1856.] Science and the Bible. 103
Deity is not Nature itself, which is only a plan in development, but a personal being above Nature, while ever in nature by his power and wisdom.
Our
conclusion therefore is, that Nature, self-existent and
self-propagating, now and then requiring a jog from the supernatural,
may be an interesting myth, but cannot rise to the same point of view
with Biblical truth or sound philosophy.
But
let us pass on. We need better argument than Prof. Lewis has brought
forward, to convince us that the phrase, " In the beginning," does not
mean what it says. We have regarded the announcement, in the first
verse, of creation out of nothing by the will of God, a will free,
supreme, omnific, as the grand point distinguishing the Mosaic
cosmogony from the Egyptian and all others; almost like the very hand
itself of God on the first line of the new revelation. But he would
have us suppose that matter was made at some earlier beginning; and
perhaps had had its ups and downs, and finally was worked over at a new
beginning announced in the first verse. It is true the Hebrew word used
in this place for create, does not signify, necessarily,
creation out of nothing. Yet such an inference cannot be resisted
without doing violence to the spirit of the text, and the fundamental
laws of human belief. We would ask Prof. Lewis, what Hebrew word he
could substitute for the one used, that would convey the precise idea
of creation out of nothing ? When he has found such a one, his
reasoning may then demand consideration. " In the beginning " refers
directly to the existing "heavens and earth" mentioned in the following
part of the verse; that is, the existing universe. We may suspect the
existence of a previous universe that came to nought before this began
; but it cannot be made a question of reasonable belief, or a basis for
argument.
Some
other points in Professor Lewis's cosmology (he will excuse us if we
substitute his own name for the term "scriptural") demand from us a
passing remark.
"V\
ith singular inconsistency, Professor Lewis admits a "huge nebulosity"
for the "formless and void" state of the earth, makes the progress
mainly one by natural causes, and
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