let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand." (Ps. 95: 1-7.) Note also the blended sublimity and beauty of David's appeal: "Praise the Lord; sing unto him a new song, for the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap; he layeth up the depth in store-houses. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him, for he spake and it was: he commanded, and it stood fast." (Ps. 33: 1-9.) Still higher if pos sible rises the lofty strain of Isaiah when he would set forth the unequalled power of the great Creator as the Refuge and Salvation of his trustful children:-"Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? whom then will ye liken God"? etc. (Isa. 40: 12, 18). So when Job had indulged himself too far in questioning the ways of God in providence, the Lord replied out of the whirlwind, demanding of him"Where wert thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest-who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened, or who laid the cornerstone thereof when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy"?. "Canst

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thou lift up thy voice to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee, Here are we"? (Job 38: 4-7, 34, 35.)

In that great conflict of ages against idolatry, the one final appeal was wont to be made to this great fact of God's Creatorship. We have examples in Ps. 115: 2-8 and Jer 10: 1-16 and elsewhere.Thus throughout the sacred word this great fact that God is our Creator, involving the whole sphere of God in nature, stands as the first witness to his true divinity, the first proof that in him we live and have our being-the ground of the

first claim upon us for supreme homage, worship, trust, love and obedience. The first lessons taught in Eden were taken from this great and open volume of natural religion. The first lessons which God's people were to place before the heathen in their mission work of the early ages were drawn from the visible worlds and from their testimony to the Great Creator. These manifestations are the alphabet of God; the point therefore from which progressive revelations begin.

Noticeably the record of the creation (Gen. 1 and 2) rests not with simply giving the general statement that God made all things, but enters somewhat into the particulars, reciting in certain points the steps of the process and the order of its details. First the heavens and the earth had a beginning and this beginning was from God. At some stage in the process, perhaps the next in order after the heavens and the earth could be said to be, the earth was chaotic, i. e. formless and desolate; then God brought forth light; then to clear the atmosphere somewhat of mists and vapors, he caused some of its waters to rise into the expanse, and some to descend to the earth below; then gathered the waters below into seas, leaving portions of the earth's surface dry land. Then he brought forth grass and herbage; next, the light-bearers in the heavens appeared-the sun, moon and stars; then came into being fish, reptiles and fowl; and on the sixth day land animals and man. Thus in six successive periods of time, through steps of gradation easily traced by the witnessing "sons of God" (Job 38:7), the processes of this creative work were finished. The Great Father would have his first-born unfallen "sons" as well as his later-born and redeemed children enjoy these works of his creative hand, and therefore he developed them slowly and in the order of naturally successive steps that they might see that all was truly "good," "very good."

Partly because of advances made within recent times in physical science, partly because of speculations not always friendly in tone to the inspired record, and partly because of the intrinsic interest and importance of the subject, some special points in this narrative demand very particular attention.

1. The origin of the written record and the manner of its revelation to men.

The entire book of Genesis is ascribed to Moses on most valid grounds; whether as compiler only or as original author, is, therefore, the first question. I do not see how this point can be determined with absolute certainty. The probabilities in my view favor the supposition of previously written documents, these probabilities arising, not to any considerable extent from manifest differences of style in its various portions, and not at all from diversities in the use of the names of God, Jehovah and Elohim; but mainly from the strong presumption that such genealogical records as abound in Genesis, coupled so largely with numbers, would be put in writing before the age of Moses. Men who had the knowledge of writing would certainly appreciate its utility for the preservation of such facts as these. And further; the very use of the word "generations "* (Gen. 2: 4) in the sense of history, and much more still the statement (Gen. 5: 1), "This is the book of the generations of Adam," raise this presumption nearly or quite to a certainty. In making up the historical portions of the Scriptures it seems rational to assume that the Lord moved "holy men of old” to put in writing such facts falling under their personal observation and immediate knowledge as he deemed useful for these sacred records. In some cases the writer might be (as was Luke) just one remove from the original eyewitnesses, yet in a position to learn the facts with "perfect understanding" and "certainty." We should not doubt the power of God to give to holy men these historic facts by immediate revelation; but the question is not one of power, but of wisdom, of divine policy, and of fact. The divine policy seems to have been (in this case as in miracles) never to introduce the supernatural, the miraculous, to do what the natural might accomplish equally well. On this principle inspired men were moved of God to use their own eyes and minds in writing Scripture history in all cases when the facts came within their certain knowledge. There were facts, like these of the creation, which fell under no human eye, and which therefore do not come under this

