AGREEMENT OF SAMUEL L. PHILLIPS GIFT OF f iU.cc^/X^t,c4^^.*M^^Ji^ Tr^C^c^^je^^ CompllmtRts of S. L. PHILLIPS, 330John Marshall Place, Washington, D. C. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/agreementofevoluOOphilrich Agreement of Evolution and Christianity Agreement of Evolution & Christianity By Samuel Louis Phillips (J.B.y Princeton) Author of «*The Testimony of Reason," etc. ', , »o' » Washington, D.C. The Phillips Company 330 John Marshall Place 1904 Pr Copyright, igo4 By Samuel L. Phillips THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A. Preface THE underlying purpose of this treatise is to advance Christianity by showing it to be a phase of the great law of Evolution appli- cable to the development of the moral nature of man, and incidentally to his physical and mental advancement ; and ranking in its sphere of influence as importantly as the physical adaptation of organisms to their environment, or the transmission of acquired characteristics to progeny. It is addressed: 1. To those adherents of the doctrine of Evo- lution who reject Christianity because of its supposed inconsistency with their theory. 2. To those who have professed Christianity, and yet are fearful its foundations are being battered from under it by the assaults of those scientists who declare that the ascertained facts of Nature have disproved the truthfulness of the Divine record of creation. To such, this book, it is hoped, will be a comfort, by showing ,[v] 411439 Preface there is not only no antagonism between the latest discoveries of Evolutionary Science and the Mosaic account of creation, but so wonder- ful an agreement actually exists between the theory of Evolution, as expounded by Mr. Herbert Spencer, Professors Huxley, Haeckel, and other eminent advocates of the doctrine, and the order of creation in Genesis, that, if no other proof existed except this narrative, its extraordinary congruity with the facts of science accepted in the twentieth century would be adequate to establish a strong probability that the scriptural record of creation was of Divine origin. 3. To those Christians who are perplexed by the absence of plenary and convincing revela- tion of the nature of God, of the divinity of Christ, of the immortality of the soul, of rewards and punishments in the future life, and other fundamental articles of the Christian faith. It is believed a careful perusal of the second part of this book — wherein it is shown Christianity is a great law of Evolution for the development of the soul, analogous in every important par- ticular to the laws of Physical Evolution — will convince the impartial reader that if more knowl- edge of the above truths had been vouchsafed spiritual evolution would have been impeded in [vi] Preface exact proportion ; and that if absolute certainty of the Godhead, and of the Saviour of mankind, and of immortality, etc., had been enforced by full knowledge no growth in moral excellence would have taken place. To be convinced by a line of correct human reasoning that revelation is just what it should be — neither too full nor too scant — will bring much satisfaction to many devout hearts, increase their faith, inspire zeal in the work of and love for their Master, and cause them to look down upon the assaults of agnostic scientists and unfriendly atheists as little more than ripples on the surface of a pool of water, fretting themselves against the side of the mountainous and eternal rock of Christianity. [vii] Contents PART I. Page V Theology and Evolution i The Doctrine of Evolution 6 Agencies of Evolution lo Limitations of Evolution 20 Agreement of Evolution and the Mosaic Narrative of the Creation 29 Special Creations or Evolution .... 55 t- Evolution and Man 82 Evolution and Mentality . ^ 84 V Evolution and the Soul 95 PART II. L. Evolutionary Character of Christianity . 105 USouL Evolution no The Holy Scriptures 116 God 122 Christ a Factor of Soul Evolution . . . 128 The Holy Ghost 136 u Immortality of the Soul 140 w Reward and Punishment 145 [ix] Contents Page ► Free Will 150 U Faith 156 Good Works 163 Atonement for Sin 170 Evidences of Christianity 174 The Church of Christ 180 The Sacraments 182 Christianity an Aid to Physical and Men- tal Evolution 186 Missions 190 The Future of Christianity 193 »^Conclusion 195 The Testimony of Reason 199 [x] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity Part I THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION THE scientific world is almost universally of opinion that life has an inherent quality which enables it to adapt itself more or less perfectly to environment, and to trans- mit acquired characteristics to progeny. What is here understood by the scientific world, is that body of men of trained minds and observation which has investigated the phe- nomena of life for the express purpose of arriv- ing at truth in regard to its development. When there is great unanimity among such students upon any subject after adequate inves- tigation, which is certainly the case as to Evolu- tion, there is, a priori^ strong probability of the correctness of their conclusions. And no class of men, — for example, theologians, — who have not given the subject the same careful attention, [I] ' Agreement of Evolution and Christianity under equally favorable circumstances for obser- vation, as scientists have done, should contradict their legitimate deductions, as far as founded on facts, unless they have other facts equally well proven with which to refute them. Mere theories springing from preconceived notions or predilections, and crude ideas based on conjec- ture and not on rigorous exploration, cannot withstand, in this accurate scientific age, the assault of intelligent generalization formulated from ascertained facts. Instead of the advocates of the Christian religion being disturbed by the theory of Evo- lution as expounded by scientists, or denying its truthfulness, they should, believing their creed is the revelation of the Most High and consequently must be harmonious with nature, investigate their God-given faith for the purpose of ascertaining whether any real antagonism exists between it and the doctrine of Evolution. On the other side of the subject, scientists, who are as ardent pursuers of truth as men know how to be, should pause in their rejection or disregard of a religion which they generally do not understand, or of the philosophy of whose tenets they have only a superficial im- pression, until they have subjected its funda- mental principles to an accurate examination, and have determined beyond reasonable doubt that they are opposed to known facts and laws [2] Theology and Evolution to such an extent, they cannot be true. Such an examination is particularly incumbent upon men who spend their lives in the investigation of facts, and who claim belief should be based only on knowledge. To condemn the Christian religion without an accurate and logical ex- amination is unscientific, and is a denial to it of what they profess and claim should be granted to their own subject of inquiry. Nor is Christianity to be disposed of by ad captandum replies that its supernatural claims are so absurd as not to be deemed worthy of serious consideration. Any scientist who makes such a charge is eminently unscientific in mental poise, and unworthy of the guild in which he seeks to include himself as a member, because the Christian religion has claimed and still possesses as its devoted adherents millions of men whose mental capacity, general intelligence, and devotion to truth are equal in all respects to such denying scientists; and because the civilization of the world at this time, whereof such scientists are blessed participators, is due more largely to the peace and the humanizing influences wrought by Christianity than to all other causes. At no era of the world's history has it been more important than the present for theologians and scientists to extend their investigations reciprocally into the sphere of the other. Evil r3] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity often results from ignorance, nothing but benefit can follow from a knowledge of truth. These two great fields for research and belief should not be separated by insuperable barriers. If Evolution be a law of nature, there is no reason the Christian should not be an evolutionist and the evolutionist a Christian. They are both workers in the domains of nature made by one and the same divine Creator. They cannot be antagonistic, but must be harmonious ; more yet, each pursuit broadens and ennobles the other. The Christian scientist is the more per- fect Christian and the more perfect scientist. It is the purpose of the writer to attempt to show in the following pages that not only no contradiction exists between Christianity and Evolution, but the most extraordinary accord — an accord which could not have been devised by men of the time of Christ, or even in these days of scientific knowledge, but only could have been the work of some superhuman power — subsists between every important dogma of Christianity and Evolution, and which accord- ance, if it exists, constitutes in itself one of the strongest arguments for receiving the Christian religion as of divine origin. A further deduction from the acceptance of the above proposition will be that the Christian religion is as evolutionary in its influence on the moral, and incidentally on the physical and [4] Theology and Evolution mental, nature of man as the Survival of the fittest and the transmission of acquired charac- teristics to progeny are on the physical nature of animals ; and therefore said religion is en- titled to be ranked as a Science with physiology and mental philosophy. [5] THE DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTION OMITTING all the speculations of philos- ophers on the subject of Evolution from the time of Aristotle to 1859, when Charles Darwin published " The Origin of Species," as not absolutely important to these discussions, it may be stated briefly that the conception of Evolution from this latter period has taken a firmer hold on the scientific mind than at any previous era of philosophic thought. The principal reason for this more general belief is that greater attention under improved facilities of observation has been given to the phenomena of the development of life in both plants and animals, and biologists have been driven by force of pure reasoning from observed facts to the conclusion that many now divergent species have sprung from a common ancestor, and that no other theory than Evolution, sub- stantially as announced by Darwin, logically or scientifically accounts for this divergence. Chief among the facts which have compelled biologists to adopt the doctrine of Evolution, and stated in a general manner, are : ^ 1 See " Evolution," Revised Edition Encyclopoedia Brittanica. [6] The Doctrine of Evolution 1. The gradations, from simplicity of struc- ture and its functions to great complexity among those classes of living things which bear a strong family resemblance, show the probabilities are enormously in favor of an inherent tendency in life towards greater complexity of structure, and consequently of a more heterogeneous and higher functional life. 2. The existence of an unmistakable similarity between the adult and matured creatures of any lower species of animals or plants and the em- bryonic, infantile, or immature creatures of the higher members of the same family. A con- spicuous instance of this characteristic, showing the evolution of birds from marine animals, is, if the eggs of either a hen or thrush, etc., be ex- amined after the first few days of incubation, the young creatures within the shells will be found to possess the fin-like appendages and gills of fish. 3. The fact that groups of large families, for example, vertebrates, of extremely various habits are constructed on a plan so similar that in many instances bone for bone, muscle for muscle, and nerve for nerve may be traced, with more or less modifications to suit such habits, through entire families, which similarity is inexplicable unless they had sprung from a common ancestor. 4. The existence of structure in rudimentary [7] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity and useless conditions in some members of a group, while in other members of the same group the same structure exists in a fully devel- oped condition, and performs important and necessary functions for the life and well-being of such members. 5. The constantly observed and well-known effects of use and disuse of parts and faculties, in modifying structure and functions, the adap- tation of the animal or plant to its environment, and the capacity of all living organisms to trans- mit to their progeny the characteristics of their own natures. 6. The astonishing similarity of structure and its functions among animals and plants now in- habiting the earth although separated by, to them, impassable seas, mountains, and other natural barriers. 7. The extraordinary succession in geologic strata of the various forms of life from lower to higher species, including extinct types; and fossil types so simple and homogeneous of existing forms that the probability is they were the primordial progenitors of present groups. A vast array of observed facts has estab- lished the above general propositions, and to account for them on any reasonable basis it was necessary to abandon the idea of Spe- cial Creations for each species, and to adopt [8] The Doctrine of Evolution the hypothesis that there existed in Hving things a plasticity of organism competent to mould itself in accordance with its environ- ment, and to transmit its modified structure to its offspring. [9] AGENCIES OF EVOLUTION THE agencies of Evolution employed in causing the physical development of life are many. Mr. Darwin, in " The Origin of Species," attributed very important effects to what he termed Natural Selection, or the Sur- vival of the Fittest. An illustration will best define what is understood, in part, by this ex- pression, although the term was not limited to conscious acts. Usually in a herd of deer run- ning wild in the forests, the largest, most pow- erful, and intelligent males drive off their less favorably endowed competitors and capture as mates the most attractive females. The progeny of this selection will in some instances, under propitious circumstances, partake of the supe- rior characteristics of their parents. By the constant acquirement or improvement in this manner of new qualities and their transmission, although it may be in each instance of small moment, the original structure of the distant ancestor will be so modified a new species will be created. The exercise of this selection applies princi- pally to animals so far advanced mentally that [lO] Agencies of Evolution they possess conscious desires, and have the ability to make the necessary efforts to gratify them. Darwin and other naturalists have col- lected many facts showing that almost all animal creation has positive preferences in the selection of mates, and in some instances very decided aesthetic faculties. In this way the brilliant plu- mage and vocal attainments of birds have been acquired, the female usually accepting as her mate the male which makes the most fascinating display. Another efficient agency in the development of both plant and animal life is plasticity of structure, and the effort of all organisms to adapt themselves to their environments. Every living thing has wants, and a great many of them. Each life if examined closely will be found to have a very narrow sphere wherein it can exist. It must, first of all, have heat regu- lated to the exercise of its functions. A differ- ence of a few degrees in temperature is in a short time fatal to some animals, and of fewer degrees still to their perfect development. Water is another prime essential. All organic structure has a large percentage of water, and no physiological functions can be performed unless water furnishes the diluent to enable the organs to move with reference to one another. An interesting fact and evidently importing de- sign in connection with the molecular mobility [II] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity of structure is that all organisms are composed almost exclusively of the three gases, — viz., oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen, — with some carbon, which is a solid. These components being mostly gaseous, their compounds are more or less plastic and easily change in struc- ture under the influence of external forces. The necessity for a supply of carbonic acid gas for plants and oxygen for animals is im- perative. The union of oxygen with the other elements of the animal furnishes usually the necessary internal heat and destruction of effete matters. It is unnecessary to elaborate the in- dispensability of food suitable to respective organisms. A failure of an adequate supply of any one of the foregoing prime necessities speedily ends in extinction. Now all animals which have survived, includ- ing man, have been endeavoring, consciously and subconsciously, every instant of their ex- istence to accommodate themselves to these and many other more or less important things surrounding them. For example, a sheep bred in a southern latitude will possess a thin wool. If the same animal is taken to a more northern climate, the wool thickens, and in a few genera- tions, the animal is protected with an ample fleece. When the organism is unable to respond to the external forces encompassing it, death takes place, for life may be defined to be a sue- [12] Agencies of Evolution cession of internal changes to accord with ex- ternal conditions. An instance of the accommodation of plants to arid conditions, such as exist in Mexico, is the development of the large pulpous leaves, full of fluids, of the southern cactus, by which adequate water is not only provided but con- served for the use of the plant during the dry season. The necessity of oxygen affords a re- markable example of how a creature can change itself from a water-breathing to an air-breathing animal. In 1835 ^ quasi fish was discovered in a swamp bordering the Amazon, shaped like an eel with scales. It had perfect gills and perfect lungs with air tubes and nostrils. Subsequently a similar one was discovered in Africa. At that time naturalists were unable to determine how such a double-breathing animal came to exist. When the doctrine of evolution was pro- mulgated, the explanation was apparent that the above animal was a link form between true fishes and the amphibians. Professor Wilhelm Boelsche states the case substantially thus : Through fossils it was learned that in a very remote period of the world's history the oldest representatives of vertebrates were fish. Then in the carboniferous age, long after the remote fish age, the amphibians appeared. Somewhere between those two periods there must have occurred the change of one or more of [•3] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity the fishes to land-breathing and land-dwelling animals. That was doubtless the time of the lizard-fish, if the lizard-fish was the link, yet no lizard-fish was then known. But in 1869 there was found in Australia a carp-like fish with gills and scales, but also a lung — one single lung. The mouth had not fish teeth, but four big teeth with crowns indented like the comb of a rooster. Now such teeth — fossil teeth — had been found long before. Next was unearthed a well-pre- served skull, and the impression of the caudal end of the same creature. Thus was established in this lizard-fish the connecting link between the fossil and the then living animals of the Amazon and of Africa, and also between fishes and amphibians. It was called the Ceratodus. This lizard furnishes an illustration of how the lung developed from the gills. Where it lived in the Devonian epoch there were many pools, alternately furnished with water and then be- coming dry. While the water lasted, the lizard breathed through its gills, when it dried up through its lung. But how was the gill de- veloped into a lung? The true fish owns a well-known organ — the swimming bladder. An- atomically this bladder belongs to the alimen- tary canal. In many fish there is an air connection with this canal. In the Ceratodus the develop- ment of this bladder into a lung became com- plete. Along the wall of the swimming bladder [14] Agencies of Evolution there began to form air-sucking blood vessels, and the mouth of the bladder gradually length- ened from the depths of the canal towards the mouth as it was used more and more to suck in air when the water grew scarcer. The air pas- sage became a windpipe and the swimming bladder a lung. Professor Haeckel urged on the world of science the importance of studying the egg of the Ceratodus, and a naturalist was sent to Australia, who after two years discovered that the creature developed not as a fish but as an amphibian, passing through the same stages which characterize frogs. So in the Ceratodus biologists recognize a true survivor of the lizard- fishes, and thus, as they claim, an ancestor of man — the particular ancestor that developed his lungs. Hundred of instances might be mentioned showing prominently this adaptation by efforts, conscious and unconscious, of plants and animals to their environment. The matter of securing an adequate supply of proper food has worked great changes in the structure and functions of all living organisms. Thus the bee has been obliged to lengthen his tongue in order to get to the deep sugar cells of the red clover. Imperative necessity for food and effort to gratify the desire have wrought the necessary changes in the elastic membranes of the tongue. The giraffe has probably de- [15] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity scended from the xiophodon, an extinct herbiv- orous animal of the Cenozoic age. Under the necessity of reaching the branches and twigs above his head, the seven cervical vertebrae the giraffe inherited from his progenitor have grad- ually lengthened. The precise physiological manner in which the structure and functions of the neck of the giraffe were extended to sub- serve his necessity for food was that by his exertions to reach the twigs and leaves an in- creased determination or flow of blood to the neck was produced. This led to increased nutrition, and as a consequence, to an increase of cell-growth both in the vertebrae and muscles — an increased cell-growth results in an enlarge- ment of structure and specialized development of the parts. Among other causes operating to produce modifications may be mentioned the escaping of dangers and the use of protective colorings. Insects, birds, and animals simulate their sur- roundings, and when apprehensive of enemies, place themselves in positions similar in color to to their own, so as to be least conspicuous. They thus make an effort to save their lives. If the characteristics acquired by organisms, intentionally and unintentionally, by efforts to accommodate themselves to their respective en- vironments were lost by the death of the indi- vidual and thus their transmission to offspring [i6] Agencies of Evolution rendered impossible, no progress would be made in the differentiation of either plants or animals. But such is the character of inheritance that not only does it bring forth young after its own kind, but most often the minutest peculiarities of struc- ture, function, and mental qualities are trans- mitted. No argument or illustration is needed to show how parents recognize in their children many of their own characteristics. Besides in some yet unexplained manner progeny partakes of both parents, thus transmit- ting not only old and newly acquired structures of male and female ancestors respectively, but often wonderfully combining, modifying, enlarg- ing, or diminishing, etc., the characteristics of each parent with those of the other, thus produc- ing new forms alike to, and yet different from each ; and occasionally giving birth to beings which if perpetuated would be regarded as new species. This innate power of transmission and combination has been availed of by breeders to such an extent as to produce at will beef-cattle or milch cows, slow draft horses or racers, etc. The foregoing condensed exposition of some of the agencies at work in modifying the physi- cal structure of organisms, it will be noticed, are all based more or less on the conscious or sub- conscious efforts of animals to supply the neces- sities of their existence. The moment the proper amount of heat is withdrawn or increased, the [17] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity creature makes an effort to seek a more agree- able temperature and adapt his body to the new- condition ; failing in this he perishes. So with air, with light, with water, etc. As regards food, the supply of which is not so abundant as the other necessaries, almost the entire lifetime of all animals, including man, is spent in efforts to acquire an adequate amount. This great and inexorable necessity is ever taxing their best efforts, and the efforts are changing bones, mus- cles, nerves, blood vessels, mucous membranes, etc., whenever such change renders the ac- quisition of food more easy, or its use more beneficial. So the fundamental principles underlying Evo- lution are that life has been created with neces- sities ; these necessities are individualized in each animal; each entity must, in effect, make the effort to appropriate them for itself; and the efforts to appropriate such necessities act on organisms so soft, so ductile, or so plastic that constant effort in one direction causes the blood to flow to the parts, thereby increasing their nutrition which results in cell-growth, and thus modifies the structure and functions of the cells, the sum total of which cells is the unit organism. Or to state the proposition in the converse form, if heat and air and food, etc., had always been so abundant that no effort had been re- quired to provide and appropriate them, and no [18] Agencies of Evolution enemies had existed calling for effort to escape, there would have been no change of organism and consequently no development from the sim- ple to the complex, from the comparatively- useful to the more useful — in a word, no evolu- tion of the physical structures and functions. Or to state the proposition yet more broadly, Evolution is the result of Effort. [19] LIMITATIONS OF EVOLUTION THE doctrine of Evolution is still in its adolescence. The cause of this is two- fold. I. The short period in which it has claimed serious scientific attention has not allowed adequate facts to be observed so as to constitute a well-defined philosophy both as to what it includes and those things it excludes from its sphere of influence. 2. Its principles were so revolutionary, so contrary to cherished opinions of Christians, and so agreeable to men of infidel tendencies, the former have, as was quite natural, either refused to entertain its just claims, or diminished its true influence; and the latter in their joy to find something by which to sustain their irreligion, have extended its scope beyond legitimate deductions. And yet enough is now known from which to formulate a wonderful order of creation, har- monious in every part and rationally explicable only on the theory that this thing we call Evo lution is but another name for a natural ordained by an all-wise and powerful Creator, who is outside of and superior to creation, and by which law He has evolved all things and en- [20] iblc/ voJ laJ Limitations of Evolution dowed them with qualities, the sum total of which is the present cosmos. The writer is not aware that any English sci- entist of prominence has claimed that Evolution has produced Matter. Creation is beyond the domain of Evolution. Evolution presupposes structure and function, though ever so small; and its sole office is to modify reciprocally both structure and function so they will adapt them- selves to external forces. According to Mr. Spencer, Evolution is a change from the homo- geneous to the heterogeneous, from the indefi- nite to the definite, from the incoherent to the coherent. He has sought to show that the causes of Evolution are involved in the ulti- mate laws of matter, force, and motion, among which he places the doctrine of conservation of energy. But it is manifest this explanation assumes the pre-existence of matter, force, and motion, and their laws. Indeed, the law of conservation of energy implies in its definition, no matter or force has been evolved or lost since the original and first creation, and all that has existed since has been simply a recom- bination of previously existing elements. So Evolution in its widest application leaves us entirely without any explanation as to final causes; as to how substances came to be; as to how the various kinds of matter were en- dowed with their respective qualities; and as [21] Agreement of Evolution, and Christianity to how the laws of force and motion — laws so complex and so certain they can be formu- lated only in many instances by the higher mathematics — attach themselves to and govern all matter in its minutest details. As long as Evolution does not make good a claim to crea- tive power, then the evolutionist may be a Christian and the Christian an evolutionist, and each accept the Mosaic narrative as true that " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." To state these propositions concretely : y I. There is no pretence that any person or thing has created a grain of new matter. Some- thing has never been known to have been pro- duced from nothing. The various elements found in the earth's strata and in water and in air have been and can be made to combine with one another and produce new substances, but their sum total is exactly equivalent to, and neither more nor less than the components. Accord- ingly, Evolution offers no explanation for the inconceivable masses of matter aggregated in the various globes revolving in space. Upon the subject of the First Cause it is profoundly silent. 2. Each of the separate elements composing the body of the earth has very distinct qualities from every other element. There has been plainly no evolution in iron, gold, lime, carbon, [22] Limitations of Evolution etc. The qualities they possess have never altered. They are the same as to color, weight, y magnetic attraction and repulsion, electrical or' combining affinities, etc., as they were when first made in the first instant of creation. They are the same in all parts of the earth wherever found. A grain of gold from Colorado or one from Australia is a grain of gold in every characteristic, without the slightest variation in any respect. Evolution has therefore no \ function in the establishment of the qualities ) of matter. 