trace of a soul in all animal creation. How could the soul of man develop from nothing?
God is still creating new creatures in Christ Jesus, in righteousness and true holiness, which can not come by evolution, for sinful creatures can only grow in sinfulness, until the creative power of God makes them new creatures, as the following study in Eugenics will show: Elizabeth Tuttle, the grandmother of Jonathan Edwards, the eminent scholar and divine, was, according to H. E. Walter, a “woman of great beauty, of tall and commanding appearance, striking carriage, of strong, extreme intellectual vigor, and mental grasp akin to rapacity, but _with an extraordinary deficiency in moral sense. She was divorced from her husband on the ground of adultery and other_ IMMORALITIES. The evil trait was in the blood, for one of her sisters murdered her own son, and a brother murdered his own sister, As Richard Edwards, his grandfather, had 5 sons and 1 daughter, by a second wife, but none of their numerous progeny rose above mediocrity, and their descendants gained no abiding reputation, Jonathan Edwards must have owed his remarkable mental qualities largely to his grandmother rather than his grandfather. He was evidently a new creation in Christ Jesus and was cured by grace of all inherited immoralities, so that he became the ancestor of one of the most remarkable families in the history of the world, as follows:–
“Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703. He was strong in character, mentally vigorous and fearlessly loyal to duty. In 1900, of the descendants of Jonathan Edwards, 1394 had been located and the following information in regard to them had been gathered: College presidents, 13; college professors, 65; doctors, 60; clergymen, missionaries, etc., 100; officers in the army and navy, 75; eminent authors and writers, 60; lawyers, over 100; judges, 30; holders of public offices, one being vice-president of the United States, 80; United States senators, 3; managers of railroads, banks, insurance companies, etc., 15; college graduates, 295; several were governors and holders of important state offices.”
The claim is also made that “almost if not every department of social progress and of public weal has felt the impulse of this healthy and long-lived family.”
“The ‘Jukes’ family was founded by a shiftless fisherman born in New York in 1720, Since that time the family has numbered 1200 persons. The following facts are quoted from the _records_: Convicted criminals, 130; habitual thieves, 60; murderers, 7; wrecked by diseases of wickedness, 440; immoral women, fully one-half; professional paupers, 310; trades learned by twenty, ten of these learned the trade in prison.
“How much of this expense to the state was due to bad blood we can not say. If the original Jukeses had become Christians we have no doubt that the majority of their descendants would have been humble, but orderly, and possibly useful citizens.”
Aaron Burr, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, lacked but one electoral vote to become president of the U.S. His intellectual standing in Princeton was not equaled by another for 100 years.
Jonathan Edwards was a new creation, as is every other regenerated person.
According to evolution, there can be no new creation. According to the word of God, and the experience of an innumerable host, God is continually creating souls anew, who become “new creatures”. Evolution is not in harmony with the Bible nor the experience of the children of God.
Whenever it can be shown that men become more spiritual when they accept the theory, and become more devoted to saving souls as their zeal for the theory increases, the theory will be worthy of more serious consideration. We await the evidence.
Evolution can not account for the spirituality of man, but tends to destroy it where it exists.
41. THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY
The belief in the immortality of the soul has been well nigh universal, in all ages, and among all nations, and is taught by all religions. Without it, life and death are insolvable mysteries. A doctrine so universal, so well established by reason, ought not to be set aside without the most convincing reasons and the most compelling evidence. Either this universal belief is due to revelation, or the abundance of proof appealing to reason, or both.
A child is born, suffers agonies for weeks and months, and dies. If no future, who can solve the mystery? John Milton writes his immortal “Paradise Lost,” and dies. Must his great soul perish? Nero murdered his brother, his sister, his wife and his mother, and multitudes of Christians and lastly himself, and was guilty of a multitude of other shocking crimes; while many of the best men and women this world ever knew suffered persecution and martyrdom for doing good and blessing others. Will they all alike meet the same fate–annihilation–at the hands of a just God?
The immortality of the soul is supported by science. Science teaches the indestructibility of matter. Not all the power that man can bring to bear, can destroy the minutest portion of matter, not a molecule, not an atom, not an electron. The smallest particle of dust visible to the eye contains, we are told, about 8,000,000,000 atoms, and each atom, as complex as a piano,–1740 parts. Not one of these atoms or parts could be annihilated by all the power of a thousand Niagaras.
In all the multiplied chemical changes everywhere in the world, not a single particle, the most worthless, is lost or destroyed. Dissolve a silver dollar in aquafortis, and then precipitate it to the bottom, and not a particle need be lost. If God takes such scrupulous care of the most worthless particle of matter, will he suffer the immortal soul to perish? If he preserves the dust, how much more so the highest of all his creations, the mind that can write an epic, compose an oratorio, or liberate a race. Evolution crushes out of the heart the hope of immortality, and makes man but an improved brute, while Jesus Christ “hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
If evolution be true, when did man become immortal? At what period did he cease to be a brute, and become an immortal soul? Was it before the days of the pithecanthropus, the Piltdown fraud, the Heidelberg man, or the Neanderthal man?
The change was ever so slow and gradual; could the parents, anywhere along the line, be mere brutes and the children immortal human beings? Would it not be impossible to draw the line? Is it not evident that the ape-man could never grow into immortality, or into the image of an infinitely great and glorious God?
If evolutionists _could_ give us any convincing evidence that the body of man developed from the brute, they can not prove that the soul grew from nothing to the high mental, moral and spiritual attainments, into the very image of God, and by its own efforts become as immortal as God himself.
After all, did any theory as ridiculously untrue as evolution ever masquerade as science, or ask to be accepted by thoughtful men? Has it as much to support it as the false sciences of alchemy and astrology?
The brute origin of man, infidelity, agnosticism, modernism, atheism and bolshevism, are in harmony, and cooperate in robbing man of heaven and the hope of immortality.
If man believes that he dies as the brute dies, he will soon live as the brute lives, and all that is precious to the heart of man will be forever destroyed. We recoil from such a fate, but live in the serene assurance that such a thing can never be.
42. SIN
Sin is a great fact. It can not be denied. It can not be explained by evolution. It is universal. Every race all nations, with all grades of intellect and culture, civilized or uncivilized, are cursed with sin. All the wrongs, all crimes in the world, all immoralities, are due to sin. Sin causes tremendous destruction of life, property, and character. Why is it universal? When did it originate? Did it originate in all the members of the brute-human race at one time? Did some become sinners, and others remain without sin? Sin must be developed, since brutes have no sin. Why not some of the ape-humans without sin? Does natural selection explain the universal sinfulness of man, on the ground that those who did not have this “improvement” perished? They all died and only sinners were left, hence all survivors are sinners! Sin makes men more fit, and hence sinners only survive! Is evolution simply ridiculous, or a crime?
When in the “ascent of man” did he become a sinner? A million years ago? Judging from the pictures of fierce alleged ape-men, it must have been a long, long time ago. Did all become sinners then? What became of the progeny of those who had not secured the attainment of sin? Why have not other members of the monkey family become sinners? Why do we not hang them for murder? Will they yet attain unto sinfulness?
H. G. Wells, the alleged historian, says, p. 954, Outline of Hist., “If all the animals and man had been evolved in this ascendant manner, then there had been no first parents, no Eden and no Fall. And, if there had been no Fall, then the entire historical fabric of Christianity, the story of the first sin, and the reason for an atonement upon which the current teaching based Christian emotion and morality, collapses like a house of cards.”
Evolution claims that man fell up and not down. It denies almost every truth of religion and the Bible, as well as of experience. “Man is falling upward, he is his own Savior, he is ever progressing, and has no need of a Savior.” Contrast this with the sublime statements of the word of God concerning the creation and the fall of man.
