THE FIRST CHAPTER OP GENESIS. 



141 



natural objects. I must confess that the attempts which liave 

 been so frequently made to discuss this chapter as if it dealt 

 with the results of scientific investigations, astonish me with 

 their unreasonableness, and fill me with admiration at their far- 

 fetched ingenuity. 



The first chapter of Genesis is no handbook of science, no 

 epitome of the course of evolution. It is the revelation of 

 God :— " God said " ; " God saw " ; " God created " ; " God 

 called " ; " God made " ; " God appointed " ; " God divided " ; 

 " God ended " ; " God rested " ; " God blessed and sanctified." 



If I am right, it is through missing this essential thought that 

 the idea has arisen that there is some conflict, some opposition 

 between the teaching of this chapter and the discoveries of 

 science. 



But if any still allege that such a conflict exists, let me point 

 out that they have two positions to make good. Tirst, they 

 must [)rove tliat the discovery that they adduce is one, the 

 significance of which in this relation cannot possibly be altered 

 by any discovery which the future may bring to light : a 

 position no truly scientific man would adopt. N^ext, they must 

 show that this chapter contains a contravention of it : a position 

 impossible to anyone who has read the chapter with attention. 



Science deals only with the relation of created thing to thing 

 within the continuity of nature, and can, in no direction, extend 

 its researches to its origin and beginning, its creation. 



This chapter does not deal with the relations of thing to 

 thing, but reveals God the Creator, the Origin and Beginning of 

 all things. Our powers of observation and reflection were given 

 to us by God in order that we might acquire the knowledge of 

 external nature for ourselves. But the Creator Himself is here 

 revealed to us, because our natural powers of observation and 

 reflection are incompetent to make Him known to us. 



And this revelation is for the purpose of teaching man his 

 true relation both to God and to nature. He is made in the 

 image of God, after His likeness. Here is the high dignity of 

 man, his solemn responsibility ; the duty is laid upon him of 

 showing forth to his fellow-men and to his lower fellow-creatures, 

 the love and mercy, the truth and justice, the wisdom and 

 patience of Almighty God, the God Whose image he was created 

 to bear, and to make manifest. 



Here lies his right to dominion over nature ; not in his own 

 essential worth, but in the fact that he is God's chosen 

 representative. Independent power and authority he has none ; 

 as the son of God, made -in His image and likeness, deriving all 



