CravenB, William, a celebrated and eccentric Methodist Episcopal minister, was bom in Rocking, ham County, Ya., July 81, 1776. Converted in 1794, he began to preach about 1800, and for many yean, as a local preacher, he served the Church in his native state. He travelled extensively without fee or reward, everjrwrhere producing great efiects by his courageous denunciations of sin. He was a strenuous opponent of slavery, and, having emancipated his own slaves, removed to the West in 1819, diiefly with a view to their advantage. In 1820 he was admitted on trial in the Missouri Conference, wliich then embraced Illi- nois^ Indiana, and part of Tennessee. He continued to travel and preach on the frontier to the day of his death, which took place at his house, Washington County, Ind., Oct 10, 1826. He was a man of great physical power, a vast fund of wit and humor, and in- domitable energy. Virginia and the West abound in stories of his adveptures, which, if collected, would make a biography of romantic interest. — Minutes of Conferences, i, 578; Stevens, History of Methodism; Wakely, Heroes of Methodism.
Crawford, Elijah, a Methodist Episcopal minis- ter, was bom in New York in 1812. Trained in a pious household, his youth was virtuous, and at seven- teen he united with the Church. His early manhood was spent in trade, but in 1886 he entered the itiner- ant ministry in the New York Conference. His stead- fast piety, manliness or character, and diligence, both in study and labor, in a few yean gained him the con- fidence of the Church, and he filled with great accept- ance a number of important pastoral charges. His last station was Hartfbrd, Conn., where he died of dys- entery September, 1849. — Min. of Conferences^ iv, 464.
Crawford, John, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Westchester County, N. Y,, in 1761, was converted in 1787, entered the itinerant ministry in the New York Conference in 1789, became superannu- ated in 1819, and died in 1851, aged over ninety years. He was "a sound and earnest preacher, eminently faithful and punctual, always cheeriU, and living the religion he preached." — Min, of Coi^erenceSy iv, 579.
Creagfa, Bartholomew, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was bom in Dublin in 1804, and was con- verted at sixteen. His studies in Greek and Latin were punned at Belfast. In 1822 he came to Ameri- ca, and soon, by his admirable qualities of intellect and heart, gained many friends. He entered the itinerant
CREATIANISM
554
CREATION
miniBtry in the New York Conference in 1827, and for fifteen years was in great repute as an earnest, elo- quent, and successful minister. For four years he was presiding elder, and was a delegate to the General Conference in 1848 and 1852. The record in the Min- utes states that '* he was among the very best models of ministerial excellence, a holy man, a fiuthful pastor, a generous friend." He died at Williamsburgh, Aug. 10, 1852. — Minutes of Canfarmces^ v, 211; Sprague, AnnaU, vii, 731.
CreatianiBm. See Cbeationism.
Creation. Creation is the absolute bringing into existence of the world by God. It is that act of God by which he, standing before and above all mundane and natural things, made and arranged the universe. It embraces everything which is not God.
I. The Idea of Creation. — In order to form a proper conception of wliat creation is, we must concede the absolute dependence of the world upon God. We err in limiting it to the mere beginning of the world. It is true that it was that divine act by which all ob- jects were brought into being. It therefore stands as the beginning of all divine operation in the world, and of the universal development of the worid. But tliat God created the universe implies not only that he gave a beginning to its existence, but that he contin- ues that existence, and that be is the only fountain of its present being. The world is not self-derived nor self-sustained ; it is only fhnn and by Grod that it now exists. But creation is not a mere accident of the di- vine character, nor a temporary moment in the divine life, nor an impartation and manifestation of God, nor a blind, passive, and pathological evolution or emana- tion of the divine essence. Yet it is God's work alone, and was as unconstrained as an}' other deed performed by divine power. When we say that God created the world, we not only do not affirm, but actually deny that God has imparted himself, and passed into his own work. (}od is the absolute founder of the world, and he has not passed into its nature, but stands high above all the conditions of created being. Nor, whUe the world is not Grod himself, can it be said to partake of any other divine nature. It is simply God's work and manifestation ; it is a creation which is from, by, and for God. Thus the full idea of creatbn implies that God b the absolute, impartial, and personal Spirit who, of his own free will, gave existence to the uni- verse.
In the Mosaic account of the creation, we find that magnificent testimony of the fiuth which recognises God's creation in the surrounding world (compare Heb, xi, 8, Through faith we understand that the worlds toere framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do ap- pear). This testimony possesses a strong religious and canonical worth, apart from our views of the pe- culiar character of tiie cosmogony of Moses, whether we shape them according to the opinions of the old Church theologians, who held that the Mosaic account was actual history; or whether we harmonize with the modem allegorists, who claim that it is proph- ecy reversed, or prophetic vision ; or whether we take the low view of attributing to it a mythical character. The most important portion of this, as of other scrip- tural statements concerning the creation, is contained in the proposition that God, in his eternal, infinite love, is the only highest cause ; that he b limited by no principle beyond himself; that he is the independ- ent Founder of the world. By world we mean kwjixoq^ alHivEQy Heb. i, 2, 11, or the universe^ which is always described in the Old Testament, and usually in the New, as "heaven and earth," "heaven, earth, sea, and all which is therein." It is God alone who has brought all things into being (Heb. iii, 4 ; Acts xvii, 24; xiv, 15; Rev. iv, 11 ; Heb. xi, 8; Psa. xxxiii, 6; di, 26 ; Isa. xlv, 18 ; Jer. x, 12). Nothing has had a