never have got (and what some people never get), a profound conviction
of the reality and meaning of facts in nature. That impression I have
brought to the attempt which this little book embodies. The facts of
nature are God's revelation, of the same weight, though not the same in
kind, as His written Word.

At the same time, the further conviction is strong in my mind, not
merely of the obvious truth that the Facts and the Writing (if both
genuine) cannot really differ, but further, that there must be, after
all, a true way of explaining the Writing, if only it is looked for
carefully--a way that will surmount not only the difficulty of the
subject, but also the impatience with which some will regard the
attempt. Like so many other questions connected with religion, the
question of reconciliation produces its double effect. People will
ridicule attempts to solve it, but all the same they will return again
and again to the task of its actual solution.

That the latter part of the proposition is true, has recently received
illustration in the fact that a review like the _Nineteenth Century_,
which has so little space to spare, has found room in four successive
numbers[1] for articles by Gladstone, Huxley, and H. Drummond, on the
subject of "Creation and its Records." May I make one remark on this
interesting science tournament? I can understand the scientific
conclusions Professor Huxley has given us. I can also understand Mr.
Gladstone, because he values the Writing as the professor values the
Facts. But one thing I can _not_ understand. Why is Professor Huxley so
angry or so contemptuous with people who value the Bible, whole and as
it stands, and want to see its accuracy vindicated? Why are they
fanatics, Sisyphus-labourers, and what not? That they are a very large
group numerically, and hardly contemptible intellectually, is, I think,