Evolution is charged with explaining all phenomena pertaining to man,–soul and body. It exhausts itself in trying to show that the body of man may _possibly_ be developed from the brute. It fails miserably. The problem of accounting for the soul of man with all its equipment is so much more difficult, that little or no effort is made to account for it, virtually confessing that the much-exploited theory of evolution can not possibly be true, when applied to the soul as well as the body.
43. REDEMPTION
Evolution does not account for sin. Much less does it have any cure for sin. If sin marks progress or advancement, of course, its cure would be retrogression. But how can sin be cured? What answer has evolution? Culture, education, refinement, favorable environment. These are all desirable, but no cure for sin. Some of the most cultured, educated and refined, were the greatest monsters that ever lived. Wholesale murderers like Nero, Alexander and Napoleon, had a good degree of education and culture. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who murdered Robert Franks in Chicago, were among the most brilliant graduates of universities. Friends say they were led on to atheism and crime by the reading of modernist books. No doubt, the doctrine of evolution, taught so zealously in the universities, played a large part.
Human efforts and human devices have utterly failed to cure sin. The human will is too feeble to resist its power.
The Bible, which evolution undermines, teaches us there is a cure for sin. The divine Son of God saves us from our sins, cleanses and purifies our natures, and fits us for happiness and service in both worlds. Jesus offers the only practical plan of salvation from sin. The Bible plan of redemption is the only plan that works.
Paul, a murderer, with his heart full of malignant hate, and his hands stained with blood, greedy to imprison men and women, “breathing out threatening and slaughter,” looks to Jesus by simple faith, and is changed into a gentle and loving Christian, rejoicing in suffering and persecution. He rose to such heights, by the help of Jesus, that he loved his enemies, and was willing to be damned, if that would save their souls. What glorious men the apostles became by the transforming power of Christ! What grand men and women the long line of martyrs were. The men and women who have blest the world most, have been believers in the Bible, and not in evolution. Perhaps a million martyrs have died for Christ. Where are the martyrs for evolution?
Augustine was redeemed from a life of vice and dissipation, blessed the world with his writings, and became one of the greatest leaders of thought in all ages. John Bunyan was so profane that the most vicious would cross the street to avoid him. The gospel made him one of the holiest of men. His Pilgrim’s Progress has been translated into hundreds of languages, and read by millions. John G. Woolley was a maudlin drunkard, intent on taking his own life,–friends, money, character, and reputation lost,–but was converted and preached, with burning eloquence, the gospel of temperance and prohibition around the world.
Elijah P. Brown, a zealous infidel, heard Mr. Moody preach on the love of God, found the Savior, and became a brilliant defender of the faith.
Chundra Lela, the daughter of a Brahman priest, spent a fortune and lived a life of self inflicted torture, seeking salvation at all the great shrines of India, but found none, until she heard the simple story of Jesus from the lips of a missionary. That matchless name gave her victory over sin, and transformed her into a saint and soul-winner for Christ. Maurice Ruben, a successful Jewish merchant of Pittsburgh, rejected Christianity and the Jewish religion as well. He was converted, ostracised, persecuted, thrust into an insane asylum unjustly, and told he must give up Christ or his wife and child. He chose Christ. His family soon became Christians and joined him in the great Jewish mission in Pittsburgh.
In a single night, the mountain floods in India caused the death of the six children of Rev. D.H. Lee,–only one living a short time to tell the story. They were all musicians. Out of the awful silence of that home, Mrs. Lee sent to American papers, a triumphant pean of praise to God. She was sustained by the power of God, so that she could kiss, in loving devotion, the hand that smote her. The Lee Memorial Orphanage, of Calcutta, stands as their monument.
Holy Ann, of Canada, was so profane and such a terror, that this name was given her in derision. Touched by Christ, she became so sweet a saint, that all regarded her as holy indeed.
Geo. Long, a denizen of the underworld, a victim of strong drink, cocaine, opium and morphine, ruined in body and soul, was redeemed and freed from these desperate vices, and made a successful soul-winner for Christ.
These are a few of that “multitude that no man can number” who have been delivered from the power of sin, and have overcome by faith in Jesus.
If evolution be true it should be no hindrance but a great help. How many drunkards have been saved by a belief in evolution, and how many have been greater soul winners by such belief? How many criminals have been saved by acceptance of the theory? Many have been made criminals, unbelievers, infidels, agnostics and atheists by it; how many have been made Christians? Can any one be named who has been made a more earnest and successful soul winner, or a sweeter saint, by espousal of the doctrine? If one blank page were set aside for a list of all victims of sin and vice and crime, who were redeemed by faith in evolution, the space would be wasted. Is there any comfort in it to the dying, any help to the living? Would any evolutionist preacher read to the dying, the so-called classic passage from Darwin, showing that every living thing on the tangled bank came from one germ without any assistance from God? Is there any choice passage in all their books, fit to be read to the dying, or to a man in trouble, or in need of salvation? Is there anything to put hope in the breast, or inspire a man to a holy life? Anything to lift up a man sodden with sin, and redeem him from the fetters that bind him?
To give up the tested power of the gospel and to accept instead, the worthless guesses of evolution, ruinous in life and powerless in death, would be a sorry exchange indeed.
44. EV. AIDS INFIDELITY AND ATHEISM
Many evolutionists frankly declare that the purpose of evolution is to destroy belief in God, or his active control of his creation. Prof. H. F. Osborn, of N. Y., a leading evolutionist, says, “In truth, from the period of the earlier stages of Greek thought, _man has been eager to discover some natural cause of evolution, and to abandon the idea of supernatural intervention in the order of nature_.” Other evolutionists openly announce their antagonism to the Bible and Christianity. Clarence Darrow, in the Tenn. trial, called Christianity a “fool religion.”
Darwinism has been declared an attempt to eliminate God and all evidence of design and to substitute the old heathen doctrine of chance. With this announced purpose in view, we are not surprised to learn from Prof. J. H. Leuba that one-half the professors teaching it did not believe in God nor the immortality of the soul; and that there is a rapid increase in the number of students who have discarded Christianity as they progress in their course,–Freshmen, 15%; Juniors, 30%; Seniors, 40 to 45%. Children of Christian homes, taught to believe in God and Jesus Christ, are led into infidelity and atheism rapidly, as they progress in their course. It makes one shudder to think what the future will be, if atheism and infidelity are taught in the guise of science. And the statistics show that evolution is one of the most fruitful sources of unbelief. What the students are taught today, the world will believe tomorrow. How great the havoc caused by a comparatively few infidel or atheistic professors!
Dr. C. W. Elliott, a Unitarian, announced with apparently great glee, that already the young men and young women do not believe the story of the creation of Adam and Eve. The leaders of Bolshevist Russia said to Dr. Sherwood Eddy, with brutal frankness, “The Communist party, the only party allowed in Russia, is 100% atheistic. If a man believes in God, he can not be a member of the party.” Russia is an example of a country where atheism is taught in the public schools, and we are moving all too fast in the same direction. The Red Army shot to death 500,000 men in Russia. The horrors of the French Revolution may be outdone, if we do not awake to our danger. Russia is cursed with a doctrine offensive alike to the Christian, the Jew, the Mohammedan and even the deist. In America the same condition may be brought about, more stealthily and more effectually in the name of science. Indeed, the Russian atheists feel the necessity of adopting the American method as more effective. An Associated Press dispatch of Dec. 24, 1924, states that Zinovieff, a Soviet leader, admitted that the Communists had gone too far in their efforts to establish atheism by _force_, but he adds, “_We shall pursue our attacks on Almighty God in due time, and in an appropriate manner. We are confident we shall subdue him in his empyrean. We shall fight him wherever he hides himself_…. I have been informed that not only young Communists, but Boy Scouts, are mocking people who are religious. I have also been told that _groups of Boy Scouts have even imprisoned whole congregations in church while they were worshipping_! Our campaign against God and religion must be carried out in a pedagogic way, not by violence or force.” Do we want such a situation in America? We are drifting that way.
