THE CREATION OR MOSES AND SCIENCE IN HARMONY BY THE REV. ALEX. STEWART, M.D., LL.D. (America) MINISTER OF JOHN STREET E.U. CHURCH, ABERDEEN; Life Member of the American Anthropological Association, Member of BIBLIO MAR 79 66 BODLEIANA LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62 PATERNOSTER ROW. ABERDEEN: D. WYLLIE & SON. GLASGOW: T. D. MORISON. PREFACE. In recent years much has been written on the narrative of the Creation contained in the book of Genesis, and many modes and principles of interpretation have been adopted; but the mode in which the principles of interpretation wrought out in the following pages, are carried throughout the sacred narrative, gives the present treatise a position decidedly distinct from any yet published. These principles too, as wrought out, fairly render futile all the assaults of Infidelity, and harmonise all the well-ascertained facts of science bearing on the subject, with the narrative of Moses, and therefore are laid before the public in the hope that either directly or indirectly they may tend to the elucidation of a theme paramount in importance. The record of Creation given us by Moses constitutes the fountainhead of Revelation. To man it is in trinsically invaluable. It presents an adequate cause for the effects produced. It sheds light on the majesty and the mighty works of God, concerning matters regarding which, unaided, man could have only remained in darkness. This is amply proven by the futility, incongruity, and utter inadequacy of all the theories which men have propounded. It is God's own account to man of His own great and wonderful works wrought in the earth, to prepare it as a home, in time, for the great human family. Notwithstanding all this, doubt gathers very thickly around the cosmogony of Moses. It is, indeed, the object of attack or investigation from all sides, and many, even of Christian men, are prepared to regard it as a record of imperfect accuracy, discovering, as they believe, that it does not always accord with ascertained fact. This, we think, is a condition of dangerous laxity, and calculated to shake men from stability in the faith of God's Word. By such finding some men do seem to stumble and fall from their allegiance to divine revelation, and their position is quite logical, for if one part of the inspired book be out of harmony with truth, why may not other parts be out of harmony with it too? and one error proved would invalidate the claim of the whole. It is, therefore, part of our work to enter somewhat into the regions of speculation and investigation, and to face the difficulties which are presented, that we may ascertain whether they be such as to indicate that the divine record of the creation of the heaven and the earth, is not according to truth. In pursuance of our purpose, we assume that, if the Book of Revelation be the book of God, and the works of Creation which it records, the works of God, both must harmonise, being the truth of the one living and true God. To make this harmony apparent by a plain literal interpretation, is the main task to which we now address ourselves. |