science will unite with
me in the admission that the latter is hopeless. We need not seek to
belittle the magnificent triumphs of modern science. They have been
real and stupendous. But it is of their very nature to conduct us to
ultimate facts and laws of which science can give no explanation; and
the further we push our inquiries the more insuperably does the wall
of mystery rise before us. It is true we can furnish the materials for
philosophical speculations which may be built on scientific facts and
principles; but these are in their nature uncertain, and must
constantly change as knowledge advances. They can not solve for us the
great practical problems of our origin and destiny.

In these circumstances no apology is needed for a thorough and careful
inquiry into those foundations of religious belief which rest on the
idea of a revelation of origins and destinies made to man from
without, and on which we may build the superstructure of a rational
religion, giving guidance for the present and hope for the future. In
the following pages I propose to enter upon so much of this subject as
relates to the origin and earliest history of the world, in so far as
these are treated of in the Bible and in the traditions of the more
ancient nations; and this with reference to the present standpoint of
science in relation to these questions.

To discuss such questions at all, certain preliminary admissions are
necessary. These are: (1) The reality of an unseen universe, spiritual
rather than material in its nature. (2) The existence of a personal
God, or of a great Universal Will. (3) The possibility of
communication taking place between God and man. I do not propose to
attempt any proof of these positions, but it may be well to explain
what they mean.

(1) That the great machine for the dissipation of energy, in which we
exist, and which we call the universe, must have a correlative and
complement in the unseen, is a conclusion now forced upon physicists
by the necessities of the doctrine of the conservation of force. In
short, it seems that, unless we admit this conclusion, we can not
believe in the possible existence of the material universe itself, and
must sink into absolute nihilism. This doctrine is expressed by the
apostle Paul in the statement, "The things that are seen are temporal,
but the things that are not seen are eternal," and it has been ably
discussed by the authors of the remarkable work, "The Unseen
Uni