Evolution has no quarrel with atheism, agnosticism, modernism, or any other species of infidelity. _Its quarrel is with Christianity and the Bible_. Why should we wish to harmonize Christianity with evolution, when the theory can not possibly be true? Prof. Newman says, “Readings in Evolution,” p. 8, “Contrary to a widespread idea, evolution (in what sense?) is by no means incompatible with religion (Christianity?)…. The majority of thoughtful theologians (whew!) of all creeds are in accord with the evolution idea.”
Dr. W. W. Keen says, “I believe in God and evolution.” An infidel, a deist, even a heathen can say that. To harmonize evolution with Christianity is quite a different problem. Prof. Coulter, of Chicago University, endeavors to show where “religion and evolution meet.” But the “religion” is the religion of the infidel, not of the Christian. How can a theory which denies the creation of Adam and Eve and any intervention and control by the Creator, be harmonized with Christianity?
Rev. F.E. Clark, President of the World C.E., says, “The Darwinian theory, whatever it may be called today, has doubtless unsettled many minds. A hazy agnosticism has often taken the place of strenuous belief.” He is in a position to know.
A beloved friend, president of a prominent college, an evolutionist and a modernist, in a letter to the writer, claimed that evolution is nearest the truth, and those who believe it are nearest to “Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.” If this is true, how many evolutionists are more spiritual, more earnest, and more successful on that account, in winning souls to Christ?
No doubt many have been made infidels and atheists. How many souls have been won to Christ by Osborn, Newman, Conklin, Darrow, Lull, Shull, Scott, Coulter, Metcalf, Kellogg, Nutting, Thompson, Castle, Chapin, and all other prominent evolutionists? If evolution is nearest the truth, the number of their converts to Christ should be greatly increased. We await the information, which we do not have at hand, to see if the contention of our friend is correct.
Mrs. Aimee Semple McPherson preaches daily in the Angelus Temple, Los Angeles, Cal., which seats 5300 people. Often standing room is at a premium. Many souls are saved (over 14,000 in 1924), and thousands are healed in answer to prayer. What a tremendous loss to humanity, if the gospel of Christ had not saved her from the infidelity and atheism of evolution! She writes as follows of her conversion: “The writer went to one of the services being held in my home town, by the Irish evangelist, Robert Semple, and entered the meeting _practically an infidel, having studied Darwinism, atheistic theories until faith in God’s word was shaken_. Never will those moments be forgotten. One could feel the power of God, the moment one entered the building. Such singing, hands uplifted, faces radiant, such Amens and Hallelujahs, such power and fervor back of every word that was spoken, such exaltation of the deity of Christ, the necessity and power of the atoning blood, the second Coming of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit to energize and get the believer ready for his coming, gripped and stirred the heart…. Never, never, can the writer forget that hallowed hour, when, kneeling by a Morris chair in the home of a friend, early in the morning, with uplifted arms, she prayed and felt for the first time, the tremendous inflowing power of the Holy Ghost.” Behold, the power of evolution to ruin, and of Christ to save!
Evolutionists are, as a rule, modernists; and modernists are evolutionists, and are reckless in their zeal to destroy the faith of the young committed to their care. We select the following 3 illustrations from a single article in the PRESBYTERIAN:
1. “A father sat _in this office_, a minister above middle life, his eyes full of tears, and his soul full of groans, as he told how he had sent his son, who had been an orderly Christian boy, to a supposedly Christian college. When the boy returned home, after graduation, he informed his father that through instruction received, he had lost his faith, and believed none of those things he had been taught at home. The father was so shocked and overcome he could make no reply, but asked his son to kneel and pray with him as they used to do. The son refused, and said he no longer believed in prayer.”
2. “A good Christian father desired to give his young daughter the best educational advantages. She planned to be a missionary. He sent her to a well-known college, considered Christian. This college had a Bible chair, but of the destructive, critical type. The young student absorbed what she was taught. She lost all reverence for the Bible and rejected it. She entirely lost her faith which she had learned from her father and mother. She gave up her mission plans, and developed into a Socialist. When about to graduate, she wrote her father frankly, that she had given up the faith he had taught her, and she was going to live with a man without marriage, as she did not believe in marriage; The father visited her and protested. She smiled and called him an old fogy. She only consented to marriage when threatened with the civil law.”
3. “Another case reported to us by another father:–His son, attending a so-called Christian college, reported that one of the professors declared that they and himself were hypocrites, because they attended chapel every morning where they were told that if they believed and did such things, they would some day go to another world and play on a harp. But if they did not, they would burn. This he declared was all bosh. Then he called attention to the teachings in the college, that _man in his body developed from a lower animal, but that man had no soul.”_
Yet some colleges and universities ask Christian people to give large sums, with no guarantee that evolution, infidelity and atheism will not be taught. Is it any wonder that Christian parents tremble while their sons and daughters run the gauntlet of infidel professors?
45. EV. WARS WITH CHRISTIANITY
Evolution leads to infidelity and atheism, and is therefore a foe to Christianity. It denies the doctrine of special creation, and opposes the religion of the Christian, the Jew and the Mohammedan. Why should not all these religions unite against the false and unsupported theory that would make havoc of them all?
If evolution could be shown reconcilable with Christianity it would be lifted into respectability, but what would be the gain to Christianity? The Christian religion is reconcilable with all true science, and hails every true science with joy. The church loves true science, but hates a lie that poses as the truth. Christianity is readily reconcilable with the true sciences of Astronomy and Chemistry, but we do not try to reconcile it with the corresponding false sciences of astrology and alchemy. Why should we be concerned about such a reconciliation, since all the evidence offered in favor of evolution is not worthy of serious consideration? The facts hotly contest every guess. There is no conflict between Christianity and science. But evolution is not science. It is not knowledge. It is not truth. It is not proved. It is not certain. It is not probable. It is not possible. How can the serious student escape the conviction that evolution has not one chance out of a thousand, or even out of a million, to be a possible theory, and none whatever to be a probable or proven theory? It offers not one convincing argument. The evidence against the theory shows that it has not yet been proven and never can be.
The present population of the globe shows the unity of man in the days of Noah, and that the human race could not have begun 2,000,000 years ago, nor 1,000,000, nor 100,000, nor even 10,000. And no evidence that the evolutionist can bring to bear _now or hereafter_ can ever set aside this mathematical demonstration. This one argument is sufficient to shatter evolution, if there were no more. But the whole fifty arguments in this book rush to the support of this one. They all harmonize with the Bible statements, but not one of them with the false and baneful theory of evolution. And no erroneous guess that they can make will escape mathematical detection. Why should we gratify the clamor of evolutionists, and seek to reconcile Christianity with a theory so manifestly false? To be worthy of acceptance, it must satisfactorily answer every one of the fifty arguments in this book and many more. Can it do so?
Evolution carried to a logical conclusion would destroy every thing precious to the heart of a Christian. It denies the real inspiration of the Bible. It makes Moses a liar. It denies the story of creation, and substitutes an impossible guess. It denies miracles, the providence of God, the creation of man and beast, and God’s government and control of the world. It laughs at the Virgin Birth and makes Christ a descendant of the brute on both sides. It denies his deity, his miracles, his resurrection from the dead. It joins hands with agnosticism, modernism, and other forms of infidelity and atheism and gives them the strongest support they have ever had. All these hail evolution’s advent with exceeding great joy. It has the closest affinity with the wildest and worst theories ever proposed.
