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portions of the language of the Bible which refer to and describe 

 the phenomena of nature. Its teaching upon those subjects was 

 also to some extent figurative and symbolical; and it is important 

 for our present purpose that we carefully extract from metaphor 

 and symbol wherever employed those sublime truths regarding 

 the being and nature of God, and the origin of the universe, 

 which are revealed in the Bible. It is not difficult to do so. 

 We have the fundamental doctrine of the existence, unity, and 

 personality of God, standing out prominently in eveiy part of 

 Holy Scripture : — " Hear, Israel ; the Lord our God is one 

 Lord'' (Deut. vi. 4). We have the doctrine of Creation enun- 

 ciated in the opening words of Genesis, and repeated in various 

 forms, and under various metaphors, by successive writers, until 

 at length the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, with 

 philosophic acumen, distinguishes the teaching of the Spirit of 

 Revelation fi-om the theories of Greek scientists : — " By faith 

 we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word 

 of Godj so that what is seen hath not been made out of 

 things which do appear" (Heb. xi. 3). It has been rightly 

 said that the first chapter of Genesis furnishes the only satis- 

 factory standpoint from which to take a view of the constitu- 

 tion of the world, and of the relation between the world 

 and man and God. The passage I have just quoted gives a 

 logical exposition of the narrative of Creation in Genesis. 

 The time of Creation is not indicated, and we have no data 

 to fix it. It is simply said : " In the beginning, God 

 created the heaven and the earth.'' When that beginning 

 was we know not. It may have been millions of years before 

 the story of our race began. The fact of the creation of the 

 heaven and the earth at some undefined past epoch is revealed ; 

 and then this revelation is followed by another — that from some 

 cause not explained, the earth having been reduced to a state 

 of chaos, God put forth once again creative power, re-formed 

 and probably re-peopled the world. The period of this new 

 creative work is not fixed, nor is its duration. The language of 

 the narrative in the first chapter of Genesis, as it seems to 

 me, indicates progress — not evolution, however, — progress 

 from the lower to the higher forms of life, and may embrace 

 those countless ages during which the wonderful strata of the 

 earth's crust were formed. To attempt a literal interpretation 

 of the seven days' work is, in my opinion, to do violence to the 

 analogy of Scripture exegesis, and to the genius of the inspired 

 Word. The sacred writer simply indicates successive stages 

 in the creative work, commencing with that forth-putting of 

 Divine power — force, shall I call it ? — which initiated motion in 

 the universe of inert matter, aud teruiiuating with man, of 



