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whom it is said empliatically, " God created man in His own 

 image," making him thus essentially different from all His 

 other creatures — the possessor of mind, moral feeling, 

 conscious immortality. The stages of this mysterious creative 

 development are dimly indicated, each the direct product of 

 Divine agency. But the duration of each stage or period is 

 shrouded in darkness. We know not what period the 

 Creation " day " may represent ; we know not what isolated, 

 or progressive and long-continued action each day's work may 

 indicate. One thing, however, is clear ; that life, in all its 

 forms — vegetable, animal, human — is ascribed by the sacred 

 writer to the direct fiat of God. Vegetables and animals did 

 not derive, or receive, their being — were not evolved — from 

 matter, but were formed by the creative word of God operating 

 upon matter. Matter was the material basis : the word of God 

 was the creative energy. 



Then again, it is important to observe how, according to 

 the inspired writer, God originated each form of life in its own 

 place, in its own sphere : — " And God said, Let the earth 

 bring forth vegetation ; " " And God said, Let the waters 

 bring forth the moving creature that hath life. And God 

 created every living creature that moveth, with which the 

 waters abound;" " God made the beast of the land after his 

 kind ; " " God created man in His image, and breathed into 

 his nostrils the breath of life." It is a sublime record. The 

 life, the soul of man, was a direct emanation from the eternal 

 life of God. His intellect, his will, his conscience, were 

 moulded after the Divine original. 



Such then is the teaching of the Bible. Is the teaching of 

 Science different ? Do the established facts of Science con- 

 tradict any of the grand truths here set forth ? These are the 

 questions I now propose briefly to discuss. I confess to you 

 freely that eai'ly training, that Christian intercourse of long 

 standing, that cherished ecclesiastical sympathy, combine to 

 induce me to answer each of these questions in the negative. 

 But, to borrow the impressive language of Professor 

 Tyndall, used in another connexion : — " There is in the true 

 man a wish stronger than the wish to have his beliefs upheld ; 

 namely, the wish to have them true. And this stronger wish 

 causes him to reject the most plausible support if he has 

 reason to suspect that it is vitiated by error.^' * Laying aside 

 all prejudice, all preconceived opinion, all mere feeliug or 

 sentiment, I shall endeavour to investigate and decide in a 

 purely philosophic spirit. 



* Address at Belfast. 