3. The same proposition is equally clear as to the laws governing force and motion. They operate on matter precisely at this moment as when first brought into existence. They are so accurate and unchanging that, for example, not a second of acceleration or retardation has yet been observed in the revolution of so im- mense a body as the earth during the period of a year. These laws various in the extreme are more immutable and real than the moun- tains or the seas. Each is harmonious in every detail with its own law, and in accord with every other law regulating other forces and motions. If one law were to be changed all nature would be in conflict, and ruin follow. So that nothing is more stable than physical laws. There could have been no subsequent adjustment of them, for conflict would have existed previously. [23] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity They must have been perfect when decreed. On the other hand, Evolution by its very name signifies change. If there were no changes there would be no evolution. The human mind is, therefore, driven in accounting for the laws of force and motion to the First Cause, to the inscrutable something above and beyond nature, and no part of nature ; to the only rational solu- tion that as something cannot come from noth- ing in a material and physical sense, there must exist a supernatural power, a power beyond time and sense, which power according to the logic of the human mind is best accounted for in the existence of an all-wise, all-powerful Supreme Being, Self-existent, who has been revealed to it as God. This is as far as the intellect of man can penetrate, and in penetrat- ing thus far into the First Cause, it creates for itself a conclusion gratifying and satisfying; it rests content, and wisely leaves the balance to the same God who has made all things under the belief that knowledge adequate for its own good has been revealed. 4. The theory of Evolution undertakes in its broadest generalization, in the philosophy of Mr. Spencer, to embrace the development of all organized matter and organic life. But mark well, it does not account for the origin of either matter or its qualities or its laws; but given these as created entities, it declares [24] Limitations of Evolution there is enough in such laws operating on matter to have evolved the globes of the firm- ament, and all organic life heretofore and now known. Mr. Spencer, who has done more than any- other writer to reduce the doctrine of Evolution to a philosophy embracing all organization, takes primordial matter, gaseous, nebulous, dark, and unformed, and by the laws of gravitation, of resultant forces, of the conservation of energy, of heat, of light, etc., shows how Evolution has formed our solar system. This is substantially the nebular hypothesis which La Place first formulated mathematically, and it has since been generally adopted by astronomers. That subject is mentioned at this place to illustrate the methods of evolutionary reason- ing, which consist, not so much in absolute demonstration, but in deductions from known facts and the operation of known laws on them, and a probable conclusion is reached. There cannot be any certain proof of the nebular hypothesis, from the fact that the events de- scribed took place millions of years ago ; but so well known are the laws which must have been active in bringing about the concretion of nebu- lous matter into spheres, and so antagonistic are the ascertained facts to any other explana- tion, that the human mind finds no difficulty, by this deductive method of reasoning, in accepting [25] Agreement of Evolution, and Christianity the conception that they were in all probability evolved in some such manner. 5. Another limitation as to the absolute dem- onstrations of Evolution which may be men- tioned is the theory that all Hfe, including man's, sprang from a blurred, undetermined feeling which answered to a single nervous pulsation or shock. From this it is supposed a conscious- ness was developed, and sensations by a number of rapid successions of such feelings, — these sensations growing more vivid and complex with the physical advance of the animal, until the dawn of mental life. But it is clear there is no proof of this process. It is, however, an hypoth- esis which accounts with considerable probabil- ity for the development of the mind — indeed with more probability than any other theory advanced at the present day. The acceptance of such a doctrine may at first glance seem so revolutionary as to shock the sensibilities of many who have not studied the subject, yet the writer trusts he will be able to show in these pages that the theory is entirely in accord with the Mosaic narrative of Creation. 6. When the modern doctrine of Evolution was first announced in 1859 by Mr. Darwin, in *' The Origin of Species," he discussed its opera- tion as to the development of new species. For example, taking as a parent the wild pigeon, he showed how all the present varieties of pigeons [26] Limitations of Evolution could be easily produced. But it is plain the causes which could accomplish these changes in a short time would produce still greater ones, given an indefinite period and unlimited number of subjects to operate on. So it was a short step in this deductive process to trace man to some ancestral type of man-like ape, now ex- tinct, of the Miocene period ; and man-like ape to dog-like ape ; and this last to the anoplothe- rium of the early Eocene age, which was the common progenitor of dogs, wolves, tigers, lions, bears, etc. ; the anoplotherium to the paleothe- rium at the opening of the Tertiary period ; and so on backward to a protozoic cell. But of all this there has been no actual demonstra- tion. It is true explorations of the earth's crust have been comparatively few and the finds of fossil, remains meagre. It is also true that nearly all the remains found have been in ac- cord with the evolutionary succession of animals and plants, and a constant fiUing in of missing forms has constituted more or less connecting links between genera and families of organisms, and so more and more probability is given to the efficiency of evolution. Yet it may be said, many resemblances are imagined by the ardent devotees of this law, and many assertions made of processes gone through with by such or- ganisms, now only fossils, of which there is absolutely no proof. [27] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity But whether the hypothesis of Special Crea- tion or the hypothesis of Evolution be chosen, Mr. Spencer says, "Both hypotheses imply a Cause. The last, certainly as much as the first, recognizes this Cause as inscrutable. The point at issue is, how this inscrutable Cause has worked in the production of living forms." In the next chapters it will be attempted to be shown that the hypothesis of Evolution, I, in regard to the evolution of the earth; 2, as to the order of appearance of animals; and 3, as to the origin of the logical and emotional faculties of all animals, including man's, are in accord with the Mosaic narrative of Creation. [28] AGREEMENT OF EVOLUTION AND THE MOSAIC NARRATIVE OF THE CREATION CHRISTIANITY regards the Scriptures of the Old Testament to be inspired by- God. Evolution and the Mosaic narrative of the Creation treat of the same matter; it is therefore necessary in a discussion of the agree- ments of Evolution and Christianity that the subject of this chapter should be included. La Place, a distinguished astronomer of the eighteenth century, while investigating the phenomena of the solar system which com- prises, including the planets, their satellites, and the asteroids, several hundred components, was impressed with the facts ^ that their orbits were all nearly circular around the sun, and nearly all in one plane ; that their revolutions on their axes were practically in the same direction as that of the sun ; that there was a regular pro- gression of distances between the orbits of the planets, and a regular progression of density; and that the largest planets rotated most swiftly. As regard the planets themselves, it was noticed 1 Young's " General Astronomy." [ 29 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity that the planes of their rotations nearly coincided with their orbits; that the direction of their rotation was the same as their orbital revolu- tion ; and that the satellites of the planets with one apparent exception had the same motions as the planets themselves. For these spheres to have been of independent origin and yet move in the manner above described, it has been re- liably computed ^ that there were about 99, 999, 999. 999. 999, 999» 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999, 999 chances in favor of their common origin to i chance in favor of their independent origin. With such inconceivable chances in favor of a common origin, the probability amounting to as great a certainty as any other subject of human knowl- edge ; and with all the known facts agreeing with the laws of gravitation, resultant forces, and their consequent motions; and also with the laws of heat and light, etc., La Place pro- pounded a mathematical nebular hypothesis, which has been substantially accepted since by all evolutionists. This theory, as conceived by modern astrono- mers, presupposes the entire space subject to the influence of the solar system was originally filled with matter in a gaseous, or nebulous, or meteoric state. If this system is estimated to have extended only as far as one quarter beyond 1 " Nebular Theory," Revised Encyclopaedia Brittanica. [30] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation the orbit of Neptune, the most distant planet, a very reasonable limit, and if this cubic space, and also the sum of the cubic contents of the sun and the planets be computed, it will be found there are approximately sixty-six billion cubic miles of space in the solar system to one cubic mile of matter therein ; or stated in a more comprehensible manner, one cubic mile of earth if expanded to its original gaseous con- dition would fill a space little less than that occupied by the planet Mars, or greater than six of our moons. 1. Two physical facts offer their testimony as to what must have existed at that time, (i) Space occupied by matter so attenuated may be described as void ; and (2) such matter must have been without form. 2. Matter so inconceivably expanded could not have possessed vibrations, and without vi- brations there was no heat or light, and conse- quently darkness prevailed. So, the Mosaic account in describing the " Beginning," as " And the earth was without form and void^ and darkness was upon the face of the deep," is scientifically accurate, and agrees with the accepted nebular hypothesis. 3. This hypothesis, however, goes no further back than the gaseous, nebulous, or meteoric period. It is silent as to whence the gases came, or who created them. The inspired [31] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity word of God reveals their Creator to mankind, and we obtain this information from no other source. ** In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Evolution has no evidence or suggestion in contradiction. 4. The solar system is considered by astrono- mers to belong to a system infinitely greater, represented by the Galaxy or Milky Way, com- posed of myriads of suns — many equal to our own sun, and probably with planets revolving around some of them. But outside of the Milky Way and of great significance, in oppo- site directions to it, are to be found numerous nebulae, which many conceive to be other sys- tems of suns, possibly equal to that of the Milky Way and beyond its influence. Herschel, La Place, and other astronomers were of opinion that the nebular hypothesis applies to all these stars, star-clusters, and nebulae. So, again, we find no contradiction by Evolu- tion of the words of the Mosaic account, " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 5. In some manner not explained by the ad- vocates of the nebular hypothesis the laws of gravitation, of forces, of heat, etc., began to operate. Whence they came the hypothesis has offered no suggestion. Evolution did not create them ; it develops ; it moulds ; it accom- [32] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation modates. It presupposes matter and the laws of matter, on which, and by which it may oper- ate. The idea of Evolution involves a previous creation of matter and the laws of matter outside of and beyond itself. In the language of Mr. Spencer it implies a ** First Cause." In this conclusion we have no disagreement between Evolution and the Mosaic account, namely, the revelation of a Creation. " In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 6. Evolution in addition to implying a Crea- tion involves the principle of a distinct beginning of the solar system at a definite period of time. If this be not true, and Evolution partakes of the attribute of infinity, and it has been always active, it may be asked. Why, then, with in- finite time in which to operate, and infinite space filled with matter, does man find some of the globes — comparatively small globes — of the firmament to be going through periods metaphorically of youth? Why is Venus prob- ably not yet fit as an abode for life, and possibly at that stage of development the earth was when coal was formed? Why is not man the creature he will be in the infinite future? To conceive of the evolution of the solar system having worked through infinity, without a beginning is to limit its operations to a different scale of re- sults than it accomplishes at the present time. Thus the fact that the frosts and rains are con- 3 [33] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity stantly wearing down all the elevatiohs of the earth's surface and carrying large quantities of the detritus to the valleys and oceans — the final result of these gravitational and frictional forces being the obliteration of all inequalities of the periphery of the globe — is strongly corrobora- tive of the view that they have not operated in- definitely, otherwise the completely rounded state of the earth's surface would have long since been accomphshed.^ So the gradual develop- ment of plants and animals from lowest forms to higher states shown by the advancing com- plexity of their fossils found in the successive upward strata of the earth furnishes strong prob- ability of a distinct beginning of life. Accord- ingly, to suppose the laws of evolution to have had a definite period of starting, natural phe- nomena agree with what a priori we should on this assumption expect to exist. ** In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." 7. The conception of Evolution, that it re- quired a definite period of starting, is signifi- cantly congruous with the revelation, " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Creation was at that moment 1 The quantity of sediment brought down annually by the Ganges amounts to 6,368,077,440 tons. The Mississippi annu- ally discharges into the Gulf of Mexico about 2,000,000,000 tons of solid matter. [34] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation given life. The human mind can conceive the Al- mighty had previously made matter, — the vast, inconceivably vast, gaseous and nebulous seas of matter, which filled all space, — all *' The deep." It lay before Him still, silent, inert, cold, and in darkness. The elements of oxygen and hydro- gen existed without water being formed ; nitro- gen and oxygen without atmospheric air result- ing. No element of nature had the power to combine with any other previously to the instant recorded by Moses, when *' the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." This great act of motion established the laws of nature. Every particle of matter felt the thrill — the Divine impulse — and slowly began to move. This movement of atom against atom produced friction ; friction generated electricity ; and elec- tricity or some one of its convertible forms, as motion, light, heat, magnetism, etc., it is demon- strated by chemistry, is the agent which caused and still causes the formation of many chemical compounds. For example, hydrogen and oxy- gen instantly form water if an electric spark is discharged into them. Thus matter was organ- ized. In its qualities, and at the very beginning were the potentialities of the universes of the present day; aye, more, probably, the poten- tiality of all the universes of the infinite future. 8. Before the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, as this vast sea of matter [35 1 Agreement of Evolutioi) and Christianity filled all space, equally diffused, with no more at one place than another, there existed a state of equilibrium without motion of any kind. But the instant this mass began to move, equi- librium was destroyed and the laws of gravita- tion operated, and produced a rotary motion and condensation. The laws of motion allow movement only in a straight line when there is an exact and complete balance of all the forces operating on a body. When any one force, or a number of forces, operates more strongly than others, the movement of matter will be in a curve, the resultant of all the forces. As forces are most rarely found to be equal, the almost cer- tain effect of constant and uniform motion is rotation, and a rushing towards a common cen- tre of gravity, just as water in a bowl takes on a circular motion when emptying itself through a hole at the bottom. This movement of nebula towards a centre of gravity produced electricity by friction of its particles and condensation in proportion to the force exerted, and the nebula consequently arose in temperature, at first, as if purely gaseous, so that its central mass after a time reached the solar stage of temperature; the solid and liquid particles melting and vapor- izing as the mass grew hotter. But light is always the result of adequate heat, and the hotter the mass the intenser the light. Accordingly, the very first effect of the move- [36] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation ment of the gases, the nebulae, or the meteor- ites of primeval space, was their condensation, and the production of light as a consequence of such condensation. These scientific facts constitute a wonderful testimony to the truth of the Mosaic account of Creation, wherein it declares that next after the Spirit of God moved over the waters, "And God said. Let there be light, and there was lightr 9. There was now revolving in space an in- conceivably great mass of intensely heated matter — molten liquid — perhaps hotter than the sun, rushing, swaying with currents, and heaving with waves, the nearest approach in description to which at the present time would be to compare it to the waters of the ocean. La Place conceived this mass under the action of its own gravitation assumed approximately a globular form with a rotation around its axis. It must have been as liquid as water to have been able to take on a globular shape as drops of water now do. Gases have no such power. In consequence of this liquidity the mass, instead of remaining spherical, became flattened at the poles, and as the rotation went on and the mo- tion became accelerated, the time came when the centrifugal force at the equator of the mass became greater than gravity, and either rings of meteoric matter were abandoned, resembling [37] Agreement of Evolution, and Christianity the rings of Saturn, or as supposed by some astronomers, the Hquid or plastic mass became distorted by a lump formed somewhere on its equator, which lump finally became detached, and revolved around its primary. Thus it is believed by scientists competent to judge there was formed the great systems of stars scattered in what may be termed infinite space: i. The Galaxy or Milky Way being one of them and to this our Sun belongs. 2. Subsequently the solar system comprising the planets, Mars, Venus, the Earth, Jupiter, etc. 3. Later, the satellites of the planets, such as the moons of Jupiter, the moons of Saturn, etc. How singularly accurate Moses was, when he wrote, " And God said. Let there be a firma- ment in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters^ The aggregation of these great masses of gaseous, then nebulous, and next liquid matter into suns freed the intervening spaces, and thus created a firmament in their midst. And this firmament wherein they revolved divided these globes, which in their then comparatively in- candescent state were either liquid or plastic and properly described as Waters. 10. The nebular hypothesis implies that next after the evolution of the great star-clusters, the Galaxy being one of them, each component member, while sufficiently liquid or plastic, [38] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation would throw off attendant planets, and they in turn satellites. Thus was formed the planets and our Earth and Moon. In the same chronological order Moses re- cords the creation of the Earth, "And God made the firmament and divided the Waters which were Under the firmament from the Waters which were above the firmament. And God called the Firmament Heaven." That the Earth was described by the words, " The Waters which were under the Firmament," etc., is apparent from the phraseology of the ninth and tenth verses following of the first chapter of Genesis, " And God said, Let the Waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth ; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas : and God saw that it was good." It is highly probable that the earth as soon as it cooled sufficiently was completely covered with water or the vapor of water. In its then liquid or plastic condition it must have been a slightly flattened spheroid. No mountains reared their heads and no depressions for the seas existed. In its present state, notwithstand- ing probably as much water has been absorbed into the earth as rolls on its surface, still three- fourths of the earth's exterior is covered with water, and if the globe was again brought to [39] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity a smooth spheroid without depressions there is adequate water to cover the whole of its surface. One looking at this great ball revolving in space and completely surrounded with water would correctly describe it as ** waters!' Some geol- ogists are of opinion that all the planets of the solar system beyond Mars are yet in a liquid state.^ An extraordinary confirmation of the liquid condition of the earth at the time of its early separation from the sun is the physical fact, subject to demonstration in laboratories, that neither a gaseous nor a hardened rotating globe will become flattened at its poles like the earth, but only spheres in a liquid state and propor- tionally to the rapidity of their rotation.^ So again for the tenth time we have a con- cordance in period of events and manner of creation, or evolution, between the nebular hy- pothesis and the Scriptural account where it records, " And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firma- ment fro7n the waters which were above the firmament.'* II. The earth when it was separated from the sun must have been, as we have seen, in either a liquid or plastic state, in order to have taken on its flattened spheroidal form in obedi- 1 Hitchcock's " Elementary Geology," p. 209. 2 Idem, p. 194. [40] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation ence to the resultant of its centripetal and centrifugal forces. As the earth, then a com- paratively small body, revolved in space which was intensely cold, it radiated its heat as now, and grew colder and smaller. The poles of its axis being least exposed to the warming effects of the sun, which was then hidden behind deep clouds, experienced the first condensation of the two most abundant gases — oxygen and hydrogen — into water. With the process of cooling, the area of water extended on both sides towards the equator. As soon as water was formed the effect of its weight caused grav- itation to draw it powerfully to the incandescent mass of the earth. Great clouds of steam were generated thereby, and ascended into the upper atmosphere, where becoming condensed by the cold it again fell as water. By this process the water continually penetrated farther and farther into the earth, and formed crusts both by cool- ing and by chemical combinations. This was a period geologically of upheavals and sub- sidences. A characteristic of water is, it presses as strongly sidewise as downwards ; so the phys- ical effect of the percolation of water at one place more than at another was to elevate the land in proportion to its subsidence. In this manner the dry land was made to appear and the great basins of the seas were formed. All the extensive ranges of mountains border [41] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity and run parallel to the oceans. For example, the Rocky Mountains follow the coast of the Pacific Ocean ; the Alleghanies, the Atlantic Ocean ; and the Himalayas skirt the Indian Ocean. Each attest the dynamic force of water and the power of steam in the upheaval of land. Here again the Mosaic order is shown to be most accurate. For next after the formation of the earth, it records, " And God said. Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto o fie place yaftd let the dry land appear. . . . And God called the dry land earth ; and the gather- ing together of the waters called he seas^ 12. Geologists are universally of opinion that vegetal life appeared comparatively soon after the upheaval of dry land. As an instance showing the very early appearance of plants, it may be mentioned that coal is the product of fern trees. This is known because the im- press of their leaves is found in the coal. So perfect is their impression botanists have repro- duced a simiHtude of those great primeval forests. The growth of such trees to perfec- tion and in large numbers required a damp atmosphere. Their habitat was low, and their roots were often submerged in stagnant water. A remarkable confirmation of the statement of Moses that plant life appeared before the sun is that the plants of the coal measures deposited [42] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation in the third epoch-day, are of the soft character of wood produced in a clouded atmosphere. It is under intense and direct sun-rays we find such hard woods as mahogany, lignum vitse, etc. The above facts agree again with the Scrip- tural narrative ; " And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass^ herb . . . yielding fruit after his kind," etc. 13. Astronomers and geologists are also of opinion that in those early days of the earth's history our globe was warmer, and there were great seas of water sweeping over much more of the land than at present. Now the meteoro- logical effect of this state of warmth and great expanse of water was the formation of vast and dense clouds. Some of the clouds hung closely over the earth as thick fogs, and some extended probably for miles upwards. Such may be the condition of the planet Venus at this time. There was a glow then as there is now on a deep cloudy day. A hot and moist atmos- phere rested over the land ; a shaded and tem- pered light stimulated chemical actions, and formed an ideal propagating garden for plants, but in the thick, murky, sight-impenetrable fogs there was no place for the wanderings or browsings of animals. Our globe in the process of time cooled more and more, the waters sank deeper and deeper into the earth, raising more dry land, and form- [43] Agreement of Evolution .and Christianity ing higher mountains. Greater and greater inequalities of temperature were also a conse- quence of the upheavals. These caused winds to spring up. Rifts in the vast clouds were thus made, when, behold ! there in the heavens, where the clouds broke away from each other, were the Sun and Moon first seen from the earth, although they had probably existed un- known millions of years before. " And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness," etc. " And the even- ing and the morning were th^fotirth day." The above is one of the most significant facts of the Mosaic account, that the sun, — our great Sun, — the evident source of all life and power on the earth, should not have been conceived by an unscientific writer to have been made the first thing of all Creation, and not to have been placed long subsequent to other apparently minor events. In this train of creational phe- nomena Moses's description seems to have been indited by one who had stood on the earth and from that standpoint narrated the memorable circumstances as they would have appeared to the human eye. [44] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation 14. From the fact that the appearance of the sun was postponed until the fourth day, and after the evolution of dry land and the creation of plants, and the further fact that one of the purposes for which it was ordained was " to divide the light from the darkness," it will be observed that the word " light " in the opening sentence of the Mosaic narrative, " And God said. Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness," was not descriptive of the light of the sun. The light created in the beginning was the vast luminosity which arose from the heating of the nebulae by condensation under the influence of gravity and friction. The light which divided the day from the night of our earth was exclusively from the sun. The ambiguity arising from the double use of the word "light" has probably caused per- plexity to persons unacquainted with the nebular hypothesis and the generation of light by the condensation of gases. 15. The explanation of another ambiguity is appropriate at this place, namely, the constant use of the phrases, And the evening and the morning were the ^^ first day,'' or the *' second day!' etc., to mark the epochs of Creation. Probably no part of the narrative has been more misunderstood than these expressions. [ 45] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity- Most readers erroneously conclude, the above statements indicate a day of twenty-four hours — a solar day. That this was not the meaning of the inspired writer is evident from what was done during the fourth epoch-day, namely, the apparent creation of the sun. Mark, the earth had been formed, the dry land raised, the seas were in their beds, and plants were growing. After all of this, " And God said. Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven, to divide the day from the night!' etc. " And the evening and the morning were X\\q fourth day." In these sentences we have recorded the dis- tinct division of the day from the night as known to men at this time — the day made by the light of the sun — that great orb whose inconceivable mass and fires cause the ** signs " and *' seasons," the *' days and years." The phraseology, " And the evening and the morning were the first day," etc., was therefore certainly not the division of time marked by the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis, which constitutes our day, for neither the sun nor the earth existed on the first day as independent globes. Where a word is used ambiguously in a docu- ment, or the same word, in a double sense, the usual rule of interpretation adopted by courts of law is to discover the true meaning of the word in each case and harmonize the entire [46] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation account. Under this method the phrases the evening and the morning were the ^^firsty' or ** second!' etc., day, must have referred to great epoch-days in the evolution of creation, occupy- ing probably millions of years, and not to the solar day, which was not ordained as a division of time until the fourth epoch-day. On this subject of the time occupied in the development of creation, namely, that twenty- four solar hours were not intended to define the phrases, "And the evening and the morning were the first, etc. day," we again have agree- ment and not antagonism between science and the revealed order of Creation. i6. Efforts have been made to determine the condition of the earth at this early period of its development, and geologists have reached the conclusion, as stated before, that in consequence of the obliquity of the earth's equator to the sun, the first places to cool sufficiently to allow the vapor of water, that is, steam, to con- dense into water were around the poles of the earth's axis. It is therefore in the waters of the circumpolar ocean, most probably the Lau- rentian Seas, at that time tropical in temperature, that geologists and biologists believe was the habitat of first animal life. No dry land had appeared at that period. But subsequently in what is called the Lower Silurian Age the Lau- rentian Hills were uplifted. This belt of land [47] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity shaped Hke a broad band, spanning North America from Labrador to the Pacific Ocean at Alaska, was the first land to appear on our globe. But already the strata of these hills had been filled while they were previously underwater with the fossil remains of marine life, thus con- firming once more the Scriptures, wherein they declare that the next order of Creation was, "And God said. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life^' etc. 17. Fossils imbedded in rocks are like words engraven on stone. They tell of the earth's past history enacted myriads of years before the advent of man. From them geologists have learned that in the earliest days of life the only vertebrates were fish. During the Devonian epoch, the duration of which must have existed a vast period of time, the waters of the seas were literally crowded with all the species of marine life. In those times also great and rapid changes were taking place on the earth's surface. The heat of the sun was intense when not shaded by clouds ; the crust of the earth, thin ; water was abundant, and constantly penetrating this thin crust it came in contact with the internal incan- descent glow. Immense reservoirs of steam were formed which by their pressure threw up more plains and hills and mountains. At some places the oceans were cut off from the interior, and vast inland seas were isolated, and in other directions [48] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation islands were uplifted with interior depressions. Marine life was subjected to vicissitudes propor- tional to the changes of its environment. Each animal, by conscious and sub-conscious efforts, endeavored to accommodate itself to its sur- roundings, and in so doing doubtless many new species and genera were developed, such as fishes, sharks, eels, whales, lizards, etc. The constantly increasing areas of dry land, and reciprocally the varying and diminishing supply of water of the inland seas and ponds, were particularly favorable to the evolution of an animal, which could breathe with gills and with lungs as the occasions required. As stated in a previous chapter, the fossil remains of this animal, which forms a connecting link between fish and amphibians, have been found in Aus- tralia, and representatives of the same creature, the Ceratodus, living to-day, have been discov- ered in the swamps of the Amazon and the rivers of Africa. From this lizard-fish sprang the amphibian- lizard, and from the amphibian-lizard sprang the lizard-bird. This lizard-bird, the Archaeop- teryx, is one of the most remarkable fossil con- tributions to the theory of Evolution which has ever been discovered. Its fossil remains have been several times unearthed, and their impress, as stamped most plainly into the strata, shows an animal with " feathers and wings, a crocodile * [49] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity jaw with teeth, a long lizard tail, and lizard's claws on its wing bones." This is an unmistakable link between the liz- ard and the bird, and demonstrates beyond a reasonable doubt the evolution of the gill- breathing fish into the land-flying fowl. And yet as wonderful is the fact that the Mosaic narrative, written fifteen hundred years before Christ, should record the creation of the ''^ fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven," immediately after the moving creatures of the waters. 1 8. The increasing areas of dry land and more and more abundant herbage were unceas- ingly preparing the earth as a habitation for the four-footed beasts and snakes. Such creatures were dependent on practically the same condi- tions that limit and control their lives at the present time. In light of our knowledge of cosmic development it is apparent fowls might live where ruminants would have died. A bird may perch, gather its food from and build its nest in the branches of trees so deeply sub- merged in water as to be prohibitive to land animals. This view has been confirmed by the location of fossil remains of quadrupeds and creeping things which appear together, first, in the Eocene period of the Cenozoic Age of the earth. This period was long after the advent of birds. [50] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation These facts asserted by geologists constitute another agreement with the Mosaic narrative, which places the appearance of cattle and creeping things simultaneously on the sixth day. 19. According to biologic geology and the theory of evolution ma7t was the last animal to be developed. The Scriptural order of creation is the same. In the foregoing comparison of the evolution of nature and the Creation as given in the First Book of Genesis there exist as a whole two most extraordinary similarities ; similarity of order, or sequence as to time, in which the several parts of the cosmos were created; and similarity as to the manner or means by which they were evolved. I. As to the sequence required by Evolution and the Scriptural order of Creation, if the fore- going analysis be correct, there is not one item misplaced in either account, not one error to the discredit of either theory. This agreement of results derived from two independent sources of knowledge constitutes in itself a very strong probability of the truth of each source. Each testifies reciprocally for the other. Scientific Evolution proves the Scriptural account to be true; and the Scriptural account, as a Revela- tion from God, proves Scientific Evolution to be [51] Agreement of Evolution, and Christianity true. No such similarity exists between false- hood and falsehood, or falsehood and truth, but only between truth and truth. If each of the events of creation as recorded by Moses were so independent as in no manner to be related to one another, or one not to be necessarily precedent to another, the chance of stating, say, fifteen such independent events in their correct order, without knowledge to guide their narration, would be more than one million times a million in favor of a mistake. But in the Mosaic order there are at least seven events so far independent that none of them give the clue of sequence for the follow- ing events: namely, that plant life should have been created before the sun appeared ; that the sun should not have appeared until the fourth day, instead of being accounted the first of all things ; that the earth should not have been considered the first to have been created even before the sun, and the sun and stars all formed subsequently and as attendants on the earth; that fishes should have been made next to plants ; then fowls, then cattle, and man last instead of first, as an unlearned and vain man would have ranked himself. Now when there are seven independent facts to be narrated, and there is only one correct order of narration, there are five thousand and thirty-nine chances they will be stated in an in- [52] The Mosaic Narrative of the Creation correct manner to one chance that they will be stated properly, if the narrator has no knowl- edge or clue. This mathematical computation gives some idea of the pitfalls which lay in the path of the sacred writer when he staked the reputation of his Revelation on the order ot events as he narrated them. But when the probabiHties against the happening of an event are as great as those mentioned above, and are all overcome, and a true record claiming to be inspired is written, the candid mind is com- pelled to yield belief to the justice of the claim of revelation in proportion to the chances over- come. There are few subjects in life with five thousand and thirty-nine chances in their favor to only one against them to which men do not give their implicit assent. 2. No less remarkable is the manner in which the Scriptures declare the Creation was evolved. When Moses wrote, some fifteen hundred years before Christ, there was not, as far as is known, any mathematical knowledge of the laws of gravitation, and of their effects in causing bodies to revolve in orbits, and in producing condensation of gases; of electricity in bring- ing about the chemical union of the elements; no telescopes to inform of the rotation of suns on their axes, and the formation of rings or lumps on their equators, and when the cen- trifugal force of globes became greater than [53] Agreement of Evolution ,and Christianity their centripetal force to cause planets or satel- lites to be abandoned to independent existences. And yet every one of these phenomena enumerated in this chapter, and other physical facts, omitted as not being essential to a clear understanding of the argument, are implied, and absolutely involved in the Mosaic Cosmogony. When it required the mathematical genius of La Place, surrounded with the appliances of modern research and inspired with the re- corded learning of all the ages, to propound the Nebular Hypothesis which Moses gave to the world in its integrity some thirty-three hundred years before, it would, indeed, seem on ordinary principles of human reasoning, that the Mosaic Narrative has been proved by this same Nebular Hypothesis to have been dictated by superhuman knowledge. [54] SPECIAL CREATIONS OR EVOLUTION THE Christian world received a great shock when the theory of Evolution was announced. Men had been so accustomed to believe that the Mosaic narrative implied special and distinct creative acts by God of the great events of the Cosmos in each day of twenty-four hours, for six consecutive days, they regarded the idea of the evolution of this earth stretch- ing over millions of years, and the creation of vegetal and animal life occupying eons in its development from lower orders as rank heresy contrary to the inspired Word of Holy Scrip- ture, and therefore to be rejected as attacking the foundations of Christian belief. Naturally men thus assailed in their most cherished opinions would be indignant, and in proportion to their indignation they would deny, and deny without calm and adequate investiga- tion of the merits of the new doctrine. But not- withstanding the denials of theologians, many students of nature have been ceaselessly at work investigating every department of phys- ics, excavating the strata of the earth's crust, making extended and reliable experiments in [55] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity- biology, and doing all other things tending to unfold the order of events in the great past, until so considerable an amount of cumulative evidence has been obtained that nearly all who have entered upon the study have been con- vinced that the Great First Cause has produced the universe and all things therein contained, not by special creations of each revolving sphere, and of each family of plants and animals in six solar days, but bythe creation of primeval matter, by bestowing on it certain qualities, and by the establishment of laws to govern its motions. It is submitted that the time has about come when the Christian, believing as he must that nature and the Scriptures both pro- ceed from God, and therefore are harmonious, should lay aside all prejudice and all fear, and intelligently and learnedly investigate the won- derful story of Creation narrated in the first chapters of Genesis, for the purpose of ascer- taining if there is in fact any antagonism be- tween its true meaning and what is accepted as the manner of creation by almost all honest students of science. I. Probably the Mosaic account in having so distinctly and repeatedly described the order of creation as having taken place on the " first," ** second," " third," etc., days, has done more than by any other phrases in the narrative to prejudice the Christian mind against the accep- [ 56 ] Special Creations or Evolution tance of the evolution theory — because this theory requires vast numbers of years for the development of each period of creation. Now it is herein urged the inspired Word does not describe a day of twenty-four hours in marking the eras of creation, and for the argu- ment to be conclusive to Christian judgment this fact should be proved from the narrative of Moses and not from any nebular or other physical hypothesis. It is therefore necessary in order to make each subdivision of the sub- ject complete, to reiterate somewhat the argu- ment of a portion of the previous chapter.^ During the first two creative days, or periods, Genesis declares : " The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good : and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light day, and the darkness he caljed night: and the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firma- ment in the midst of the waters: and let it 1 Saint Augustine, Origen, and some of the other fathers of the early Christian church, Professors Hahn, De Luc, Lee, and Wait, of England, and Silliman and Guyot, of the United States, were of opinion that the word " day " in the Mosaic narrative represented periods of indefinite length. — Hitch- cock's " Elementary Geology." [57] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven: and the evening and the morning were the second day. . . . And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide th« day from the night; and let let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for daySy and years. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights ; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness : and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day." A, The^division of time composed of twenty- four hours defined and understood at present as a day, is due to the rotation of the earth on its axis, thus presenting its entire surface to the sun in twenty-four hours. The portion of its sphere opposite the sun we call day, the por- tion not opposite, night. That such a period, namely, the solar day, was not intended to be described by Moses by the expression, " And [58] Special Creations or Evolution the evening and the morning were the first day," is evident, because it was not until the second day that God said, " Let there be a fir- mament in the midst of the waters (spheres), and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament (the earth) from the waters which were above the firmament (stars) ; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the even- ing and the morning were the second day." Now the meaning of the word "firmament" is the space in which the stars and sun re- volve. It was called by Moses " Heaven." It is still called "The Heavens." One of the functions of the firmament was to- "divide the waters from the waters," that is, sphere from sphere, to allow space in which these spheres might revolve in their orbits and rotate on their axes. If there was no space in which they might rotate, for the firmament was not created until the second day, and as the day^ of twenty- four hours is due to the rotation of the earth on its axis, it is plain the expression, "And the evening and the morning were the first day,'' is not to be interpreted as a day of twenty- four hours. B. The declaration, "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters," that is in the midst of the spheres, " And God [59] Agreement of Evolution, and Christianity made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament " (that is, the earth, for the earth and heavens are often spoken of as the heavens above and the earth beneath), "from the waters which were above the firmament," is explicable only on the theory that the spheres or stars, including the earth, were divided from one another into separate orbs on the second day. From the definition of the solar day, namely, the rotation by the earth on its axis, there could have been no such day until after the creation of this second period in which the earth took on its independent rotation. So that the expres- sion, *• And the evening and the morning were the first day" could not have been used for a day of twenty-four hours. C. To define the expressions. And the even- ing and the morning were the ''first,'' " second" etc., day, as solar days is antagonistic to the crea- tions of the fourth day. " And God said. Let there be lights in the fir- mament of the heaven to divide the day from the night" ..." and for days, and years ; And let them be for hghts in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth : . . . And to rule over the day, and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness : . . . And the even- ing and the morning were \\\t. fourth day!' It is asserted that during this fourth day or [60] Special Creations or Evolution epoch the first solar day was created as we know it. Such is the unequivocal statement that God then made lights to divide the day from the nighty and to rule over the day and over the night. The interpretation of the phrases ^' first day" *^ second day y' and '^ third day" etc., as great epochs of creation, and not as solar days, which were established only in \h.Q fourth day or epoch, harmonizes the entire account, and when an interpretation performs correctly this office all sensible men on all occasions adopt it. " One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." D. The expression in the first creative period, "And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness^* will now be observed to refer to a different character of light from that of the sun, probably to the luminosity of the condensing gases or nebulae, because it is most distinctly stated, it was not until the fourth day the sun and moon appeared, and one of their functions was " to divide the light from the darkness." It is urged, therefore, that the true interpretation of the Mosaic narrative does not set limited periods marked by the diurnal rotation of the earth on its axis as the divisions of time in which Al- mighty God made His several creations. On [61] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity the contrary, it is contended herein, such an explanation is antagonistic to the plain meaning of His Holy Word, and the assignment of long periods of time, occupying millions of years in each epoch, is entirely compatible with the Divine Revelation of Creation. E. The fourth commandment of the Deca- logue announced by Moses from Mount Sinai is in these words, '* Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all that thou hast to do ; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work; thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it." A cursory reading of this commandment would seem to indicate from its comparison to the days assigned the Israelites respectively for labor and for hallowed rest that the Creation was made by God in six solar days of twenty- four hours each. This interpretation has been advanced to the Christian conscience as an argu- ment against the theory of Evolution which requires immense periods of time for the de- velopment of the heaven and earth. It is, [62] special Creations or Evolution therefore, important for those who beh'eve the Scriptures to be inerrant to determine what is the correct signification of the words used in the commandment. a. A cardinal rule adopted by all bodies having the ascertainment of the meaning of writings is to investigate the circumstances giv- ing rise to and surrounding the document, thus placing the judge, as far as possible mentally, under the influences which afTected the writer — in a word, to reproduce the occasion. This rule has its reason in the fact that men usually act in the same manner when impelled by similar causes. The Israelites had not long before the delivery of this commandment escaped from Egypt by passing between the rolled-up water walls of the Red Sea and were entering upon their long journey towards the Promised Land. For such a multitude of men, women, and children, with- out stores and without habitations, in a barren wilderness to survive pestilence, famine, and anarchy in the forty years of wanderings before them, the Lord God, who was directing their ways and supplying their necessities, gave to them through Moses many laws and ordinances applicable to their physical, social, and moral conduct These are enumerated in the Second Book of Moses called Exodus. To wax strong in body and mind ; to main- [ 63 ] Agreement of Evolution^ and Christianity tain their numbers adequately to subdue the warlike people which held the country around about the river Jordan, and whom they were to meet in battle ; to acknowledge and worship and love gratefully the God who was making them His peculiar people, it was necessary among other things, to establish periods for labor and rest; and as the most appropriate time for worship, to consecrate the days of rest to the glory and adoration of Jehovah. b. The Israelites at the time of the delivery of the Ten Commandments were acquainted with the order of Creation as narrated by Moses in the First Chapter of Genesis. This occupied what we have called six epoch-days. c. The language often adopted throughout the Old Testament is highly metaphorical. Bodily parts and human actions are frequently attrib- uted to God. He is described as possessing a mouth, a terrible voice, an outstretched arm ; as having walked in the garden of Eden ; as a man of war ; to have come to see the Tower of Babel ; to have laughed, and to have awakened as one out of a sleep ; to have spoken face to face with Moses ; to have tempted Abraham ; to have repented of having made man, etc., etc. d. Two of the most effective methods of argu- mentative persuasion are by metaphor and by simile. To endow inanimate things or super- natural ideas with animal attributes, and partic- [64] special Creations or Evolution ularly with qualities similar to those possessed by humanity is a highly attractive manner of presentation of the thought, and sometimes more effective than a metaphysical disquisition or log- ical argument. So with the employment of similes and com- parisons. The use of an appropriate simile is delightfully fascinating. Its concreteness brings out in bold relief the idea to be enforced, and its analogy to the subject discussed often consti- tutes a persuasive appeal. e. In this commandment there are found both of these styles of rhetorical expression. It em- ploys the metaphorical method in stating that God " rested " the seventh day. This was an ex- ceedingly powerful manner to enforce the duty of rest on the Israelites. It asserted that their Lord God who had performed such wonders for them, who was daily supplying their necessities, and was employing the terrible forces of nature as an attendant on His presence on Mount Sinai, " rested " after His work of Creation, and they were called upon to imitate Him. Such an appeal — the imitation of the Almighty — must have affected their hearts as no other considera- tion could have done. This statement that God *' rested " was, of course, a metaphor. It is perfectly inadmissible to the Christian mind to believe that God, the Creator of all Things ; that He whose attributes S [65] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity are omnipotence and omniscience ; that a Being without body or parts " rested," as a tired mor- tal would rest, after the completion of the Crea- tion. We have, therefore, a part of this com- mandment delivered in a metaphorical style, and a strong argument is thereby presented that its other parts are not necessarily to be con- strued in a "literal" manner, if such literal interpretation causes it to clash with known facts. /. It so happened that the evolution of the Cosmos was distinguished by six very distinct phenomena, and were described in the Mosaic narrative as created on successive " days," al- though plainly, as we have shown, not solar days of twenty-four hours each. But six solar days were to be considered, under the provi- dence of Jehovah, as affecting the Israelites in their human relations and activities, as a period for labor, and one day, the seventh, for rest and worship of Himself. It was a wise and humane ordinance, adapted to the physical needs of men then, as now, — for all men after a period of six days of toil long for one day of rest, and again at the expiration of the latter are so revived they are anxious to return to their labors. What more skilful method of giving the greatest possible effect to the commandment, of bringing it most energetically to the minds and consciences of the Israelites, than to adopt the [66] Special Creations or Evolution beautiful and effective simile between the periods, or creative days, of heaven and earth, and the secular days in which man should alternately labor and rest; using, as is most frequently the case in similes, a word with a double significa- tion, as was indeed done with the same word in the Mosaic narrative. In this instance it was the word " day," appHcable in one sense to the great epoch-days, each of unknown millions of years in which God's Creation had been evolv- ing; and suitable in its other meaning to the short periods of twenty-four hours, the limit of man's feeble capacity for labor. A further corroborating evidence of the im- mense and indefinite length of the creative days as used in this commandment is the length of the "seventh day," wherein the Creator rested, and which " seventh day," as far as knowledge or revelation has been vouchsafed to man, has not yet terminated. There is nothing, therefore, in the fourth com- mandment expressed or implied which is contra- dictory to an interpretation which harmonizes it with all the phenomena of nature and the deduc- tions of geologic science. 2. If the Inspired Word of God had said dis- tinctly, each individual nebula and sun and planet and plant and animal were special crea- tions, the writer would accept it as unqualifiedly true, believing it was within His almighty power [67 1 Agreement of Evolution and Christianity and will to have made them in that manner. But after a careful consideration of the Inspired narrative no such declaration is believed to have been made, but on the contrary the text taken in its entirety indicates a progressive develop- ment and not distinct creations. A. Special creations indicative of weakness. The Christian mind regards the power of God to be infinite, all-wise, omnipotent. There is nothing beyond the scope of His Mightiness. Now humanly thinking, it is an evidence of capacity to generalize. An inferior intelligence passes on each subject separately; a superior mind groups them under classes. A savage makes separate arrow after arrow with his own hands ; the intelligent mechanic constructs a machine to turn out hundreds of gross daily. To suppose Almighty God required a solar day or an eon in which to make light, another such period to form the firmament and divide the stars from one another, another to produce vege- tal life, and another beasts and man, is putting a very decided Hmit to the capacity of Omnipo- tence. The a priori Christian conception of God should be rather that all of these things could have been made by one fiat. It is an im- peachment of His infinite omniscience to imag- ine He made light experimentally and waited to see if it was good before He dared to proceed with the next order of creation. The ''light'* [68] special Creations or Evolution pleased Him, and He simply declared it was " good." How much greater the power and wisdom to have brought matter out of nothing, to have endowed it with its inconceivably numerous qual- ities, and to have estabHshed for its governance the harmonious laws and self-development which rule things, physical and metaphysical, all by a single decree, knowing the evolution of the utmost future in the first instant of creation? This explanation satisfies the words of the text, and harmonizes them with all the knowledge received from astronomy, geology, and biology. Such a harmonizing method of interpretation is universally adopted by the highest judicial tri- bunals of all enh'ghtened countries. Words used at periods far distant in time from the present, whose meanings may have changed in both a scientific and popular signifi- cation, and especially when written in a foreign language, should never be allowed to destroy the value of their own narrative by being ren- dered in such a cramped sense as to contradict the same words used in another sense in a different place, or to antagonize known facts. B. Periods of Creation. It is, however, plain from the inspired narra- tive, that creation as it exists at present was not completed at one instant. There was suc- cession of created things and succession of [69] Agreement of Evolution; and Christianity periods of creation. If the Christian evolution- ary theory be adopted, namely, that God — the God revealed by Moses in the Old Testament, and represented by Jesus Christ in the New Testament — made matter by His own power, and endowed it with its qualities and laws, then each day described in the First Chapter of Genesis con- stituted a great epoch of evolution so conspic- uous as in a popular account to deserve special mention, and the fact of such eras being enu- merated as the " first," or " second," day, etc. ; or that certain very important things were respectively created in them, is not conclusive that such periods were definite days of twenty- four hours, or the creations described to have taken place therein were special creations, in- stead of being eras distinguished by the evolu- tion of worlds from primordial matter in the eariier periods, and the evolution of vegetal and animal life from simpler and less homogeneous forms in the later epochs; and each brought about by and contained in the original creative act described by the words, " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." When any interpretation given to an enumera- tion of days and to creations within such days is opposed to all the observed facts of the formations and strata of the earth's crust and to all the fossil life imbedded therein, such in- terpretation should not be adopted, except in [70] special Creations or Evolution obedience to the most unequivocal language ; and when the language is equivocal that mean- ing should be assigned to it which agrees with all the ascertained knowledge on the subject. If this logicalmanner of interpretation be adopted there is no warrant in the Holy Word to exclude the hypothesis that God with His unHmited power impressed in the Beginning on both in- organic and organic matter the ability to evolve into the beautiful and wonderful Cosmos, with possibly the high destiny yet before it, in the infinite future, to surpass its present develop- ment as much as it now does the earliest eras of its existence. C, The verb ** Create." The phrase, ^* In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," does not necessarily imply a special creation of each of the things therein contained. The verb " Create " has no other signification than the expression of the the idea ** to bring into existence." It does not declare the manner of production, the agen- cies employed, or the number of processes gone through with, but simply the idea " of causing to exist." A man who creates a machine and by it turns out ten thousand nails a day is as veritably a creator of such nails as the mechanic who creates each individual nail by blows with his hammer on the anvil. [71] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity D. The laws of nature. Creation consists not only of matter but of the physical laws governing it. Matter in motion without laws would be chaos. Evolution has had no influence on the qual- ities of matter or on the laws of nature. God made them perfect in the beginning. They never change. So far as we know, or physics teaches, they never have changed. When " the Spirit of God moved over the waters " the Christian understands it was at that instant they were ordained, perfect in all their details, and beyond comprehension in their complexity and harmony. All evolutionists agree they are im- mutable. In this sense God created all things in the Beginning. He had the omnipotence in the very Beginning to endow matter under the influence of these laws with the power to evolve this marvellous Cosmos, and the omniscience to know their utmost results in the future. To possess these attributes of power and knowledge demonstrates higher capacity than a series of special creations. To believe in Evolution we glorify God ; to adhere to Special Creations we attach the limit to His power which usually characterizes inferiority. 