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2 ii i MMLmu 1 Z ' -^ V S ngroilt >lk, ilWlilWnKx ?■ I K. “ J ; CHRIST CHURCH, LONDON. OUTLINE of the BOOK of GENESIS BEGINNINGS AND PROGRESS. I. The Beginnings.—l-111. 1. Creation. I. 2. The Sabbath. 11:1-3. 3. Law and Order. 11:4-17. 4. The Family. 11:18-25. 5. Temptation. 111:1-5. 6. Sin. 111:6-7. 7. Judgment. 111:8-14. 8. Salvation. 111:15. 9. Chastisement. 111:16-24. 11. The Progress.—lV-L. J 1. The Family. IV:l-2. 2. Sin and Salvation. IV:3-15. 3. The Race. IV:16-26; V. 4. Sin and Judgment. VI-VIII. 5. The new Order —Noah to Abraham. IX-XI. 6. The new nation —Abraham to Joseph. XII-L. 111. The Creation.—Gen. 1:1-27. A. The Time. V. 1. B. The creator. V. 1. C. The. creation. Vs. 1-27. 1. The heavens and earth. V. 1. 2. Light. V. 3. 3. Day and night. V. 5. 4. Evening and Morning. V. 5. 5. The Firmament. V. 7. 6. Earth and Seas. Vs. 9-10. 7. Grass, herbs and trese. V. 12. 8. Sun, Moon and Stars. V. 16. 9. Sea Creatures, winged kind. V. 21. 10. and creeping things. V. 25. 11. Man. V. 27. ii The Lecture. E begin now in the Book of Genesis and we will remain there until the first of May, and I am exceedingly happy that we have the privilege of spending so long a time in it, because in many respects it is the most fascinating book in the Old Testament, and one of the most stimulating fiom the standpoint of W study, in the Bible. The special subject for tonight is 1 ‘The Cre ation;” in Chapter I. 1:27. And I want that we shall first have a glance at the time of the creation. You will observe that the Bible does not fix any date for the creation of the world. And when you think for a moment you will see how wise the Holy Spirit was in not fixing any definite date. There evidently was a time when the world was made, but the Holy Spirit does not tell us the date, and hence we find the scientists greatly at war with each other as to the time when the earth was made, and when all things on the earth were made. And it is interesting to note how they differ greatly among themselves with reference to this mat ter. I have tabulated a list here that I want to give you which is to me exceedingly interest ing. I have here the names of some of the greatest scientists in all the world, and I shall give you some of their conclusions that they have put up with reference to the time of the creation of the world. Prof. Ramsay made it The Golden Age for January 30, 1913. THE CRE ATION Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev, Len G, Broughton, D,D,, of Christ Church, London Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for. fully ten thousand million years. That is a pretty good time for a fellow to figure on for a certainty, but that is his conclusion. Eugene Du Bois made it about one thousand million years, so he and Prof. Ramsay are at war with each other concerning it. Prof. Goodchild, an other great scientist, says that the world has only been in existence about seven hundred mil lion years; Sir Chas. Lyell says four hundred million years. Darwin (the late) says about three hundred million years. Sir Oliver Lodge, a great scientific authority banks his reputa tion on its being in existence only about one hundred million years. Sir George H. Darwin, son of the late Mr. Darwin, says that'it has been in existence about sixty hundred million years. Prof. Sollas, about fifty-five million years; Lord Kelvin, another great modern scientist, says that at most, the world has been in existence not over twenty-four million years; Dr. Croll says about twenty million years; Prof. Tait says at most, not over ten million years. Do you see here that we have a discrepancy between these men of nine thousand million years as the time set for the creation of the world? And yet, these men look askance at us, and rather make sport of us, because we do not throw down all our theories and views of inspiration and of truth, and accept their dogmatic statements. They deny being dog matists, and laugh at us for daring to dogma tize about things, and yet they come in as dog matic a manner as any man ever did, and ask us to accept their statements, when they are apart themselves just nine thousand million years. Now, you can see the wisdom of the Spirit in not fixing a time, a definite date for the crea tion of the world. Here is what the Spirit records for us: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the reath.” Suppose Prof. Ramsay is right, and the world has been in existence for ten thousand million years? There is nothing in the Bible that will help us to say he is not right. On the other hand, I don’t know that he is. But, suppose he is, and the world has been in existence for ten thousand million years, that don’t interfere with the statements in Genesis. Not at all! Genesis goes back and takes a position with