reach back to the act of creation, this
doctrine is much more strongly held in our day by geologists than by
physicists. It is quite true that the idea of creative acts has been
superseded to a great extent by that of "creation by law," or by that
of "evolution." Still behind all there lies a primary creative power;
and the validity of these ideas and their bearing on theism and
creation we shall have to discuss in the sequel. In one thing only
does the Bible here part company with natural science. The Bible goes
on into the future, and predicts a final condition of our planet, of
which science can from its investigations learn nothing.

3. The Bible recognizes purpose, use, and special adaptation in
nature. It is, in short, full of natural theology, akin in some
respects to that which has been so elaborately worked out by so many
modern writers. Numerous passages in support of this will occur to
every one who has read the Scriptures. It is necessary here, however,
to direct attention to a distinction very obvious in Scripture, but
not always attended to by writers on this subject. The Bible maintains
the true "final cause" of all nature to be, not its material and
special adaptations or its value to man, but the pleasure or
satisfaction of the Creator himself. In the earlier periods of
Creation, before man was upon the earth, God contemplates his work and
pronounces it good. The heavenly hosts praise him, saying, "Thou hast
created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
Further, the Bible represents intelligences higher than man as sharing
in the delight which may be derived from the contemplation of God's
works. When the earth first rose from the waters to greet the light,
"the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for
joy." There are many things in nature that strongly impress the
naturalist with this same view, that the Creator takes pleasure in his
works; and, like human genius in its highest efforts, rejoices in
production, even if no sentient being should be ready to sympathize.
The elaborate structures of fossils, of which we have only fragmentary
remains, the profusion of natural objects of surpassing beauty that
grow and perish unseen by us, the delicate microscopic mechanism of
nearly all organic structures, point to other reasons for beauty and
order than those that concern man, or the mere utilities of human
beings; and though there are now naturalists who deny a