CREATION.

Some things are so certain that they need no proof. Human footprints in a desert prove that some one has walked there. The prints could not make themselves nor come by accident. A house in the desert proves that a builder with intelligence and skill has wrought there.

The relation of cause and effect is not always so apparent as in these illustrations, but the principle is established. Every effect must have a cause. A clock proves a clock-maker; a piano, a pianomaker; a ship, a ship-builder. A book proves an author, a printer and a manufacturer of printing machinery. A railway with cars suited to its track, and with bridges, tunnels and switches, proves not a builder only and a maker of machinery, but a designer and controlling mind.

Philosophers have recognized this argument and have sought the cause which is behind the universe. There must be a cause. The world did not make itself nor come by accident. The sun and moon did

not happen to be what they are. Neither did the law of gravitation, nor the law of reproduction and growth. The adaptation of light to the eye, of air to the lungs and of food to the body can not be mere chance. As a house proves a builder, so a world proves a creator. So the evidences of design in the eye and in other organs, and indeed in the whole universe, prove a designer.

Unaided philosophy, however, though recognizing this principle of causation, failed to solve the problem of the universe. It was necessary for God to announce himself as the creator. The opening sentence of the Bible is an advance upon all the possible results of human scholarship. It is a declaration that God, the eternal and self-existent, is the first cause and absolute author of all things.

In the inspired narrative of creation important facts are stated in the fewest possible words, with almost no rehearsal of details. These facts are plain to the humblest mind, while beyond them the wisest can only speculate. Who shall attempt to fix the date of "the beginning"? Who can tell anything about it? We only know that in the beginning God was, and that

he created the heavens and the earth. The strongest word which could be selected is used to describe absolute creation, the making out of nothing of all materials.

God did not at once produce these material things in finished forms, but simply called them into being. Some say they were star-dust, filling immeasurable space and having the potency of future worlds and life. It may be so; we can not tell, for the Scripture does not affirm it. It only says that God created them. Afterwards -we do not know how long; perhaps immediately, perhaps after myriads of years -the earth assumed its separate identity. Even then, however, it was not like the world to-day. It was without form, empty and dark. Here some give wings to fancy. claiming that certain changes were in progress, and estimating the number of years required. They may or may not be correct, the Scripture does not say, and there is no other authoritative testimony. After this came light, the dissipation of vapors which enshrouded the earth, the separation of land and water, vegetation. the sun and moon, fish, fowl and beasts of the field, and last of all, man. Each had its time and all were declared good.

Here, again, some follow theories detailing the various steps, and declaring how long the evening and morning of each day must have been. They may be right, but no man can prove it. The word translated "day" may mean a day of twenty-four hours, or an indefinite period. God could have made the world in six solar days, or he could have taken a longer time. We need to guard against the realistic speculation of Milton, which some confuse with inspiration, as well as against the scientific speculation of modern times. The record is plain, and we need not go beyond it. Mr. Beecher, speaking of evolution, says that "an hypothesis is a glorious guess." All theories beyond what is written as to the steps in creation are guesses, glorious possibly, but only guesses.

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The crowning act of creation was the making of man, and here, as at every preceding step, we find mystery. We do not know the method of Adam's creation. The record is that God created man in his own image, that "the Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Whether this

creation was instantaneous, and followed by an immediate inbreathing of divine life, or whether God worked by slow, mysterious processes, we do not know. Those who contend for any details beyond the record must bring the proof. Some believe that Adam was evolved through many forms and myriads of years, and not a few Christian scholars believe that after such evolution God breathed into the perfected physical form the breath of life, and that man then became man. All this is hypothesis or guessing. No one can prove it. The most its advocates can claim is that it seems to them to explain some facts, that it furnishes a working theory according to which investigation may proceed, and that it does no violence to the story in Genesis.

It is wise to avoid positive assertions which can not be verified. The facts are simple and plain. God created the heaven and the earth. He created man. Afterwards he created woman out of man, and the two were given dominion over other creatures, and commanded to increase and multiply and replenish the earth. All this we receive by faith, because God has declared it. "By faith we understand that