CONCLUSION 



working by processes which we have accepted as 

 laws of nature, brought the land and the sea into 

 their places, absorbing the primeval vapors, so 

 that the light of the sun and the moon and the 

 stars shone upon the earth. 



Next we see how the working of the same spirit 

 of God in the world became further manifest in 

 the beginnings of life; and how by successive 

 stages of evolution the various classes of the vege- 

 table and animal kingdoms were created, the great 

 work culminating in the creation of man as a self- 

 conscious being " in the likeness of God." 



From this point we see how man rapidly ad- 

 vanced in knowledge and power, until one race 

 was distinguished above all others by the inspira- 

 tion of its prophets with the revealed truth. 



From a worldly point of view the fortunes of 

 the chosen people were thereafter less brilliant 

 than those of some other races who knew not the 

 truth of God working in them : and when the great 

 shock of conflict occurred between truth and un- 

 truth when the very spirit of God, incarnate in 

 human form, appeared as Christ, the Teacher of 

 the world untruth temporarily triumphed and 

 stood with its heel upon the neck of truth. 



But man, even in spite of himself, is the chosen 

 vehicle of the highest working of the spirit of 

 God in the world, and in time the downtrodden 

 [185] 



