60 MODERN IDEAS OF EVOLUTION 



significance. To those who are impressed with the 

 necessity of an almighty creative will as the primary 

 cause of all things, the formula God created may 

 be a sufficient answer ; and it is perfectly true that 

 we cannot expect the methods of science to go back 

 to origins. It deals rather with laws and modes, and 

 must necessarily always start from certain axioms, 

 postulates, or powers of unknown origin. Still we 

 must bear in mind that revelation itself invites us to 

 think of such questions. It does not merely say that 

 God created all things. It informs us that God said, 

 Let the land bring forth plants, let the waters swarm 

 with living things, and it speaks of the bodily frame 

 of man as made of the dust, that is, of the common 

 material of the earth, and of an inspiration of the 

 Almighty, an inbreathing of the breath of life to give 

 him understanding. 



These statements invite us from the side of reve 

 lation as well as of science to consider the antecedents 

 and materials of life. In the beginning God created 

 the heavens and the earth. Here we have a funda 

 mental statement which demands no proof, because 

 we can substitute nothing else for it. If we say, 

 * There was no beginning, the Universe is eternal, 

 we have a proposition unthinkable by us, because we 

 cannot imagine an eternal succession, and such a suc 

 cession, if conceivable, would preclude all develop 

 ment. If we say, In the beginning the heavens and 

 the earth were self-created, we have a proposition 