Its writers and proponents turn infidel and atheist. Its teachers and advocates lose their belief in God and the immortality of the soul. The young men and women who are taught, abandon the faith of their fathers and join the forces of unbelief. To be sure, some are saved by inconsistency, and still maintain their faith, but the havoc is great. It would strip Christ of his Deity, reduce him to the dimensions of a man, and make his religion powerless to save. The men who tore the seamless coat from the dying Christ did a praiseworthy act, in comparison to those who would strip him of his deity and glory, for these are the garments of God!
The ruffians at the foot of the cross gambled for a mere human garment, but there are evolutionists who would “trample under foot the blood of the Son of God, and count it an unholy thing.” Those who would rob the world’s redeemer of his power and divinity, while speaking patronizingly in praise of his human traits, do but insult him with the vilest slander, which makes the derision of Calvary seem like praise.
We were not surprised to learn that, in the Tenn. trial, evolution was defended by agnostics, who made their chief attack on the Bible and revealed religion; and the school, the home and religion were defended by men of high Christian character. Had Mr. Darrow as earnestly defended Christianity and Mr. Bryan as earnestly opposed it, millions would have held up their hands in astonishment. But the alignment was natural, and opened the eyes of multitudes to the fact that evolution is a friend to infidelity and a foe to Christianity. Their objection to prayer during the sessions of the Court shows that they hated what God loves.
Christianity withstood ten fiery persecutions, lasting 300 years, at the hands of the Roman Empire, the mistress of the world. The church was purified, and grew and multiplied. Numerous heresies arose but all yielded to the truth. Sin and corruption, formality and worldliness, failed to hinder the triumphant march of the church of God.
Infidelity made a fierce attack in the eighteenth century in its own name, and lost. But the most dangerous attack ever made is on, by evolution claiming the name of science and modernism claiming the name of religion. This f. a. d. is truly for a day. God will win. Truth will live and error will die. But too many precious souls will be lost unless the world awakes to see its danger soon.
Mr. Bryan, in his last message, said: “Christ has made of death a narrow starlit strip between the companionship of yesterday and the reunion of tomorrow. Evolution strikes out the stars, and deepens the gloom that enshrouds the tomb.”…. “Do these evolutionists stop to think of the crime they commit when they take faith out of the hearts of men and women and lead them out into a starless night?”
Evolution wars with the religion of the Jews also. It attacks the Old Testament, dear alike to Christian and Jew. The Jews were the chosen people of God, and have played a large part in the history of the world. We gladly clasp hands with them against the common foe. David speaks for Jews and Christians in the 8th Psalm. In contrast to evolution, which degrades man to the level of the brute, he declares that man is but a little lower than God, (Heb. Elohim). The revisers had the courage so to translate it. David under inspiration wrote better than he knew, and in absolute harmony with modern science:
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man (how great must he be) that thou are mindful of him (among thy great and marvelous works)? And the son of man that thou are a companion to him? For thou hast made him but little lower than God, and crownest him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.” All animals confess the dominion of man since the strongest and fiercest flee from his face. Who would prefer the “string of stuff” that would place man below the brute, to the lofty description of the Hebrew Psalmist placing him a little lower than God?
Hon. William J. Bryan, when attending the Presbyterian General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, in 1925, enclosed, in a letter to the writer, a copy of his address in John Wanamaker’s Church, Philadelphia, on evolution and modernism, from which we select the following:
“All the modernists are evolutionists and their hypothesis of creation gives man a brute ancestry and makes him the apex of a gradual development extending over millions of years. This hypothesis contains no place for, and has no need of, a plan of salvation. It is only a step from this philosophy to the philosophy of the atheist who considers man ‘a bundle of tendencies inherited from the lower animals,’ and regards sin as nothing more serious than a disease that should be treated rather than punished. One of the gravest objections to the doctrine of the modernists is that it ignores sin in the sense in which the Bible describes sin. Modernists ignore the cause of sin, the effects of sin, and the remedy for sin. They worship the intellect and overlook the heart, ‘out of which are the issues of life.’ No evangelical church has ever endorsed a single doctrine of the modernists.
“Evolution is the basis of modernism. Carried to its logical conclusion, it annihilates revealed religion. It made an avowed agnostic of Darwin (see in his ‘Life and Letters’ a letter written on this subject just before his death); it has made agnostics of millions and atheists of hundreds of thousands, yet Christian taxpayers, not awake to its benumbing influence, allow Darwinism to be injected into the minds of immature students, many of whom return from college with their spiritual enthusiasm chilled if not destroyed.
“When we protest against the teaching of this tommy-rot by instructors paid by taxation, they accuse us of stifling conscience and interfering with free speech. Not at all; let the atheist think what he pleases and say what he thinks to those who are willing to listen to him, but he cannot rightly demand pay from the taxpayers for teaching their children what they do not want taught. The hand that writes the pay check rules the school. As long as Christians must build Christian colleges in which to teach Christianity, atheists should be required to build their own colleges if they desire to teach atheism.
“With from one to three millions of distinct species in the animal and vegetable world, not a single species has been traced to another. Until species in the animal and vegetable world can be linked together, why should we assume without proof that man is a blood relative of any lower form of life? Those who become obsessed with the idea that they have brute blood in their veins devote their time to searching for missing links in the hope of connecting man with life below him; why do they prefer a jungle ancestry to creation by the Almighty for a purpose and according to a divine plan? Why will they travel around the world to find a part of a skull or remnants of a skeleton when they will not cross the street to save a soul?
“How can intelligent men and women underestimate the Christ? He is no longer a wandering Jew with a few followers; He is the great fact of history and the growing figure of all time–there is no other growing figure in all the world today. Men–the greatest of them–rise and reign and pass away; only CHRIST reigns and remains. They shall not take away our Lord. The Christian Church will not permit the degrading of its founder; it will defend at all times, everywhere and in every way, the historical Christ. It believes that ‘there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.’ No diminutive Messiah can meet the religious need of the world today and throughout the centuries. Christ for all and forever, is the slogan of the church. There has been apostasy in every age; attacks upon Christianity have been disguised under cloaks of many kinds, but it has withstood them all–‘The hammers are shattered but the anvil remains.’ The church will not yield now; it will continue its defense of the Bible, the Bible’s God and the Bible’s Christ until ‘every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.’
“While it resists the attacks upon the integrity of God’s Word and the divinity of the Saviour, it will pray that those who are now making the attack may come under the influence of, and yield their hearts to, Him whose call is to all, whose hand is all power and who promises to be with His people ‘always, even unto the end of the world,’ The Apostles’ Creed which has expressed the faith of the Christian Church for so many centuries shall not be emasculated by modernism.
“‘Faith of our fathers! living still In spite of dungeon, fire and sword;
O how our hearts beat high with joy Whene’er we hear that glorious word–
Faith of our fathers! holy faith,
We will be true to thee till death’!”
46. CAMOUFLAGE OF TERMS
During the late world war, objects were concealed and the enemy deceived, by “camouflage.” Many undertake to deceive or to hide their meaning by a camouflage of terms. These terms are chosen to conceal or deceive. Terms that suggest advance, improvement, learning, science, etc., are used to describe unworthy theories, beliefs and movements. It is an unfair trick to win and often meets with undeserved success.
EVOLUTION in the sense of growth and development, is true of a part of animal and plant life, and in this sense is undisputed. Some speak of the growth of a child and of all progress, as evolution. In the sense at issue, it means the development of all the 3,000,000 species of animals and plants, from one or a few primordial germs, without design or intelligence, or the aid of a Creator. A distinguished surgeon declares that evolution from the monkey is mere non-sense but that life is a constant evolution,–two senses in the same sentence. Such confusion of meaning brings science into disrepute. The meaning is shifted to suit.
