22 WHAT IS DARWINISM? 



Theism in Unscriptural Forms. 



There are men who are constrained to admit 

 the being of God, who depart from the Scriptural 

 doctrine as to his relation to the world. Ac- 

 cording to some, God created matter and en- 

 dowed it with certain properties, and then left 

 it to itself to work out, without any interfer- 

 ence or control on his part, all possible results. 

 According to others, He created not only matter, 

 but life, or living germs, one or more, from 

 which without any divine intervention all living 

 organisms have been developed. Others, again, 

 refer not only matter and life, but mind also to 

 the act of the Creator ; but with creation his 

 agency ceases. He has no more to do with the 

 world, than a ship-builder has with the ship he 

 has constructed, when it is launched and far off 

 upon the ocean. According to all these views 

 a creator is a mere Deus ex machina, an assump- 

 tion to account for the origin of the universe. 



Another general view of God's relation to the 

 world goes to the opposite extreme. Instead 

 of God doing nothing, He does everything. 

 Second causes have no efficiency. The laws of 

 nature are said to be the uniform modes of 

 divine operation. Gravitation does not flow from 



