76 REV. A. IRVING, D.SC, ON EVOLUTIONARY LAW 



unto righteousness." Such points serve to illustrate what we 

 may call the higlier jihilosophy of Eevelation, and mark a stage 

 of its development far and away beyond what we are justified 

 in looking for in its inceptive stages. 



The dual Eevelation may be represented by two distinct 

 L;eometrical planes, in whicli the intellect moves. One of these 

 is tlie plane of Nature, as that unfolds itself to cbservation and 

 inductive reasoning ; the otlier is the i^Vdue of sjnritual intitif ion. 

 They intersect, and, while each of them may be regarded as 

 iudefinite in extent, they have their common centre in God. 

 lUic this is not all ; lor they are not stationary. Each rotates 

 round the common centre, so that they intersect at an indefinite 

 and ever-varying series of points. In a highly developed nature 

 therefore every state of consciousness has its spiritual and 

 intellectual relations both to tlie individual soul and to tlie 

 universe of Being. 



When the idea is presented to our minds by the theologian 

 of y6V€cri<; or " creation " as that of " making things out of 

 nothing," he presents us witli what is to pure reason something 

 unthinkable, as T pointed out years ago* ; and this remains 

 true, even when we take into account all that has been put 

 l;)efore us of late as to the vMra.-gascons jwssihilitics of inatter 

 and the cvohUion of the elementary atoms.\ What does strike 

 us with marvellous force is that the inspired writers — without 

 attempting to give men scientific ideas of the origin of matter 

 and the laws of nature — for the discovery of which God has 

 endowed men with proper faculties — tell us much of the 

 working of Almighty Power in forming and upholding and 

 controlling the present order of things ; and they recognise the 

 oriffin of life simply as an act of Dil-ine volition. In the 

 " Creation Story," when it is fairly studied, as I have remarked 

 in the paper already cited, "the difficulties of reconciling the 

 ' Mosaic ' account of the Creation of the present order of things 

 witli the teachings of Science are almost trivial as com})ared 

 with the power of that insie/lit which rejected everything not in 

 liai-mony with the c(>ntral monotheistic idea." On this Dr. 



^ A. living, "Tilings New and Old" {Cte/yy/naii.-i Mtujazinc, Jan. 

 1 893). 



+ "A belief in the evolution of matter is fa.st becoming not only 

 possible, but inevitable": W. G. D. W., in Nature, Sept. 21st, 1905 (p 

 II review of Dr. Le Bon's, JJevolution In Matierc. See also Prof. Wind, 

 Oct. 5th, 1905 (p. 574). 