SCIENCE means knowledge. We are glibly told that science teaches the evolution of man when it teaches nothing of the kind. A mere theory is not science until proven. A man does not become a scientist by advocating an unproven theory, but by making some notable contribution to knowledge. These self-appointed scientists recklessly declare that the “consensus” of science favors evolution. We oppose evolution not because it _is_ science, but because it is _not_ science. There is no conflict between Christianity and real science, but a fight to the death with “science falsely so called.”
RELIGION is often taken to mean deism, or infidelity as well as Christianity. They show us “where evolution and religion meet,” provided deism or infidelity is religion, but not, if Christianity is religion,–an inexcusable confusion of terms.
LAW is sometimes spoken of as if it had intelligence and power. Sometimes as a subordinate deity, or agent of God, or an indefinite principle. Darwin says:–“Plants and animals have all been produced by laws (?) acting around us.” That is impossible, since “laws” can produce nothing. He evidently gives to laws the credit that belongs to God.
NATURE, in like manner, is often used as a substitute for God, to avoid the mention of His name.
MODERNISM is a fine sounding word, suggestive of learning and culture and the last word in science, but doubts or denies many of the essential doctrines of the Christian religion. It is infidelity pure and simple and of the most dangerous kind, camouflaged under this attractive name. Who can deny the statement that the only thing modern about modernism is its hypocrisy? It is ancient infidelity pretending to be a Christian view. Bearing the Christian flag, it attacks Christianity. Modernists are evidently ashamed of a name which fitly describes their views, and seek another. Infidels have tried to win under their own name. They have failed. Will they succeed under the camouflaged name of modernism? Camouflaged under an attractive name, modernists doubt or deny the real inspiration of the Bible, the Virgin birth of Jesus, his deity, his miracles, his bodily resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, and his personal second coming to judge the quick and the dead. Some modernists reject a part of these great truths, and some reject all.
LIBERAL is another term stolen by infidels ashamed of their own name. They are no more liberal in a good sense than others.
A RATIONALIST is not entitled to the term, because he is often more innocent of reasoning than his opponents. Reason is not opposed to revelation. We believe in an inspired revelation, because it is reasonable to do so. Rationalism is another camouflage for infidelity. We can have some respect for an honest professed skeptic, but how can we respect a man who insists on adding hypocrisy to his infidelity, that, by so doing, he may make greater havoc of the church? Modernists give such a diluted interpretation to inspiration, to the statements of Scripture, and the Apostles’ Creed, and the creeds of the churches, that all may mean little or nothing, and the floodgates of infidelity and atheism are opened wide.
It has been truly said, “If the Bible is not really inspired, it is the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind; for, from lid to lid, it claims to be the word of God.” Likewise, if Moses was not inspired, he was the greatest liar of history.
Every variety of infidel and species of atheist will rejoice, if evolution be accepted,-whether modernists, liberals, rationalists, or simple unbelievers on their way to the bottomless pit. If evolution wins, Christianity loses and the church fails.
We hope that scientists will consign to innocuous desuetude their camouflaged sesquipedalian vocabularies, and tell us what they mean in short words, so we all may know what they say.
47. WHAT ARE WE TO BELIEVE?
Some would have us believe there is no God; or that matter is eternal; or that matter was evolved out of nothing; or that all things came by chance; or that there is nothing but matter,–no God, no spirit, no mind, no soul.
Some would have us believe that God created nebulous matter, and then ceased to control the universe; that life developed spontaneously; that species developed by chance, or natural selection, or by a powerless “law,” from one primordial germ. Others say that all the countless exhibitions of design by a matchless Intelligence, are to be explained by a causo-mechanical theory, which means the theory of blind unintelligent chance, without purpose or design or interference of God. Some say that God may have created one germ or at most 4 or 5, and that 3,000,000 species of plants and animals developed from this microscopic beginning. We are asked to believe that some plants became animals, or some animals became plants, or that all plants and animals came from the one germ they allowed God to create. They say that all species developed by growth, but do not explain why we still have the one-celled amoeba, the microscopic bacilli of plant life, and the microscopic species of animal life. Many geologic species are largest at the beginning; many ancient animals were much larger than their successors; and the reptilian age was noted for animals of enormous size. Yet they want us to believe that growth is universal.
They ask us to believe, without proof, that some marine animals evoluted into amphibians, some amphibians became reptiles, some reptiles developed hair and became mammals, and some reptiles developed feathers and wings and became birds; some mammals became monkeys, and some monkeys became men. For evidence of this, there is not a single connecting link to show the transformation. Geology furnishes no fossils of the millions and billions of connecting links that must have existed. For the scheme would require not only millions of links between man and the monkey, but also millions between each of the 8 great changes from matter to man. Yet we are asked to accept these fantastic and impossible speculations as “science,” though it lead to infidelity and atheism and bolshevism and anarchy and chaos, wreck religion, make havoc of the church, and send countless souls to the lost world. What wonder that the soul recoils with horror from such an atheistic theory.
48. WHAT CAN WE DO?
Evolution, leading to infidelity and atheism, is taught in many universities, colleges and high schools, and even in the lower grades of the public schools. It is taught also in some theological seminaries. It is proclaimed in some pulpits. Some of its devotees, who have slipped into places of power and influence, urge it with a zeal worthy of a better cause. The public libraries are crammed with books teaching it, with few, if any, opposed. Strange to say, it is advocated by some religious newspapers, along with modernism and other varieties of infidelity. Some secular newspapers seem eager to publish, on the front page, attacks on orthodoxy, and articles favoring the wildest claims of evolution. They call evolution science! What are we going to do about it? Shall we supinely submit, or do all in our power to oppose, check and suppress so pernicious a theory? What can we do?
We can refuse to patronize or endow such institutions as teach this or other forms of infidelity and atheism. We can aid those only that are safe. Much money that was given by devout Christians to colleges and seminaries, has been prostituted to teach what the donors hated, and to do great harm. The faculty and trustees can do much to eliminate false teaching, if they will. Use all possible pressure to bring this about.
Evolution is taught in many high schools supported by the taxpayers’ money. This should not be tolerated. Text books declare that man is descended from the brute, as if there were no doubt about it! Laws should be enacted and courts appealed to, to protect the youth. The recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Oregon case, gives strong hope that the teaching of evolution would not be permitted, if a case were carried up to the highest court. It should be done. If Christianity cannot be taught in the public schools, must we submit to the teaching of infidelity and atheism in the name of science? Intolerable outrage! In New York 15,000 people, on a recent Sunday, shouted for atheistic bolshevism, and condemned the United States government. A theory that encourages such a belief should not be taught. When the people awake to see the baneful effects, they will smite the fraud to the earth. Protests should be made to Boards of Education, superintendents, and all in authority. The power of public opinion should be brought to bear. Two states already have forbidden such instruction, and others will, no doubt, follow. The Associated Press, in this morning’s papers, calls the struggle a contest between religion and science, and thousands of shallow thinkers will believe that evolution is really science!
We quote from Mauro’s “Evolution at the Bar,” p. 71: “A parent writing to a religious periodical, tells of a text book brought home by his seven-year-old boy, the title of which was, ‘Home Geography for Primary Grades.’ Discussing the subject of birds, this text book for primary grades says: ‘Ever so long ago, their grandfathers were not birds at all. Then they could not fly, for they had neither wings nor feathers. These grandfathers of our birds had four legs, a long tail, and jaws with teeth. After a time feathers grew on their bodies, and their front legs were changed for flying. These were strange looking creatures. There are none living like them now.'” Would any one who would teach a little child, the extremely improbable story that reptiles became birds, hesitate to teach that monkeys became men and that the story of creation was false?
Much can be done by the church authorities in refusing to license or ordain men who believe in any species of infidelity, or who have attended heretical seminaries. They should give their consent for candidates to attend only colleges, universities or seminaries that can be trusted. Congregations should know, before they call a pastor, that he is orthodox. Ministers are to preach the Gospel not infidelity.
Taboo all heretical religious papers; support those that defend the truth. Let infidels maintain infidel papers and build infidel colleges. Not one dollar to propagate infidelity! Make your one short consecrated life count for truth and righteousness. Many Christians are guilty of the great sin of indifference. In this greatest of all contests in which the Church was ever engaged, no one should be a slacker.
Many public libraries have 20 to 50 books in favor of evolution, and but one or two, if any, opposed. If dangerous books, like Wells’ “Outline of History”, McCabe’s “A. B. C. of Evolution”, and the works of Darwin, who doubted his own theory, and of Romanes, who renounced evolution and embraced Christ, can not be eliminated, libraries, in all fairness and in the interest of truth, should have an equal number in reply. Insist that librarians get a copy of this book, and other anti-evolution books, especially those mentioned herein; also other good books.
The author and publisher of this book will give 50% commission for selling it, and will mail two copies for $1.00 to all who will become agents. If you can’t be an agent, you will do great good by securing another. A copy should be in the hands of every student, so he can discuss evolution with his teacher; and in the hands of every teacher, lawyer, doctor, minister, lawmaker or other professional man, of every parent whose children are liable to be taught the dangerous doctrine. It will be useful in removing error and in promoting the truth. Agents should canvass every school, college, university, seminary; every convention, conference; every religious and educational gathering. A copy should be in every library.
Every dollar of profit from the sale of this book will be given to Missions, to be loaned perpetually to help build churches, and to preach the Gospel in the secular newspapers of the world, and to distribute this book free. Every $1000 so loaned to churches at 5% compound interest, in 300 years, will, together with the accrued interest, aid in building 8,229,024 churches, by a loan of $1000 each for 5 years, and the new principal at the end of 300 years will be $2,273,528,000.
After four struggles, the writer was led to give the one-tenth, then the unpaid or “stolen” tenth (Mai. 3:8), then to consecrate the nine-tenths, and, lastly, to give all above an economical living. Many another consecrated Christian, on fire for God and burning with fury against all forms of infidelity, can do incalculable good by sending this book free to as many libraries, students, teachers, ministers, lawyers and doctors as possible. For this purpose, the publisher will mail the book to large numbers, for 20c each; your $1 sends a $1 book to 5. For $2000, for example, a copy will be mailed to the 10,000 ministers of the Presbyterian church, U.S.A.; for $4,000, to the 20,000 pastors of the Methodist Episcopal church; for $1000, a copy to 5000 public libraries in the United States and elsewhere; or to 5000 students, teachers, ministers, lawyers, doctors, lawmakers, etc. Smaller sums in proportion. What great good a heroic giver, in every land, could do with $1000 or $10,000 or $100,000! With 1,000,000 copies, we would wake the world!
A Canadian farmer gives $1000 to mail one to 5000 Canadian ministers and libraries. Who will give $2,000 to send one to 10,000 lawmakers in U.S.?
–Ministers, students, teachers, parents, yes, ALL are urged to be agents, employ sub-agents, earn wages, and do good. To agents, booksellers, libraries, churches, S.S.’s, organizations and societies needing funds, 2 to 25 mailed to any land, for 50c each cash; 25 or more, 40c–60% profit; 100 or more, 30c–70% profit! Books are the best outfit,–try 25 (show p. 76). To periodicals (for sale or premium), 30c. Special terms to general or national agents, speakers, publishers, colleges, seminaries, etc. Editors are hereby given permission FREE to use any selections. Add to each: From ‘EVOLUTION DISPROVED’ (cloth $1) by per. the author and pub., Rev. W. A. Williams, Camden, N.J. _Mail marked selections and reviews_.
The fight is on. Only about 2% of the members of evangelical churches, it is said, are modernists and evolutionists. Let the rest assert their rights and say: “Common honesty requires you to restore to orthodoxy the institutions you have purloined. We demand them back. Henceforth you shall not steal our colleges, seminaries and public schools, and make our children infidels and atheists. You shall not, with our consent, capture our pulpits, and strip the world’s Redeemer of his power and glory.”
49. PROBLEMS FOR REVIEW
The following problems, when solved by the reader, will deepen the conviction that evolution is impossible. The erroneous guesses by evolutionists may be checked up and disproved by mathematical problems. No stronger proof could well be devised. For pattern solutions, refer to the preceding text. A reward will be given to the first person who points out a material error. Test, verify or correct the following solutions:–
1. If the first human pair lived 2,000,000 years ago, as the evolutionists claim, and the population has doubled itself in every 1612.51 years (one-tenth the Jewish rate of net increase), what would be the present population of the globe? Ans. 18,932,139,737,991 followed by 360 figures; or 18,932,139,737,991 decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion, decillion; or 18,932,139,737,991 vigintillion, vigintillion, vigintillion, vigintillion, vigintillion, vigintillion.
2. If the first human pair lived 100,000 years ago (a period much less than evolution required), what Would be the present population at the same low rate of increase? Ans. 4,660,210,253,138,204,000; or 2,527,570,733 times as many as are living now.
3. At the above rate of increase, how many human beings would have survived in the 5177 years since Noah? Ans. 9. How many Jews, in the 3850 years since Jacob’s marriage? Ans. 5.
4. If the human race doubled its numbers every 168.3 years since Noah became a father (5177 years) what would be the population of the globe? Ans. 1,804,187,000,–just what it is.
5. If the Jews doubled their numbers every 161.251 years since Jacob’s marriage (3850 years ago), how many Jews would there have been in 1922? Ans. 15,393,815, just the number reported.
6. What guess of man’s age can stand the test of mathematics? Ans. Not a single guess ever made assigning a great age to man,–nothing greater than the age indicated by the Scriptures; 2,000,000, or 1,000,000, or 100,000 years are clearly out of the question.
7. If life began 60,000,000 years ago, and the human race 2,000,000 years ago, how much sub-normal should have been the brain and mind of man at that time? Ans. 1/30 or 3-1/3%; or 96-2/3% normal; or 1450 c.c., counting 1500 c.c. normal,–more nearly normal than many nations now.
8. How much if life began 500,000,000 years ago? Ans. .4%; or 99.6% normal; or 1494 c.c., far more c.c. than a large part of mankind can claim.
9. If man had, in 58,000,000 years, developed only the same skull capacity as the other members of the simian family (not over 600 c.c.), how much must he have gained in 2,000,000 years? Ans. 900 c.c., which is a development 43.5 times as rapid in 2,000,000 years as in the 58,000,000 years preceding. How could that be?
10. If life began 500,000,000 years ago, how would the rapidity of skull and brain development in 2,000,000 years compare with that of the 498,000,000 years preceding? Ans. 373.5 times as great.
11. If the skull of the pithecanthropus was two-thirds normal, or 1000 c.c., how many years ago must it have lived, in case life began 60,000,000 years ago? Ans. 20,000,000; in case life began 500,000,000 years ago? Ans. 166,666,666.
12. If the Piltdown “man” had a normal skull capacity of 1070 c.c., as claimed, how long ago did he live, if life began 60,000,000 years ago? Ans. 17,200,000 years. If 500,000,000 years ago? Ans. 143,333,333 years.