3. An argument of much weight is the improb- ability that an all wise and merciful God would have specially created beings of such limited capacities and subject to so much pain and [72] special Creations or Evolution misery as characterize the entire animal creation. It has been said by a loving field naturalist, almost all wild life ends in tragedy. We know animals are the victims of nearly all the diseases affecting mankind, and when attacked they must suffer the same pains. To suppose God made them, and they never fell by the Sin of Disobedience, to exist in so imperfect and miserable a state as they are subject to, is to the moral sense of many good men a very dis- tressing thought, and irreconcilable with the infinite love they believe is an attribute of their Heavenly Father. The conception of Special Creations seems necessarily to imply God has decreed this life should be to all His creatures a life of physical disease and consequent on it of mental distress. Men oppressed with the tortures of fevers, of the pains of malignant sores, of the malforma- tions of bodily structure, have often cried out against their lot. There is no reason to sup- pose brutes would not make the same com- plaints if they had the power of speech. Special creation, therefore, apparently involves either an imperfectness of creation in God, which is entirely inadmissible, or a want of pity for sufferings, which is equally false. But the hypothesis of Evolution largely relieves the sub- ject of all these difficulties. Evolution of animal life is based primarily [73l Agreement of Evolution; and Christianity on Free Will — a free will to make efforts to avoid dangers and to pursue the advantageous. A broad conception of Evolution is, Almighty God has chosen to create primordial life, and to ordain that from the smallest beginnings it should develop by its own capacities into higher and higher states until it has reached its present complex and heterogeneous condition — its pres- ent state being only one position and one in- stant in its evolution, and which will be, in the far future, surpassed by higher and still higher developments beyond the thought of man to conceive. The greatest good to the greatest number is the legend on the banner of Evolution. To accomplish these grand results all organic beings must die to make way for new and better forms and functions. The earth is too small to hold all the dead and the living. To compel animals to pursue the advantageous, and thus acquire new characteristics, they must be made to feel the pains attendant on diso- bedience of the laws of life. But mingled with these t\vo direful calamities, disease and death, there is yet so much pleasure in living, such compensation for the unhappiness of life, that all animals, notwithstanding pain, hunger, and distress of feelings, universally and instinc- tively flee from death. So, balancing the great blessings and ills of life, both necessary for its [74] special Creations or Evolution evolution, the judgment instinctively declares life is sweet; and while much suffering exists, there is yet more pleasure ; and if assured of a blissful immortality every soul is ready and eager to thank God that its body was born. Evolution is, therefore, full of mercy and of promise. Its entire aim and the reason for existence of pain and death are the betterment of the living organism. Every creature which has existed from the dawn of life has been endeavoring consciously and subconsciously to adapt itself to its surroundings, — to live and to grow so as to avoid pain, to postpone death, and to seek contentment. The efforts to ac- complish these results have produced changes in functions and structures. These have been transmitted to progeny, and in turn improved on by them, until age by age, all living forms have better accommodated themselves to their environments, but with some retrogressions, and by so doing have more and more avoided the ills of the flesh, have increased their longev- ity, and have enjoyed intenser pleasures of existence. This is Evolution. This is the merciful law whereby all life is growing, although slowly, yet surely, more exempt from distress and more capable of appreciating the blessings of this earth. 4. To the Christian mind the rocks and [75] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity strata of the earth's crust, and the milHons of fossils of pre-existing ages contained therein, are leaves of the book of nature, whereon are written by its Divine Creator the past history of the earth. This record is as authentic and credible as any other knowledge. The only question being, as in all other writings, its true meaning. The special question for our con- sideration is. Does it show in so clear a manner an evolutionary development of living organ- isms as to render improbable the theory of Special Creations? It is undoubtedly true much has been un- earthed pointing to Evolution as the great means employed to differentiate living forms, and much yet remains to be found to prove in any particular case that Evolution not only was the cause of this differentiation, but no other cause contributed to it. What are called " missing links " are noticed in every genus. In no one family of organisms has the descent from earlier forms been made absolutely conclusive, for an absolute conclusion is rarely reached on cir- cumstantial evidence. Yet a very near approach to a complete chain has, however, been found in several classes, among which may be mentioned the links from gill-breathing fish to gill-breath- ing lizards, or lizard-fish ; from lizard-fish to lizards with both gills and lungs ; from these latter to amphibians, which start with gills, then [76] special Creations or Evolution lose them and possess lungs alone ; from these amphibians to lizard-birds; and finally from lizard-birds to ordinary fowls entirely divorced from a water habitat. When such a succession of connected and allied forms is found to exist the chance of an independent origin is almost nil, while the chances of a relationship from a common an- cestor are enormously great. 5. The embryonic development of organisms is to the scientific student inexplicable except on the theory of Evolution. The presence in the egg of a bird during the early stages of its incubation of gill-like appendages enforces a conclusion that the far-off ancestor of the fowl possessed gills and breathed by means of water and must have been a creature allied to fishes. Von Baer, a distinguished biologist, in study- ing embryonic life .observed facts which have justified the following statements, quoted in the language of Mr. Herbert Spencer: ** In its earliest stage, every organism has the greatest number of characters in common with all other organisms in their earliest stages; that at a stage somewhat later, its structure is like the structures displayed at corresponding phases by a less extensive multitude of organisms ; that at each subsequent stage traits are acquired which successively distinguish the developing [77] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity embryo from groups of embryos that it previ- ously resembled — thus step by step diminishing the group of embryos which it still resem- bles; and that thus the class of similar forms is finally narrowed to the species of which it is a member. This abstract proposition will per- haps not be fully realized by the general reader. It will be best to restate it in a concrete shape. The germ out of which a human being is evolved differs in no visible respect from the germ out of which every animal and plant is evolved. The first conspicuous structural change undergone by this human germ is one characterizing the germs of animals only — dif- ferentiates them from the germs of plants. The next distinction established is a distinction exhibited by all Vertebrata; but never ex- hibited by Annulosa, Mollusca, or Celenterata. Instead of continuing to resemble, as it now does, the rudiments of all fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals, this rudiment of a man assumes a structure that is seen only in the rudiments of mammals. Later, the embryo undergoes changes which exclude it from the group of im- placental mammals, and prove that it belongs to the group of placental mammals. Later still, it grows unlike the embryos of those placental mammals distinguished as ungulate or hoofed, and continues to resemble only the unguiculated or clawed. By and by it [78] Special Creations or Evolution ceases to be like any fetuses but those of the quadrumana; and eventually the fetuses of only the higher quadrumana are simulated. Lastly, at birth, the infant, belonging to whichever race it may, is structurally very much like the in- fants of all other human races; and only after- wards acquires those various minor peculiarities of form that distinguish the variety of man to which it belongs. " The generalization here expressed and illustrated must not be confounded with an erroneous semblance of it that has obtained con- siderable currency. An impression has been given by those who have popularized the state- ments of embryologists, that during its develop- ment each higher organism passes through stages in which it resembles the adult forms of lower organisms — that the embryo of a man is at one time like a fish and at another time like a reptile. This is not the fact. The fact estab- lished is that up to a certain point the embryos of a man and a fish continue similar, and that then differences begin to appearand increase — the one embryo approaching more and more towards the form of a fish, the other diverging from it more and more. " The reader must also be cautioned against accepting this generalization as exact. The likenesses thus successively displayed are not precise, but approximate. Only leading char- [79] Agreement of Evolutioa and Christianity acteristics are the same; not all the details. Making all requisite qualifications, however, these resemblances remain conspicuous ; and the fact that they follow each other in the way described is a fact of great significance." 6. Without pursuing the physical argument further to establish the probability of Evolution having been the means employed by God to develop His Creation, this chapter may be briefly summarized by saying, it is believed that no warrant is to be found in the Inspired Word of God for requiring mankind to accept the theory of Special Creations ; that its lan- guage is to a marked extent antagonistic to the idea that anything like solar days divided the great epochs of creation ; that immense periods of time or eras, having been shown to be the probable meaning of the phrases, "first," *' second," etc., days, the order of creation as narrated by Moses, was a succession of physical developments, in each instance proceeding from the simple to the complex — the long epochs and the order of events both being in exact accord with the requirements of Evolution ; that Special Creations in a human point of view do not indicate the Omnipotence and Omniscience which creation by Evolution implies ; that de- velopment by Evolution is full of hope that pain, misery, and sin will eventually be abol- ished, whereas there is nothing but gloom for [80] special Creations or Evolution man and beast if God has finished His Creation; and finally that Special Creations are refuted in every revolving planet, by every stratum of the earth's crust, and in every fossil allied with other forms, dead and living, and by the changes now going on among living organisms. In a word, there is no warrant in God's Holy Word that a profound agreement should not exist between physical Evolution and orthodox Christianity. [8i] EVOLUTION AND MAN ALMOST all the advocates of Evolution are agreed man has been as much the pro- duct of evolution as any other animal. The proposition that the human race has sprung from lower orders of life has been and still is shocking to many individuals and accordingly is indignantly rejected by them. A leading and valuable characteristic of mankind is personal vanity if controlled by facts, but vicious if based solely on self-esteem. Before the inven- tion of the telescope man supposed the stars revolved around his abode for his delectation ; the sun was created for the express purpose of lighting this little globe ; the earth was made for himself; and even within the past year, a distinguished scientist has asserted our sun is the centre of all of God's universes. With such vainglorious conceptions of his importance, it is difficult for such a creature to pass judg- ment on his own origin and merits, and to ar- rive at the conclusion that he, in many respects, is an animal pure and simple, with an ancestry leading back through the lowest forms of life. But with this hypothesis of the descent of man the Christian Evolutionist should have no [82] Evolution and Man quarrel. There is nothing in the revealed Word antagonistic to this humble origin of physical and mental man, but on the contrary it is rather strongly confirmatory of its truth. In the second chapter of Genesis, verse nineteen, it is written, '* And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air." The " ground " is thereby declared ex- pressly to be the material from which the beast was formed. Again, in the second chapter of Genesis, verse seven, it is written, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground," etc. The " dust of the ground," which in sub- stance is "the ground," is thereby declared expressly to be the material from which man was formed.^ So that as far as the Inspired narrative dis- closes the physical origin of beast and of man, they were both made of the same material, and Evolution and Christianity on this point should not be at war. 1 Th© phrase "dust of the ground" may have been in- tended to indicate that as ** dust " was the uppermost, or last stratum of the earth, so man was the last of the great fami- lies of animals to be formed therefrom. [83] EVOLUTION AND MENTALITY EVOLUTIONISTS, such as Darwin and Spencer, assert substantially that all life, including man's, probably sprang from a blurred, undetermined feeling in some protoplasmic cell which answered to a single nervous pulsation or shock. From this shock it is supposed a consciousness was developed ; and next, sensa- tions, by a number of rapid successions of such shocks or feelings; these sensations growing more vivid and complex with the physical ad- vance of the animal, until the dawn of mental life. Let it be noticed, this theory does not ac- count for the creation of the first nervous shock, but given that, however feeble, simple, and undetermined, evolution is competent to build on it, to render it more complex, and finally to develop mentality of the highest order. With this hypothesis it is submitted the Chris- tian should also have no quarrel. Indeed, if the scientist should be able to develop pri- mordial cells, from inorganic matter, and by electricity or otherwise to start a pulsation or [84] Evolution and Mentality nervous shock therein, and then by food, adapta- tion to environment, etc., cause such ^pulsations to become so frequent as to produce sensations and distinct feelings, and thus actually to origi- nate life, the Christian need have no concern, for fear it would rob his God of the credit of creation, for any capacity of inorganic matter to evolve into organic Hfe would be inherent in such matter, and was put therein when ''the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters." The case would be different only in quality of effect and not in causation from the chemical union, — for example, of chlorine and sodium. The former is a dense yellow, suffocating, poi- sonous gas, and the latter, a soft, silver-like metal which takes fire in contact with water. To- gether they form common table salt, a valuable substance having new and distinct properties from each of its constituents. Man may bring matter in juxtaposition, but he cannot add to it, or withdraw anything from it. Whatever changes take place are all inherent in the sub- stances awaiting solely for appropriate oppor- tunities. We have seen in the preceding chapter that the material out of which God formed beasts, etc., was the '' ground." So far as the divine account indicates, the entire animal, physical and mental, sprang from a material substance — '' the ground," which is doubtless a figurative [85] Agreement of Evolution^ and Christianity- expression for ** matter" with its several quali- ties. No special creation of the mind is stated, but only that ** beasts " were formed from the " ground " ; and if it can be shown animals pos- sess, in addition to a physical organism, the mental faculties of reasoning and the emotional qualities and memory, then the power to reason, and to love, to hate, to remember, etc., has the warrant of Holy Scripture that they may have been formed from the ground, or in other words, they may be the result of the physical proper- ties of matter. It is repeated, there should be no reluctance in investigating the legiti- mate phenomena of nature, and all the old-time fear of endowing animals with logical powers and the desire of reducing their mental ac- tions to mere instincts should be laid aside in a fearless and truthful consideration of the subject. A blind dog has been known to recognize his master by the scent given off. This recognition involves as much logical and mnemonic pro- cesses as the proposition that a law of a State of the United States relieving its citizens from paying their debts to citizens of other States is a violation of the Federal Constitution and void. Each may be expanded into the syllogism whereby the mental process will be more clearly seen. The blind dog goes through this train of reasoning. [86] Evolution and Mentality- Major premise: My master, I remember, has a certain kind of odor ; Minor premise : This odor I now smell on putting my nose to a person is of that character. Conclusion: Therefore the person I now smell is my master. The jurist adopts the same logic. Major premise : The Federal Constitution de- clares to be void laws of a State impairing the obligations of contracts. Minor premise: This law by relieving its citi- zens from paying their debts to citizens of other States is of that character. Conclusion: Therefore this law is a viola- tion of the Federal Constitution and void. A number of instances of both inductive and deductive reasoning in animals might be cited and expanded into syllogisms, showing that their processes of thought are exactly similar to those of man's. No extended argument is needed to prove animals possess, more or less strongly, all the emotional faculties, as fear, hatred, revenge, maternal love, love of associates, generosity, [87] , Agreement of Evolutiorb and Christianity and in some instances denial of self, or altru- ism. They are also endowed with Memory and Free-VVill to give effect to these faculties. The writer, with the most casual observation, has seen the following instances of emotional characteristics in animals: A male fowl of the barnyard species hunt for and find a worm, and then by a peculiar cluck call a hen ; she recognizing the invitation came quickly and ate the worm. A mare in a field with her colt deliberately and continually place herself be- tween the colt and a bad-tempered horse, and receive on her jaw a kick from the latter in protecting her young. A dog, which had been fired at with a pistol from a window to pre- vent his prowling about a country-house at night, run away as soon as he heard the win- dow open. An otherwise peaceable bull en- deavor to attack persons who were seeking to administer medicine to a cow with colic, the cow being of his herd. A cow share her bran with her calf. A dog which had been struck at with a whip by an ill-tempered man riding in a vehicle, actually lie in wait again and again for the same man to pass and then revengefully and with hatred attack him. Another dog and a small boy have been shown to the writer by the mother, who declared her child had been rescued from drowning in an adjacent canal by the animal. [88] Evolution and Mentality The above acts embraced love, courage, fear, social obligation, maternal care, hatred, revenge, kindness, and memory, and were all similar in character and sprang from the same mental processes as those performed by mankind. Evolutionists generally beheve these logical and emotional faculties have developed by ex- perience, and been transmitted by heredity to each animal in its upward progress. The writer, who trusts he is a Christian in the most ortho- dox sense, is of opinion that the conclusion of the evolutionist is probably correct, and Chris- tians need have no fear in accepting the propo- sition as fully as the most extreme evolutionist has promulgated it. Indeed if it be true, then to reject it will be injurious to Christianity; for setting up unsound or untenable propositions as the basis of any doctrine or philosophy must eventually, when the truth becomes known, injure it, until the doctrine is recast and it is shown that such unsound propositions were not essential. Now if the logical process, memory and the emotional faculties, including Will Power similar in character to man's, can in beasts be evolved from " the ground," or inorganic matter, and mankind has the same physical origin, — *' the dust of the ground," — it follows that man's mentality may Hkewise be the product of the [89] Agreement of Evolutioa^ and Christianity same processes which have evolved mentaHty among beasts.^ Nothing in nature is more susceptible of growth and cultivation than the intellect. No greater mental difference probably exists be- tween an ape and a Fiji Islander than distin- guished the latter and Milton, Shakespeare, or Newton. A matter of the most universal ob- servation is the vast change produced in every child by education. The entire nature of man is practically altered by intellectual pursuits and by association with his fellow-man. There is a limit, it is true, to the acquisition of knowledge, and the ability of abstraction and generalization of such knowledge in each person depending on the natural capacity of the individual ; but this natural capacity to acquire facts and their bene- ficial use are susceptible of vast enlargement in every case of a normally constituted mind. Mental quaHties, it is well known, are also frequently transmitted to progeny. Breeders of animals claim they can render permanent certain characteristics, mental as well as physi- cal, by artificial selection in a few generations. If this be true, there is no reason why the same effects may not be produced in the human race. This whole subject of the application of breed- ing as to mankind has been very much neglected. ^ " For he knoweth' whereof we are made ; he remem- bereth that we are but dust," Psalm of David, ciii. 14. [90] Evolution and Mentality In the freedom, or rather license of his will, and in the indulgence of caprices and emotions, man has practically ignored calm judgment in the selection of mates. No rule having for its ob- ject improved offspring has been adopted, and the most hap-hazard alliances have been effected. Occasionally and by chance a desirable combi- nation of male and female is made, and children of superior mental calibre are born ; and these in too large a number of instances are placed among so unfavorable circumstances as not to allow of adequate development. It is beheved, however, by many that in future centuries when the vast effects for good in Evolution are realized, much more attention will be given to matri- monial alliances, and thereby children be pro- duced with highly specialized and desirable mental and emotional characteristics. But this creation at will of men and women with great artistic capacity, or mathematical acumen, or oratorical expression, etc., will come only as the traits have been produced, by effort. Take a youth of ordinary mind, train him to numbers, and have him devote his whole Hfe to mathematical science ; let him marry a woman springing from parents devoted to the same pursuit; select the offspring showing the most adaptation to mathematical analysis, with also an otherwise all-rounded physical and mental development, and have them make every effort [91] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity to master the science, and adhere to the pro- cess for a few generations, and a mathematician would probably be produced excelling any the world has yet known. Indeed, for Christian sentiment to oppose the true and just claims of Evolution is, in view of the above remarks, a great injury to civilization, for Christian senti- ment rules, and properly so, the world to-day. The result of a correct appreciation of what Evolution might accomplish for the human race no man can estimate. Under Christian patron- age, laws would soon be enacted, and advice given, providing for the selection of proper mates in marriage, and they might possibly in a few generations produce the most wonder- fully beneficial results, and be generally accep- table. The lesson to be learned from this discussion is that evolution applies to the mental faculties as well as to physical function and structure, and that all mental evolution is the result of effort. Persistent effort, aided by an ever-differ- entiating organism under the most favorable natural environment, may have been the physi- cal cause why man has finally attained his present exalted mental status — the physical cause, it is repeated, because it is beHeved by the Christian evolutionist God uses the laws of nature and the qualities of matter to develop His Creation. [92] Evolution and Mentality If the physical and mental man had a com- mon origin with other animals, for some reason known to Himself, God doubtless allowed some distant animal to be the root from which should spring His yet highest earthly creation. Placed under the most favorable environment this early creature far outstripped all others in the struggle of life. As he grew in body and adaptation to his surroundings his mentaHty expanded and ability of expression increased, until at this day his power of abstraction is so metaphysical, he formulates conceptions of time and space ; his generalizations are almost as broad as the cosmos ; his mathematical statements of the laws of nature so accurate and profound and God-like, that Evolution is once more in accord with Genesis wherein it is stated, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him ; male and female created he them." The conclusion arrived at in this chapter is not that the mind necessarily is the product of highly organized matter, for this treatise is not an argument to demonstrate the origin of mind, but that there is nothing in the Inspired [93] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity Narrative of Creation which compels the Chris- tian who implicitly accepts it as the divine word of God, and therefore truthful, to believe that mentality could not have been developed from the " dust of the ground." Scripture, it is sub- mitted, is thus found to offer no objection to one of the extreme deductions of Evolution. [94] EVOLUTION AND THE SOUL IN his later writings Mr. Darwin, and Mr. Herbert Spencer as well, have attempted to show that the idea of a Supreme Being, and what is usually denominated moral conduct ap- plicable to the social intercourse of men, had their origin in the experiences of mankind. It is agreed the human intellect has always in- stinctively recognized that its body and mind were weak and frail existences. Death has con- stantly reminded men of their uncertain tenure of life. Disease has taught them of the infirmities of the flesh. The powers of nature, such as grav- itation, electricity, tornadoes, floods, and fire, of their incapacity to oppose them successfully. The constant exhibition of these forces has im- pressed upon mankind the ever-present conclu- sion of the reality of some power greater than its own. Besides, it has seen on every hand the most abundant evidences of creation, and yet without the ability on its own part to bring into existence one atom of matter. These things have operated to make men look upwards to some First Cause and Supreme Ruler of the cosmos. [95] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity The Christian evolutionist has no fault to find with this recognition of God in nature. He believes all physical phenomena to be the work of His hand ; why should he not have faith in the evidences of his senses, and ascribe them to His Omniscience and Omnipotence? The as- sumptions of materialists that they have dem- onstrated the conceptions of the Godhead are derived conjointly from fear, a sense of depen- dence, and a feeling of wonder, and therefore that such conceptions are the result of evolution, are in the views presented herein entirely unim- portant. Many of the highly developed animals certainly exhibit two of these emotions, namely, fear and a sense of dependence. Numerous in- stances might be mentioned of each class of these phenomena. Inasmuch as admiration or wonder is so purely a subjective emotion not translatable into exclusive action we cannot tell if animals possess it or not. But with the two emotions of fear and dependence most promi- nently developed in the nature of dumb animals, there is yet no visible apprehension of the Deity. There is no act beasts perform which indicates they have the faintest conception of a Supreme Creator, or of the Immortality of the Soul.