It does not need a very great knowledge of Scripture, or very much logical ability, to

realize that Creation presupposes power, and power to such a degree as to be rightly

called Omnipotence. We do not intend to enter further into this aspect of the subject,

which is vouched for both by Scripture and by common-sense. There is, however,

another aspect that appears to have escaped the attention of the majority--the fact that, in

the very act of creating a world, God necessarily entered into responsibilities as its Moral

Ruler and Upholder. Before creation, God was self-sufficient. He needed nothing.

Creation came into being by His good pleasure, and love is revealed to have been at the

bottom of it all. Even if creation had been purely mechanical, the "upholding of all

things by the Word of His power" would have made a very real demand upon the

Creator. The Scriptures, too, are full of references to His tender care over the works of

His hands. The Creator is something far more than an all-powerful Wizard. Creation is

"the work of His hands", and is upheld by His omnipotent care. The sun, and moon, and

stars are held in their courses by a watchful beneficence. Day and night, spring-time and

harvest never fail. The very hairs of our head are numbered, and the fall of the sparrow is

Creation, however, does not stop here. There is also a moral realm, a realm in which

creatures of God's hand, made in the image of their Creator, are endowed with reason,

with intelligence, with the power of choice. Have we ever stopped to think what an

undertaking such a creation must inevitably be? When God brought into being a world

wherein evil was possible (and this He did when He created man and placed him in

the Garden of Eden), what possibilities of rebellion, of wounded love, of ingratitude did

He not stoop to endure?  Infinite foreknowledge would make it plain that such a

universe would make demands that only infinite love could meet. Creation involved the

fore-ordination of the Lamb.

When we read of God Himself that "it grieved Him at His heart", we cannot nullify

the statement by saying: "It is a Figure of Speech." Even Figures of Speech have a

meaning. If God does not "grieve" as man does, there is evidently something that

corresponds. If God has no "heart" in the human sense of the word, the figure must

represent a reality.

We read in Ecclesiastes:

God had so made man that he could obey or disobey, and here we see his God-given

power exercised for his own ends.

As we think over these things we begin to realize more fully that the Creator is not an

abstract, unfeeling Deity, but One Who in the fullness of time came to be known as

We may have little in common with the celebrated American philosopher William

James, but we sympathize with him when he says: