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Romans, in old Egyptian or Sanscrit literature, any account of creation worthy to be compared with the Scriptural narrative; brief, yet comprehensive; accurate, yet general; simple, yet growing in meaning and power with the development of science; there may be a show of argument that Moses was wholly taught of other men: but, until that is done, Christians rightly maintain that Moses wrote the Sacred Narrative of creation by Inspiration of God.

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Faith is not that want of intelligence which begins where science ends, but the companion of science in every day's conduct of life. The death-watch may say of the clock he lives in, "Tick, tick, tick, it is all tick: that is its final cause and purpose; but we are not content with beetle philosophy; nor do we count the screws, levers, pulleys of the world, equivalents of existence. There is a line between that which is physical and that which is utterly beyond physics. ... Man has been left to the resources of his intellect for the discovery not merely of physical laws, but of how far he is capable of comprehending them. . . . A revelation of anything which we can discover for ourselves, by studying the ordinary course of Nature, would be an absurdity." I Truly so, but a revelation of that which, otherwise, would remain for ever unknown, is a benefit indeed; and when we find that the philosophical systems of Germany, apart from Scripture, though wonderful efforts of human reason, have not added one tittle to our positive religious knowledge; no, not even by saying-"There is a God;" we thank God for the Bible.

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"Those who

Men who purpose to do without God tell us can read the signs of the times read in them that the kingdom of man is at hand.” 2 We have a parable for these readersAn ancient king, like-minded, said "I saw a tree in the midst of the earth . . . the tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: the leaves thereof were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the boughs thereof, and all flesh was fed of it." The tree was a symbol of the king. He thought, like some modern men, that a human throne, a kingdom of man, "Recent Advances in Physical Science," p. 25: P. G. Tait, M.A. 2 Prof. W. K. Clifford, Nineteenth Century, October, 1877.

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The True Kingdom of Man.

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would be established; and said to himself" My greatness is grown, it reacheth unto heaven, and my dominion to the end of the earth." What happened? A holy one came down from heaven, and cried aloud-"Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches." What is the interpretation? At the end of twelve months that king lost his reason, went from among men, and dwelt with the beasts of the field, till his hair grew like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws (Dan. iv. 10-34). The mystery has further interpretation : when men, to fill up the chasm between civilised and savage man, cast in their religion; and to bridge the abyss separating savage from brute, sink human emotion and intellect to appetite and instinct, their language and conduct to the howling and herding of beasts; the holy watcher comes among them with the decree of heaven that high intellectual power, the greeting of the spirit, depart from them; and that they be as the beast of the field, without the supernal light that dawns on loving human hearts, until they know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.

A true kingdom of man is coming, long foreseen, long prepared for: dominion, and glory, the union of all nations under one everlasting sway (Dan. vii. 13, 14). We have

evidence of it in the spirit which knits our mind and body into personal identity; in the spirit running, like a thread of continuity, through all our chequered life; and in the song of the herald angels-" Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will."

We are not hindered in our faith by those who say—" Does the song of the herald angels express the exaltation and yearning of a human soul, or does it describe an optical and acoustical fact-a visible host, an audible song? If the former, the exaltation and the yearning are man's imperishable possession—a ferment long confined to individuals, but which by-and-by becomes the leaven of the earth. the latter, then belief in the entire transaction is wrecked by non-fulfilment. Look at the East at the present moment as a comment on the promise of peace on earth and good will toward men.' The objector understood not, that both must

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1 Prof. Tyndall, Address as President of the Midland Institute, Birmingham. Reported in the Times, 2nd October, 1877.

be true or neither; nor saw the binding up and embalming of all the struggles and searchings of human life.

"Our deeds still travel with us from afar,

And what we have been makes us what we are."

