52 Natural Theology. 



We are not told that He created matter and ordained 

 the manifestation of its forces ; but we are certainly 

 left to infer this, since He is represented as produc- 

 ing by His command those changes, the introduction 

 of light and the gathering of the seas, that we know 

 were produced by the operation of these forces. 

 According to this account, up to a certain time 

 there was simply matter, whether created or eternal, 

 passive in the hand of God. When the appointed 

 time had come, he joinedjife to matter. Man was 

 first organized in full perfection, and then the breath 

 of life was breathed into him. We may reject this 

 account ; but it is impossible to find among all the 

 speculations with which the world has been favored 

 > another method of creation more simple or less won- 

 derful, viewed simply from a scientific stand-point. 

 Having shown that the Bible account of the intro- 

 duction of man upon the earth requires no greater 

 power than the production of this germ that should 

 in the end produce man, we have the same ground 

 a priori, for accepting the Bible account as any other. 

 We are not called upon to ignore the Bible, but im- 

 partially to compare its teachings with those of na- 

 ture, that we may accept or reject its claims. 



And we may say, as the first result of the com- 

 parison, that the Bible account of the introduction 

 of life upon the globe, and even of the creation of 

 man, is as reasonable, when tested by the relations 

 of cause and effect, as any theory of creation the 

 most orthodox development theorists have ever 

 been able to give us. 



