GENESIS AND GEOLOGY 349 



seeming conflicts among natural phenomena. Poly- 

 theism has been the inevitable result of the ignorance 

 of the laws of nature, from which there could be no 

 possible escape except revelation. 



Monotheism was born into the human mind from 

 above. It came early in the authentic history of the 

 race. It has survived through the darkest periods of 

 human history against all the assaults that could be 

 brought against it, — survived as the central idea of 

 religion and ethics, and this in the minds of a people, 

 the masses of whom were extremely ignorant, and 

 who, at every' opportunity, lapsed into polytheism. 

 But the holy fire of inspiration, kindled from above, 

 ever burned on the altars of the hearts of the chosen 

 few, by which the fact of Monotheism, with its all- 

 important consequences, was kept and nourished in 

 the minds of the people. 



The Monotheism of the Bible came by revelation, 

 for the reason that it could have originated in no 

 other way. The highest civilizations of antiquity did 

 not reach it. There is no reason to believe that the 

 learned men of any age within the historic period 

 originated the idea. The belief in One God as the 

 Creator and Moral Governor came suddenly in all of 

 its perfection and splendor. There is no effort in 

 Genesis, nor in the Bible, to prove by methods of 

 logic, science or philosophy, the existence of God. 

 And yet the writers speak with unwavering faith in 

 the existence of the One God. They write as if it 

 were not at all a matter of faith, but a matter of 

 immediate knowledge, that God spoke to them and 

 through them. " Moreover, the word of the Lord 

 came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou?" 

 " The word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel, 

 the priest." "The word of the Lord that came to 

 Joel." "The burden of the word of the Lord to 



