fitted to aid him in accepting the results of scientific investigation. The scientist may discover, in the undulatory theory of light and in the correlation of the forces, an argument in support of revelation. Neither can detect any serious want of harmony between nature and the Bible. The natural and the supernatural must harmonize.

Of course, no theologian now interprets the term "day" (yom), as employed in the account of creation, as meaning a period of twenty-four hours. We have the authority of Scripture for regarding the word as frequently equivalent to a period of indefinite length. "Your father Abraham desired to see my day." "The day of the Son of Man." "I must work the work of Him that sent me while it is day." "If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day." "The day of salvation." "The day of judgment."

3. That there were divisions in the nebulous matter which, under the influence of centrifugal and centripetal forces, broke into numerous gaseous masses; and that these differentiated into systems; these, into worlds. "God divided the light from the darkness," i. e., the active nebulæ from the inactive matter that pervaded space. "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters." An expanse, void space, was made to intervene between the nebulous masses, each of which was concentrating, forming worlds. Planetary systems are separated. The heavens are organized. Motion is producing division; and in each great division, bodies of various sizes are forming. The nebular hypothesis, if established by scientific argument, meets no serious difficulty in the Mosaic. cosmogony.

4. That a portion of matter condensed into a solid

cess.

globe, the earth; that its waters, which primarily constituted a shoreless ocean, were subsequently "gathered together unto one place," causing the dry land to appear. In verse 9, Moses gives the result, not the lengthy proIf science can make good the following statements: this condensation was a result of the loss of heat by radiation; the waters, originally warm, must also have been acidulated, inasmuch as the material deposited in rocks was once in gaseous state; by chemical action the earth was transmuted into a vast galvanic battery, constantly throwing off streams of electricity which at the limits of the enveloping atmosphere became luminous, rendering the earth a brilliant star; the earth lost its luminosity by cooling, and became at length a dark speck on the ocean of immensity; in the process of cooling, it shrank to such an extent as to cause depressions and upheavals, resulting in the separation of land and water;— the Bible offers no objection. Neither the theologian nor the physicist needs to grow nervous. Each may address himself to the task of ascertaining the facts.

5. That the earth brought forth vegetation. Verse II, of chapter i., can scarcely be understood as intimating that a combination of physical forces, or of material elements, produced plant-life; for, in chapter ii., verses 4-5, we read, "These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth . . . in the day that the Lord God made every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew."

6. That the sun and the moon became the source of light and heat to the earth. Not that these were then first created. They may have existed before, being then simply made to assume new and more important relations to the terrestrial globe. The earth being no longer selfluminous, and having lost much of its heat by radia

tion, received its light, and with light, heat, from the

sun.

7. That the waters teemed with living beings, and the air became the home of birds. If science can prove that there was an established order in the introduction of the various species of animals,-protozoans, invertebrates, fishes, reptiles, mammals,-the Bible student has no cause for alarm. His text-book merely affirms that God created animals; and this has not been disproved. Spontaneous generation has very few adherents. Creation of the various animal organisms may have been a series of creative acts: it may have been a creation by derivation. 8. That man was the final act of creation.

Certainly, then, according to the Biblical account, there has been progress. Evolution within each of the four great classes,-matter, plant-life, animal life, rational life, science is at liberty to prove, without incurring censure from interpreters of Scripture. Has it succeeded in proving that all forms, within these four classes, are evolutions from as many primordial germs? Quite doubtful. Still, theism has no objection to the continuance of the effort; no cause for apprehension if success shall reward the labors. God is not eliminated. The Bible statements are not disproved. These great orders, if not the species included under them, are declared in Scriptures to have been created by Him whom theists denominate the First Cause of all things; and until it is proved that they were successively evolved from pre-existing forms, the chain being run backwards to some one eternally existent substance, science and the Bible cannot be said to be in antagonism. There is no valid reason why it may not be asserted that nature's great volume and the Mosaic account of creation are in perfect harmony.

III. THERE HAVE BEEN BREAKS IN THE ORDINARILY CONTINUOUS FLOW OF EVENTS.

Having attempted to establish this proposition in a preceding chapter, we will not burden the reader with further arguments under this head.

CHAPTER XXV.

SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE: NO CONFLICT (CONTINUED).

HAVING seen that science and the Bible are in harmony, in regarding the Unconditioned Will of God as the originating cause of all things, in conceding that there has been development, in being ready to admit that there have been breaks in the ordinarily continuous flow of events, the reader is invited to consider a fourth harmony.

IV. THE PRESENT ARRANGEMENTS OF NATURE, IN WHICH THERE IS AN ORDERLY SUCCESSION OF EVENTS, MUST HAVE HAD A BEGINNING.

It is impossible to believe that there should be an order evincing design, without an antecedent cause to produce it. Phenomena must have an underlying reality. Law presupposes a lawgiver. Order is not an eternal verity which imposes conditions upon all modes of existence. Like time, space, and number, it may be regarded as a necessary result of God's own eternal Personality; but it cannot be regarded as self-existent. That would be to violate the law of unity in the origin of existences. Reason affirms that there can be but one eternal reality, and that, consequently, a predetermined order must be a result of the existence of an eternal Intelligent Will.

More than one infinite-and the First Cause must be infinite is inconceivable; for two or more infinites, by