^ And yet they perform unconsciously the syl- logistic process of reasoning; they analyze, they generalize, they remember, they possess 1 Man alone is moral. — Darwin's " Descent of Man.*' [96] Evolution and the Soul almost every good and evil emotion of the human heart, and their acts are the result of Free Will. Possibly, and for sufficient reasons, under the order of Divine Providence they have not been endowed with sufficient ability to ap- prehend Him. Whether the birth of the soul is due to a more highly developed quality of mentaHty, as in man, than the brute possesses ; or to man's greater sense of fear and dependence and won- der; or to the direct gift of God, one thing is as certain as the nature of the proposition allows to be demonstrated that this conception of Deity exists only in man, and distinguishes him most significantly from beasts, and places him in a class from all other created things. As we have seen, " to create " does not imply any particular method of creation — evolution- ary or special. But the similarity of man's body and the processes of his reasoning to those of lower animals are highly persuasive that their physical origins were similar and the product of evolution. Why may not the birth and growth of the soul in man have been, under the guidance of God, the result of mental development, the same as the mind may have been the product of organized matter? Almighty God may have intended all these things to follow when " His Spirit moved over the face of the deep " ; all of these, and yet higher developments, may have 7 [97] Agreement of Evolution, and Christianity- been potentially impressed on matter to be un- folded and evolved in the due order He has foreordained. There is no word in the Mosaic narrative against this evolution of mind from matter. What it does affirm, and that only that God made man, and man alone, a ** living soul." No materialist has shown the faculty to recog- nize God is possessed by any other animal ex- cept man, and until he does the Christian may rest absolutely content that there is no fallacy in the Mosaic account, and no disagreement provable by the Inspired Narrative between Evolution and Christianity. It is this very capacity in man to recognize God, and the sense of duty to obey His com- mandments, which constitutes the soul as dis- tinguished from mind. It is by this important attribute the human race is separated from all other animals. It differentiates it from the brutes and makes it responsible, according to the intelligence given it, for the adoration and glorification of the God which its soul capaci- ties teach must exist. In regard to moral behavior in the social relations of men, Darwin and others claim it was demonstrated to even the earliest peoples that the truthful narration of facts, fidelity to prom- ises and to social obligations, kindness to all, etc., were more conducive to longevity, to the well-being and happiness of the individual, or [98] Evolution and the Soul to the society practising them than falsehood, trickery, theft, cruelty, etc. The value of these virtues and the ill effects of their opposites being observed by all, in many cases the good and the true were handed down from generation to generation by precept, by example, and by heredity — their worth and their necessity ever growing in importance as the civilization of the human race advanced. The history of mankind affirms rather than denies the above propositions to be correct. The Christian need have no dispute with this deduction from observed facts. Wise men teach their children the cardinal virtues as rules for successful careers. Men who have practised these principles will in some instances trans- mit a tendency towards them to their off- spring. If a predisposition to vice may be inherited — as criminologists assert — why not to virtue? But the observance of virtue because it is profitable does not constitute a moral act. It may be a purely intellectual deduction ; but to practise virtue because it is believed to be the command of God and pleasing to Him is an entirely different conception, not springing out of any utilitarian origin, and bearing no anal- ogy to the seeking of gain from accommo- dation to environment. A man may refrain from theft because he fears the criminal laws [ 99 1 Agreement of Evolution and Christianity may punish him, or he may lose thereby the respect of his fellow-citizens. This is not moral- ity. It is a purely intellectual conclusion. He prefers Hberty and the good opinion of his neighbors to the thing coveted. But when the same man abstains from stealing because his God has enlightened him with the intelligence that it is against His will, and he has a desire to conform to that Will, this is morality. This is a conception of the soul, and it is the posses- sion of a soul that enables him to form the con- ception. The fact that abstaining from theft, because recognized by the intellectual faculties to be advantageous to the person, is not in con- flict with the teachings of the moral sense, is no proof that the latter is the development of the former. Their agreement being conducive to the welfare of the individual is the result of the harmonious workings of creation in every part of its domain. To do right is always best in every view of every case. Nor can it be affirmed that the moral sense is the legitimate product of such experience ; for animals in many cases regard the rights of others when it is apparent to them a violation of such rights will bring punishment as a con- sequence. For example, cats, notwithstanding a powerful impulse to kill caged birds, will refrain from fear of punishment. Hunting dogs with a natural instinct to jump at game will [ 100 ] Evolution and th6 Scul* ' ' >> '^'s ^ ''. pause immovably before it, when they know chastisement will follow their transgression, etc., and this characteristic has been made hereditary to a considerable extent in pointers and setters. There is consequently a well-defined distinc- tion between the intellect and the moral sense. It is probably true and for the purpose of this discussion it is assumed that when the intellect had attained the capacities of abstraction and generalization possessed by man, when it could conceive of time and space, when it could recog- nize and formulate the conception that nature had not made itself, then the individual became advanced adequately to be endowed with the moral sense as distinguished from an intellect- ual conception. Then it perceived more or less dimly or clearly that a great power had created this wonderful cosmos ; that truth and justice were its attributes ; that this power was its God, who demanded instinctively adoration for His creation and obedience for His wisdom. Then was born the Soul. This should be the doctrine of Christian Evo- lution. This also is the revelation of the Scrip- tures, for no other interpretation of the Mosaic narrative can be given, when taken as a whole, when interpreted as a judicial tribunal would construe it, so as to make an harmonious agree- ment of observed and clearly revealed facts. [ lOI ] ^ ''Agreement of Evdlutlori and Christianity God made animals and men from "the ground." They are both similar in physical structure and physiological function — often bone for bone, muscle for muscle, and nerve for nerve. They possess intellectual and emo- tional faculties of the same kind — man's, how- ever, being so great as to be in the image and after the likeness of God. Here the resem- blance ceases. Here scientific Evolution pauses in its deductions. Beyond this materialism is silent ; but divine Scripture takes up the subject and makes this further revelation — Genesis, second chapter, seventh verse, " And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a Living Soul." The rational interpretation of this remarkable and important revelation with a view to harmo- nizing it: I. With the sentence that the Lord God formed man of "the dust of the ground"; 2. With man's unmistakable physical and mental similiarity to the other animal creation; and 3. To give full effect to the affirmation, " And man became a living soul," should be: i. That physical man was formed of the inorganic ele- ments of which other animals were composed. This is in plain accord with the teachings of organic chemistry; 2. That his evolution was on lines analogous to those of other animals. To deny this proposition would be to defy the [ 102 ] Evolution and the Soul resemblance of his physiological structure and functions to the animal creation; 3. That from causes of which we are hopelessly ignorant man's development ages ago probably became more complex and heterogeneous than any other creature; 4. That having attained an in- tellectual and emotional capacity so great as to be able to reason from metaphysical premises, the Lord God endowed him with the ability to recognize Himself as His Creator and God ; 5. That this endowment is expressed in the figurative style of speech so commonly em- ployed in the Scriptures, " And the Lord God . . . breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," etc. ; 6. That the statement " breathed into his nostrils the breath of life," is defined by the qualification which immediately follows, " and man became a living soul," and demon- strates that the " breath of life " was not the physical existence and mental power of which he was a participator in common with all other animals, but a life — an eternal life — suitable as an attribute for the "living soul"; 7. That man alone of all animals is possessed of a soul ; ^ that is, an ability to apprehend God ; a conclu- sion which agrees with the fact that no other animal exhibits a capacity to recognize God, 1 " Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth." Ecclesiastes ill. 21. [ 103] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity the duty of obedience to His Commandments, or immortality. We have now arrived at the conclusion of the consideration of the agreements between the Mosaic Revelation and the revelations of Sci- entific Inquiry. It is believed that the unprejudiced mind can- not escape the impress of such a wonderful accordance as has been shown to exist between Scientific Evolution and the Divine Word, and like the reciprocal eflfect of all truth. Evolution proves the truth of the Inspired Narrative, and the Inspired Narrative proves the truth of Evolution. [104] Part II Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowl- edge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. — Eph. iv. 13. EVOLUTIONARY CHARACTER OF CHRISTIANITY THE attention of the reader has been here- tofore invited to the agreements existing between the material works of God and His revelation of their creation, contained in the Mosaic narrative, and as part of the same sub- ject the physical, intellectual, and moral genesis of mankind. The discussion attempted briefly the demonstration of the threefold nature of man, namely, a material body, a mind, and a soul. No argument was deemed necessary to establish the existence of a corpus composed of the inorganic elements of the earth, vivified by the mysterious potency we call life. It was briefly shown, it is hoped, there is no disagree- ment between the conclusions of evolutionists in regard to the development of mind in animals including man, and Revelation, because the [105] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity processes of thought, although immensely in- ferior in brutes, are identical in their logical characteristics with man's; both are possessed of free-will; both are moved by the same emotions; both have the faculty of memorj^; and both are declared in the Word of God to have been formed from " the ground." If the mentality of " beasts of the field," which is identical in quality with man's, could origi- nate " from the ground " ; and man was formed from the same substance, "the dust of the ground," the conclusion is legitimate that the human mind had probably the same origin. But at this point, it was argued, all resem- blance ceased between beasts and man. The beast possesses body and mind ; man's con- stituents are body, and mind, and soul. Not that the brute may not be taught by love or fear to regard the rights of others, an apparently moral act, but there is no evidence of the brute creation having any conception whatever of God, and of obedience to His commandments because He has commanded them to be obeyed. The ability to recognize this Godhead and His moral laws it was claimed resides in a distinct capacity, denominated the Soul — a gift to man alone, and which was conferred upon him when the "Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life " (eternal life), " And man be- came a living soul." In a word, the power to [106] Evolutionary Character of Christianity think constitutes the mind; the ability to ap- prehend God constitutes the soul. Man being composed of a tripartite nature any evolution commensurate for his perfect development must comprise the advancement of each of these essential components. To accommodate the body to its environment with- out a due regard to the intellectual and moral sense, a poor specimen of manhood is pro- duced ; to educate the mind and neglect either the physique or morals develops a being with- out physical strength to enforce his thoughts, or without respect to claim credence from his fellow-man. The perfect man is he alone who has a sound body, an educated mind, and a moral sense. This moral sense is not, however, to be mistaken for its counterfeit that springs from utilitarian motives, and vaccilates with circumstances, but that sure and abiding moral- ity, firm under all complications and tempta- tions, because its motive is obedience to its God. The fundamental principle underlying material and intellectual evolution, it was attempted to be shown, is Effort on the part of organisms to accommodate themselves to their environment. These efforts, for example, to secure healthful air, abundant food, agreeable mates, etc., have modified functions and structures, and their transmission to offspring have produced new [ 107 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity types of plants and new races of animals. The efforts to acquire the above necessities in the easiest and most certain manner have also de- veloped mentality among animals, and as to men have in a large measure contributed to an intel- lectual development marvellous in the extreme. If the body had been planned on the principle that it should have no necessities, or if these necessities had been supplied in such abun- dance that no effort was needed to appropriate them, there would have been no physical evolu- tion. If the mind had been born with full knowledge of all things, with nothing to learn from observation and experience, there would have been no mental development The circum- stance that there are necessities which may be partially and sufficiently gratified but never fully administered to, which gratification must un- ceasingly and forever be met by renewed efforts, it is repeated is the keystone in the arch of life development. Now when we turn our attention to the third component of man's nature, namely, the soul, if we find necessities exist, as in his material and intellectual organization, for example, a hunger for a knowledge of the Godhead, a thirst for righteousness, a yearning to comprehend the future state, etc., each one of these emotions as veritable, as overpowering, and as persistent as the craving for food, or the desire for water, [io8] Evolutionary Character of Christianity which spiritual hunger and thirst may be ap- peased by efforts but not fully gratified, in con- sequence of only partial and yet sufficient Revelations of Christianity, which efforts enrich the soul of man — like the strivings to acquire food and air do the body — with high thoughts of God, and thereby evolve a more complex and nobler spirituality, it is asserted, if these things be so, the analogy is complete and perfect between the schemes of physical and mental evolution, and the scheme of spiritual evolution as contained in the Christian Religion. The plan of the following chapters will be to take up separately the principal dogmas agreed to by all Christians, and attempt to show that Christianity offers most wonderfully — mirac- ulously — a religion adapted to evolve the soul of man to the highest perfection of earthly ex- istence, and as a consequence of this ability to produce this superhuman result — as the laws of nature by their capacity to evolve higher and higher functional and intellectual character- istics in animals prove their Divine origin — Christianity demonstrates likewise its truthful- ness and its Divine origin. [ 109] SOUL EVOLUTION THE spirituality of man like his intellect- uality is susceptible of extraordinary im- provement. By education it is rendered more definite in its conceptions; errors the result of ignorance are corrected when found to be irreconcilable to ascertained facts; and con- clusions more and more accurate and legitimate are drawn from wider and deeper contempla- tions of the subjects of which it takes cogni- zance, until the idolatrous worship of a brazen calf is changed to the glorification of a God rep- resenting the metaphysical idealities of omni- science, omnipotence, and omnipresence. The field, therefore, for soul evolution is as broad, as complex, as productive of beneficial results as mind evolution. By his constitution man may grow in grace no less than in knowledge, and when the infinite future is considered and an infinite number of individuals are to be affected, no lower limits can be assigned to the high eminence the human soul may attain than those defined by the loving of God with all the heart, with all the soul, and with all the mind, and our neighbors as ourselves. This standard, [no] Soul Evolution in the opinion of the writer, represents the very highest elevation of human spirituality, and is the goal towards which all the moral forces of humanity are now tending; a goal which Almighty God has most probably, in the per- fectness of His works, planned to be reached in the far distant future by man as the result of soul evolution — the product of free-will efforts. It is undoubtedly true, advancement in intel- lectuality contributes as a rule to spirituality. No one will maintain that the ignorant snake- worshippers of Hayti, or the uneducated cow- idolaters of India are comparable in religious thought to learned Christians. This very fact has led many to confound the existences of mind and soul, and to conclude spirituality was the offspring of mentality — particularly as cor- rect mental deductions lead men universally to acknowledge the inherent value of virtue, and the desirability of its being practised. But it is clear, as said heretofore, the performance of a seemingly virtuous act because it is desirable for its beneficial results is not moral conduct It is purely and simply an intellectual process in which the soul has no part. Unfortunately it often bears the outward stamp of the true coin, and passes current for a soul act, because men cannot look into the hearts of other men and divine motives. [HI] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity An act springing from the mental weighing of circumstances with the result that it ought to be performed because, it is repeated, its con- sequences will be beneficial is entirely different in every moral characteristic from the same act having its motive in obedience to God, irrespec- tive of mundane consequences. Intelligent brutes perform the former, heretofore shown, as well as men, but the soul possessed by man is only competent to conceive of the latter. Individuals of great intellectual acumen are often vastly deficient in soul-morality. With such almost every act is the result, consciously or sub-consciously, of the calculation of bene- fits; whereas others of less knowledge and mental acumen, but of more spirituality, make the performance of many moral acts the result of a desire to obey the Deity. It is a matter of common observation for the entire nature of all animals to contribute to their general advancement. A strong body improves the mind, an intelligent mind contri- butes to the development of the body, and with men a high spirituality elevates mentality and a strong mentality gives clearness to soul con- ceptions. Man is therefore a composite being, wherein all his parts correlate to produce the unit organism. One may have been evolved from the other — the mind from highly organ- ized matter and the soul from intellectual con- [112] Soul Evolution cepts possessed only by man. But if this has been the process, there is nothing in the Mosaic narrative contradictory to it. The First Cause (which the Christian believes is God, and Mr. Herbert Spencer assumes as a necessity for Evolution) which made matter possibly en- dowed it with the qualities to evolve conscious- ness, next intellectuality, and finally, when this mentality reached the power to take cognizance of its own mental conclusions, and uncon- sciously to create major and minor premises of them, then to develop the soul ability to recog- nize the Godhead. But as the body, mind, and soul of man exist to-day, they represent a mys- terious trinity to be perceived as matter is per- ceived, but not comprehended any more than matter can be understood. A trinity in which each component has its special functions to per- form — the body under the impulse of the mind to harmonize itself with its environment; the mind to comprehend the laws of nature and make them servants to the wants of the body ; the soul to lift both body and mind from the carnal things of this earth by the contemplation of the Godhead, and to love its neighbor be- cause its Heavenly Father has so commanded. This command being founded on the well- known fact that the highest development of the human race can take place only when Love binds the hearts of men. 8 . [113] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity There is yet a further analogy between mind and soul evolution. Individuals starting in youth without experience or knowledge may become by effort, for example, learned and profound logicians, much like a crude machine of rough castings, badly fitting parts, slow and defective movements, etc., is transformed by in- telligent improvements, lubrication of the wear- ing surfaces, and adjustments into a highly complex and perfect mechanism for the per- formance of its purposes, so the individual mind scarcely able at first to concentrate its attention for a short period on any subjective matter of reasoning is enabled by constant practice to hold its mental vision with wonderful per- spicuity upon the most abstruse and transcen- dental problems until they are solved and even to revel with delight in the process. What must have been the mental exhilaration of Sir Isaac Newton when he was investigating and proving to men for the first time that the radius vector of each planet describes equal areas in equal times, notwithstanding a planet moves immensely faster when it approaches the sun ; or that if a body move in an ellipse having a centre of force at its focus, then the force at different points in the orbit must vary inversely as the square of the distance from that centre? To attain such mastery over the power of thought, to hold in subjection the attention, to ["4] Soul Evolution see with the mental vision mental deductions as clearly as material objects are seen with the eye, this demonstrates the marvellous evolution of the mind as the result of effort. So with the soul. Witness the fetichism of the savage changed to the worship of a civilized people — lifting their thoughts by effort to the ideal contemplation of the attributes of Divinity. Individualizing, many men have started life with almost an entire ignorance of the Deity, and of their obligation to Him. In some way or another their attention has been called to the subject. Consideration is then given to His existence. At first, slightly. Next, more seri- ously. Finally, the whole soul is enrapt in His contemplation. The individual is spiritually born again, and as great a change is wrought in his soul as existed between the mind of Newton as a boy and the mind of Newton solving the laws of gravitation. This is Soul Evolution. [115] THE HOLY SCRIPTURES THE Holy Scriptures as now read by man- kind have been the object of many attacks. Some writers have declared them to be composed largely of fables or myths. The German materialist, Strauss, stands at the head of this class. Others have attacked their relia- bility because of their allegories, alleged dis- crepancies in facts, asserted interpolations, and incompatibility of some parts with other parts. Infidels have always deemed it vital in order to sustain themselves in their infidelity to show errors in these writings, and granted errors are proven, they claim that a God of all knowledge could not have been their author. From this argument they have sought to draw the conclu- sion that the Scriptures not being inerrant, the God therein revealed does not exist. The purpose of this treatise does not require any discussion to prove the inerrancy of the Scriptures. But it does assert, and it will be undertaken to be demonstrated broadly, that the Scriptures, if they were intended to play any part in the evolution of mankind, are exactly, in every respect, what they should be. [.16] The Holy Scriptures In other words, if the Holy Writings had been dictated in such a manner by the Supreme Being as to carry overwhelming conviction to the human mind — such a certitude that the contradictory of its revelation could be demon- strated to be impossible — then there could not have been, and could not now be, any growth in the knowledge of God, or soul evolution. To repeat this important evolutionary maxim, if the revelations of the Holy Scriptures had been given in such a clear manner as to import their inspiration beyond all possible doubt to those classes of men who are now disbelievers, then their words would have left no room for Faith, for the exercise of Free Will in believ- ing or not believing in the Godhead, or for efforts on the part of the soul to grow in spirituality. The basic principles of Evolution are two: namely. That the great Author of organized matter, of mind, and of soul has determined. 1. That none of these states should be created perfect — that excellencies should be reached only from lower conditions by growth; and 2. This growth should be attained solely by efforts — by efforts to modify the physical struc- ture and functions ; by efforts which enable the intellectual faculties to hold their attention on a single subject until its components are an- alyzed and they are classed in their appropriate [117] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity category; by efforts which reveal God to the soul, the more and more He is contemplated, thereby giving it the wisdom to overturn the worship of idols, of beasts, and of matter, and the ability to resist sin — sin, in the sense here used, being broadly another name for soul de- generation. But as no effort would be made to search for food if abundance was at hand ; no effort would be persevered in to solve the problems, for example, of electricity and steam power, if these sciences were so absolutely per- fect that nothing more was to be learned ; so no effort would be attempted to work out the infinitudes of the Supreme Being, the love and atonement of the Saviour and the ImmortaHty of the Soul as revealed, if the Scriptures were so clear as to enforce conviction by demonstra- tion. The whole scheme of Divine Revelation is in accord with this fundamental principle of Evolution ; otherwise there would exist this anomalous state that growth and development would be the rule as to the body and the mind, but as to spiritual matters man would be en- dowed with full knowledge of all divine things. None can estimate the effect of such an unbal- anced character. Man would be the feeble creature he is to-day as to his physical state — the comparatively ignorant being of even this twentieth century, who has scarcely more than reached the threshold of the temple of knowl- [ii8] The Holy Scriptures edge, and yet as to spiritual matters, he would possess a certitude and fulness of knowledge as to the nature of God and immortality, which would make him God-like. It is submitted that the Supreme Being has been wiser than the infidel. He has not allowed Himself to be seen by men. His essence is just so far veiled as to be apprehensible but not understood. Christ did not demonstrate Himself beyond a doubt either to the apostles or to the Jews, yet He gave enough knowledge of Himself to them and to the world for untold millions of men to look up to Him with faith. The future state has not been made a provable certainty, but men's hearts instinctively strive to penetrate the thin veil which hangs before the Hfe beyond the grave. So with the Holy Scriptures. They take a corresponding place in the evolutionary scheme. They never were intended to dispense with Faith in them. Their so-called discrepan- cies, their allegorical style, their narratives of supernatural events, their revelations of the Deity, their records of the life and love of Christ, their perfect precepts for moral conduct, their violation of some of the rules of credibility which men adopt to deceive are all mingled together, and have this extraordinary effect that their inspiration is more and more convinc- ing to those who study them in a spirit of right- eousness, and less and less persuasive to those ["9] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity who read their pages seeking to find a founda- tion for their infidelity. In this respect these materiah'stic evolutionists^ are the most strangely unscientific of all men. Huxley, Haeckel, Strauss, Clifford, Lewes, etc., have minds of great natural and acquired ability. They understand, equally with any other men of the world, the fundamental principles of Evo- lution. None know better than they that evolu- tion only follows effort, and that effort will not be made to acquire either food or knowledge, if either already exists, and consequently by analogy, they should know, if the aspirations of the soul — the soul whether viewed as a special creation, or the development of intel- lectual faculties — were entirely satisfied by plenary evidence and conviction of the truths of Christianity, that then it would make no effort to grow in the knowledge of God, and evolutionary advancement, based on Free-Will efforts and self-denial, would be unknown. These same materialists are also most contra- dictory in another view of the subject. There is not one who will deny these same Scriptures have been a most potent agent for civilization in modern days. Such men are philosophers — students of wisdom to benefit humanity — and yet with this main object of their lives con- ^ Agnosticism and Materialism discussed as scientific propositions, see "The Testimony of Reason." [120] The Holy Scriptures stantly before them, with the knowledge of the vast good the Scriptures have wrought, greater than all other causes together, they seek