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principle. Some form of direct revelation from God is, therefore, to be assumed here. Though the supposition of a revealing angel might find some support from subsequent prophetic Scriptures, yet a direct revelation from God to some inspired writer is the more obvious supposition.- -It has been asked-Was this creation in its processes and announcements shown in a manner analogous to prophetic vision-the writer then recording in his own phrase what he saw and heard? There being no testimony on this point from either of the two parties-the divine Revealer or the human writer-we must leave it undecided. Fortunately it is of no particular importance to us. It is, however, of some importance that we consider the question whether in this account of the creation we are to look for statements adjusted to science-not merely to the stage of its progress in this present year of the nineteeth century, but to the perfect science of ultimate fact; or, on the other hand, for statements adapted to the average mind of Hebrew readers in the age of Moses, written for their comprehension, instruction and spiritual culture. I answer unhesitatingly, the latter. "All Scripture, given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine. and for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3: 16), and was of God designed and shaped for these ends.Yet let it be borne in mind; these statements respecting the processes of creation, being in the sense intended, actually true, will not conflict with any true science. They may omit processes which human analysis and research may render probable, passing them as not germain to the scope of a moral revelation and as not likely to be intelligible to the masses of mankind. Finally-that the assumed stand-point of view from which these processes of creation are contemplated is on this earth and not elsewhere in the universe is certain from the fact that it was written to be read and understood by men and not by angels. Hence we must expect the facts to be presented as they would have appeared to a supposed observer upon our globe.

2. What is the true idea of nature, and what the line between nature and the supernatural?

A reference to familiar facts will best set forth the case. Thus; it is in and by nature that at a certain temperature water becomes vapor; at another tempera

ture, ice; that vapor rises in the atmosphere, water runs downward, and ice abides under the laws of solids. On the other hand it is not in nature that water in any of its forms creates itself. Its elements can not begin to be, save by some power above nature. Again, by nature plants and animals reproduce their kind, but never can of themselves begin their own existence. Hence some of the processes brought before us in this record of creation come under the head of nature; others are as obviously supernatural-from the immediate hand of God. The work of the second day-the mists of the atmosphere, in part ascending in vapor, in part precipitated upon the earth in water-seems to have followed natural law. In the work of the third, the waters on higher portions of the earth's surface subsiding into the seas, follow the law of flowing water. But the original creation of matter and the beginnings of life, both vegetable and animal, must have been supernatural-from the immediate fiat of the Almighty.

This point would scarcely need special definition had not extreme views been put forth in our times; as (e. g.) that nature is virtually a second-rate deityindebted to God, indeed, for the original gift of its powers, but thenceforward working those powers independently of God-made to run without God after he has once wound it up as the mechanic makes and winds up his watch. But the Scriptures recognize no such semi-deification of nature. According to their teaching, God still "upholds all things by the word of his power" (Heb. 1: 3); "By him all things consist" (Col. 1: 17)-i. e., are maintained in their existenceare held to system and order under natural law. It is precisely God himself who gives or withholds the rain; who calls to the lightnings and they answer, "Here we are"-(Job 38: 35); and it is none the less God who wields these agencies because he does it in harmony with principles which are just as fixed as he pleases to have them. Therefore true science will take no exception to the doctrine that nature is nothing more or less than God's established mode of operation. We may call these modes of operations "laws" or "powers," and may think and speak of them as constituting "Nature;" but if we come to regard Nature as a maker and a doer,