his earth and in that very day his thoughts perish (Psa. 146. 4). The air is the vehicle of natural life to man; in just the same way the Holy Spirit is the vehicle of Divinely given life to man. It is not without reason that the Hebrew word ruach in the Old Testament and the Greek word pneuma in the New Testament mean both breath and spirit. In the minds of the inspired writers there was no real difference. The life that is in man, although outwardly sustained by the air around us is also sustained by the power of' the Holy Spirit of God. In him we live, and move, and have our being. (Acts 17. 28).