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E. WALTER MAUNDER, P.R.A.S., ON 



X. — " In the Image of God." 



In the foregoing paper I have tried to bring out the thoughts 

 which this first chapter of Genesis have impressed upon me. 



I think it tells us of the Beginning ; that God created all 

 things ; that He created all things in seven days of God. By 

 creation I do not understand the bringing of all things into 

 their final manifestations, but the bringing into operation of 

 the essential powers and principles, which should lead to those 

 manifestations in the fulness of time. 



I do not know wlien the Beginning took place ; I do not 

 think the slightest hint is afforded to us. I do not think that 

 we can determine how long in human measure were those seven 

 days of God. The suggestion pleases me, I must admit, that 

 they were revealed to man in symbol and in vision, in seven 

 •consecutive nights ; that between the evening and the morning, 

 the seer, whoever he was, saw in dream the work of the 

 successive days of God's Week. It may be, but we cannot tell, 

 that God, in His acts of creation, may have consented to limit 

 Himself by the very limitations of time which hereafter would 

 be the necessary limitations of His predestined creature, man, 

 and that the Week of God may have been, in absolute duration, 

 exactly equal to a week of man ; it may be, but unless God 

 tells us so in so many words, we cannot know, and I do not see 

 that it matters to us. 



So far, for the chapter itself. One word further on the 

 alleged conflict between Eeligion and Science, for, when that 

 supposed conflict is mentioned, it is this chapter that is generally 

 in the speaker's mind. 



The Astronomer Eoyal, in the admirable speech which he 

 made to us on the occasion of our last meeting here, said that 

 astronomy was descriptive only ; and that which is true of 

 astronomy is true of all sciences : they seek to describe things 

 as they are. 



Astronomy, geology, biology ; — these are especially the three 

 sciences which are supposed to contradict (or to confirm, for 

 some writers take an opposite view) the chapter before us. 

 Wherein can the contradiction (or confirmation) lie ? There is 

 no allusion whatever to geology ; no hint as to the respective 

 ages of carboniferous and cretaceous strata, or even as to the 

 existence of strata at all ; and the allusions to objects that 

 come within the domains of astronomy and biology go no farther 

 than the merest mention of less than a dozen of the most obvious 



