"A HOUSE OF CARDS"--THE CREED OF AN ATHEIST--A WORD TO YOUTH, LOVERS OF NATURE, AND OUR RELIGIOUS FRIENDS--SUMMING-UP AND CONCLUSION.

Surely, if overwhelming evolutionary evidence was leading men to unbelief in God, it should be a course to be followed with the greatest reluctance and sorrow: positions should only have been abandoned after determined, even if despairing, efforts had been made to invalidate the unwelcome knowledge which had come to rob them of all hope of a future life. Obduracy of this nature by a believer, even if unreasonable, would at least be understandable, for he would be unwillingly yielding a most desirable and glorious hope. Far from showing fight, however, men have eagerly espoused the cause of Evolution--and this in spite of the opposing evidence which has been produced to disprove it. Ever since its announcement in its Darwinian form (1859), anti-evolution evidence has continued to accumulate. In spite of this, the evolutionists have shut their eyes, stopped their ears and persisted in their exploded opinions.

For what reason does the unbeliever persist in his discredited theories? What unworthy motives move him? It is nothing but a natural repugnance to everything that savours of God. The very idea of God is irritating to the natural man, with his wayward inclinations; for,

"The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him." (I Cor. 2:14.)

THE SCIENTISTS' GUILT

First in this trespass are the scientific men who have embraced and championed the Darwinian cause. That they should be in error need not unduly surprise us. True, they are very able men; and when they deal in facts they command our respectful attention. Their scientific ability, however, does not make them immune to personal taste and fancy in ethical matters; they can as easily indulge in fancies as in facts. Remember, they are but men and as such they have their prejudices: and these are not necessarily governed by facts, but as often as not by feelings. In moral matters they are men first and scientists afterwards; therefore their scholarly ability ceases to be of the same value in deciding spiritual questions.

What then, you may ask, becomes of the believing scientists' testimony? Is not that also invalidated by such arguments? No, and for this reason. Although the believing scientists' testimony is, of itself, of no more value than the unbelievers', the value of their witness lies in the fact that, knowing science as well as their unbelieving associates, they find it no barrier to belief in God and the Bible account of Creation; on the contrary, they find that it supplies strong confirmatory evidence of its truth.

If it be pointed out that such believing scientists are in a minority, we readily admit it. This is only to be expected, because unbelievers in all walks of life are more numerous than believers. As we have already intimated, scientists are not a class apart; they are just men, nothing more or less, and as men they are governed by the same wayward inclinations and natural impulses as other men. Therefore we should look for--and also find--the same reactions to religion among scientists as among all other men.

We feel, however, that we can make one distinction between the scientists and other men. We make it for the purpose of allocating to them a larger portion of blame; for not only should we consider the seriousness of their own actions in denying a Creator, but the harmful effect which it has upon millions of others who regard their opinions with such awe-struck reverence. What the scientists say has influenced millions against the Bible, and for this reason we single them out as having a greater measure of guilt.

"PROPHESY DECEITS"

Not that this exonerates the willingly mis-led masses, for they have not been deceived against their wishes, as we have seen. Their mental receptivity is well illustrated in Israel's attitude in the past, when they welcomed false prophets and said,

"Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits." (Isa. 30:10.)

Thus have God-dishonouring scientists found a responsive public who have been only too ready to espouse Evolution or any other God-dismissing theory which would set them free to follow their natural bent without any restraint. A popular, if unuttered, sentiment is "Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die"; and upon this precept most men act.

"PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN...."

Evolution has come to men as a welcome remission. It has removed that last vestige of a pricking conscience which has been engendered by a vague and lingering consciousness of God. This feeling of emancipation--it is but a deceptive feeling, being in reality the vilest bondage--is well illustrated in the gleeful pronouncement of Mr. H. G. Wells:

"If all the animals and man had been evolved in this ascendant manner, then there had been no first parents, no Eden and no Fall; then the entire historical fabric of Christianity, the story of the first sin, and the reason for an atonement upon which the current teaching based Christian emotion and morality, collapses like a house of cards." (Vide "Evolution Disproved," page 98.)

