348 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



marvelous than the creation of physical things. It 

 was the one great fact that, above all others, must be 

 driven into the heart of the race — branded upon its 

 mind. The account in Genesis was for moral and 

 religious purposes. To serve these purposes in the 

 best possible way, it was necessary that the account 

 should be but an outline. 



Some writers have attempted, in elaborate ways, to 

 place the cosmogonies in Genesis and Geology side 

 by side in detail. I regard such efforts as a waste of 

 labor. The one record is so general, and the other so 

 imperfect, that we have no certain basis for detailed 

 comparisons. If we cannot see that they perfectly 

 harmonize, still, as shown above, we are not justified 

 in asserting that they conflict. It being impossible to 

 show the existence of a conflict, an attempt at recon- 

 ciliation becomes unnecessary. 



The conception of Monotheism, comprehending the 

 origin and the control of the infinite Universe, is the 

 most comprehensive that can enter the human mind. 

 It came of necessity by revelation — I say, of neces- 

 sity, for there is no other conceivable way by which it 

 could have entered the human mind, especially in 

 that early age. 



The broadest conclusion of the most perfect science 

 is, I think, that there is One Cause in the Universe. 

 The people of that age knew no science, and, there- 

 fore, their Monotheistic belief could not have been 

 based on science. Philosophers are still disputing as 

 to the nature of the Final Cause. There was no con- 

 gress of scientists and philosophers who agreed that 

 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the 

 earth." 



The minds of the great masses of mankind in all 

 ages, ignorant of the laws of nature, have invented a 

 multitude of gods in order to account for the many 