13. If the Neanderthal man had a capacity of 1408 c.c. (assigned by Dr. Osborn), how many years ago must he have lived if 60,000,000 years have passed since life began? Ans. 3,680,000; if 500,000,000 years? Ans. 30,666,666. If 1800 c.c. be taken as normal instead of 1500 c.c. as some insist, these great periods since these “ape-men” existed must be enormously increased, in some cases 50%.
14. If, on the other hand, the pithecanthropus really lived 750,000 years ago, what, with normal development, should have been its skull capacity, if life began 60,000,000 ago? Ans. 98.75%; or 1481 c.c. If life began 500,000,000 years ago? Ans. 99.85%; or 1497.77 c.c. In either case, practically normal.
15. If the Piltdown “man” lived 150,000 years ago, as claimed, what should have been his brain capacity, if life has lasted 60,000,000 years? Ans. 99.75%; or 1496.25 c.c. If 500,000,000 years? Ans. 99.97%; or 1499.55 c.c. Very nearly normal.
The above problems prove either that these alleged links could not have lived in the periods assigned them, or else they must have had a brain capacity almost normal, and far greater than assigned to them.
16. The habitable countries of the world-total 50,670,837 sq. mi. If we estimate that the garden of Eden occupied 10,000 sq. mi. or 6,400,000 acres, there would be 5067 such areas in the world. What chance would Moses have, not knowing, to guess the correct location? Ans. 1 chance out of 5067,–virtually none at all.
17. If Moses, not knowing the order of creation, enumerates 11 great events in their correct scientific order, what chance had he to guess the correct order? Ans. I chance out of 39,916,800. If 15 great events, as some biblical scholars point out? Ans. I chance out of 1,307,674,368,000. (Solve by Permutation.)
18. If there are now 1,500,000 species of animals, coming from a single primordial germ or cell which existed 60,000,000 years ago, how many species of animals should have arisen or matured in the last 6000 years? Ans. 3000; or one every two years. If life has existed 500,000,000 years, 360 new animal species were due in the last 6000 years. Evolutionists declare they do not know that a single new species has arisen in the last 6000 years! Even Darwin said, “Not one change of species into another is on record.”
19. If the skeletons of 200,000 prehistoric horses were found in a single locality, Lyons, France, how many skeletons of prehistoric man should we expect? Ans. Many millions. How many are there? Not a single or undisputed skeleton of an ape-man!
20. If each of the two eyes and ears as well as the nose and the mouth occupy, on an average, one-thousandth part of the surface of the body, what, if we exclude God’s design, is the mathematical probability that they would appear where they are? Ans. .OO1 x .OO1 x .001 x .001 x .001 x .001; =.000,000,000,000,000,001; or 1 chance in a billion billion! (Solved by Compound Probability.)
21. Evolutionists claim at least 8 great transmutations from matter to man: matter, plant-life, invertebrates, vertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and man. If we make the extremely generous estimate of 60% to represent the probability of each transmutation, what is the compound probability that all would take place? Ans. 1 chance in 60, which means an extreme improbability.
22. If there is 1 chance in 10 that each transmutation has taken place, which is far more than the evidence warrants, what fraction represents the probability that all these great changes have occurred? Ans. .1 raised to the eighth power, or .00000001; or 1 chance in 100,000,000.
23. If the probability of a change of one member of one species into another species be expressed by .1 (an over-estimate), what fraction marks the probability of a million members making the same change? Ans. .1 raised to the millionth power; or 1 preceded by 999,999 decimal ciphers; or a common fraction with 1 as a numerator and a million figures as a denominator; or 1 chance out of a number expressed by 1,000,000 figures, which would fill 3 volumes like this book. Such changes were absolutely impossible, but necessary for evolution.
24. If the scattered remains of the pithecanthropus were found in the sand only 40 ft. below the surface, and the rate of accumulation were no greater than the slow accretions that buried the mountain city of Jerusalem 20 feet deep in 1900 years, what would be the extreme age of these remains? Ans. 3800 years, instead of 750,000 years.
25. If the Heidelberg jaw was found in sand 69 ft. deep, what would be its maximum age, estimated in the same way? Ans. 6555 years instead of 375,000. Who believes that sand in a river valley would accumulate no more rapidly than dust on the mountains? Or that it took 750,000 or even 375,000 years to cover with sand these precious remains such a shallow depth? A few centuries at most would account for such a depth. Can there be any doubt that these were abnormal bones of historic man and brute?
26. Did any other false theory that ever posed as science, have less to support its claims than evolution?
27. Believing that a Christian should give to the Lord all above his necessities, none of the profits on this book will be retained by the publisher, but all will be donated to missions, to be perpetually loaned to churches, and to preach the gospel through the secular newspapers, of the world, and to aid in the free distribution of this book as explained on pages 116 and 117. How many churches will every $1000 together with the compound interest thereon, help to build in 300 years, if the average loan to each church is $1000 for 5 years at 5%? Ans. 8,229,024; and the new principal will then be $2,273,528,000.
28. How could $1000 be given to do more good than for these three purposes?
29. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”
30. What shall it profit a man, if he wins great fame as a scientist, persuades a great multitude to accept evolution, infidelity and atheism, and leads a great company to the lost world, by destroying their faith in God and in Jesus Christ?
50. THE SUPREMACY OF JESUS
From far-off Australia comes this sermon by Rev. R. Ditterich. What more fitting climax in honor of Christ, whose worshipers belt the globe? “Christ is All,” a pean of praise, which has been sung both sides the sea, and published in three Hymnals and over sixty song books, will close this volume, dedicated to the glory of God.
_Text: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”–Matt. 16.16._
Jesus asked a great question, and Peter made a great reply. No prophet, no priest, no king, no patriarch of Israel had ever been greeted in such fashion. Of nobody else in the world are these words spoken today. How pure must have been the life, how majestic the personality, how wise the utterances, how divine the deeds, that compelled this thrilling answer from the apostle’s lips. Surely something really wonderful beyond all previous Hebrew experience was necessary before Jews could bring themselves to acknowledge any man, however exalted, as divine. The miracle of winning such a confession is testimony to the sovereign greatness of Jesus.
We, too, have to answer the same question, and there are facts which lead us to the same great confession of faith.
FIVE TREMENDOUS FACTS
1. Jesus, a peasant, is hailed today as King by people speaking 750 languages and dialects, in all climes, and of all classes. People of every color raise to Him the song of praise and crown Him “Lord of all.” There is nothing like this in all history. No other has ever approached this degree of sovereignty. His kingdom pervades the world. It is a fact that challenges thought. No world conqueror has ever had such an empire. Beside this the royalty of men like Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, Napoleon, and more modern aspirants is shadowy and ghostlike. His is an abiding and a spiritual dominion.
2. Though an unlettered peasant, Jesus has become the world’s greatest teacher. For all our best knowledge of God, for the revelation of divine Fatherly love, for our highest ideals of virtue, for man’s most glorious hope, people on all sides look to Him. Not only men of the highest rank, but men of the richest culture sit at His feet. The purest souls sit at His feet. His golden rule will never be supplanted. His name has become the synonym for all that is true and gracious. To be Christ-like must ever remain man’s highest ideal.
3. He was a Jew, and yet He founded the brotherhood of man. In His day Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. But Jesus had. Jews were fenced off from all other nations in the most exclusive way. But His heart was all-inclusive, and He broke down all walls that separated class from class as well as nation from nation. His thought was universal. His spirit was international. He founded a kingdom based, as Napoleon said, not on force but on love, and love is universal. It leaps over mountains, it spans oceans. It speaks in all tongues. The true League of Nations and the real disarmament are part of His plan for the world. He was son of Israel only incidentally. Essentially He was Son of Man–the true brother of all mankind.
