THE DIVINE ACCOUNT OF CREATION.
It must be self-evident that the Creator alone can answer the questions How? and Why? which the human mind from earliest infancy gives utterance to, as to our and other worlds. Neither man nor angel-themselves the subjects of creation -can, in the nature of things, supply the needed information. Man can guess, conjecture; angels never do ; every act and thought of theirs has certainty impressed upon it, for they are "hearkening unto the voice of His word" (Ps. 103:20.)

Now God has communicated to mankind, through Moses, an orderly and succinct account of creation within the compass of thirty-four verses in the fully inspired and most venerable document in existence-the book of Genesis. The style is so simple that a child can understand; yet so majestic in its very simplicity,-so Godlike the utterances, as to carry conviction to the intellectual faith of the civilized world. The manner, too, in which "creation's story" is told stamps the narrative as of God. Man would have given labored arguments and ingenious proofs in truth of his assertions. But not so God. His spoken or written word is enough, and the spiritual instincts of all say so also. Hence, we have no reasoning, argument, nor proof advanced. Who does not fail to see how worthy, how suitable in God, how unlike man?

Let us note a few of the verbal and other peculiarities of this interesting narrative. The first three verses of chap. 2:complete the account of creation commenced in the first verse of the Bible; this gives us in all thirty-four verses. The name of the Creator-"God" ("Elohim"-plural) occurs just thirty-four times. "Jehovah," "The Almighty," "Most High," etc., are titles. "The LORD," or "Jehovah-God," expressing moral relationship to the creature, occurs in chap. 2:eleven times, when man was in innocence; while in chap, 3:, which shows man in sin, it is equally insisted upon, occurring nine times. The circumstances in which the creature may be placed, or in which he may be found, never touch, nor weaken, in the least degree, his direct responsibility to God. That truth, so vital to all, and which neither grace, government, nor law can ever set aside, having been established in those two chapters, the relationship-title alone is used by the Spirit in chap. 4:"The LORD," or "Jehovah, "is found ten times. It is interesting to observe that Satan is the first to deny the moral relationship of the creature to God; the woman followed suit (see 10:I and 5 of chap. 3:for the former, and 5:3 of same chapter and 5:25 of chap. 4:for the latter).

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." The third word in the Bible, which gives name and character to the first of the sixty-six books of the Bible, is used in some interesting connections. "In the beginning was the Word" (Jno. 1:i) refers to eternity; "In the beginning God created" (Gen. 1:I) refers to the primal creation of the universe; "From the beginning" refers to the incarnation of Christ (I Jno. 1:I); "The beginning of the gospel" (Mark 1:I) refers to the commencement of the public ministry of our Lord.

Thus we have eternity, creation, incarnation, and public service of Christ, each used in association with this word. "God created" then matter is not eternal, nor has it been produced by evolution. "Created:" certainly pre-existing material is not supposed. The primary meaning of the word "create" is allowed by all to signify the production of what in no sense previously existed. The popular phrase is not so far astray in thought as it. may be in expression-"something out of nothing." But we greatly prefer the apostle's explanation in Hebrews 11:3-"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made [or, had not their origin] of things which do appear."

"The heavens and the earth" is an expression for the universe. The "heavens," not heaven. In the first thirty-five verses of the Bible, we have nine occurrences of the word heaven, or heavens; but in all those various instances of the word, it is in the dual number in the original-two heavens, not the plural three or more.

The first verse of the Bible is a comprehensive statement of weighty truth. Those ten English words rest the human brain, and scatter, like chaff before the wind, the speculations, the baseless theories of ancients and moderns, and sets creation upon a ground worthy of it, for no world has a moral history such as ours. Yet, as to number and magnitude, there are other worlds beyond human ken. They are, says Herschel, "scattered by millions, like glittering dust, on the black ground of the general heavens." But in our planet, small as it is compared to Saturn or Jupiter, the grandest counsels of eternity, the most magnificent facts of time, have their accomplishment. Here Christ lived, walked, wept, loved, and died. Here the voice of Him who, in majestic tones, said, "Let light be, and light was," uttered on the cross the morally grander words," It is finished," and bowed His head in death for sin.

The first verse of the Bible is an absolutely independent statement. It is in no wise a summary of what follows. The when? God created is undefined in Scripture, and incapable of solution by science. The first and subsequent dates of Scripture refer to man and his history in responsibility on the earth. (Gen. 5:3.) The antiquity of the globe is alone known to the Creator, and probably to angels. (Job. 38:7.) That the heavens and the earth were created in light, beauty, order,- yea, perfection itself, should not, we suppose, require proof." God is light" and would necessarily create according to His nature. "His work is perfect" is the sure testimony of Scripture, and that whether in the moral or physical worlds. (Deut. 32:4.) Here, several questions suggest themselves to inquiring minds, to all of which we can only reply, We know not. When did God create? How long did the heavens and earth abide in their perfection? Was it Satan who brought the earth into the ruin and desolation as witnessed in 5:2 of the Bible? We know he effected the ruin of man. How long did the earth exist as a ruin till acted upon by God? In the primal creation of ver. I, man had no place, nor had he existence in the material ruin of ver. 2. Man, having no existence then, could have no responsibility or blame in the desolation which overtook the primeval earth. We are glad to accept facts from whatever quarter they reach us, be the source infidel or Christian; but we are chary in accepting the statements of science. We do not fear for the Bible, for the God who made the stones wrote the Bible, and it is an ABSOLUTE IMPOSSIBILITY that there can be a conflict between the facts of science and inspired statements. Man has not been found fossil in any strata formed previous to the historical period, and never will be, while the state of the rocks clearly enough demonstrates that there were many and successive creations of animal and vegetable life before man was created. W.S. (Scotland.) (To be continued, D. V.)