Prof. Ram say, and says, “All right* Let it be ten thou sand million years— ln the beginning—when ever it was —God created the heavens and the earth!” On the other hand, suppose Prof. Tait is right, who says it has been in existence only ten million years. Well. All right! If Prof. Tait is right, then Genesis is also right, for “In the beginning’’ —whenever it was —God created it. Now, let us see for a moment the Creator, in this same verse, “In the beginning God creat ed the heavens and the earth.” I was reading only today a statement by Herbert Spencer, which will be interesting in this connection with us. Herbert Spencer was one of the greatest scientists the world ever produced, though he was an agnostic and one of the most pronounced that the world has ever seen, and we have to take what he says in matters of faith and religion with considerable salt. Here is his statement. Writing of what he called “the manifestations of the unknowable,” by which he evidently meant the manifestations of God’s power working in and through crea tion, he says “That such manifestation must, on scientific grounds take five distinct forms, which he specifies thus: SPACE, TIME, MATTER, MOTION, FORCE. Now, turn with me to the first and second verses of Genesis, and see the light, as it bears down upon the deductions of those scientists. And, mark you, Herbert Spencer doubtless had never given any thought to these verses. Is there any correspondence here between the de- ductions of these verses and the deductions of Herbert Spencer: !“In the beginning TIME God created the heavens SPACE and the earth MATTER and the Spirit of God FORCE moved upon the _ face of the waters.” MOTION. There are Spencer’s deductions. Here is God’s word. I submit that that is very striking. Now, I want us to look for a little while at the things created, or the creation itself. (See analysis of Chapter I.) But it is with reference to Man that I want to speak. Here again it does not make any difference at all to us as to when and how man was created, so far as the teaching of the Word of God is concerned. The one thing we in sist upon is that “In the beginning, God creat ed.” In the first place He created the earth; then all things needed for the earth all the forces and law that governs and controls it. Then He created every form of life, animal and vegetable. And by that we do not mean that God made all these things at the time when He created the earth, for He did not. Ido not - 4 have any idea that He did. But “in the be ginning” of these things. “God created them.” That is the point! So far as I am concerned personally, if God chose to bring man, for example, through a tadpole and ape period of existence to his pres ent state of physical perfection and beauty, it is all right for me! lam not going to dis cuss that thing one single moment with any man, because it is not worth it. The thing that I do insist upon is that God created man, and if God saw fit to bring him through these evo lutionary processes, all right. I have no ob jection whatever. If God saw fit to take up a bit of mud in His hand and squeeze it, and knead it and blow on it and turn it out a man, all right! I have no objection; his existence is due to the creation proceeding under God. If you ask me my mind about it, I think there is nothing on the face of the earth as silly, and senseless, as the way scientists account for the origin of species. Now, what are the deductions of the scien tists with respect to the creation of man? I will give it you in a word: “There has been no fall of man; there has been a rise.” There fore, if man ever fell at all he fell up, instead of down. But, they say, “there has been no fall but a rise from an ape-like ancestry, back through a tapole and fish ancestry way to the early beginnings of life, the origin of man is being traced. That to me is the most un thinkable nonsense that I have ever tried to get into my head I will give you some of the deductions of other scientists. First, take Lord Kelvin. “Was there anything so absurd as to Ihlieve that a number of atoms, by falling together of their own accord, could make a sprig of moss, a microbe, a living animal ? It is utterly absurd, in respect to the coming into existence or the growth, or the continua tion of the molecular combinations presented in the bodies of living things. Here, scientific thought is compelled to accept the idea of crea tive power. Forty years ago, I asked Liebig, walking somewhere in the country, if he be lieved that the grass and flowers which we saw around us, grew by mere mechanical force. He answered, “No, no more than I could believe that a book of botany, describing them, could grow by mere mechanical forces ” Then, again Lord Kelvin, in an address to the medical students of St. George’s Hospital, (Continued on Page 14.)