Moses and Geology.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2091, 5 April 1898, Page 2

Moses and Geology.

A LARGE congregation was present at St. Mark’s Church on Sunday night* when Rev Joseph Campbell delivered his promised sermon on “ Moses and Geology.” The discourse* which is one'of a series, on of Belief,” was in effect, one prepared by Mr Campbell, and delivered by him in Sydney some three years ago. The preacher took as his text the opening words of Genesis “In the beginning* God,” and stated that he intended in & simple manner to deal with a subject, which was provocative of much doubt in the minds of many good people* namely the Biblical account of the Creation, and; to show that scions? and revelation were in perfect harmony in that and; that Moses made no. mistake in bis accouht of Creation. He (the preacher) was aii Evolutionist* even as Paul and Moses were, and as. anyone w. o understands; anything at. all about the science of -the Bible must, be. But evolution did not teach that, man progressed from a tadpole stage to that of a superior ape, and finally man. It simply taught that the universe as we see it, was not the result of a sudden creative act, but of slow, and gradual development, such as we see going on every day, The Bible has been charged with assuming rather than proving the existence of God, but this process of development, as taught by science and geology agrees ■ so wonderfully with chapter and verse of the Book of Nature and the Bible* that we cannot doubt that the author of both is the same and are forced to- ! the conclusion that God exists, inas--1 much as He has revealed Himself in* the Bible Having shown that the term c day ’ as used in the first chapter of Genesis did not. necessarily mean a-, period of 12 or 24 hours* but might, mean any periodvarying from thousands to millions of years, Mr Campbell went onto show that fifteen distinct creative events were recorded in this chapter by Moses*, and all werei proved by geological sciencefco be in correct consecutive ordev. It waspossible- to arrange fi£fcee» different things* more than & 'billion and & quarter diffsrent ways, ao- fchafc Mosee)wEa t ib®ily gnesffing* tjbe ordisr o£ creation* &. quarter biSion ’ to* one that h® would guess the right ordeal And yet fa®> daiso. Moses. for reebrda showed that the ancient.' Egyptians* amoßgst whom. Mos&s wafr educated*- hhd;inE«y''artid«'ideeß. on th# subject. Tins steely 'proved; that th? record was noibb other than Dmae*. Mr. C&sapbsß tfceb hj&% dese£ibed the- formation of tins* earth to the- nebular theory, and the- appear- ■ anc® in duo sours®* of light* vegetal tidn, planets, fowK beasts,. • cattle* the garden, and finally when everything was prepared, mam. Geology proved that, the-order as given by Moses was correct* therefore the* record was- from God. God exists an,d is knowabte, and there is no rooai for infidelity, atheism, on agnosticism. Thp workings of what we call Nature are the hand of God* as revealed in His Word, the inspiration of which is P 3 ’* 0 ™- JThe elevation of humanity by Christ is in accordance with Natural law; a law as natural as gravitation or growth. In conclusion* he recommended his hearers to study the Bible* side by side with the Bookof Nature! and hoped that an earneat study of both would lead them to right views