4. His life was short, but it changed the world. No one ever did so much in so short a time. At the most his years numbered thirty-three years, and of these only a little less than three were devoted to public ministry, and these were spent in a conquered province of the Roman Empire. He was killed by aliens at the request of His own countrymen. And yet time is reckoned from His birth. The very terms B.C. and A.D. have great significance. He divides not only time, but also space. The nations are Christian and non-Christian, which is about equal to saying, civilized and barbarous. One has only to think of the ideals and practices of pagan people before they received the influences of Christianity to see the difference He makes everywhere. No tribe on earth was ever lifted from savagery by the influence of Socrates, no crime-soaked soul was ever saved by his name and yet Socrates was the wisest and noblest of the Greeks. He lived for seventy years and for forty years taught the young men in the most cultured age and among the most intellectual people in the world. But Jesus has lifted cannibals and washed the souls of men who were steeped in blackest vice. The rationalist Lecky said that the simple record of His three brief years of active life had done more to regenerate and soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and than all the exhortations of moralists.
5. He was crucified, and made of the cross a throne from which to rule the hearts of men. The cross was a gallows far more hideous and cruel than the hangman’s gallows. It was the symbol of crime, of shame, of degradation. He transformed it. It is today the symbol of love, of purity, of virtue. His dream came true. Once only did a man dream that by dying upon a cross would He teach men to say that God is love, that love is universal, that there is hope for sinners, and that the worship of God must be spiritual. This is the miracle of the ages. The Crucified has become the King.
Here then are five tremendous facts. They are unique. If only one were true it would make Him remarkable, but they are all true.
THE MEANING OF THE FACTS
What shall we say of this Man? He accepted Peter’s tribute. He allowed Jews to take up stones to stone Him for claiming to be Son of God. He was conscious of being divine. He forgave sins, which is God’s prerogative. He promised rest to the weary soul, which the Old Testament set forth as God’s own gift. He said that He came to give life eternal, although God is the giver of life. He said that none could know the Father except through Him. He spoke to God of the glory which they shared together before the world was. Just in proportion as men have acknowledged His claims in their hearts have they found peace with God and conquest over sin and the fear of worldly evil. As we consider all these things we are led to repeat Peter’s confession, “Thou are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” for God the Father’s face shines upon us through Him and heaven is opened to us as we look upon Him. In the heart of this the purest of men was the clear, constant consciousness that He was divine. He always spoke and acted consistently with this consciousness. Unique in character, He made claims that would have stamped any other man as an impostor. Humility and majesty dwell together in Him. He could say, “I am meek and lowly in heart,” and also “I and my Father are one.” He would call men His “brethren” and yet accept from them the words, “My Lord and my God.” This wonderful character came of a race that had for ages looked for the coming of a Messiah, and whose prophetic literature was burdened with this hope. After his death his disciples who were heartbroken and cowed became inspired with a heroism that cheerfully faced martyrdom. All these facts are shining lights that point to the truth which Peter confessed. That truth is enshrined in the triumphant words of the Te Deum, “Thou are the King of glory, O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.”
And the Christ of history, the exalted Son of God, is a living Presence with us today. Not remote but ever near, He walks by our side in all life’s experiences. Not only enthroned in heavenly glory
“But warm, sweet, tender, even yet
A present help is He,
And faith has still its Olivet
And love its Galilee.”
Such is our wonderful Saviour, a Friend with human heart of sympathy who has trod our pathway and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities; a Shepherd who gave His life for the sheep in an all-atoning sacrifice; an Advocate who represents us with all-prevailing power before the throne of the Judge Eternal; a Champion who Can break the power of canceled sin and set the prisoner free; a Victor who can smite death’s threatening wave before us; a Lord in whom we see the beauty and glory of the face of God. We are called upon to confess Him with lip and life. To us to live is Christ. Knowing Him we have eternal life. We have all the soul needs in Jesus. There is no substitute for Him. None can share His throne in our hearts. The Kingdom is His who is the Christ–the anointed King. Our joy is in Him, where all fullness dwells. We can say with Charles Wesley, “Thou, O Christ, art all I want,” and our daily life should be one of close, constant communion with Christ.
No. 21. CHRIST IS ALL.
“Unto you therefore which believe he is precious.”–Pet. 11:7.
W. A. WILLIAMS, by per.
_Effectiva as a Soprano Solo, Ad lib_.
[Illustration: Musical notation]
1.
I entered once a home of care,
For age and penury were there,
Yet peace and joy withal;
I asked the lonely mother whence
Her helpless widowhood’s defence.
She told me, “Christ was all.”
Christ is all, all in all,
She told me “Christ was all”.
2.
I stood beside a dying bed,
Where lay a child with aching head, Waiting for Jesus’ call,
I marked his smile, ’twas sweet as May, And as his spirit passed away,
He whispered, “Christ is all.”
Christ is all, all in all,
He whispered “Christ is all.”
3.
I saw the martyr at the at the stake, The flames could not his courage shake,
Nor death his soul appall,
I asked him whence his strength was giv’n, He looked triumphantly to Heav’n,
And answered “Christ is all.”
Christ is all, all in all,
He answered, “Christ is all.”
4.
I saw the gospel herald go,
To Afric’s sand and Greenland’s snow, To save from Satan’s thrall:
No home nor life he counted dear,
Midst wants and perils owned no fear. He felt that “Christ is all.”
Christ is all, all in all,
He felt that “Christ is all.”
5.
I dreamed that hoary time had fled; The earth and sea gave up their dead,
A fire dissolved this ball;
I saw the church’s ransom’d throng, I heard the burden of their song.
’twas “Christ is all in all.”
Christ is all, all in all,
‘Twas Christ is all in all.
6.
Then come to Christ, oh! come today. The Father, Son, and Spirit say;
The Bride repeats the call;
For he will cleanse your guilty stains, His love will sooth your weary pains,
For “Christ is all in all.”
Christ is all, all in all,
For “Christ is all in all.”
INDEX
Introduction
Theories of Evolution
PART ONE: Evolution of the Human Body
The Unity of the Human Race
1. The Population of the World
2. The Unity of Languages
3. Religions
4. Place of the Origin of Man
5. Civilizations
6. The Mendelian Inheritance Law
7. Biometry
8. No New Species Now
9. Mathematical Probability
10. The Age of the Earth
11. Geology and History
12. Geographical Distribution
13. God Not Absent Nor Inactive
14. Chance or Design?
15. Evolution Atheistic
16. Brute Descent Impossible
17. Eight Impassable Gulfs
18. Ancestral Apes and Monkeys
19. A Staggering Speculation
20. Sex
21. Man Hairless and Tailless
22. Hybrids
23. The Instinct of Animals
24. Special Creation: Gen. I
25. Analogy; Mathematics, Laws
26. Desperate Arguements
27. Twenty Objections Admitted
28. Scientists Condemn Evolution
PART TWO: Evidence Answered
29. Paleontology
30. Confessed Collapse of Proof
31. Pictures in Caverns
32. Vestigial Organs
33. Serology, or Blood Tests
34. Embryology
PART THREE: The Soul
35. The Origin of the Soul
36. Personality
37. Intellect, Emotions and Will
38. Abstract Reason
39. Conscience
40. Spirituality
4l. The Hope of Immortality
42. Sin
43. Redemption
44. Evolution Aids Infidelity and Atheism 45. Evolution Wars With Christianity
46. Camouflage of Terms
47. What Are We to Believe?
48. What Can We Do?
49. Problems for Review
50. The Supremacy of Jesus
Song: Christ Is All