to tear down and utterly destroy this great aid to the physical, intellectual, and moral evolution of mankind, and to substitute nothing in its place. The conclusion, therefore, of this brief appli- cation of the fundamental position of Evolution to the Holy Scriptures is that to be the inspired word of God, they are exactly as definite, as convincing, as inerrant as they should be; and the Christian may look without the slightest solicitude upon the attacks of materialists to prove their recorded events to be myths, and regard with indifference the efforts of infidel scholars to show discrepancies and interpola- tions, knowing full well that if their character is allegorical in places, and their statements some- times hard to be reconciled, they were made so for the express purpose by the Supreme Being to promote study of their mysteries and revela- tions, and to develop Faith and thus advance soul evolution. [121] GOD^ THE primary concept of the soul is the existence of some being or power supe- rior to nature. This idea has been and is, as far as the writer is aware, ahvays and only, a part of humanity. Notwithstanding the abyss of his degradation the savage instinctively feels there is a force, an intelligence beyond his comprehen- sion governing the storm, the flood, the return of the seasons, his own life and death. Depend- ent upon the general knowledge and modified by the mentality of each individual, this primary conception of God has taken almost every con- ceivable form of thought. Idols in the shape of animals have been made to embody the idea of this supernatural being; fire has been wor- shipped ; toads and birds have been adored ; composite images of part man and part beast; a multitudinous deity invented, assigning special beings to rule over special phenomena of nature and the various affections of men, as in the Grecian mythology; in a sentence, the soul guided by its best intelligence has in all ages, in all parts of the earth, among all men, been en- 1 For a demonstration of the existence of an intelligent Supreme Being, see " The Testimony of Reason." [122] God deavoring to grasp and gratify a great instinct of its existence and render the best homage it could to its God. But it is apparent the endowment of unclean animals with the attributes of divinity must be debasing to the worshipper, because mankind is so constituted it cannot entertain low thoughts without their modifying its entire character and conduct; it cannot associate with evil without becoming contaminated; it cannot hold to the belief in a Jupiter or a Venus, as a god and god- dess, without impairing most sadly its morals, and finding in their supposed licentiousness a satisfactory excuse for any excesses it may choose to indulge in. So that the religious sentiment, being so uni- versal among nearly all men, and so potent in modifying their conduct, constitutes a most im- portant element of their characters and its devel- opment along lines of debasing tendencies, or those of high and ennobling spirituality must make the most tremendous difference in their evolution. At the period of which Moses wrote, about fifteen hundred years B.C., the most enlightened portions of the world, as far as history speaks, were oppressed with pagan idolatry. The wor- ship of idols was common and many base prac- tices accompanied their adoration. It was at that time the Christian's God revealed Himself [ 123 ] Agreement of Evolutioh and Christianity in the Divine Word of the Old Testament, mirac- ulously preserved to us through the destructions of fire and vandalism which have so persistently- devastated all the ancient seats of learning. Nothing comparable to the power and infinitude of His majesty revealed through the Mosaic narrative of Creation had been previously con- ceived of by the enlightened mind. A grand thought illuminating the conception of God as revealed in the Old Testament was His incompre- hensibility. Overpowering sublimity; fathom- less infinitude as to time and space, — " I am what I am," — are some of the attributes which stimu- late apprehension and contemplation of the Godhead, and in so doing raise the soul of the idealistic thinker to regions of spirituality un- attainable otherwise. No man hath seen God and lived. Nothing would have been more destructive to the evolu- tion of the soul than for the Deity to have been visible. Full knowledge causes effort to cease — for effort cannot struggle for knowledge if knowledge is already possessed. The world has, therefore, in the partial revelation God has given of Himself, just so much knowledge and no more, namely, an apprehension of His power and personality, but not comprehension, as the profoundest wisdom would have revealed in order to produce the result of continuous and fascinating contemplation. [ 124] God So, too, by His moral attributes does the God worshipped by the Christian world draw all men to higher and ever higher standards of excel- lence. Reverence for His Holy Name teaches the soul dignity and respect for holy things. Inflexible obedience to His commands cultivates self-denial and control. His commandments without exception are elevating, tending to evolve the noblest traits of the entire man, while correl- ative disobedience surely drags the individual into degradation. In fine, it is fearlessly asserted, no scheme devised by the united wisdom of the world to produce evolution or development of moral improvement in mankind could have con- ceived of a nobler God than that revealed in the Bible. He is therein represented to be omnipo- tent; no limit restrains His powers. The mind tries to grasp the meaning of this word, but fails as much as it would in the conception of a quin- tillion of acts, and a quintillion of them is only a small unit in the scale of omnipotence. He is omnipresent. God's Being permeates all space — alike those distant nebulae of the Galaxy and the cell of the flesh whose last division has yet baffled the power of the microscope. His omni- science knows all things. Even the secret workings of the heart of man are as distinctly perceived as his spoken words are heard by his fellow-men. He has revealed Himself as infi- nite in the past, eternal in the future. Pages [125] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity have been written of the infinitudes of God, and every page has evolved, in the writer and in the reader, an intenser spirituality by the soul con- templation of this impersonification of power and holiness — of righteousness and morality, not obscured by one blot, one earthly spot. The highest transcendentahsm of the soul cannot divine His essence. There is still something beyond, something overpowering, something grander than thought, something engaging, ever stimulating contemplation, ever feeding with delight the unappeasable appetite for holy things. But in addition to all this sublimity, the Chris- tian's God has revealed Himself as a loving Father. The poor suffering heart of humanity longs for a father — some soul on which it may recline its weak and wearied nature. Like an earthly father His person demands reverence, His commands must be obeyed because they are for the good of His child, but to the obedi- ent, to even the erring but repentant prodigal. His arms and heart are ever open to receive and comfort him. No juggernaut car to immolate beloved infants, no burning of human flesh to appease a demoniacal thirst for blood soils the Christian's God. He is a loving and righteous Father, and develops the souls of His children by His own example of parental love. It is seriously asked. Is the necessity for effort to [126] God acquire food or air or water more evolutionary in its effects on organisms than the revelation God has given of Himself in the Scriptures is on the soul of man? Can the enlightened mind of the most profound philosopher conceive of a scheme better adapted to elevate and ennoble spirit- uality than the conception the Christian mind entertains of God ? If it cannot, then this revela- tion of Himself proves the strong probability of two things : first, that the partial revelation of the Jehovah of the Bible is as much a plan of soul evolution as the necessity of animals accommoda- ting themselves to their unsatisfying environ- ments; and second, if the laws of material and mental evolution were ordained by a Supreme Being, then inasmuch as the moral nature of mankind is as important to be developed as its body and mind, the revelation of this Godhead had the same origin. [ 127] CHRIST A FACTOR OF SOUL EVOLUTION 1 THE second fundamental article of Chris- tian belief is the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, as recorded in the New Testament. It is impossible in a purposely brief treatise to encompass the narration of the evolutionary influence on mankind of Christ's mission and sacrifice. A volume would scarcely suffice to specify adequately His most wonderful — noth- ing short of miraculous — effect on the physical, mental, and moral evolution of man. God has revealed Himself to mankind as the Creator of heaven and earth, and as a Ruler who has established moral laws for the govern- ment and development of the human race, with punishment for disobedience. For some cause, and for the purpose of this treatise it is unim- portant to inquire what, man finds himself prone to disobey the commands of this Supreme Being. He has the innate knowledge of his inability to love God with all his heart, his soul, and his mind, and his neighbor as himself 1 For circumstantial proof that Christ was the Son of God, see " The Testimony of Reason." [128] Christ a Factor of Soul Evolution He knows, moreover, the attainment of this soul development represents the highest spiritual evolution of humanity, and yet he persists either in direct violation of his duty or in passive neglect of its injunctions, and is, therefore, un- worthy to claim recognition and favor of his supreme and just Creator. In such a state of affairs man would be hope- less if some advocate was not available to plead his cause and propitiate offended Majesty. A person absolutely without hope is des- perate, relaxes effort and submits supinely to fate. The cessation of effort is death to evolution. The life of all evolution is effort, continuous, unremitting effort. The revelation, therefore, of a Saviour sent from God to be a sacrifice by death upon the cross for the sins of the whole world, and thereby to establish a mediatorship, unceasing in its advocacy for all those who with faithful hearts are striving to obey the commands of God, though they fail daily seventy times seven, has the most extraor- dinary power to stimulate zeal in well-doing and faith in the Messiahship of Christ, and these efforts lift the soul to a high degree of moral evolution. Having this advocate with the Father — thus being " not without hope " — and man realizing his desire for eternal salvation is dependent on 9 [ 129 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity his faith in Christ — an environment most con- ducive to stimulate moral energy — the Chris- tian Religion offers, as a Messiah, a messenger of good-will; not a warrior, or earthly king with temporal power, but a " Prince of Peace." Neither physical, mental, nor moral evolution can take place in a state of personal insecurity. A prime necessity which displaces all other considerations is self-preservation. Threatened destruction will occupy the mind to the exclu- sion of the sciences. The intellect must be calm for it to investigate the laws of nature and make them subject to its will — in a word, peace must abide in the heart. Now Christ taught, above all things else, peace. If thy brother smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Like a lamb before its slayer which opens not its mouth, He allowed Himself to be crucified, as if He could not have summoned a legion of angels to have delivered Himself from the handful of Jews and Roman soldiers who put Him to death. Those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Love thy brother. These were some of the messages He delivered to men. When the student of history recalls the conflicts of ante-Christian centuries — times in which there was Hterally nothing but wars and subjugation of neighboring peo- ples over the whole of those parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, of which the world has [ 130] Christ a Factor of Soul Evolution any record, and the consequent slavery and slaughter of all captured, as have recently been perpetrated on the Christian Bulgarians by the Turks ; when population was kept down to the lowest numbers in consequence of such destruc- tion, and it is compared with the ever-growing reign of peace in Christendom, wherein men have had such comparative security as to per- mit them to cultivate the soil more intelligently, and thereby cause more abundant food to be produced for the nourishment of the body, the effect of which has been increased physical development and larger populations; wherein men have under the influences of greater per- sonal safety expanded their intellects by the acquisition of useful knowledge and the practice of the arts, — aye, this very book they are read- ing, the clothes they wear, the luxurious resi- dences which shelter them, and the ten thousand temples wherein they offer their thanks, their prayers, and raise their voices in praise to God, are the proximate results of the peaceful teach- ings of this Christ, — all men must admit that the Christian's Saviour has been the most im- portant factor in physical, mental, and moral evolution mankind has known. No philosopher can estimate the myriad ways in which His Influence has worked for good. No skeptic is beyond its refining power, although he partakes of its benign benefits without thanking the [•31] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity Giver. The whole civilized world — Jew and Turk, Chinese and Indian — all, more or less, bask in the advancement wrought by the moral influence exerted by Christ. The logical deduction from the mere existence of this extraordinary moralizing power in a world where everything is apparently the result of design under the rule of a beneficent provi- dence, is, that no such effects would probably have been allowed to operate unless they had had the immediate sanction of the Supreme Ruler, and having that sanction they must stand for truth. If Christ had come as a mighty earthly king, wielding the sceptre of power, putting men and nations under His dominion by moral persua- sion if He could, and if not, by force of arms, and in so far as He controlled by force, de- stroying the free will of those He subjugated, His kingdom would be analogous to the reigns of Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, and no more moral evolution would have attended His advent than was consequent on theirs. But singularly, even superhumanly in fore- thought, every recorded circumstance of Christ's life indicates the intensest humility. He was born in a manger, passed His early years not among princes, but as a poor Nazarene, began His ministry without friends or money, and [ 132] Christ a Factor of Soul Evolution suffered an ignominious death upon the cross between two thieves. It would never have occurred to the wisest son of man to have inaugurated a world-compelling reign under such apparently disadvantageous circumstances. Men would have sought then, as now, all the adventitious aids which wait on wealth, official connections, and the pandering to public opinion or prejudice. And yet so it has turned out in looking over the past that this very lowliness and humility combined with the unswerving and uncompromising moral uprightness of Christ have been the most powerful attractions of His ministry. There can be no all-engrossing love of God if it is allied with luxury; there can be no love of neighbor as one's self if an individual is seeking to dominate from pride his fellow-man. Poverty within reasonable Hmits and humility of heart are absolutely essential for high soul evolution, and Christ in His poverty ; in His spotless, sinless life; by His extraordinarily elevated sentiments, teaches both in the most perfect manner. These circumstances have, therefore, combined on their side of the problem to ad- vance soul evolution. All men are more or less skeptical. In pro- portion to their knowledge they demand to know the causes of things. A child accepts [ 133] Agreement of Evolutiori and Christianity the statement of his father as sufficient. This same child grown to be an analytic scientist, who has spent his life accepting no proposition except after investigation, is disposed to reject all statements contrary to ordinary experience. Things supernatural, not clearing themselves to his understanding, are in many cases regarded as unworthy of belief. Yet this same scientist does not understand the essential nature of matter, the reason for the existence of any law of nature ; nor can he disprove the super- natural. His argument against the supernatural is purely negative, — namely, in his personal ex- perience he has never known the thing to exist. But it is plain as a mere proposition of logic a thing cannot be declared not to have existed until it can be proven it could not have taken place. This no philosopher can prove as to any spiritual fact. If our Lord had not died and risen, had not performed in His Resurrection the greatest of all His miracles in attestation of His divinity, men would have declared He was simply a mortal, and His claims to be the Son of God, a falsehood. It is inconceivable for His minis- try to have had and still have an evolutionary effect without His death and ascension. And this is exactly what took place. The most ap- propriate events were employed to produce the most desirable results. These circumstances [134] Christ a Factor of Soul Evolution alone dispel the theory of chance, and raise the case to one of the most profound and far- sighted intelligence. Not only as an attestation of His being the Son of God do His crucifixion and resurrection contribute, but these great evidences of His love for mankind forever draw the souls of all who contemplate that love with the most en- dearing and tender sympathies. Love begets love. We involuntarily love those who sacrifice themselves for us. Life is the most prized pos- session man owns. To give one's life for another is the greatest gift. Christ gave His life for men ; therefore, men are most powerfully drawn to love this Saviour, or to state the proposition more generally, the very best agency to effect soul evolution has been employed. The above rapid presentation of a few of the points in our Lord's ministry will show how, by the same train of reasoning, every circumstance of His personal conduct. His teachings, and His revelation of His own Divine Origin can be elaborated and proved to have been the wisest means to lift the spiritual nature of mankind. [135] THE HOLY GHOST THE third basic article of Christian faith is the recognition of the Holy Ghost as a component of a triune Godhead. The Trinity is a great mystery. It was doubtless intended by God it should be so. He has not revealed the ultimate essence of matter or mind, or the reason for the de- velopment of the Cosmos on the lines which exist, or why the laws of nature operate. He has not made known the elements of the spirit of man. If all of these things are un- known, why should He have disclosed His own ineffable Spirit? What possible good in the moral development of man would have come from Jehovah unfolding Himself to His creatures? On the contrary, all the efforts to fathom the fathomless infinitudes of Deity would be rendered supererogatory, and the ennobling effects wrought by persevering con- templation of the essence of the Godhead would be lost to mankind. The Trinity is only one of many mysteries met with by advanced intellect. Nature is full [«36] The Holy Ghost of the occult. The limit of the understanding in this respect is the mere observance of phe- nomena and their classification, without in a single instance being able to state their causes. A stone released from an elevation falls to the earth. No one really knows why it does so. The usual answer is, the earth attracts it. But why does matter attract matter? Hypotheses have been advanced, but no scientist has dem- onstrated an explanation. Animal organism is either composed of matter and mind, or the latter is the sequence of the former. Who comprehends this dual composition or this se- quence ? It is as much a mystery as the Trinity of God. Shall we declare the living animal organism does not exist because we do not fathom its dual nature? If not, why shall we reject the Trinity because its metaphysical quaHty is beyond our understanding? Scientific men are actively engaged, endeavoring to solve the mysterious union of matter and mind, and start a spark of life in inorganic matter, and in so doing are practising a process of mental evolution. So Christian disciples are forever contemplating the nature of the revealed Triune God, and in the process of unravelling this incomprehensible yet apprehensible concep- tion, are growing in soul evolution. The mo- ment all the relations of matter and mind are known, scientists will stop their investigations [137] Agreement of Evolution 'and Christianity — the moment man comprehends God, he will probably lose all interest in contemplating Him. Wonderful, most wonderful is the power of the Holy Ghost on the destinies of many men. Hundreds of thousands of persons in the United States of America would be able to testify how His mysterious influence has entered their souls and shaken them to their life-centres, as no other emotion, as not even the love for their hfe-mates has done, and mate-love is the most powerful of the passions. Away down, reaching deeper depths, encompassing the noblest senti- ments, goes this mighty power, irresistible, into the souls of many men. Its manifestations are not always identical, but there are certain quali- ties ever present — a recognition of God, a sense of disobedience to Him and unworthi- ness; a desire for pardon to be obtained only by the mediation of Jesus Christ. The uni- versality of these sentiments proves the proba- bility of the truth of the ideas they represent. This working of the Holy Spirit of God is a mighty factor in soul evolution. It often comes as violently as the wind of a tornado ; as terri- fying as a prairie fire ; as overpowering as water in a flood with sweeping, drowning violence. To others, as the blessed and gentle dew of heaven; as sunshine vivifying the heart; as [138] The Holy Ghost the whispering breeze speaking softly to the soul; but whether one or the other, praise be to God for the regenerating influence of His Holy Spirit in the evolution of the soul of man. [139] IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL* IF man was assured his life on this earth was the end of his existence, the greatest induce- ment he now possesses for good conduct would be lost. While this is a most beautiful world to live in, and so attractive that all sane and healthy persons are loth to leave its fascinations and to pass either to a blissful immortality or to nothingness — yet so severe is the labor essential to provide for the necessities and com- forts of life : so feeble the body in contest with the productive forces of nature ; so disappoint- ing are the results of man's best efforts in what- ever department his energies may be engaged ; so vain and illusory his ambitions that rapine and plunder would take the place of fatiguing effort if he was not restrained by State and divine laws; listless idleness would dwarf the mind, and in the general stagnation, self-respect and ambition would be unknown. It is the thought, he is only a sojourner here ; that in a few short years he will enter upon an 1 For a discussion of the probability of the Immortality of the Soul from rational considerations, see " The Testimony of Reason." [ 140] Immortality of the Soul existence incomparably superior to all present experiences that endows this mundane life with its chief joy to those hearts which have realized its comparative nothingness. In it they see a school where the virtues of heaven are to be learned, and the evil propensities of humanity to be curbed and subdued to the extent of ren- dering themselves acceptable inhabitants for an abode of purity and love. Its trials they trust will be of short duration, with an existence of ineffable peace and happiness awaiting them, provided they are worthy ; because it is against common reason, unsupported by even the uni- versal conceit of the heart, for men who have recklessly given over their lives to debauchery, murder, and evil to believe they will inherit without repentance the bliss of heaven. It is consequently impossible to overestimate the evolutionary value on the soul of the hope of immortality which Christianity inculcates. The belief in a future life distinctly raises man above the level of the brute creation. It makes his existence extend to infinity. It causes the soul to take on some of the attributes of the Deity. Without immortality man becomes a brother of the beasts ; with immortality, a son of God. Prolongation of this argument in unnecessary. Nothing can be plainer than that the Christian belief of Immortality is a most powerful motive [ 141 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity in spiritual evolution, and for which belief no other dogma has been efficiently substituted. Nor does Christianity ask adherence to any proposition the contradictory of which can be proved to be true. That the soul of man is not immortal cannot be demonstrated. It is ad- mitted that so far as human knowledge extends no one has any experience of either a mind or soul independent of a physical body, and this is the sole circumstance of value capable of being urged by materialists against immortahty. But on the other hand : 1. Who knows the nature of mind? Who can define the substance of that faculty' which recog- nizes God? It is unscientific to declare such entities cannot exist without a body until their essential components can with accuracy be de- fined ; and this no philosopher or scientist has done. 2. If it be conceded that there was a First Cause which created matter, force, and motion, and subjected them to rigorous obedience of definite laws; and also established, as far as the human race is concerned, moral laws for its governance ; and if such First Cause could not have ordained the complex laws of matter and motion without itself understanding their nature, or have formulated commandments for morality without itself possessing the moral [ 142 ] Immortality of the Soul sense, then it follows immediately that such First Cause must have been possessed of both a mental and a moral nature. But it is incon- ceivable that such First Cause which made all the millions of spheres revolving in space, and implanted in the human soul the innate prin- ciples of charity, love, truth, and virtue, etc., was formed of bodily parts — of bone, flesh, and nerve — subject to the laws of gravitation and chemical affinities, or its morality was as imperfect as that of man. Therefore the human reason is forced to this conclusion that Mental- ity and Morality can exist independently of a material body similar to that possessed by man, and the Immortality of the Mind and Soul is consequently not disproved by the apparent cessation of vital functions on the death of the body. 3. All the phenomena of nature stand for truth. The laws which govern the physical world never deceive. The rules for moral con- duct are as uncompromising as the sternest natural laws. If the nature of a being may be judged by its works, one of the distinguish- ing characteristics of the great Author of the Cosmos is Truth. Nowhere is there deception. To this statement there is no exception. Sin is never confounded by the soul with righteous- ness ; evil is never believed to be virtue. The processes of the sane mind in its discrimination [143] Agreement of Evolutioh and Christianity between right and wrong are as certain as the laws of physics. When therefore there is every- where, among all peoples an innate, instinctive belief in the immortality of its spiritual nature, a strong probability by analogy is created that such belief represents the truth. [144] REWARD AND PUNISHMENT AVERY prominent and unmistakable prin- ciple of the Christian Religion is the unqualified doctrine that reward will wait upon faith in Christ and effort at righteousness, and punishment will be the portion of the ungodly, and these consequences will follow the soul after death. It is a natural characteristic of man to seek his own well-being. Every part of him has needs — his body, his mind, his soul. He is in constant realization of ever-pressing wants; he is always conscious of his inability to supply them fully — more than that, even partial sup- ply would fail if serious effort was intermitted. These demands are not confined to necessities. His mind in its activities soon changes a luxury into a want, so that the more he possesses the more he desires. Desire is always an advance myth beckoning him on; and he toils, he schemes, he frets, he oftentimes consumes his life in seeking to accomplish a state of falsely supposed betterment. Correlative to these yearnings for reward is the fear of punishment. Punishment is not [ 145 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity only a denial of a coveted blessing, but an infliction of some appreciable pain. Men may in their supineness endure to a limited extent absence of gratification, — they often do forego pleasure from indolence, — but none fail to es- cape punishment if they can. So, when the multitude is considered, threatened punishment is more conducive to good conduct than prom- ised reward. In a broad generalization the whole scheme of natural evolution is based on reward and punishment. When effort is made to accom- modate the organism to its environment the reward of supply of necessities is realized, and contentment follows; when no effort is made, for example, to secure food, or to avoid dangers, pain as a punishment quickly supervenes. Evo- lution, therefore, holds out an inducement of a double character for effort. The absence of effort in most cases does not result in simple self-denial and abstaining from enjoyment, but in positive pain; but if effort is made, enjoy- ment follows as a decided reward. So effort is doubly rewarded. Organized society is based on the same evolutionary principle. Rewards wait quickly on brave and noble deeds done for the State. Every community honors the hero of successful battle, and elevates to the highest posts of influence its public servants. The vicious and depraved are punished with im- [146] Reward and Punishment prisonment or made to give their lives for their crimes. There is no exception to this general rule. What pandemoniums the crowded cities of the world would be if there was no punish- ment for crime? Civilization would halt, and in a few generations, depopulation and barbar- ism would result. Soul evolution is founded on the same prin- ciple. From the delivery of the Second Com- mandment to Moses on Mount Sinai down through the pages of the New Testament, pun- ishment is declared to be the portion of the ungodly — punishment not only in