"If"; just if! How much depends on this little conjunction! How empty it can make the most beautiful day dream! Who has not heard of the small boy who was said to have declared, "If I had some strawberries I would have some strawberries and cream-IF I had some cream." That's just it: he had neither, and so the little lad's desire remained an unfulfilled longing. His "ifs" brought him no nearer the desired reality, and neither do Mr. Wells' "ifs."

"IF the animals had been evolved." But they have not: that is just the crucial point! The scientists cannot say they have been evolved, for science denies it; and so they are forced to say, "If they have." This in itself is rather an admission, coming as it does, from Mr. Wells. He, and those who think like him, may feel freed from obligation after delivering such a statement on the "collapse" of Christianity. He may feel quite jubilant at such an easy disposal of eternal truths which, he says, collapse "like a house of cards."

What conceit, to be sure; as if eternal truths, securely anchored in God, can be blown over by human breath! Such people need to think again, and think hard: these people who, themselves, live in a card-house, if ever there was one! Those who live in the card-house of Evolution dwell precariously at the best of times, but when they are given to blowing at other people's alleged card-houses, they dwell perilously. Wind is a dangerous thing for the insecurely housed, for when others blow back from the safety of a secure abode, IT IS EVOLUTION WHICH DOES THE COLLAPSING "LIKE A HOUSE OF CARDS," as we have shown.

Of the secure house in which the believer dwells it is written,

"The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock." (Matt. 7:25.)

AN IMAGINARY WORLD

Turning now from the consideration of Mr. Wells' "profane and vain babblings," let us imagine, if we can, a world in which exists an exactly opposite state of things to that which does exist. Instead of a world in which we find a book claiming to be God's revelation to man, and which, translated into many tongues, has circulated all over the earth as "the world's best seller," bringing comfort and hope to countless millions, visualise a world the exact opposite, a world in which exists no literature claiming a divine origin.

Imagine a world, moreover, in which science is not in a controversial state or at an experimental stage, but is advanced, final, and as beyond dispute as our "twice times table." This science has demonstrated beyond any shadow of doubt, that the earth and man are the outcome of blind mechanical chance: the accidental outcome of fortuitous, unintelligent force; from which it follows that death merely releases the chemical constituents of the body to resume their original state of inorganic existence. The return to life of an individual is thus scientifically ruled out, even as a remote possibility--a belief, by the way, which is now in fact held by Evolutionists.

A MONSTROUS DOCTRINE

Given these imaginary conditions, then the words of an atheist would but state a terrible and depressing truth:

"Brief and powerless is man's life: on him and all his race the slow, sure doom, falls pitiless and dark. The life of man is a long march through the night....

"One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death." (Bertrand Russell, F.R.S.)

Given these conditions of scientific finality and men who had no hope (of which we have spoken), then, we believe, the very contrariness of mankind would assure a widespread intellectual revolt against such a monstrous doctrine--a doctrine which degraded men to the moral level of beasts, deprived them of the comfort to be derived from a belief in a supreme being, and bounded their intellectual and physical horizons by an eternal grave.

With a desperation born of despair, they would strive in every manner and by every means to gainsay such a bleak and comfortless philosophy, Their distracted minds would be akin to those of a past godless age who, in a national emergency, declared, "If there is no God, then we must invent one." This, we believe, would be the mind of many into whose hearts the dreadful sentiments of Bertrand Russell had sent a desolating chill; and there would be a revulsion of feeling against such a soul-less, comfortless materialism.

ON THE BATTLEFIELD

In their despair and desolating sense of orphanage, they would yearn for the love, pity, and help which they would instinctively feel could only come from a power higher than and remote from man--a fact which becomes evident when Godless people are in an extremity or mortal danger, as in times of war; for they then supplicate in earnest prayer the God whom, in all their normal life, they have chosen to ignore.

