i. That the glorious poem of creation in Genesis is not literal must be our initial agreement.  To imagine that God palpably kneaded Adam out of a lump of dirt and blew into him would be a very fairy-tale sort of god.  We must remember that the Genesis record was not originally recorded only for us ‘enlightened’ children of scientific modernity, who have been on the historical scene for but a few brief moments, and only recently developed a little curiosity as to the architecture of our nursery. It was gifted long ago for the instruction of peoples who were hardly capable of receiving truth in any form other than poetic myth. 

Having acknowledged that, we must nonetheless also acknowledge that the order in which Genesis traces Life from its emergence out of the waters up through its aquatic representatives and its higher life-forms (hinting on the way the side-development of the bird from the reptile!), and finally to humankind tallies remarkably well with the record of the rocks.  No modern poet, we may be quite confident – given the modest scope and aspiration of modern poetry – could have written a better romance of the Origin of Species.

ii. Evolution, which is God’s method in all His projects, is His greatest glory, provided we will remember that it is not finished.  Our human stage is the crisis, not the goal of evolution.  Put plainly, our brain has been developed in order that the soul which has come into us may get into touch with and learn from the Teacher of Life.  “We are His offspring;” “That which was made, in Him was life.”  And that life was evolved through tremendous struggle that it might return to enrich Him with the garlands of eternal victory.

We have appeared after long ages; and yet, “Of His own will He begot us by the Word of Truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures.” We are at the cross-roads, and Christ died to lead us into the next stage of evolution.  Life, the prodigal Son, is immortal.  From the most primitive cell it has persevered through the race.  But the goal, from eternity, has been the survival of the individual.

And at last, at the end of ages, that goal is in sight.