The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-03-15
TIE CREATION.
An Interprctatisn by Catholic Theoie.
gian Of The Biblical Account.

To TIE EDITOR or the SuN-Sh: offer
these few words In response TO Mr.. Ashcrofts
request for my Interpretation Of the Creat on
account Of Genesis. There are three princi-
pies which we ought to keep before our eyes
In our study Of the Holy Scriptures. These
principles, which will throw light on many
other difficulties beside the Deluee and Crea-
ton, may thus be formulated,
Ftrst-The Bible 10 n moral and religious
book inspired by God and written by His
chosen agents for |purposes Of spiritual In
struction, IL IL not intended to he q scientific
treatise Consequently. while II matters n
great deal what the Bible teaches concerning
doctrine and morals. IL matters little what ex-
pressiors It employs con corning physics and
geology
Secondly To understand the content and
the original qualification Of any book Of
Scripture. we must refrain from obtrudinR
into the sacred 70 1t the ideas and methods OF
later age We shall miss utterly the meaning
Of the early chapters Of Genesis IL we try TO
torture into them the science OF the twentieth
century A. d. But let us reconstruct the
social. political. relirious and intele ctual NE
which was contemporaEeous with the COM
position or compilation OF these chapters.
and we shall come TO sane and ration oil ap-
probation Of them. A book Is written prl-
marily for the people Of It's time Genesis
was composed for the Hebrew people OF sey-
language not ours: adopts their ideas. not
ours follows their methods, not ours.
whit more about sdence than any othe.
equally educated man Of his time. That God
should have revealed to the ancient israeilte
twenty. Atty or a thousand centuries later
10 as absurd nationally as IL Is futile and I'M
necessary theolosiI,sSily, rro,os,,lor, which
every critical Christian student VIII accept.
and few ,hSolosiahs st wiz We ARE 20
think OF the Creation account
The EOhsS and ,%o, tSS HSi EsG narration
OF %"o cr r,Sa ms Knew Dsihins about modern
science Neither did It enter ever 80 family
into their consciousness to construct scien.
quite "o Outside e'a their proyipSe They simply
wished TO place before their nation me tru to
that one omnipQtent God had ,S created ;n,o .hs
work OF creation to six DAYS They . n,iShi
svt :id ten 1s dsxs or q. 81 hsm
Suction not Che .liShte't sTsnSs, ;seDt r.
search in Gener. for scientific data, which the
book was never inteIded TO teach. We sha ,ll
S, s,Ior Of PIX tSe vnorldprcce.. whereas
doetrins Witch God aid intend It e sopiGln;
noihs lsm which Is altogether unique VEIN IN
that polytheistic are. ard eninentIv worthy
IL Il be objected to thi. view that the Bible
ri ves us the siS-dav story In positive terl,s
iusl "a though literally true, ] refer N the
second Of my three princrles for an enswer.
IL we lived when Genesis was wri, ten: we
should understand that the irspired an'ho &c.
adopted as frame on which 70 hang ms
reli aiors lesson a current. popular impIes.
cayejess about ino,irinr since such an In.
Grir Was ss s1psrfuons TO him Whether exact
or inexact obJectivey true or objecnveiv
and obvious conveyance for his religious
teaching That is all he wanted Hnt az
o,,ass nj The oyipin OF thinps into harmony
with n odern discovery viii some day be rec,
ognized as one OF the widest ALTERATIONS OF
the human mind. PHILIP LAME