The face of creation testifies that there has been a Creator; but
at once arises the question, "How and when did he make heaven and
earth? They could not have been made IN heaven and earth, the
world could not have been made IN the world, nor could they have
been made when there was nothing to make them of." The solution
of this fundamental inquiry St. Augustine finds in saying, "Thou
spakest, and they were made."

But the difficulty does not end here. St. Augustine goes on to
remark that the syllables thus uttered by God came forth in
succession, and there must have been some created thing to
express the words. This created thing must, therefore, have
existed before heaven and earth, and yet there could have been no
corporeal thing before heaven and earth. It must have been a
creature, because the words passed away and came to an end but we
know that "the word of the Lord endureth forever."

Moreover, it is plain that the words thus spoken could not have
been spoken successively, but simultaneously, else there would
have been time and change-- succession in its nature implying
time; whereas there was then nothing but eternity and
immortality. God knows and says eternally what takes place in
time.

CRITICISM OF ST. AUGUSTINE. St. Augustine then defines, not
without much mysticism, what is meant by the opening words of
Genesis: "In the beginning." He is guided to his conclusion by
another scriptural passage: "How wonderful are thy works, O Lord!
in wisdom hast thou made them all." This "wisdom" is "the
beginning," and in that beginning the Lord created the heaven and