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E. WALTER MACNDEK, F.K.A.S., ON 



one to hand down any account of it to him. Xor could he infer 

 it from any study of what we term the processes of nature. For 

 the act of creation* is not one of the processes of nature : it 

 preceded them all as assuredly as it preceded man himself. 



So tradition, history, science are all helpless to give man any 

 knowledge as to the act of creation. All our knowledge of 

 nature and, of the processes of nature, arises out of, and is based 

 upon, our observation of nature. If this first chapter of Genesis 

 is the invention of some man, or of some school or succession of 

 men, or the outcome, it may be, of the speculations and 

 inventions of many men, slowly developing through long ages ; 

 if, in short, its origin is human, not Divine, then it is worthless. 

 It supplies us with fiction only, not with fact : it preserves to 

 us no testimony of any witness, no record of any observer ; and 

 it would not be worth your while to listen to me as I discuss 

 it ; it would not be worth my while to ask for your 

 attention. 



That which men can observe and experience and have 

 recorded is of value to all whom the record reaches, but if the 

 record rests upon no experience, upon no observation, if it deals 

 with facts that lie outside all human experience and observa- 

 tion, and is built up merely of suppositions, then it has no 

 value : it is the baseless fabric of a dream. This first chapter 

 of Genesis is only valuable if it comes to us from knowledge. 



We are thus brought face to face with the fundamental 

 question of the actuality of Eevelation, for whatever may have 

 been the process by which this first chapter of Genesis was 

 given to man, the chapter is either a revelation which came 

 from God, or it tells us nothing. If we are reasonable, truth- 

 loving men, we must reject it altogether, as void of worth and 

 significance, unless we accept it as a revelation given by God 

 Himself to man : a " primitive revelation " in the most precise 

 sense of the term. 



11. — Genesis I is a Eevelation of the Creator rather 



THAN of the things CREATED. 



Most men are content to accept the universe just as they 

 find it, without enquiry as to how it came into existence or 

 speculation as to its beginning. But there are also those in 



* We use the word " creation " in two connected but distinguishable 

 senses : to designate either the act of cieation or the totality of things 

 ci'eated. I purpose to use it in this paper only in the tirst sense, and to 

 employ the terms "nature" or "the creature" to exj)ress the second. 