They produce elevated, tender, marvellous, moods and conditions of mind; make us think of the mysterious existence extending further than our consciousness; conduct us beyond the horizon of thought, even where are the stored-up wonders of our coming life. The exaltation and yearning are man's imperishable possession; actions arising out of his inner core; real as the life-grouping of particles in creatures of water, earth, sky; then, why doubt concerning those revelations which as the convex to the concave of human experience, yield glimpses of that splendid existence, and that peaceful state, which will renew the earth and establish a Divinely Human dominion-the Kingdom of Christ?

"There are buds that fold within them,
Closed and covered from our sight,
Many a richly tinted petal,
Never looked on by the light;
Fain to see their shrouded faces,

Sun and dew are long at strife,

Till at length the sweet buds open-
Such a bud is life.

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STUDY XIV.

DAY VI. CREEPING THING, BEAST, CATTLE.

"A little philosophy inclineth men's minds to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion.”—LORD BACON. "Revelation is no theory. Its truth or certainty, as a fact, can only be estimated historically in the same way as other matters of fact."Introduction to the Science of Religion: PROFESSOR MAX MÜLLER.

WE are required by opponents of Scripture to reconcile the old erroneous interpretations of friends and the misinterpretations of enemies with the sacred text; to justify unscientific theories of instantaneous creation, and to prove that everything was done without use of means, or of natural laws. We reply--The Divine account reveals an orderly plan and a continuous operation. Physical laws. express Supreme Will, working by constructive and wise adjustment of all things in due relation to an intelligent and intelligible aim. No reasonable person, unless prepossessed by a theory, after carefully reading the first chapter of Genesis with the light of modern science, can think that elemental atoms were created in a moment; and in the same moment flashed into living tissues. No well-informed believer imagines every plant and animal was separately and instantaneously formed, by hand-fashioning, out of the dust, or out of nothing. We stand by the statement—“ God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature."

Mr. Herbert Spencer1 states-"No one ever saw a special creation: no one ever found proof of an indirect kind that a special creation had taken place." As to seeing a creation, whoever saw an evolution? the passing of sensation into thought, of thought into act? Embryology, and the passage of invisibles through the visible into the invisible, are not less symbols and illustrations of creation than of evolution.

"Principles of Biology,” vol. i. p. 336.

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If the evolutionist thinks he has settled it by declaring "The egg was before the bird, not the bird before the egg; we inquire-" Whence the egg?" Many and separate acts, different in degree and kind, may condense the vortex into the atoms, may or may not precede the flash of life into vital sparks, but the old truth remains firm-"Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every plant; and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field." If the atoms hold not together the mountain is but dust.

We would know how matter, if created, was createdunless by Deity: and, if not created, how the eternity of its existence is more comprehensible than the Christian's belief that matter, and all other phenomena, are manifestations of the Eternal Power. If the impulses of force do not proceed from Eternal Power, science belies its own teaching.

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Mr. Herbert Spencer asks unwisely-"Why should not omnipotence have been proved by the supernatural production of plants and animals everywhere throughout the world from hour to hour?" We reply-It is proved. Plants and animals are produced throughout the world from hour to hour. If production came otherwise and by quicker process; if men saw, day by day, light flash out of darkness; the living rise out of the dead; and the wholly unlike grow from things alike; so that every kindled fire, every dawn of day, every oak from the acorn, every man from a scarcely visible ovule, appealed to them; would they believe? Might they not exclaim that man was a sudden evolution, the oak grew naturally very quickly, the sun rose according to mechanical law? What proof can be given that the wilful will not misinterpret? If full-grown men fell from the clouds, is it not likely that a theory-as of aerolites, would explain their fall? Is the life of individuals now, the continuance of species, the growth of harvest, production from hour to hour of plants, less wonderful than was their beginning? Does the accounting everything self-produced; or which is the same, produced by Nature's own power; explain the difficulty? The eye does not make light, nor outward form the inward spirit. God is the solution of every riddle. Another unwise inquiry :-" To what purpose were the : 66 'Principles of Biology," vol. i. p. 339.

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