ON CREATION OK EVOLUTION. 



209 



knowledge as fresh as it was 20, 30, or 40 years ago. It is an 

 article on this very subject in reply to one by Mr. Herbert Spencer, 

 whose essay was dealt with by Lord Salisbury in trenchant words 

 at the British Association at Oxford. The Duke oE Argyll has 

 made use of an ai-gument there which seems to me to be absolutely 

 incontrovertible. It is partly a geological and partly a zoological 

 point. He says (or in words to this effect) every geologist must 

 admit — that there was a period in this world's history (when in a 

 gaseous or molten condition) at which life could not have existed. 

 Therefore life has been implanted on this globe at a time when 

 the outer crust came into such a condition that it was suitable 

 for the existence of life upon its surface and not till then. Well, 

 where did this life come from ? 



Dr. Kidd referred to Lord Kelvin's amazing idea (I can only call 

 it amazing, and I do not think it was ever refei'red to by its author 

 again), which he expressed at the British Association at Glasgow, 

 that perhaps life was implanted in this world by a meteorolite 

 coming from some celestial world in the universe, and happening 

 to alight on this little woi-ld of ours and so introducing life for 

 the first time in the form of some simple and minute organism. 

 I think it cannot have been serious, or, perhaps, only an out- 

 burst of fancy coming at the end of a most interesting and 

 able Presidential address. Then, as our reverend friend well 

 stated, if there was necessarily a Creator to introdu.ce life upon 

 the globe at a particular period, why might not the same Creator 

 have introduced various forms or types of life' from time to 

 time during the vast period that has elapsed from the commence- 

 ment of the primordial period down to the present time ? If you 

 admit that He has once necessarily interfered in the history of 

 creation, you cannot deny that He may have interfered throughout 

 successive ages down to the present day. It may be out of order ; 

 but I may be permitted to refer to a remarkable utterance of 

 Him whom we, as Christians, call our Divine Master when He 

 said, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work." That is a 

 most remarkable expression, and it seems to me to imply this 

 — that God, the Creator, has been engaged in superintending, 

 carrying on, by design and through evolution of some kind, 

 the work of creation in this world, but that He had now ceased 

 to do so ; and then it was the time that the Saviour Himself 

 should commence His divine mission amongst mankind. 



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