ideas, common also to the non-miraculous theory of development, meet us in this Mosaic hypothesis of Creation, with surprising clearness and simplicity-the idea of separation or differentiation, and the idea of progressive development or perfecting. Although Moses looks upon the result of the great laws of organic development (which we shall later point out as the necessary conclusions of the Doctrine of Descent) as the direct actions of a constructing Creator, yet in his theory there lies hidden the ruling idea of a progressive development and a differentiation of the originally simple matter.

therefore bestow our just and sincere admiration on the Jewish lawgiver's grand insight into nature, and his discovering in it a so-called 'Divine revelation.' That it cannot be such is clear from the fact that two grand fundamental errors are asserted in it, namely, first the geocentric error that the earth is the fixed central point of the whole universe, round which the sun, moon, and stars move; and secondly, the anthropocentric error, that man is the premeditated aim of the creation of the earth, for whose service alone all the rest of nature is said to have been created." 1

The learned professor ought to know that Moses says nothing about man being "the premeditated aim of the creation;" but that man, being the highest work of God done on earth, was made lord of earthly creatures; and this cannot be denied. Further, it is somewhat inconsistent to credit Moses for far-reaching wisdom; and yet, to tax him with rudest ignorance in that very thing concerning which he was wise. As to the Geocentric Error, there is no error; the earth is popularly, figuratively, poetically, and, as our own stand-point, the centre. The Anthropocentric Error may, likewise, be explained as a popular mode of speech; but, in reality, all true spiritual presentation passes into the infinite-suggests rather than expresses. Scripture must be judged in accordance with all the facts: the earth is great, the sun is greater; and as to far-off worlds, science ends; and assertion becomes unscientific; yet to those worlds and beyond them travels the human spirit seeking brighter light

and higher life. Are we to wonder that men, the central point of circling mysteries, are a spectacle unto angels? that the creation of the earth, and the state of the earth, are connected with a mysterious past and a wonderful future-the existence of evil and rescue from evil? In Creation, the Invisible God is manifested or clearly seen (Rom. i. 20); and, in Redemption, the holiness and goodness of God are made plain (Eph. i. 10; iii. 9, 10). Creation and Redemption, however separate in some respects, concern many worlds; and man is not only the spiritual centre of the earth, but constituted the centre of transactions concerning many other operations and dwellings of God. Our eloquent preachers, pious statesmen, philosophers, architects, and engineers, will possibly set hearts a glow in other worlds, develop thought, oversee work, contemplate arrangements, and possess powers of rule on grandest scale.

The expressions-rising, setting, and travelling of the sun, the fixity and foundations of the earth, though the only intelligible language, have been found fault with. We are told "Scripture really speaks of a flat earth; and of the sky as a watery vault in which the sun, moon, and stars set; of the firmament as a solid arch, literally something beaten or hammered out; and of the Almighty as a gigantic man."

Really, such fault-making displays neither intelligence nor candour; if opponents would remember that no science is involved here, that these are the every-day statements of all ages; and if they discriminate as to what is fact, and what figure, where literal accuracy is to be looked for, and where a poetic thought, they will be preserved from an infinity of folly. The firmament is that in which, to our eyes, sun and stars do set; and is, indeed, a space for waters. The earth, in common consideration, is ever spoken of as a plane. In a higher sense even than is stated, the sun does go forth as a giant to run a race.

The stability of the earth is counted an error :

"The earth also shall be stable, that it be not moved." I Chr. xvi. 30.

"The world also is established that it cannot be moved." Ps. xciii. I; xcvi. 10; cxix. 90; Eccl. i. 4.

The real meaning is-God, who made the earth, will support it; the excellent order which He established shall be maintained; neither storms upon it from without, nor any commotion from within, shall unsettle its abiding.

The principal texts mentioning the movement of sun and

stars are:

Gen. xix. 23.

"The sun was risen upon the earth.”
"The sun went down." Gen. xv. 7.
"The sun is as a bridegroom coming out of his
chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race.
His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his cir-
cuit unto the ends of it." Ps. xix. 5, 6.
"The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down, and has-
teneth to his place where he arose." Eccl. i. 5.

Science uses the same language now, and it is the best language. He who finds fault with Scripture for poetically and popularly speaking of the sun, must deal with other books in the same manner. If, however, scientific accuracy is unreasonably demanded; we answer that even here, "deep answers to deep within the sacred oracles "-the sun revolving on his axis, as actually viewed from the earth by scientific men, and as revolving around his own great centre, does rise, set, go forth and return, in a manner truly wonderful, and surpassing all expectation.

