Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE CONCEPTION OF CREATION AS RECORDED IN THE BIBLE The two alternatives of the polemic we have just been noticing are " Either natural origin and natural evolution, or Creation ". If this dilemma referred only to the universe as a whole and simply meant that, according to one view, the universe owes its existence, both in shape and substance, to the Creative Will, Almighty Power, and Wisdom of God, while according to the other it came into being of itself—there would be no objection to such an antithesis. All it maintains is that these two views are irreconcilable and that each has its supporters. But many of the controversialists, including supporters as well as opponents of the idea of Creation, are of opinion that Creation, according to a Christian and Biblical interpretation, involves the further assumption that the individual inhabitants of that region of the universe with which we are best acquainted, because it is our own dwelling- place, namely, the plants, animals, and people of the earth, originally appeared in all their different kinds and species, being suddenly summoned from non-existence into existence. Such a theory, it is held, alone entitles their origin to be called creation. We are to picture the scene somewhat as the archangel Raphael describes the work of the sixth day in Haydn's glorious oratorio, "The Creation". "And God spake, 'Let the earth bring forth lining creatures after their kind'. Immediately the earth opened its lap and at God's word bore creatures of every kind in perfect development and in almost infinite number. Here stood the lion roaring for joy, here the nimble tiger crouched ; there the swift stag raised its antlers, and again the noble horse with flowing mane pranced and curvetted in its strength." Such a conception ...