We cannot, in fact, possibly avoid the conclusion that our Lord and His
apostles admitted the Divine origin and historical truth of these
chapters.

Therefore, we are bound as Christians to accept them, and that without
glossing or frittering away their meaning, when we have arrived, by just
processes, at what that meaning really is.

The fact just stated further warns us against accepting an indefinite
interpretation which, while it acknowledges the truth of the general
conclusion, still virtually, if not in so many words, allows that the
details may be wholly inaccurate.

CHAPTER XI.

_SCRIPTURE METHODS OF REVELATION_.

Passing, then, to a consideration of the explanations of the narrative
that may be or have been given at various times, I would first call
attention to the fact, that it seems in many instances to have been the
distinct purpose of Divine inspiration to allow the meaning of some
passages to be obscure; perhaps among other reasons, that men might be
compelled to study closely, to reason and to compare, and thus to become
more minutely acquainted with the record. Especially in a case of this
sort, where the world's knowledge of the facts would necessarily be
gradual, was it desirable that the narrative should be confined in
scope, and capable of being worked out and explained by the light of
later discoveries; because, had the narrative really (as has long been
supposed) been revealed to tell us what was the actual course of
evolution of created forms on earth, it would not only have occupied a
disproportionate space in the sacred volume, but would have been
unintelligible to the world for many centuries, and would have given
rise to much doubting and false argument, to the great detriment of
men's spiritual enlightenment. It would have diverted men's minds from
the great moral and conclusion of the whole (and here it is that the
"moral" or conclusion is so important) to set them arguing on points of
natural science.

The Bible was never intended (so far we may agree with all the schools
of thought) to be a text-book on biology or geology. We need rather to
be impressed with the great facts of God's Sovereignty and Providence,
and to know definitely that all the arrangements of our globe and all
forms of life are due to Divinely-created types. This is exactly secured
by the narrative as it stands; but such a purpose would not be served by
a narrative which, while it contained these grea