of these terms, we shall grow in understanding until 'the day dawn and the

shadows flee away'.

It is possible that the reader who perused the above may have concluded

that we were shrouding in mystery much that was plain and easy to be

understood.  We did not, of course, write 1 Corinthians 13:12, and we are not

responsible for what the apostle has said and we still have to remember that

he said of himself and his fellows at that time, 'For now we see by means of

a mirror, in an enigma', and that he contrasted such a state, not with some

temporary improvement, but with the radical change that awaits us at

resurrection for its realization, 'But then face to face'.  He expands this

pair of alternatives by continuing:

'Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known'.

Let us leave the Epistle for a time and turn our attention to some well -

known passage, taking the opening sentence of revealed truth:

'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth' (Gen. 1:1).

The extreme simplicity of this stupendous revelation has attracted the

admiring praise of all generations.  A child, just able to read, can soon

understand every word, yet we believe upon reflection, the most advanced

believer will admit that there is much here that is after all seen by means

of a mirror, in an enigma.  Here we have a sentence, made up of an action,

'created', a subject Who acts, 'God', the objects or results of this action,

'the heaven and the earth', and the time when this action was performed, 'in

the beginning'.  Nothing could be simpler.  If all sentences, both in the

Bible and in literature were as free from obscurity as this, what a different

attitude most of us would have toward letters.  The verb is considered to be

the essential word in a sentence, and its very name 'verb' is from the Latin

which means 'word'.  It is the word of any sentence, and without a verb a

sentence cannot be formed.  Let us look at this word 'create'.  What does it

mean?  What does it imply?  If we say, 'to make something out of nothing', we

have made a statement, but whether we have the remotest idea of what making

something out of nothing involves or implies, is another matter.  Like many

another term, we feel we know what it means until it falls to us to give an

explanation.  There are some ninety or more known elements in the earth, all

of which enter into its economy.  There must have been a time when not one of

these elements existed unless we conclude that matter is eternal, and if we

do, we cannot speak of creation.

It paralyses the mind to attempt to think that at one moment there was

nothing, yet at the next after the creative fiat had gone forth, these ninety

elements were immediately present, and their interactions busy forming acids,

alkalis and all the other bases of life and growth.  Yet, at first sight, we

honestly think we know what the word 'create' means!  To add to our

difficulty, we know that the word 'create' is used of such things as bring

something into legal existence, as 'to create a fee simple', or an actor, as

the first in some role, is said to have 'created' the part.  A commoner can

be created a peer by his sovereign and so on.  Mansel says, 'We can think of

creation only as a change in the condition of that which already exists', and

the new heavens and the new earth which are to take the place of the present

ones, are called a new creation, so also is the Jerusalem that is to be

restored and blessed (Isa. 65:17,18).  Man is said to have been formed of the

dust, yet man is said to have been created (1 Cor. 11:9).  Certain provisions