this life as the natural result of bad conduct, but punish- ment of the soul in the life beyond the grave. This is the dreadful sentence of Divine Law, and when appreciated fully is proportionally to its length and its character just so much more powerfully deterrent to the commission of sin. The justice of God cannot be impeached because He has established punishment for evil conduct. On the contrary, if He had not ordered it to follow sin, His wisdom might well be assailed. He has made man with free will ; He has intended that the human race with all the balance of creation should evolve into higher states ; He has endowed it with a soul and immortality; for Him under such circum- stances to allow vice — which is the parent of degeneracy — to go unpunished would be an [ 147 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity encouragement for its indulgence, and one of the most powerful aids for soul evolution would be wanting, and man consequently would fail to make efforts to improve. In a purely rational consideration of the subject, it would seem, therefore, God was under the necessity of or- daining that punishment should in the future existence of the soul be the result of sin in this life. Further, by analogy punishment must follow vice. It does on this earth of its own effect. If the soul exists after death, is it rea- sonable to suppose that by the death of the body it changes its characteristics? On the contrary, every natural analogy would lead to the conclusion that it holds to its previous methods. A contemner of God will be a con- temner still ; a vicious heart towards fellow-men will entertain the same sentiments. How then in a strictly human view of the subject could such a creature come into the presence of an all Holy God ? Of necessity he must be banished from the sight of Righteousness ; of necessity he would banish himself, like the wicked in this life shun the companionship of the virtuous. The reverse agency applies to rewards. More than the applause of grateful fellow-citi- zens, or bronze statue, is the portion of those who die in the Lord. A vista, extending into the infinite future of eternal happiness and of proximity to God, is offered to the vision of the [148] Reward and Punishment soul for faith and good works. What a grand scheme for soul evolution ! Exactly analogous to natural evolution. If this world is the result of intelligent design by an all-wise Creator, then the agreement of soul evolution to natural evo- lution establishes a strong probability in favor of the verity of the former. [149] FREE WILL NOTWITHSTANDING the fore-knowl- edge of God, the Christian Religion teaches in the most unequivocal manner the possession of Free Will by humanity. How these two apparently contradictory states can co-exist has been much discussed by theo- logians, and no full reconcilement has been made of the perplexity. The case, however, is not different from any other metaphysical in- quiry, except the consciousness that we exist; or in the schoolmen's words, the recognition by each individual of the " ego." As an instance of metaphysical indecision in such matters, philosophers and thinkers have divided in opinion and waged intellectual warfare for cen- turies as to whether we perceive matter at all ; some contending that what we see and hear and feel are our own sensations and not things themselves, and therefore that there is no cer- tainty as to the external world. On a survey of the phenomena of nature it may be stated broadly there is mystery in all things where the intellect seeks to unravel Cause ; and con- sequently to believe that it is within the power [150] Free Will of God to know the future ; to know how each individual will act, though perfectly free to pursue one course or another, is no more an unsolvable problem than every other situation which surrounds us on all sides at every mo- ment of our lives. If a study of nature teaches one lesson more than another, it is God's scheme of creation is development by individual effort. The fossil- iferous strata of the earth offer the most certain testimony that Hfe has, in the main, advanced by effort from simpler forms to those of more complex structure and function. The vast im- provement, accomplished in the short Hfetime of each man by appropriate physical and mental exertions, demonstrates how effort is the agency by which all human growth is effected. Those organisms making proper efforts ascend in the scale of life, while those which fail to meet the requirements of this stern law do not. For this law to be just wherein each is the architect of his own fortune, Free Will must exist. To be thoroughly persuaded that success or failure depends on self — on individual efforts — is a strong motive to action. Each organism holds the key ; it has but to search for the lock which will open the blessings of this life to it. The Christian doctrine of Free Will as to the physical, mental, and moral life of man is em- inently conducive to effort. No Mohammedan [151] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity fatalism cramps energy; no superstitious in- cantations or orgies constrain the effect of natural laws evoked by endeavor; but all of the temporal good things of life and the grace of God are as free as air, as light, awaiting only the effort to make them one's own. Free Will is God's justification for the success or failure of every creature. Each class of or- ganisms, and each individual of each class, are enjoying the blessings or discomforts caused by the efforts of either their ancestors or them- selves. They all started from the same plane. Some have adapted themselves more perfectly to their environments than others. Some have advanced in the scale of life — others have made less progress — others again have even become extinct. None can complain. Failure is their own work, success their own due. In the great contest of life, where all classes of organ- isms should have an equal chance, a special protectorate of one would of necessity operate as a detriment to others. The field has been free, the intelligently industrious have been the winners. How fair this all is! How compat- ible with pure abstract justice ! Another lesson to be learned is the impor- tance of effort by each individual as affecting the fortunes of his progeny. Every act of every creature of all the multitudinous orders, families, species, and varieties of life inhabiting the earth, [152] Free Will is not only making history, but character, for its offspring; and whether the latter advance or retrograde depends largely on the efforts of its ancestors. It has the free will to act or not. Its choice is free. The justice of the Second Commandment, wherein it is said God will visit the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations, is most clearly demonstrated when the evolutionary develop- ment of organism is thus interpreted. If a man violates a law, and by so doing injures the functions of his body or mind, evolution often transmits these evil effects to his progeny ; so conversely, if in his free will he makes efforts to live in accordance with the laws of his exist- ence and develops functions and structure ad- vantageous to himself, these improvements will also be inherited by his offspring. For the Sec- ond Commandment not to have been the law, organism would have lacked the power of inherit- ance and all the development of animal and men- tal life abounding on the globe at this time would never have materialized. In other words, should evil be protected against itself, and as a conse- quence no attainment of higher Hfe be made? Should the wise scheme which has brought to the blossom our beautiful world and evolved the God-like animal — man — have been sacri- ficed in order that sin might be spared the legit- imate consequences of its own conduct? Moses [153] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity was an evolutionist in the narration of the Crea- tion. He was no less an evolutionist when he announced as God's servant one of its funda- mental laws in the Second Commandment, namely, the transmission of acquired charac- teristics to progeny. Every soul has the innate feeling that there is reverence due to some being, or essence, or principle outside of itself It may deny the God revealed by Moses, but in His place it sets up either the laws of nature, or pantheism, or idolatrous practices, or some other figment beyond itself, which more or less clearly it deifies. There is no escape froip an instinctive acknowledgment of man's feebleness in the pres- ence of natural forces ; no capacity to ignore deity ; but free will exists to worship a brazen calf, the laws of physics, or the Christians' God. Recognition of the Godhead in one form or another is a consequence of soul existence. Likewise in reference to man's duty to his fellows. The soul instinctively perceives man- kind has a common origin; that more or less remotely men are akin; and independently of all utilitarian consideration it is their duty to love one another. This is a great constraining principle, man has no power to flee from. It dominates his nature. And yet he has, subject to this innate consciousness, the ability to re- [154] Free Will gard or disregard its teachings in particular instances and either hand the cup of cold water to the thirsty under the influence of a common brotherhood, or to murder his victim in dis- regard of the dictates of his conscience. [iSS] FAITH NO man has seen God. The skeptic can- not subdue his self-conceit and declares God should manifest Himself to his senses. He demands to know more of God than he knows of the ground on which his feet tread. The most learned physicist has not discovered what matter is. Faraday was unable to describe the nature of electricity, and advanced electricians of the present day are giving out about every five years new theories of this wonderful natural phenomenon; and yet the atheist, if there is really one, cries out, " Why does your God not reveal Himself to man?" It is answered, " He has revealed Himself as far as the law of spirit- ual evolution allows. Deism exists in your heart — in the soul of every man — in the soul of that profound agnostic, Herbert Spencer — not defined by a concrete essence, but none the less truly in the vague and hazy consciousness of a ' First Cause.' " There is merit in believing in God. To real- ize His existence somewhat as if we had seen Him face to face requires a very persistent training of the soul — a metaphysical intro- [156] Faith spection. We learn to apprehend God by con- templating His works — His omnipotence by viewing the nightly display of the stars; His omnipresence, by observing the harmonious workings of the laws of matter and of force ; His omniscience, by the consciousness that He knows the secrets of our hearts; His love, by this beautiful world He has evolved for us to live in. There is no part of the universe, but God has revealed Himself somewhat in it, to those who seek Him ; and with evolutionary exactitude He reveals Himself the more to those who the more earnestly wish to know Him. There could be no growth in the knowledge of God if He had made Himself as plain to the mind as the trees are to the vision. When a thing is known fully there is nothing to stimu- late inquiry — it becomes commonplace and uninteresting. Photographers no longer experi- ment to ascertain if iodide and bromide of silver are sensitive to light. This is fully understood, but it was once the subject of unwearied investi- gation. Their efforts are now directed to the problem of photographing the colors of the spectrum. If this should be accomphshed, it would lose much of its interest and some other unattained knowledge, such as the photography of objects invisible to the human eye would beckon on the insatiable greed of the intellect [157] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity of man. The witchery of mystery is fascinating. It stimulates contemplation of the Deity, and thought of God elevates the soul. On lines precisely similar to the revelation of Himself has God made known the Lord Jesus Christ. If the Deity has left ground for speculation as to His own nature, would it not have been extraordinary for Him to have en- forced conviction in regard to the Messiahship? As to His own nature He has revealed Himself in every material object, in every law of the universe, in the Holy Scriptures, in the souls of men adequately for soul evolution. In regard to His Son the same method has been pursued. He appeared on the theatre of the world at a most opportune period for human evolution. A minute history of His life, of His miracles attesting His divinity, of His death and resur- rection and ascension has been singularly pre- served for the use of men ; also a full account of the principles He taught. There has been vouchsafed to us the knowledge that soon after His death — soon is repeated because in that age the printing press was unknown, and com- munication between peoples slow, difficult, and infrequent — His religion largely supplanted heathenism. More extraordinary yet, in a world where everything is under the reign of law — of Evolution — established by a beneficent Being, we have had the most surprising evolutionary de- [158] Faith velopment, physically, mentally, and spiritually, of man, unmistakably and proximately attribut- able to the doctrines of peace and good-will He taught. These in general terms are briefly some of the evidence of the verity of Christ, adequate in every particular on which to found a reasonable faith. The soul is the soil, and these facts the seed. If the ground is culti- vated as the prudent husbandman does his fields, and the weeds are turned under by the plough, the revelation of Christ is ample to bring forth the most abundant harvest — the deepest, sweetest, most consoling faith and moral con- duct. Faith is inconsistent with absolute knowledge. A thing known, as said before, is no longer investigated — but faith stimulates contempla- tion; and contemplation eventuates in either mental or soul evolution. To illustrate the thought, take one example. Fortunately for soul evolution there has been no authentic account of the personal appearance of the Saviour. If the world had been favored with a true portrait of His features. His bearing and general manner, He would be as common- place to us as Napoleon or Washington. This extraordinary absence of all personal descrip- tion of our Lord is in exact accord with all other revelation. Just enough has been un- folded to increase the desire for further knowl- [159] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity edge ; enough to call for the exercise of the highest development of faith, and therefore of the imagination. Imagination is a meta- physical reality, powerfully affecting the will power, and the will controls the acts. As it is, the spirit is constantly seeking to picture to itself the divine lineaments of our Lord. Michael Angelo, Raphael, and the whole line of the most gifted artists of the past and present, have looked into their souls for the Christ and endeavored on canvas and in marble to symboHze their most sublime conceptions. Not only these, but every heart throughout Christendom that raises itself ideally in suppli- cation to His feet, clothes His person with the most beautiful embodiment it can figure, thus elevating by effort, by the process of evolution, the individual soul to a higher sphere. While no man knows whether the Saviour's skin was bronzed or fair as woman's ; whether auburn locks surrounded His brow, or dark masses of hair rested on his shoulders; if a straight Greek or modern Hebrew nose domi- nated His countenance ; or whether He grew tall among men or was robust ; but this I know as plainly as if I was looking at His person at this moment — for the spirit then as now illumi- nated all the features of the face, every movement of the body, the whole being, with its own es- sence — that the walk of Jesus was neither [i6o] Faith hurried with nervous excitement nor slow with sluggishness. A sweet but composedly sad expression at all times rested on the Hnes of His mouth — its sweetness, expressive of His sympathy and love for humanity — its sadness, of His inexpressible grief for man's sins. There was no moroseness in His lonely moments ; no complaint when grieved the most; but a calm benignity dominated every emotion in even His last hours. I know not whether His eyes were dark or blue or gray, but this I know, the living spirit of the man beamed from them with ineffa- ble tenderness, and the light of love lit them as a lantern with kindly rays. He was meek but not cringing, for Christ was a moral hero. Did He not fearlessly pronounce the judgments of the law on the chief men of His nation with the words, " Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites"? No mortal man has equalled Him in calm courage — none has so deliber- ately walked to martyrdom as Jesus. When I describe Him to my soul as a preacher, repose and earnestness seem to have emanated from every movement of His body — from His whole being — exercising even before He spoke a pro- found influence — that influence which great men exert over the weaker ; that reserve power which conquers all obstacles, which impels smaller souls to put their trust in the strong. His gestures neither soared with undue frequency, [ i6i ] Agreement of EvoluticJn and Christianity nor were impassive with coldness, but dignified, impressive, and graceful. His voice was musi- cal, and the modulation of His words various and exquisite ; for I have ever noticed a fine delivery of speech is accompanied with mental capacity. I see the multitude hanging on His words, some weeping, many following Him from place to place, eager to hear more of eternal salvation spoken in such stirring and solemn tones. And notwithstanding their homage, I see this Man, easily recognized as Master of them all and by them all, not puffed up with self-approbation, but calm and earnest and lowly. The contemplation of such things, the effort to bring the person of the Saviour visibly to the spirit and thus elevate it, is as much a mat- ter of soul evolution as the seeking of a favorable habitat is among animals and plants. This brief illustration of the effort to picture some of the characteristics of Jesus shows how contemplation — delightful and ennobling con- templation — would be extinguished if knowl- edge had been allowed to usurp the place of faith, and soul evolution thus far be rendered impossible. [162] GOOD WORKS THE Christian Religion teaches not only the necessity for Faith but the perform- ance of Good Works. By Good Works is meant to love God, and to love one's neighbors because God has commanded it. Faith and Good Works are inseparably connected and reciprocally the effect of the other. Faith in itself begets Good Works. To believe, to thoroughly believe, God is the Lord and Father of us all, that Jesus Christ by His death made atonement for our sins, that this Godhead has enjoined abstinence from sin, and righteous conduct, such a faith of its own force will impel the believer to Good Works. So, on the other hand, the individual who devotes his best efforts to loving God and obeying the precepts taught by the Saviour, and because they were taught by Him, must of necessity have Faith in the Deity he strives to obey. Consequently there can be no Christianity without Good Works. But work is effort, and -effort as we have fre- quently seen is the proximate cause of Evolu- tion. In requiring, therefore. Good Works, the Christian ReHgion is as absolutely and essen- tially evolutionary as the law of natural selection. [163] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity By effort the organism becomes more complex in function and structure ; by effort the human soul attains more perfectness. It is impossible to conceive of a system better adapted for spiritual development than Chris- tianity. Effort is necessary to attain to a satis- factory apprehension of God, faith in Christ, and the performance of Good Works. There is no free gift of perfected spirituality. It is only- acquired after the abasement of intellectual con- ceit, by the submission of a rebellious will, by the denial of vicious pleasures made alluring by the worldly, by the loving of the brother man. In all this system for the creation of righteous- ness there is not one flaw in its code, not one sin is tolerated or unpunished. If this immacu- lateness be admitted, and no atheist even will deny the morality of Christianity, then if the moral nature of man is the subject of Divine solicitude as much as his physical development, and it must be so, for physical development broadly considered can only take place propor- tionally with moral development, it follows that Christianity, aiding in the most efficient manner the evolution of man, is by analogy as much the institution of the Creator as the laws of physical evolution. The effects of Good Works wrought under the influence of Christianity are marvellous. [164] Good Works On a previous page, the writer has called at- tention to the results of this Religion, showing how men must have peace and security of life to enable them to devote their minds to the arts and sciences, and thereby make the best use of the laws of nature ; how in consequence of the teachings of the " Prince of Peace " wars and the butchery of wars have comparatively ceased in the present era ; how the most extra- ordinary advance has been made along all the hues of physical, mental, and moral develop- ment until schools and hospitals and churches fill nearly all Christian — but only Christian — lands, and Hfe, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the birthright of every man. Unfriendly readers may answer this picture is a glittering generality and we dispute its truth- fulness. Then let there be cited one instance, and a most important one, because it affects the male youth of our country, with facts taken from the official report showing what Chris- tianity is doing for soul evolution in that case. The number of well-established Young Men's Christian Associations of North Amer- ica in May, 1903, was 1,736, with a member- ship of 350,455, owning establishments valued at $28,827,886. The associations have 739 reading-rooms and expend annually $42,100 for periodicals. They have 699 libraries with 544,450 volumes. Courses in education are [165] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity- given by 913, to young men and boys. Last year 70,286 religious meetings were held, at which there was an attendance of 3,954,207. The number of men and boys enrolled in definite Bible classes was 31,300. Think of the benignant effect this one insti- tution, and of comparatively recent origin, is having on soul evolution ! How it is purifying the morals of every youth of our land who comes within its blessed influence. Can a thorn tree bear such figs — a thistle such roses — a dive be the nursery of pure minds in sound bodies? Following the same line of thought an ex- amination of the Directory of the City of Chicago for 1903 will show that there are in that city approximately nine hundred churches devoted to the cause of Christianity. There are also in that book the names of one hundred and fifty-eight schools, nineteen asylums, four- teen hospitals, and five hundred and ninety-two religious societies, all bearing as their designa- tion some name intimately connected with the life of Christ. If it be estimated that each church has one religious society, and they have between them on an average an active membership of four hundred persons, it is plain that some three hundred and sixty thousand people in that city are devoting themselves more or less to the en- [166] Good Works nobling worship of God, to helping those un- able to help themselves, to teaching correct and temperate living, to the practising of virtue, to cultivating the intellect, to the advancement of honesty and brotherly love, in a word to the development of the physical, mental, and moral evolution of themselves and their fellow-men. The writer has examined in vain this direc- tory to find the name of a single society, organi- zation, or association whose title would indicate that it was composed of infidels having for its object the evolution of the human race. There is no reason to think that the directories of New York,^ Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, St. Louis, San Francisco, and other cities of the United States, will present any sub- stantial difference from that of Chicago. This showing, if it be true, and the directory can be easily consulted, is a terrible indictment of infidelity. The accusation is that there is no charity, no brotherly love, no desire on the part of infidels to better humanity; that it neither teaches nor practises the physical, mental, or moral advancement of mankind ; that it stands for degeneracy; and that its legitimate result is retrograde evolution. It would seem that on this showing the honest agnostic would of his own accord pause and 1 For a similar analysis of New York City Directory, see " The Testimony of Reason." [167] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity- ask himself the question, Can I be right in my infidelity? If infidelity is practically synony- mous with degeneracy, is it not contradicted by the progressive evolution of all nature in which I am a firm believer? The position of the agnostic scientist is therefore of the most in- conceivable contradiction. As a rule such men are of more than ordinary knowledge and power of analysis. They are firm believers in Evolu- tion. They must know that morality and Good Works contribute to longevity, to physical de- velopment, to peace of mind, and thereby to the leisure to investigate and the disposition to solve and utilize the natural forces. In fine, that evolution is largely dependent on brotherly love, and the highest brotherly love is that in- spired by obedience to Divine Command as promulgated by Christianity; and yet, they ignore this cause of evolution, this factor which is of no less importance in the high development of man than the survival of the fittest to live, and substitute nothing in its place. A strange inconsistency for men who believe in the Reign of Law in a world where every law has an intel- ligent and sufficient Cause. But it is not surprising there are no agnostic societies for the propagation of virtue, for the founding of hospitals, or the cultivation of Good Works, because there is no cohesion in vice or infidelity. Criminals will unite to perpetrate a [ 168 ] Good Works theft, but when detection overtakes a member and he can escape by disclosing the plot, he makes confession and violates his compact of secrecy. The infidel never rises to any higher plane than a balancing of gains as the motive for a good act, and as this balance is as various as the different minds which weigh the subject, owing to their different points of view and cir- cumstances, there can be no united efforts, no union of infidels in altruistic acts. Christian unity is unlike all this shifting of sands. Throughout all Christendom there is but one chart, one common platform, one high- est law — love God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself. Is it wondrous, then, that such countries are everywhere filled with churches, with societies and hospitals and col- leges bearing Christian names and embracing millions of souls devoted to the noblest philan- thropy in the cause of Evolution? Enough. A volume might be written and hardly adequately emblazon the twice blessed effects of Christianity on him who gives and on him who receives. [169] ATONEMENT FOR SIN IN this treatise sin is understood to be either a wilful violation of the commandments of God or an omission to use one's best efforts to conform to such commandments. It is unneces- sary for the argument to discuss the original cause of sin ; whether it came by man's dis- obedience in eating the forbidden fruit in an actual Eden, or whether that account is sym- bolical of a deeper cause ; which it may be, for it is an undeniable fact that much of the Scrip- tures is written in and illustrated by a figurative style, and often with poetic license. The Saviour Himself resorted to parables most frequently to enforce His revelations and teachings. But taking the world as we find it, many sins to which man is addicted are directly attributable to the edict that by the sweat of his brow he should earn his bread. Rarely does man find something for nothing. For the most part nature is such a reluctant mistress she yields her treasures only after the most laborious and persistent toil, and in such scant abundance and of such perishable quality there is no lay- ing up of stores for the future. The muscles I 170] Atonement for Sin of the toiler are feeble ; his nerves are weak ; his years of infancy and of old age many ; and his period of active work not adequate to ac- complish individually great things ; moreover, disease, injuries, and lassitude are ever curtailing his vigorous days. The necessities of himself and of a dependent family are numerous, and so imaginative are their minds that luxuries soon take on the garb of indispensable require- ments. Every inducement of nature, his love, his desire to please those who look up to him, his parental instincts, all urge him to supply these wants. He is oppressed with the convic- tion he cannot successfully earn them, and that he is surrounded by fellow-men in sharp com- petition with himself bent on seizing what he would obtain. The opportunity presents itself to appropriate what another has produced. His desire is so great to possess it, he steals. With this crime of theft is always associated falsehood — sometimes arson and sometimes murder; often the breaking of the Sabbath, the dishonoring of parents, and always covet- ousness. Many sins may thus be traced to a covetous- ness springing out of the parsimony of nature and the feebleness of man's best efforts to over- come the reluctance of the soil to yield without exhausting labor. Men everywhere realize they are sinful. This condition is emphasized when Agreement of Evolution and Christianity they find themselves in a state of civilization ; for civilization increases wants, and wants with- out effort are the natural parents of sin. There comes a time in the life of many souls when the conviction of sin plays a very intense r6le. The soul by the influence of the Holy Spirit of God sometimes wakes up to a realiza- tion of its duty to its Creator, namely, to love Him with all its power, and to love its neighbor as itself. It appreciates it has fallen far short of the performance of these obligations. It undergoes a regeneration, modified, it is true, by the physical and mental characteristics of the individual, but a regeneration — a conversion — the most prominent quality of which is a rec- ognition of the Holiness and Righteousness of God and the unworthiness of the sinner — a conviction that the soul is unfit to enter into the ineffable Presence of its Maker; that there is a certainty of punishment for misdeeds, and an impossibility ever to acquire by its own efforts any worthiness sufficient to render it pure enough to approach its august God. To be convinced of this state of affairs — to be permeated with these thoughts — that the soul is