THE FIRST CHAPTEI? OF GENESIS. 161 



beginning God created the heaven and the earth." If this is an 

 inclusive statement, then the initial act of creation was light — the 

 first manifestation of the Creator's power was light. If there were 

 no matter upon which light could act, then the creative word should 

 have been, "Let there be light and substance." It seems to me, 

 therefore, that what is hinted at in verse 2 is clearly the existence 

 of what light was created to act upon : " The earth was without 

 form and void." This idea is in no way opposed to Mr. Maunder's 

 exposition of the six acts of creative power, by Avhich the order and 

 development of the universe were, so to speak, regulated ; in his own 

 w^ords, " the bringing into operation of the essential powers and 

 principles which should lead to [their final] manifestations in the 

 fulness of time." But the point I want to emphasise is this, that 

 God is eternal, and though, as Ave have been shown, creation (in one 

 phase) and time exist together, because God is eternal there must 

 be an eternal aspect of His Almighty power. This, I think, we find 

 in the first verse, " In the beginning God created." It does not 

 contradict the idea hinted at by the lecturer of six further creative 

 acts, by which the Creator predetermined to reveal Himself to His 

 creature man. Given the relationship between matter and energy, 

 it seems to me that the act done on the first day implies that matter 

 was created in the mass, so to speak, and that energy and the other 

 developments are the revelation of the Divine plan to make of the 

 earth, until then without form and void, a habitation for that 

 creature whom God made that he might be the recipient of the 

 manifestation of Divine love. Take an example that perhaps comes 

 nearest to the grasp of the untutored human mind, the mist that 

 God caused so that the plants and herbs of the field should grow 

 while as yet there was no man to till the ground. The key to the 

 whole matter, it seems to me, lies in the purpose for which man was 

 created. Xot only this earth, on which man dwells, but the firma- 

 ment and the other worlds, insomuch as they contribute influences 

 to man's welfare, were created by God, that He might be revealed. 

 As the lecturer suggests, each stage of the creation brings its effect 

 to bear upon this ultimate result. With regard to man, we might 

 apply the quotation from the cxxxix Psalm here also. For the only 

 begotten Son of God, Who by His Incarnation came for ever into the 

 limitations of creaturehood, is Head of creation — Head, if you like, 

 of a continuous process by which the human race is brought the 



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