14 GEOLOGY AND HISTORY 



early history of our sacred books. This may be to 

 some extent an evil, as inviting the excitement of 

 religious controversy ; but on the other hand the fact 

 that the early history incorporated in the Bible goes 

 back to the introduction of man, and connects this 

 with the completion of the physical and organic 

 preparations for his advent, has many and important 

 uses. It would seem indeed that it is a great advan- 

 tage to our Christian civilisation that our sacred books 

 begin with a history of creation, giving an idea of 

 order and progress in the creative work. Whether 

 we regard the days of creation as literal days or days 

 of vision of a seer, or whether we hold them to be 

 days of God and His working, suitable to the Eternal 

 One and His mighty plan, and bearing the same 

 relation to Him that ordinary working days bear, to 

 us, we cannot escape the idea of an orderly work in 

 time. This, while it delivers the Bible reader from 

 the extravagant myths current among heathen 

 peoples, ancient and modern, predisposes him to 

 expect that something may be learned from nature 

 as to its beginning and progress. In like manner 

 the short statements in Genesis respecting the early 

 history of man have awakened curiosity as to human 

 origins, and have led us to search for further details 

 derivable from ancient monuments. The ordinary 

 Christian who believes his Bible is thus so far on his 

 way toward a rational geology and archaeology, and 

 cannot say with truth that he is absolutely ignorant 

 of the pre-human history of the earth. His notions, 



