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head has been already implied in our remarks on the preceding 
one. Science recognises and avows that in no created things, 
either animate or inanimate, is there to be found any force or 
influence, latent or active, which can account for their primal 
origin. In other words, the energy and life of Nature is not 
a creating power, but a created. Even in the wildest theories 
as to the origin of life, where the vital principle is held to 
be a mere modification of physical force, the admission is 
made, however unnoticed or concealed, that life also is not a 
self-originated power ; for does not Science perpetually pro- 
claim that of the creation of such force she knows nothing ? — 
that there is no physical cause, either in itself or elsewhere, to 
which it can be ascribed ? The creature in all its parts, then, — 
matter, force, and life, — is admitted to be independent of, and 
different in nature from, its Creator. Pantheism and Atheism 
are alike alien to Science, so as Science be but heard impar- 
tially and fully. 
3. God’s government by fixed law . — This appears in the cos- 
mogony in many ways. Thus, in the first place, every creative 
act is accomplished by word of command : God says, “ Let it 
be/' and it is. Then, again, there is the still more important 
point of the assignment to each element in creation of its par- 
ticular province and work : the light shall “ divide day from 
night ;" the expanse shall “ separate waters above from waters 
below ;" the luminaries shall be “ for signs and for seasons, 
and for days and for years ;" the herbs shall be “ for food " to 
man and beast. The same idea appears in another form in 
the names which are given to certain members of the 
universe, designating their place and function — “ day," 
“ night," “ heaven," “ earth," “ seas." In yet other cases 
special commissions are given; as, to the animals, “ Be fruitful 
and multiply;" and to man, in addition, “ Subdue and have 
dominion." Nothing is left to adjust itself, or even find out 
its proper office, but all is arranged beforehand by the great 
Designer. And this arrangement is fixed and immutable. For 
all time, as much as for the present, everything is subject to 
law. “ He commanded, and they were created ; He hath also 
established them for ever and ever ; He hath given a decree, 
and it shall not pass." 
How completely Science is in accordance with Scripture on 
this point it is unnecessary to insist on at any length. The 
reign of law throughout every department of Nature is the 
best established of all the larger generalizations of science. 
And this in both the particulars implied in the Biblical doc- 
trine ; — (1 ) the existence of a distinct function and purpose in 
every created thing, to which its constitution and properties 
