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 great facts, had them
enwrapped in a tissue of unnecessary and false details.
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