moments to assume that the expressions " Spirit of God " or " Word of God," whenever they occur in the Bible, mean that force (be the nature of it what it may) by which God acts upon matter and quickens it into living forms? The words, no doubt, mean more than that ; but let us assume for the present that they mean that, at least.
The object of making such a hypothesis is this : Supposing it to be a true one, it follows that whatever we can learn from the Bible about the Spirit of God will give us hints for the study of Nature ; and whatever we learn from Nature herself will help us to imderstand the mode of operation of the Spirit.
Now, if you were to ask a scientific man what it was that organised matter into living forms, he would probably reply that it was " force." And if you asked him what he meant by " force." he might answer you by saying, " Electricity is one form of force, for instance, and magnetism is another."
There are men, professing to be scientific, who, if you asked them what it was that organised and quickened matter, would reply, " It is only force, nothing else." But, so far as my small experience of books and authors has gone, it seems to me that the more a man really knows, the less he is inclined to assert that anything is "only" any other thing; and that whoever does make such an assertion is usually on the brink of some unscientific blunder. Leaving, therefore, the " only " out of the question, it seems pretty clear that one of the agencies by which matter is acted upon and organised is