Two other passages are asserted to be incorrect :—

"Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou moon in the valley of Ajalon." Josh. x. 12.

The sun and his shadow are stated to have returned ten degrees. 2 Kgs. xx. 10. Is. xxxviii. 8.

The words translated "sun" and "moon," rather refer to the light than to the substance of those bodies. In what way God continued the sun-light, or a light resembling it, so that Israel fought as in the day, we know not, nor does it seem in the power of man to explain the wonder which confirmed Hezekiah's faith; but a scientific eye-witness might possibly have discerned some of the means by which the different marvels were wrought, though the stopping of the earth in its axial rotation, or the return of degrees, may be inexplicable as a change in natural order naturally effected. No human effort

Power used in a Miracle.

415

can bring Scripture miracles within the understood range of natural order; indeed, their evidential value may depend upon deviation from that order. Both of those in question may have been special providences-coincidence of the physical event with the moral lesson in illustration of Divine rule.

Providential and miraculous arrangements are probably similar to those operations which we see day by day in the course of nature; for all things, ordinary and extraordinary, are wrought by the eternal omnipresent Power. As nature, ever flowing onward in the uninterrupted rhythm of cause and effect, is mediately used and subordinated by the human will acting as a trigger to liberate controlling power; so Divine Will acts mediately by Nature and directly upon Nature, with infinite wisdom and power.

With somewhat of scientific affectation calculations have been made to show that the miracle wrought on behalf of Israel, in the days of Joshua, required the energy of six trillions of horses, was a wasteful expenditure, in a few hours, of that which would have provided fighting power for all the armies of the world during millions of years.1 Such trifling needs no grave reply. Match it with another calculation: the wisdom and power requisite to form and give life, by human means, to a cheese mite, would require more than all the millions of men from the beginning of creation till now have possessed; what a waste of power for God to have been at such expenditure for a cheese mite! Moreover, of 2,300 million parts of light and heat emitted by the sun, our earth only receives one part. Surely those who blame us for likening God to man-when we exhort men to be God-like, are more blameable for making God man-like, by accounting that anything is either little or much to Him. Greatness and smallness are relative-nothing more: "there is absolutely nothing to show that even a portion of matter which in our most powerful microscope appears as hopelessly minute as the most distant star appears in our telescopes, may not be as astoundingly complex in its structure as is that star itself, even if it far exceed our own sun in magnitude."

"Miracles and Special Providences :" Prof. Tyndall.

2 "Recent Advances in Physical Science,” p. 284, Prof. P. G. Tait.

If miracles were bound up with credulous prattle, and stood alone, doubtless, faith in miracles would pass away with our childhood; but, being associated with words and deeds of imperishable wisdom and sublime purity, they are regarded as sparks from the great wheel of Divine operation. They are in connection with examples of moral grandeur, nowhere matched in the history of mankind, proving that they are not inventions of the crafty and deceitful. If opponents answer “we do not deny the moral grandeur of those who asserted the miracles, but we maintain that in an unscientific age moral grandeur is compatible with an uncritical belief in the marvellous;" then we reply-The men used as agents to work them, and many of the eye-witnesses, were the most thoughtful and experienced of our race: not likely to be, and, in many cases, could not be deceived: and the Power displaying the marvels is that very Power which Science acknowledges to exist behind all phenomena. Nor is that all: those physical marvels are given in attestation of, and lie at the foundation of, whatever knowledge is possessed concerning Forgiveness of sin, Redemption from evil, and Immortality of life.

We are gravely told-" The universe of the Bible is limited to a few thousand years in time, and to a narrowly bounded area in space."

Where is it so limited? Certainly not in the Bible, where are glowing descriptions of the grandeur and ancientness of the universe. Limitations, that do exist, must be interpreted by the larger accounts; or explained by the purpose for which the limitation is made. The Inspiration of a Prophet was not universal as to knowledge; but confined to that which he had to perform. As to the Earth's antiquity, the Rev. R. Greswell, in "The Threefold Cord," says "In the very year, which, it has often been shown, is assigned by the chronology of the Hebrew Bible as the year of the Mosaic Creation itself, B.C. 4000, we find all the measures of time, both the natural and the civil, which have entered this system from the first and are still making part of it, meeting together." We cannot agree with the above statement. It is not in man to know, with any accuracy, when time began to be measured by day and night. Job was admonished of this-"Where wast thou when I laid