powerless to do anything to render it either fit to enjoy the presence of its Creator, or to escape damnation, despair would seize it within its enervating grasp, effort would be fore- gone, and in its place the man would abandon [ 172] Atonement for Sin himself to gratification of his vicious propensities under the behef that to-morrow he dies. Just here comes in the evolutionary doctrine of the Atonement for Sin by the Lord Jesus Christ, and the poor soul — in the vivid realiza- tion of its sin and unworthiness, of the unutter- able perfection of its God, and of its incapacity to sanctify itself adequately to meet His Holiness — catches, as a drowning man to a floating spar, rapturously, sometimes frantically, to the Cross of Christ as its salvation, and for the balance of life with varying grasp holds on to it as the great inspiring cause for its best efforts in resist- ing sin and growing in soul evolution. [173] EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY IT is not important for the argument of this treatise to discuss the conclusiveness of the Evidences of Christianity. According to the theory of Evolution, if they produced cer- tain conviction of their truths, there could be no spiritual development as the result of effort in studying and testing their values. The fact that men have an opportunity to doubt, and need to investigate, gives rise to a spiritual growth analogous to the information and power gained by study in those divisions of physics and intellectual matters, the knowledge of which is still incomplete. The Deity, however, has taken care that mankind has not been left in darkness as to the facts essential to stimulate religious contem- plation; but only so much light has been shed on the subject as not to dispense with effort to understand His Divinity and the other truths of Christianity. How different the scheme of God is from that of man ! The writer in his humanity is bring- ing forward every argument and collateral fact he knows of and thinks pertinent, to convince [ 174 ] Evidences of Christianity the reader that Christianity is as evolutionary in character as natural selection is in the animal kingdom. The divine method, on the other hand, compels conviction on none, and while offerinof evidences cumulative and more and more convincing to those who study them with reverence, yet it never enforces certainty by full knowledge. To have gone further and com- pelled belief in Himself and in Christ by the most indisputable proofs ; to drive men by su- perior force as the shepherd does his sheep into the fold, would prevent soul growth, soul evo- lution. Sheep so driven and protected would never evolve the capacity to escape from or defend themselves against wolves. The opportunity should not, however, be lost to mention one of the Evidences of Christianity which should particularly appeal to evolutionists. It may be termed ** The Witness of Christian Civilization." The world has had many great religions and systems of philosophy, and each has contained valuable moral precepts. In their day and place they have respectively moulded the civilization of races to an extent beyond any other causes. Chinese life in its highest phases is the incarnation of the teach- ings of Confucius. These are based on a utili- tarian morality that it is most profitable to do right. India has reached all that Buddhism can [175] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity develop ; which consists of a pantheistic divinity wherein the highest good does not contemplate benevolence by the individual, but absorption into an all-pervading essence. Persian thought in its best form is the result of the philosophy of Zoroaster — a philosophy which sanctifies evil when the emergency is adequate. The hieroglyphics of Egypt and the frescoes of Pompeii tell in pictures what their mythologies could accomplish. Even the Jew may be cited as the product of Judaism, and the Turk is the living exponent of the Koran. So, the almost entire absence of support by infidels, agnostics, and materialists of institutions and associations for the amelioration or advancement of human- ity is proof there is no virtue for altruism and brotherly love in their creeds. When these people, numbering millions, are compared with those reared under the influence of Christianity, it is impossible for a man not unfriendly to Christ to believe that all the benig- nant fruitage of Christian civilization has been the result of falsehood and superstition con- cocted by a lowly Nazarene and a few ignorant fishermen of Galilee. In a word, where cause and effect are as invariable as gravitation; where the results of fraud are failures, and sin is death to any enterprise ; where things founded on truth alone abide, and those on justice are always beneficent, it follows as a legitimate [176] Evidences of Christianity deduction from this rational premise that the wonderful civilization of Christendom must be a consequence of truth, as contained in the Christian Religion, and prepares the logical mind to give more than ordinary weight and credence to its supernatural claims and evidences. Imagine the status man would occupy if en- dowed with a positive knowledge of God, of Jesus Christ before He became man, of His inconceivable glory at this moment; think of this creature understanding fully the character of immortality, and what the angels in heaven and the imps of Satan are engaged in doing; conceive of him grasping the infinitudes of time past, of space, and of time future; and then regard him as the animal he is — weak in his muscles and nerves, erring in his judgments, capricious in his emotions, understanding not even why his heart beats automatically or his eyes enable him to see, or why he can think or the secret of memory. Such a being, with components so unbalanced, would be a mon- strosity more disproportioned than an ant surmounted with a human head. God is wiser than the agnostic. The conclusions arrived at are that certitude in the evidences of Christianity would militate against effort to accomplish spiritual develop- [177] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity ment proportionally to their conclusiveness; that the demands of agnostics for more con- vincing testimony in support of the tenets of Christianity are unscientific and founded on a misapprehension of its basic principle, namely, that spirituality must be sought, the same as food for the body and knowledge for the mind ; that any Christian advocate who claims God has revealed, beyond doubt and the necessity of endeavor to search. Himself, His Son, the Immortality of the Soul, Rewards and Punish- ments in the Future Life, etc., does not un- derstand the underlying principles of either Revelation or Christianity; that the Christian World may regard with supreme indifference all the attacks of Mr. Herbert Spencer, Mr. Ingersoll, Professors Strauss, Huxley, etc., be- cause they are demanding proofs of a religion which its founder expressly ordained should not be granted, by declaring it was to be built on faith; knowing that, if granted, its vital es- sence, its spirit would be gone, and all the good it was intended to accomplish — namely, soul evolution — would be lost forever; or stated in the converse form, the position of Christianity as to divine grace is, " Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you " ; and finally that the evidences of Christianity are perfect in quantity and quality — proved by the present and prospectively advancing civilization [178] Evidences of Christianity of Christendom, — and most intelligently adapted by an All-wise Providence to accomplish their end — the growth of spirituality in man, and consequent on that growth, his physical, mental, and moral evolution. [179] THE CHURCH OF CHRIST MAN is a social being. He finds his safety, his development, and his pleas- ures in intercourse with his fellows. His phy- sique is so weak in comparison to the force of gravitation, he is unable without assistance from others to till adequately the soil, or to build enduring structures, or to provide even for his own necessities. He is compelled to combine with persons in situations similar to his own to resist the attacks of fierce beasts and bad men. Deprived of association, he is the wild man of the woods. The accomplishment of such prime necessities requires agreement among the several workers, and this agreement to produce a desirable result for common bene- fit is government. Government is, therefore, evolutionary. Now those things a good gov- ernment accomplishes for the general advance- ment of its citizens, the Church of Christ, as to spiritual matters, performs for its members. It offers an organization, a concrete idea around which its adherents may rally. Rallying around any standard gratifies the social instinct and fascinates. It stimulates enthusiasm and action. [i8o] The Church of Christ It affords a field for combined endeavor, the individual being spurred to the highest effort in his desire for approbation from others. Self- approbation if controlled by good judgment is a desirable quality. The Church restrains un- worthy actions for fear of condemnation by fellow-members whose good opinion is cher- ished. It sets forth constantly the virtues of the Lord Jesus Christ as an example for men to imitate, and presents His death and resur- rection as evidences of what He suffered for them. It ever reminds the relapsing memory of the great necessity for faith in the Saviour as Mediator with God. It is unnecessary to elaborate minutely the inestimable moral precepts the Church of Christ has been the active agent in preaching to man- kind. If morality — not morality practised as a species of speculation wherein it is mentally concluded that a certain act will produce desira- ble results, but that morality which has its main- spring of action in doing or not doing a thing because it will be in obedience to the command of God — has produced beneficial results in the development of mankind, then the Church of Christ as the concrete embodiment of that mo- rality has, in its sphere of influence, been a most potent agent in the evolution of the altru- ism which distinguishes Christendom above all other parts of the world. [i8i] THE SACRAMENTS OWING to a limited range of thought and the necessity to gratify the same recur- ring necessities of his nature, almost all of man's acts take on the character of habits, and these habits are manifested constantly by the same outward acts. In other words, he does things continually in a practically identical manner. He clothes himself from year to year with garments of like shapes. He moves about his household ways with each day a repetition of the preceding. His pleasures and his labors are a combination of similar movements. This general principle applies to every department of his life,. to his business, to his government, and to his church. Irrespective of a desire to ignore all ritual he is of necessity a ritualist. His religious services repeat themselves on Sun- day after Sunday. His prayers are a reitera- tion of ideas worded in substantially similar language, whether written or oral. He cannot avoid repetition if he would. He has the same soul emotions to utter, the same wants and thanks to offer to God, and he has not the [I82] The Sacraments intellectual capacity to vary their expression indefinitely. It follows from these facts that a Church must have a form of worship — whether the congregation be composed of Quakers or Epis- copalians or Congregationalists. But in addition to the adoption by compul- sion of forms and ceremonies expressive of the ideas of the worshippers, there is much inherent value in transmuting spiritual conceptions into symbolical acts. Some minds, either by nature, or from want of education, or from preoccupa- tion by other subjects, are unable to expand mentally to themselves a satisfying worship; whereas when the attention is attracted by some fully expressed act of devotion, the visible representative of a reverential idea, the religious sentiment is elevated and gratified, and drawn towards the right direction. It goes farther; it makes definite and intensifies the thought; it bestows part of its own purity ; it gives grace to the believing worshipper. Herein again by the establishment of sacra- ments is found the superhuman wisdom of Christ. Exactly the correct thing has been done in every point of view to make His Church the most enduring evolutionary moral factor the world has experienced. Take the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper — a sacrament as to which entire Christendom is [1S3] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity agreed. Can any outward act of worship be more touching than this divine institution? It was founded at the most earnest period of the life of our Lord — in the midst of His little band of Disciples and on the eve of His cruci- fixion. If there is a solemn moment in life, it is when we stand, in full health, consciously, on the threshold of eternity. He brake bread and poured out wine, and declared of those who should worthily partake of them that He would dwell in them and they in. Him. It is impossible to imagine a more intimate communion of soul with soul than was thus established. What mortal mind would have conceived of the practice of such an act for the purpose of typifying the coalescing of the soul of the disciple into that of its Master? It was not to be a secret worship, like individ- ual prayer, but a feast, — the gathering together of disciples, the visible communion on equal terms of all believers in an act of co-eating which more than any other performance signifies brotherhood. It was to be done reverently, and Christ's apostle with His usual bold denuncia- tion of sin, pronounced the sentence of condem- nation that unworthy partakers should eat and drink to their damnation. Of all acts of worship, it is the culminating sacrament, most powerful in maintaining the unity of the Church — its virility — its dignity — its sacredness. [184] The Sacraments No man can partake worthily of the feast, mark well! worthily, without experiencing an inward spiritual grace to come over him and to possess his soul. And in so far as it, and it alone of all acts which man can perform, raises him to a sublime state, unapproachable by all other states, it is the most powerfully unique evolutionary factor the moral world possesses. [185] CHRISTIANITY AN AID TO PHYSICAL AND MENTAL EVOLUTION THE influence of Christianity as an evo- lutionary agent in the advancement of the physical and mental faculties of mankind although alluded to heretofore deserves from its importance a rather more expanded considera- tion. The religion of Christ, while inculcating love of God and faith in His own Messiahship, also teaches that the Kingdom of Heaven is to be the abode only of such men as are temperate in their meat and drink, pure in their lives, honest in their conduct, diligent in their respec- tive callings, merciful and charitable with their fellows, etc. Now the practice of these cardinal rules of conduct has each an immediate effect on the physical well-being and development of men. Intemperance saps the goodness of bone and muscle and nerve. Temperance enables the vis i}it(2 — the power of life — to appropriate in the best manner the supply of food, and correspond- ing growth takes place. It conduces to the avoidance of accidents, to long life, to the health- [l86] Christianity an Aid to Mental Evolution fulness and rearing of progeny, to the accom- plishment of the best results in life-work. Christianity enjoins virtue. The reward of virtue is a sound mind in a sound body. The punishment for immorality is often tainted blood, childlessness, a broken nervous system, insanity, etc. No mere whitewashing of the outside of the temple of the soul with foulness within, no abstaining from acts while the tongue speaks and the eye beams lasciviousness, is the morality taught by the Saviour. His virtue reaches the plane of sublime inward purity. He was an uncompromising advocate for the sanctity of the marriage vow. The married state is conducive to health, physical comfort, avoidance of unclean habitation with its micro- scopic enemies to Hfe. The married state is an agent of peace in preventing wars. The married state is at the root of the family tree, whose broad limbs shelter with its shade and feed with its fruits the youth of the land — making them either valuable members of society or a curse to their race. " Be diligent " is a motto of Christianity, which command, allied with '* Peace " and *' Brotherly Love," contains all the essentials for the suc- cessful prosecution of commerce, the arts, the sciences, literature, and philosophy. These injunctions practised by the unit organ- isms become incorporated in the body-politic, [187] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity and government based on such precepts of Christianity spreads its broad and benignant aegis over all its people aiding each, one and all, in the final evolution of a humanity physi- cally and mentally stronger from age to age. It seems to be supererogation to follow further in detail the proximate results, on the body and mind, of obedience to the rules of Christian life. There is not one precept, but the legitimate effect of which is increased physical and mental well-being. The religion of Christ meets every demand of the highest civilization. More yet, it has a reserve of ideals which has never been equalled and will serve as a moral code for a millennium. Practically everything great, ever)^thing val- uable, everything ennobling the world pos- sesses to-day is the product of Christendom. Are not these facts, where there is no chance, but only ordained laws, a most convincing testi- mony of the value of Christianity to physical and mental development? Are they not the strongest proof of its evolutionary character? And if they are, and evolution as to the body and mind be conceded to be a law of an all- wise God, Christianity, because of the powerful influence it has exerted in evolving mankind to its present high physical and mental state, must be ranked in the same category, namely, as the direct and immediate work of the same Creator. [188] Christianity an Aid to Mental Evolution In other words, all evolution must be denied as the law of Divine Creation, or Christianity must be included; or to state the proposition in another way, there can be no God, and this wonderful Cosmos with its intricate and har- monious laws, its adaptation to environments and developments of life, its beauty, its sublimity, its love, must all have been the work of chance — blind chance (and where has chance pro- duced sequence or law or order?) — or else Christianity, and all that the sacred word implies, is among the absolute facts and verities of this Cosmos ordained by a loving and omnipotent Father and God. [189] MISSIONS IF Christianity has within itself the inherent power to cause men to evolve into higher states of humanity, it would lack in the full and practical application of its own principles if it did not teach the extension of its blessings to all mankind. It is claimed in this treatise, its Divine Founder left no essential provision for its successful practice untouched, and as an example of the perfectness of His religion He com- manded all His disciples, for all time, to carry His Gospel to all nations. This is in exact accord with His great generalization of the Law and the Prophets, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it ; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." Any less altruism than that which includes the whole of mankind would, in a purely rational consid- eration and practice of Christianity, have been a very great imperfection. [ 190] Missions There have been enumerated some of its bless- ings to the individual soul, to the family, to the neighborhood, to each little body of Christians worshipping under the same roof, to the State, to communities of Christian States, but Christianity is broader than all of these. Its evolutionary power takes in the whole brotherhood of man wherever he is found. Its love is as boundless and as free as the air. The love of God and of the Saviour are the only possessions men are willing to share with their neighbors. How marvellous this fact ! It matters not how rich a Croesus may grow, he is jealous of his friend's wealth if it approaches in amount to his own. Statesmen, jurists, medical men, and the whole class of worldly workers look with displeasure on the growing reputations of their rivals. Even children watch with envy a mother's love for their brethren. But when a soul becomes im- bued with the Holy Spirit of God, it does not seek to secure exclusively the divine love for itself, or to render heaven tenantless except with its own kindred ; but instantly it takes on the character of universal love, and an earnest and supreme desire possesses and fills its whole being that all men should enjoy equally with itself the blessed privileges of a blissful immortality, and share alike with it the love of a Heavenly Father. If the temperance, the peace, and the charity [191] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity Christianity teaches tend to the development of mankind, then the express command to take these virtues to every square mile of the earth's surface is another expression of its complete evolutionary character. [ 192] THE FUTURE OF CHRISTIANITY IF the highest evolution of humanity is to be found, as heretofore shown, in the symmet- rical development of physical, mental, and moral attributes; and if the most efficient morality (not a morality which does a seemingly good act because it will bring the doer a personal benefit, but a morality having its source in a desire to conform conduct to the commandments of the Supreme Deity) may be formulated as obedi- ence to the precepts to love God with all the soul, and our neighbors as ourselves, then Chris- tianity, which is the living and uncompromising exponent of this morality, presents a system of moral laws beyond which there is nothing con- ceivably better or higher. It is impossible to imagine a more ennobling motive for obedience than love for and conform- ity to the will of the Being who made the mil- lions of worlds revolving in space — a Being all powerful, all wise, all holy, and all loving. When men shall come to love their neighbors as themselves, murder and theft, slander and adultery and covetousness will all have ceased ^3 [ 193 ] Agreement of Evolution and Christianity to exist, and universal honor and peace will abide in the heart of humanity. These are the ends Christianity has set for the complete development of mankind — this is the goal, and none other; and inasmuch as there can be no loftier or more complex evolution than is represented by these attainments, and as evolution will endure, if the history of the past is a prophet of the future, it follows that Chris- tianity must continue to be an agent of Evo- lution; and as it represents the highest and noblest principles the mind of man can conceive, it is impossible, on any reasonable grounds, to conclude either how Christianity can cease to exist, or how it can be superseded by another and better system of religion. [ '94] CONCLUSION THE broad generalization of the arguments presented in the foregoing pages is — in- asmuch as man reaches his highest development in the correlated and balanced growth of his physical, mental, and moral faculties, and as Christianity has been a direct and the most effi- cient factor known in the history of mankind contributing to his moral advancement, and inci- dentally to his bodily and intellectual progress — that the Religion established by Jesus Christ is entitled to be considered and actually is in its sphere of influence, as evolutionary as either nat- ural selection, the effect of use or disuse of parts on organisms, or the inheritance by progeny of desirable structures or physiological functions. If this proposition be granted, and it is not perceived how it can fairly be denied, when it is borne in mind that only Christian countries have advanced splendidly in civilization, and if it is further believed that nature with its harmonies of laws, its correlation of matter and force, its beauty of phenomena, and its development of life is not the product of chance, but the work of an all-wise and all-powerful Creator, then it ['95 1 Agreement of Evolution and Christianity follows immediately and legitimately that Chris- tianity has been ordained and established by Almighty God. Again, if this last conclusion be accepted, and no such world-compelling power could have flourished without the cognizance of a Supreme Being, who has given so much attention to both the grandest and minutest laws and phenomena of the universe, then Christianity — because it controls in the most potent manner man's inter- course with man, modifying his natural savagery, advancing truth and virtue, temperance and honesty, charity and love, and thus aids his bodily and mental progress — must be consid- ered as regards the Evolution of Mankind as much a Science in its principles and an Art in its application as any division of Physics. This is the resultant thought of this book, namely, Christianity is a Science established by God to suit the exigencies of its field of operation, and is to be classed with all the other sciences and agencies He has ordained for the Evolution of His Creation. When this proposition, and all implied by it, is fully comprehended, then Christianity will be viewed in its true light, and the agnostic scien- tist will recognize that the most efficient means have been employed to evolve the highest unit of creation, the Christian will learn that nature and its laws hold nothing to be feared as antag- [ >96 J Conclusion onistic to his consolin^c^ and ennobling faith — then too may they approach with hand extended to hand, each convinced from his distinct line of reasoning that the Religion of the Lord Jesus Christ must of necessity be Divine. [ 197] THE TESTIMONY OF REASON By Samuel Louis Phillips, A. B. {^Princeton). Zion's Herald. — The author writes mainly for students of science who have rejected the doctrines of the orthodox churches. He seeks to establish the probability of the most important truths of Chris- tianity by purely rational considerations from facts, so that doubters may be led to recognize the real strength of the Christian position, and yield them- selves to the glorifying faith in the Saviour of man- kind. It is a most excellent aim. Courier-Journal, Louisville. — An argument founded upon known facts and known laws for the Christian religion. It is written with profound earnestness and clear logic. Its elevated and in- spiring sentiments should have a wide circulation. The Sunny South, Atlanta, Ga. — The object of the author is sensibly stated, and is to meet the negatives of scientific agnostics with facts out of their own data, which prove their know-nothingisms palpably inconsistent. Upon the salient propositions of the- ology, pure and simple, Mr. Phillips presents fairly the attitude of those who doubt, deny, or ''don't know " what Christians in common believe. He ex- [ 199 ] The Testimony of Reason amines the grounds of their unbelief, or faith inertia, and answers them with the logic of facts and theories that they profess to be scientifically true and tenable. A reading of " The Testimony of Reason " will en- force the conclusion that what is popularly known as "scientific doubt " in the field of theological knowl- edge is no more than self-imposed ignorance by the refusal of knowledge. . . . expert, cogent, and convincing to those who have enough of both theological and scientific infor- mation to follow his arguments. The Gazette, Terre Haute, Ind. — Believers in the Christian religion will find much to gratify and satisfy them in this admirable little book. Times-Union, Albany, N. Y. — This is a book which is good to read and profitable to remember. In it the writer endeavors to prove the truth of the Bible in its entirety, and argues scientists, atheists, agnostics, and pantheists on their own grounds. His quiet earnestness is convincing, and his knowledge is not limited to the usual refutations of his opponents' points. He advances new thoughts from an opti- mistic viewpoint, and stands firm for the " glorifying and ennobling " Christian faith. His principles of belief are clearly and concisely presented, and the work is full of cheer and encouragement. The Buffalo Courier ; Gazette, Montreal, Canada. — This volume seeks to combat with " arguments founded upon known facts and known laws," the representa- tions of agnostics and scientists, who dispute the [ 200 ] The Testimony of Reason commonly accepted Christian religion. Rather a clever defence of Christianity from a somewhat origi- nal standpoint. Courant, Hartford, Conn. ; Baltimore American. — The purpose of "The Testimony of Reason," by Samuel L. Phillips, cannot be too highly commended as an effort to meet the objectors to religious truths on the grounds of fair deduction and unprejudiced de- bate. Mr. Phillips believes that these opponents can be " made to see . . . that many of the important truths of Christianity can be established to a high degree of probability by purely rational considerations from facts in whose truth they firmly beUeve," and that thus they may be brought into a more receptive frame of mind for further argument. Oregonian, Portland, Ore. — The book will doubt- less prove a comfort to many that have been dis- quieted by vague rumors of attacks on religion by science. Savannah Morning News. — An interesting and valuable little book. Times Democrat, New Orleans, La. — Mr. Phillips's little treatise upon the testimony of reason, whefi ap- plied to the principles of revealed religion, is the out- come of a conviction that more attention should be given by the representatives of the Christian church to arguments founded upon known facts and known laws; that the scientist and agnostic should be ap- proached upon their own battle-ground, their weapons [201 ] The Testimony of Reason seized, and the fight waged with arguments from na- ture against arguments from nature. He has there- fore examined briefly the position taken by the atheist, the agnostic, and the pantheist, and shown why, in his opinion, they are, one and all, untenable. Mr. Phillips's arguments . . . are well put, and they have never, as he says, been satisfactorily answered. Buffalo Sunday News. — The argument ... is well carried forward and the evidences in human con- sciousness in verification of the claims of faith are skilfully marshalled. The Presbyterian. — In the fulfilment of its pur- pose it will doubtless prove helpful to many a strug- gling soul. The Times, Pittsburg, Pa. — The author believes truth and nature to be one and harmonious, and that Christianity is truth. He has advanced some strong arguments in support of his faith. "THE TESTIMONY OF REASON" Cloth, pp. ii6, Price 30 cents. The Phillips Com- pany, 330 John Marshall Place, Washington, D.C. 1904. [ 202 ] 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recalL 4May'63MT vl. I. - t t ^ (/( i; J.M. JUN 4'i96l6P^ ^1 nn^Q^ ->> ZO iJioS i Vi.,^^'J*-^ MAY 2 5 '65 -3 PW 7Dy.f9-,ToT4\VI^ UniSS£if-SSgr.U 4ri439 ,,' UNIVERSITY OF CAUFORNIA UBRARY