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image of GOD created He him: male and female created He them. Gen. i. 26, 27.

And the Lord GOD called unto Adam and said unto him Where art thou? And he said I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.... Gen. iii. 9, 10, 23, 24.

These passages, which no criticism can rob of their sublime majesty and pathos, form, as I have said, the primitive Gospel of the world, the outline of the Divine promises of love in the essential circumstances of creation and the sequel of creation. They vindicate their prophetic character as soon as they are placed in comparison with any corresponding ethnic conceptions of the origin and being of the world. The Revelation which they convey is wholly unaffected by the view which may be taken of the incidents which embody the doctrinal statements in a concrete form; and, indeed, a careful examination of the narrative seems to leave no doubt that these first scenes in the religious history of the world are described in a symbolic form, even as the last scenes portrayed in the Apocalypse. For both -for the beginning and the end-this form, as we may reasonably believe, is, from the necessity of the case, that which is best suited to

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convey to a being like man the right impression of the truths shadowed out.

What then are the truths which they convey? We return to the fundamental passages in our 'Book of Origins.'

In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth...And GOD saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good. Gen. i. 1, 31 a.

The first thing which strikes the student in the opening verse of the Bible is that GOD is at once represented as acting. Neither here nor elsewhere is the simple fact of His existence asserted, nor are His abstract attributes set forth. It is assumed that men have the idea of GOD, and then His Character is portrayed in His works. To deny His existence is the mark of the fool (Ps. xiv. 1). Forgetfulness of GOD is the guilt of the heathen (Ps. ix. 17 [18]). The nations who were without GOD had been estranged from Him to Whom they properly belonged (Eph. ii. 12). GOD is represented as making Himself known in answer to the instinctive language of the heart which found expression in idolatry. 'I even I am He' (èyw eiμi LXX)-He Whom man looks for in the unseen world-' and there is no GOD with me' (Deut. xxxii. 39). 'I am He'...

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as to GOD.

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'I even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no Saviour.' 'Yea before the day was I am He.' (Is. xliii. 10, 11, 13). Even to your old age I am He' (Is. xlvi. 4). I am the first I also am the last' (Is. xlviii. 12; comp. Is. xli. 4, and Delitzsch or Cheyne; Ps. cii. 27). And so the believer answers Thou art GOD alone' (Is. xxxvii. 16). Thus the whole teaching of Scripture is directed to shew not that GOD is, nor yet what He is in Himself, but what He is in His dealings with men; or in other words to make Him known in various ways through the historical manifestations of His holiness and His love. From first to last this is the one message of prophets and apostles, in many parts and in many fashions, in judgments and in warnings, that message which found a clear enunciation in 'the last time': GOD is love (1 John iv. 8, 16), as crowning the other declarations: GOD is spirit (John iv. 24) and GOD is light (1 John i. 5), and our GOD is a consuming fire (Hebr. xii. 29; Deut. iv. 24).

In this light the Biblical statement as to Creation is seen in its true relation to all that follows. Two principles which underlie all religious conceptions of the world are plainly affirmed in it. The creation and disposition of the whole order in which we live was the work of GOD, and,

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Consequent view of Creation.

as we are able to apprehend it, the work of creation was regulated and completed in accordance with a definite plan. Or to express the truths otherwise, the whole finite order was due only to the will of GOD, and it answered to that will perfectly. These points it concerns us to know; and they obviously do not fall within the province of human observation. On the other hand when these truths are laid down, it remains for us to investigate, as we can, how they are realised, so far as they fall under our notice. In one sense it is said 'GOD rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made' (Gen. ii. 2), and in another sense it is said 'My Father worketh hitherto and I work' (John v. 17). Relatively to GOD we must regard 'all creation' as 'one act at once;' but relatively to ourselves we necessarily break up the one creative act into many parts that so we may realise it better. In this relation it would not be difficult to point out the fitness and symmetry of the distribution of the parts of the Divine work through the six days from the point of sight assumed by the writer of Genesis. He looks at things from the earth as centre, and regards them in due succession according to obvious sensible characteristics. From another point of sight the same thought of order might offer itself under another form. Such considera

The assumption as to man.

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tions have also a wider application. According to our powers or knowledge we may present GOD to ourselves as working in this way or that, uniformly, so to speak, or interruptedly. And these different modes of conception are not without moral significance, but they are only of secondary importance that which is essential is that we should keep firm hold of the one immutable truth that GOD made all that is, and that all, as He made it, was very good.

The second passage brings out another thought. The creation was consummated in man, 'the image and glory of GOD' (1 Cor. xi. 7).

And GoD said Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion... So GOD created man in His own image, in the image of GOD created He him: male and female created He them. Gen. i. 26, 27.

One thing at least is clear from these words that, according to the teaching of Scripture, man stands in a position of exceptional nearness to GOD; and the corresponding words in the second chapter confirm the truth under a different aspect (ii. 7). There is, to express the thought otherwise, such a relation between man and GOD, that man is fitted by his essential constitution to receive a knowledge of GOD. Revelation is made possible

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