Such is the Inbred contrariness of human nature, that in such circumstances men would probably vie with one another in formulating a destiny for man, characterized by every imaginable extravagance of happiness and well being; whilst God would be credited with the possession of every pleasing attribute that their fertile imaginations were capable of conjuring up. Of one thing we may be sure: whatever God their fancy invented, whatever hope was framed even in their wildest imaginings, their conceptions could never equal, let alone surpass, the true God who has already been revealed, or the glorious hope and destiny already prepared for man.

Of God, the Bible tells us that He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient, as we have already seen in our scientific review. It tells also something which science could never completely tell us: the Bible reveals Him as a God of boundless love, a truth powerfully stated in only three words:

"God IS love."

He is also tellingly described as a "Father";

"Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him." (Ps. 103:13.)

Moreover, He is a God who invisibly controls and regulates affairs for our eventual and final good, for

"The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." (Ps. 34:7.)

"He shall direct thy paths." (Prov. 3:6.)

"All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28.)

NO MORE DEATH

He is a God, moreover, who has promised and planned to put the world in order one day by the establishment of a world-wide kingdom of righteousness, love and peace, a kingdom of which the troops under General Allenby sang in Jerusalem in 1917, after capturing the Holy City from the Turks:

"Jesus shall reign where e'er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run,
His kingdom stretch from shore to shore,
'Till sin shall curse the earth no more."

It will be a kingdom in which the poor will be cared for--freedom from want (Ps. 72); a kingdom in which every man shall "sit under his vine," and none shall make them afraid--freedom from fear (Micah 4); a kingdom in which our well-Intentioned but impotent health services will be replaced by divine healing, so that "the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick," but " the eyes of the blind shall be opened" and "the lame man shall leap as an hart"-- freedom from disease (Isaiah 33 and 34); a kingdom in which eternal peace will prevail, when "they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks . . . neither shall they learn war any more"--freedom from war (Isaiah 2).

Above all, this kingdom will bring something that does not, and indeed cannot, enter the most Utopian of men's plans, and without which all else is but evanescent freedom from death! God has sworn, by his own eternal existence, to fill this earth with His glory, and to restore the conditions which flourished in Eden; He has promised to give it, as an eternal inheritance, to immortalised men and women recruited from past and present generations. Whilst now "the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together" (Rom. 8:22); while we "through fear of death are all our lifetime subject to bondage" (Heb. 2:15); He has promised that He will "wipe away all tears" (Rev. 21:4) and "swallow up death in victory" (Isa. 25:8), so that "there shall be no more death" (Rev. 21:4).

What a programme! What a charter! The Bible is full of details concerning this grand and glorious time, yet, entrancing as are the descriptions, the finite mind Is incapable of grasping the full significance of their beauty; and so it is written,

" Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which, God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Cor. 2:9.)

Thus, you see, no Utopian reformers or idealistic dreamers could even visualize all the good that God intends to consummate; still less could they achieve it by mere human planning.

LEAKING CISTERNS

It is here that we are presented with an unparalleled example of human inconsistency. The very thing for which men yearn, and for which they would frantically search in its absence, they will, in its unsearched-for presence, calmly reject and unconcernedly ignore.

It is all so very difficult to understand, yet it is a human trait of character as old as mankind itself. God's own people, Israel, were guilty of it millenniums ago, so that he accused them by the prophet, saying,

"They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." (Jer. 2:13.)

Cisterns that could hold no water were clearly the alien philosophy and beliefs indulged in by Israel's heathen neighbours, in contradistinction to God the fountain, or reservoir, of life.

Today, men turn from that same sole and copious reservoir to the philosophy of Evolution, the empty cistern full of holes. Evolution can hold none of this water. It can make no promise--not even a false one--of life; rather is its promise one of death: just a biological death--a return to chemical elements--to help to grow grass--to feed sheep--"a slow, sure doom" which "falls pitiless and dark." What a prospect! And yet--this is the doctrine" by all the world preferred"! To an enlightened believer it seems beyond comprehension on natural lines; but God has threatened that those who receive not the truth should, at the last, be victims of "a strong delusion, that they should believe a lie." Doubtless herein lies the explanation --strong delusion! (2 Thess. 2:11.)

