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for ever, without variableness or shadow of turning. The unbe- 

 liever denies all this ; he sees no laws, no indications that reveal the 

 methods of creation. He believes that although at present God 

 may work by natural laws, i.e., constant methods, He has not always 

 done so. That He has worked by miracle — that is, by a method 

 opposed to all His present modes of working. That every new 

 species has been created by a miracle. That there has been no 

 gradual modification of living forms to suit the changing conditions 

 of existence, but that when these conditions became unfavourable, 

 God first destroyed all the forms in existence, and then by a mi- 

 raculous act created new ones better adapted to the new conditions. 

 In the long history of the past this process must have been often 

 repeated, for Palsentology reveals vast changes in the forms of life. 

 Are there, then, any indications of the plan or method of crea- 

 tion 1 What are the facts supplied by the study of Embryology, 

 that is, the creation of the individual ? Dr. Carpenter, in his Com- 

 parative Physiology, gives the following summary : — " Every living 

 being commences as a simple cell, the evolution of the germ begins 

 by the duplicative multiplication of this cell — precisely what takes 

 place with the simplest protophyta or protozoa. Not till this pro- 

 cess has proceeded to a considerable extent, could it be determined, 

 from inspection of the germ alone, whether it is that of a plant 

 or animal. At the time when this distinction can be made, when 

 we can say that it is the germ of an animal, we cannot determine 

 whether it belongs to the radiated, the molluscuous, articulated, or 

 vertebrated sub-kingdom. The special character which determines 

 this being evolved at a later period. When this can be determined, 

 though we may be able to say it belongs to the vertebrate class 

 there is as yet nothing to determine whether it may be a fish, a 

 reptile, a bird, or a mammal. When the distinctive characters of 

 the class can be made out, there is yet nothing to determine the 

 order ; these come next, then the family ; and so on, as we rise in 

 the scale, the highest character coming last." Von Baer, the great 

 German naturalist, pointed out the steps in the process of develop- 

 ment. Comparative anatomists have shown that each step in the 

 development of the higher animal is the permanent form of some 



