tion, by Divine volition and direction, when nature was passing through the successive stages of adaptation to serve His will, clothed the spiritual seed-forms with matter, and unfolded them into living bodies, whereby the spiritual forms, being clothed with matter, became fixed and permanent in nature, if suitably provisioned.
Spontaneous Creation.
Though the creative laws are ever the same, and the creative force is perpetually active, such original creation does not now take place as formerly, because the natural conditions of the earth necessary for the creation of its first forms have passed away. The conditions necessary for the creation of living forms is transferred to the matrix, where the requisite conditions are preserved, and there the same laws of creation are active. Nature has now passed beyond the period of adaptation to the original creation of higher animal forms. Yet as the creative forces are ever operative in existing forms, and continue to produce crystallization and florescence in unorganized matter, conditions may still exist in which the creation of the simpler forms of life may take place. In other words, creative forces still find nature in a limited degree adapted to clothe them with matter, and so they may
