PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 117 
‘*When God made man, He left him, even in a state of innocence, to 
develope the fruits of the earth by his own intelligence and industry. They 
. could have grown up spontaneously if the Creator had willed it. God has 
placed us in a world of wonders, where facts abound on eyery side, and 
mighty laws are operating. But in the great volume of nature, written as in 
tables of stone, Jehovah is teaching us of facts that have transpired, and of 
laws that were operating in ages long since past away. These facts were 
like what are known now, these laws are analogous to what are working now. 
Why did God write these records of His doings in ages past? He might 
have given thém all by inspiration. No—He wrote them thus for us to 
read—for us to work out, and learn how steadily and how gradually He has 
been developing creation until now. Revelation was not designed to teach 
us this, which the great book of creation is able to teach, and the mind of 
man can, by patient labour, learn for itself. But revelation does not contradict 
this conclusion ; on the contrary, it seems to confirm it. It teaches us that 
this law of gradual development prevails through all God’s dispensations. 
It is seen in God’s providential dealings with mankind. It is illustrated in 
civilization, the arts and sciences, the gradual overthrow of ignorance, super- 
stition, and ungodliness ; in the spread of divine truth and real religion upon 
earth. Even the history of redemption was very slowly and gradually 
unfolded to the minds of mankind. 
“Tt is the Mosaic account of creation that prevents many from receiving, 
as a matter of faith, these statements respecting the world’s antiquity. 
There are three modern interpretations of the inspired narrative which I can 
only notice, without attempting to prove or disprove either. Indeed, the 
subject is by far too important and recondite to admit of its being discussed 
in the popular address of an Annual Meeting. We may be sure of one 
position—that whether we can harmonise to our satisfaction the book of 
revelation, and the opening book of the geologic world—there can be no 
contradiction,—the hand that wrote the revelation of heayen, laid the 
foundations of the earth. We venture also to advance that the. bible is a 
popular book. The authors wrote as those who belonged to the popular 
part of the community, and for those who knew nothing of science. If it 
had been written on strictly scientific principles, then, for ages and genera- 
_ tions past, all would have been wrapped up in mystery. The origin of the 
§ world—the part which Jehoyah took in His own creation, would have been 
_ unknown. 
‘In the first verse of Genesis we have the grand opening of the Divine 
revelation : ‘‘ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’’ So 
far we might have expected the Eternal Father to have revealed Himself and 
His works to His creatures. Between that great event and what transpired 
since then, a part of which, so far as we are concerned, is narrated in the 
