Though we cannot understand the nature of this spiritual creation, yet to learn that the first account of the creation in the Bible is of a spiritual creation and the second of an actual or natural one, gives some comfort, from the fact that it does away with all charges of inconsistency or contradiction between the two accounts. For since they are descriptions of two different things instead of one thing, there is nothing in the law of consistency requiring the accounts of different events to be alike. In these articles, however, what turns out to be an account of the spiritual creation of the earth has been spoken of and treated as the natural or actual creation.[B] It has been treated so purposely, because I believe the natural in the order of its creation and development corresponds with the creation and development of the spiritual. Furthermore, I believe the account in the first chapter of Genesis could be safely accepted as the announcement of the general plan of creation, not only of our planet but of all worlds; and in it will be found ample scope for the belief that the earth came into existence by the accretion of nubulous matter; that it took thousands of years, yea, millions, perhaps, for the condensation and solidification of that matter; granting as long periods as geologists may demand for the formation of the earth's curst; that then followed the changes which were wrought during the six great periods named in Genesis; beginning with the production of light, and ending with placing man upon the completed planet as its lord and sovereign under God. [Footnote B: I do not wish in making this distinction between the spiritual and natural creation, and in using the word "actual" to be understood as implying that the spiritual creation was not an actual creation. It may have been just as tangible and actual as the creation on which we walk. I only use the expression to make a distinction between the natural and spiritual creations.] The careful reader of this paper will say, however, that the statements in the last paragraph permit all the old difficulties to surge back upon us; all the old apparent inconsistencies between the first and second accounts of creation in Genesis remain unreconciled. For if the natural creation of our planet corresponded to the spiritual creation of it, the spiritual standing in the same relationship to the natural as the well devised plan of the architect does to the actual erection of a building--then the account given of the spiritual creation of our earth may as well be regarded as the account of the actual creation of it also. But this leaves all the difficulties between the two accounts of creation in the Bible untouched, and we must look to other facts than those yet considered if we would see them removed.