28O THE MEANING OF EVOLUTION 



Our theology is man's interpretation of God's reve- 

 lations of Himself as recorded in the Bible. Our 

 science is man's interpretation of God's revelation of 

 Himself in nature. Each is God's revelation, and so 

 far as we have understood it, that revelation is of 

 the utmost importance in our lives. Each has all 

 the inherent short-comings of man's interpretation. 

 Each has all the difficulties necessarily found in 

 any stage of a developing understanding. We may 

 be sure if we could thoroughly understand God's 

 revelation of Himself as recorded in the Bible and 

 his revelation of Himself as recorded in the rocks 

 and the tissues of animals as well as in the body 

 and mind of man to-day, there would be no diffi- 

 culty. When we understand both completely, as per- 

 haps we never shall, there will be no contradictions 

 of any kind between them. Even now if we are 

 firmly convinced that truth must be in both, there 

 will be little difficulty in reaching a workable unity 

 which will satisfy the present needs of the human 

 mind and will not be so crystallized as to prevent a 

 future growth. If, however, we hope to find a unity 

 between a belief in evolution and a belief in the in- 

 spiration and value of the Bible, we must accept both 

 of these in the terms of to-day. To reconcile a 

 twentieth century statement of science with an eigh- 

 teenth century statement of theology would be as 



