into existence, nor as to the
method by which it was originally constructed. Once started, the
machine comes under the scrutiny of science, but the actual starting
lies outside its scope.

Men therefore cannot find out for themselves how the worlds were
originally made, how the worlds were first moved, or how the spirit of
man was first formed within him; and this, not merely because these
beginnings of things were of necessity outside his experience, but also
because beginnings, as such, must lie outside the law by which he
reasons.

By no process of research, therefore, could man find out for himself the
facts that are stated in the first chapter of Genesis. They must have
been revealed. Science cannot inquire into them for the purpose of
checking their accuracy; it must accept them, as it accepts the
fundamental law that governs its own working, without the possibility of
proof.

And this is what has been revealed to man:--that the heaven and the
earth were not self-existent from all eternity, but were in their first
beginning created by God. As the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews
expresses it: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed
by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of
things which do appear." And a further fact was revealed that man could
not have found out for himself; viz. that this creation was made and
finished in six Divine actings, comprised in what the narrative
denominates "days." It has not been revealed whether the duration of
these "days" can be expressed in any astronomical units of time.

Since under these conditions science can afford no information, it is
not to be wondered at that the hypotheses that have been framed from
time to time to "explain" the first chapter of Genesis, or to express it
in scientific terms, are not wholly satisfactory. At one time the
chapter was interpreted to mean that the entire universe was called into
existence about 6,000 years ago, in six days of twenty-four hours each.
Later it was recognized that both geology and astronomy seemed to
indicate the existence of matter for untold millions of years instead of
some six thousand. It was then pointed out that, so far as the narrative
was concerned, there might have been a period of almost unlimited
duration between its first verse and its fourth; and it was suggested
that the six days of creation were six days of twenty-four hours each,
in which, after some great catac