"In the beginning," so we are told, "God made the heavens and the
earth."

The statement is simple and terse; it is evidently intended to be
wholly comprehensive. Its decisive, almost abrupt tone would seem to
forbid either question or argument. The old-world narrator of the
sublime event thus briefly chronicled was a poet of no mean quality,
though moved by the natural conceit of man to give undue importance to
the earth as his own particular habitation. The perfect confidence with
which he explains 'God' as making 'two great lights, the greater light
to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night,' is touching to
the verge of pathos; and the additional remark which he throws in, as
it were casually,--'He made the stars also,' cannot but move us to
admiration. How childlike the simplicity of the soul which could so
venture to deal with the inexplicable and tremendous problem of the
Universe! How self-centred and sure the faith which could so arrange
the work of Infinite and Eternal forces to suit its own limited
intelligence! It is easy and natural to believe that 'God,' or an
everlasting Power of Goodness and Beauty called by that name, 'created
the heavens and the earth,' but one is often tempted to think that an
altogether different and rival element must have been concerned in the
making of Man. For the heavens and the earth are harmonious; man is a
discord. And not only is he a discord in himself, but he takes pleasure
in producing and multiplying discords. Often, with the least possible
amount of education, and on the slightest provocation, he mentally sets
Himself, and his trivial personal opinion on religion, morals, and
government, in direct opposition to the immutable laws of the Universe,
and the attitude he assumes towards the mysterious Cause and Original
Source of Life is nearly always one of three things; contradiction,
negation, or defiance. From the first to the last he torments himself