all the beliefs of the nations, the truth of which Israel was the
champion and missionary. It swept the heavens and earth clear of the
crowd of gods, and showed the One enthroned above, and operative in,
all things. We can scarcely estimate the grandeur, the emancipating
power, the all-uniting force, of that utterance. It is a worn
commonplace to us. It was a strange, thrilling novelty when it was
written at the head of this narrative. _Then_ it was in sharp
opposition to beliefs that have long been dead to us; but it is
still a protest against some living errors. Physical science has not
spoken the final word when it has shown us how things came to be as
they are. There remains the deeper question, What, or who,
originated and guided the processes? And the only answer is the
ancient declaration, 'In the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth.'

2. The record is as emphatic and as unique in its teaching as to the
mode of creation: 'God said ... and it was so.' That lifts us above
all the poor childish myths of the nations, some of them disgusting,
many of them absurd, all of them unworthy. There was no other agency
than the putting forth of the divine will. The speech of God is but
a symbol of the flashing forth of His will. To us Christians the
antique phrase suggests a fulness of meaning not inherent in it, for
we have learned to believe that 'all things were made by Him' whose
name is 'The Word of God'; but, apart from that, the representation
here is sublime. 'He spake, and it was done'; that is the sign-
manual of Deity.

3. The completeness of creation is emphasised. We note, not only the
recurrent 'and it was so,' which declares the perfect correspondence
of the result with the divine intention, but also the recurring 'God