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him. We are not ashamed of the conclusions to which we come when we 
find ourselves in company with such men as Lord Bacon, Locke, Sir Isaac 
Newton, and others. They felt as we feel, that it is the first axiom either 
in nature or in written revelation, that there is a moral Governor of the 
universe — an Almighty Being ; and that, therefore, it is utterly impossible 
that there can be any real contradiction between the two books — the book of 
Nature and the book of Revelation. The book of Nature is not yet 
perfectly understood, nor the book of Revelation ; and we must wait until the 
former has been made much more plain to us by the vast induction of facts, 
not yet gathered by scientific men, who are too hasty in leaping to their 
conclusions ; for it is impossible for them to say that the theories they form 
to-day may not, like others previously, be found untrue to-morrow. Hence, 
in regard to nature, we must wait ; and so also in regard to written revelation. 
The Church, perhaps, has not arrived at the amount of knowledge she might 
have arrived at in the last 1,860 years or more. She has not thoroughly 
understood the Bible as a whole. We see great divergencies of opinion even 
in our own age among theologians. Let us look, for instance, at many of the 
words of prophecy, which could not have been made plain before, but which 
are being interpreted by the events of our own day. Yet the Bible cannot 
be thoroughly understood until the whole prophetical period comes to an end. 
Hence, as Christians, we must not dogmatize too much, but must wait and 
see : events will unravel the wisdom of God ; and when these events have 
occurred, we shall see that the book of Nature speaks exactly the same 
language as the book of Revelation. As to Genesis i., I fully agree with 
Mr. McCaul, that we must take up the account after the first verse ; and 
it seems to me also that in all probability the first verse includes many 
changes in the eternity of the past. “ In the beginning God created the 
heaven and the earth,” and then there is a pause. It is said the earth was 
without form and void ; and we do not know how long the interval may have 
been. The world may have passed through many changes, and the first verse 
is open to this interpretation, that it includes the whole period of these 
changes up to the time of chaos, and after that followed the period 
referred to in the subsequent parts of that first chapter of Genesis, during 
which there was a fresh creation. Then came the fall ; and with it entered 
anguish and sorrow into the world of man ; for man, as we know, is not now 
in a perfect state ; he fell ; and his redemption can only be provided for 
through the God-man who came down and took our nature. 
Mr. W. N. West. — I agree more with Sir Lushington-Tilson than with 
Mr. McCaul. In Genesis, it is said, that “ In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth ” ; but, though commonly understood so, it is not 
stated that He created the earth without form and void, but it was without 
form and void ; in other words (and I believe this is the force of the original), 
it became without form and void.* I cannot conceive that God could have 
* This point is also taken up in the “ Transactions,” Vol. IV. p, 237. 
