lesiastes: "One generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for the ages. The
sun ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteneth to its place whence
it arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth unto the north.
It whirleth about continually, and returneth again according to its
circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not
overflow; unto the place whence the rivers came, thither they return
again." I might fill pages with quotations more or less illustrative
of the statement in proof of which the above texts are cited; but
enough has been given to show that the doctrine of the Bible is not
that of fortuitous occurrence, or of materialism, or of pantheism, or
of arbitrary supernaturalism, but of invariable natural law
representing the decree of a wise and unchanging Creator. It is a
common but groundless and shallow charge against the Bible that it
teaches an "arbitrary supernaturalism." What it does teach is that
all nature is regulated by the laws of God, which like himself are
unchanging, but which are so complex in their relations and
adjustments that they allow of infinite variety, and do not exclude
even miraculous intervention, or what appears to our limited
intelligence as such. In opposition to this, it is true, some
physicists have held that natural law is a fatal necessity.[19] If
they mean by this a merely hypothetical necessity that certain effects
must follow if certain laws act, this is in accordance with the
Biblical view, for nothing can resist the will of God. But if they
mean an absolute necessity that these laws can not be suspended or
counteracted by higher laws, or by the will of the Creator, they
assert what is not only contrary to Scripture, but absurd, for "blind
metaphysical necessity, which is the same always and everywhere, could
produce no variety of things."[20] It could lead merely to a dead and
inert equilibrium. On the hypothesis of mere physical necessity, the
universe either never could have existed, or must have come to an end
infinite ages ago, which is the same thing. Only on the hypothesis of
law proceeding from an intelligent will can we logically account for
nature.

2. The Bible recognizes progress and development in nature. At the
very outset we have this idea embodied in the gradual elaboration of
all things in the six creative periods, rising from the formless void
of the beginning, through successive stages of inor