HUMAN REASON BOOK OP GOD 207 



It may be that the first chapter of Genesis was 

 not intended so much as an infallible record of the 

 divine order in the creation of the world as to 

 teach the vastly higher spiritual truth that creation 

 is the work of God, thus leading men to His wor- 

 ship and away from the lower worship of sun, moon 

 and heathen deities. 



The mechanical conception as to the mode of 

 inspiration and revelation tends to give way before 

 a larger conception of the process that God speaks 

 to man through the experience of the events of life. 

 Thus revelation becomes a living process, and all 

 later history may become a, commentary on sacred 

 histor}^ renewing and confirming the primal utter- 

 ance of God to the soul of man. 



The reign of law, which was little understood by 

 the ancients, is now universally accepted and en- 

 dows the human race with new powers. It also 

 gives new conceptions of the " intelligibility of 

 nature," which is but a modern scientific term for 

 religion or the reliance on the will and wisdom of 

 Creative Deity. 



Herbert Spencer's " persistency of matter and 

 force" is but another expression of the reign of law. 

 And as law is the result of an intelligent spiritual 

 concept and impulse, the lawmaker of the universe 

 must be a supreme, intelligent, spiritual personality. 



And the reasoning, intelligent soul of man, by dis- 

 covering the immutable laws of nature, which are the 

 unchanging decrees of Deity, has learned the art of 

 controlling the great powers of nature for the use 

 and convenience of man. 



But in the ultimate analysis it is God's spirit 

 and will that control the universe, and man's spirit 