A WORD TO YOUTH

Many readers, especially young ones, may not feel particularly moved by God's promise of a life free from present ills, pain and sorrow. Naturally they cannot wish very ardently for deliverance from something they do not suffer. Present health and strength, and the prospect of many happy years of life, are liable to make them view pain, sorrow and death as, at the most, remote contingencies; and this militates against the consoling nature of God's promises.

But this is an illusion that does not last for long. Things may appear to be stable and lasting, but it is only a deceptive appearance. Time is a factor which teaches us--all of us--this mistake sooner or later. There is a worm at the root of everything human. Hence the exhortation, contained in the words of a hymn, need not be restricted in its application to youth, but can be heeded by all who feel, as youth does, that there is a happy stability and permanent joy in life:

"Youth on length of days presuming,
Gay with health and many a grace,
Let not cloudless skies deceive you,
Summer gives to autumn place."

Just as the seasons follow each other in inexorable sequence, so it is with all our lives; summer gives place to autumn with its chilling winds and falling leaves, telling us of the drear prospect of winter. The only difference is that, whereas the advent of autumn can be foreseen and foretold with certainty, our autumn may be unseasonably hastened, and come without warning in the midst of our summer.

Now to speak without a figure. Premature affliction or illness may come to shatter our rosy illusions; the advent of grim reality may come suddenly without waiting for the passage of years to disillusion us. It is then, when we realise that "change is our portion now," that the promises and purpose of God appear in a different light--their true light. The wisdom of seeking out and becoming favourably related to God's purpose then--if not before--becomes apparent; and often it is too late!

LOVERS OF NATURE

Then there are the lovers of the natural sciences--astronomy, botany, zoology--men and women who are continually engrossed in their studies and pursuit of nature for the sheer love of it.

Such an interest is very understandable and indeed in its right place--very commendable. The world would be a nobler and more refined place if more persons spent their time in this way, instead of in the debasing and demoralising pursuits of the common run of mankind.

But although we could bear with--even if not understanding--the mentality of a passenger on an ocean liner who spent all his time below deck, absorbed in the functioning of the great engines which were propelling the mighty ship, we should regard the same conduct on his part very differently under changed circumstances: if, for instance, he insisted on remaining below to study his beloved engines when the vessel had become storm-tossed and was rapidly sinking. Conduct which we were formerly inclined to regard as harmless, we should now consider to be suicidal or insane because, at such a time, his paramount concern should be for his own immediate safety. This would manifest itself in strenuous efforts to avail himself of the means of escape which the forethought of the company had provided. Engine inspection could well be discontinued until he was in the comparative safety of a rescue ship, or on the more stable terra-firma.

The same principle would apply to the majority of his fellow passengers whose taste, unlike his, was gratified in the ship's baIlroom. Conduct which, in safety, would be a waste of time merely, would become the utmost folly, if, deaf to the entreaties of the sailors, the revellers continued to dance while the ship was foundering.

Now there are many passengers on a bigger ship which is also sinking. Some of its passengers are deep in the study of the. working of things, which they would doubtless describe as the modus operandi. So absorbed are they that they seem oblivious of their peril. When momentarily roused to their danger, they absent-mindedly ask not to be bothered--just now.

There is a story told of a great philosopher who was in the habit of becoming so engrossed in his studies, that it was very difficult to get him even to eat. One day his beloved wife, who had been gravely ill, died whilst he was in his study engaged in profound thought. Upon the maid venturing up to his room, with the terrible that her mistress had died, the great man looked up with a vacant stare and, with evident irritability, replied," Yes, yes, Janet, tell the mistress to wait awhile!"

Many there are, who, in effect, tell death to wait awhile. But death will not wait awhile: not even for philosophers to finish their problems.

"A SHIP OF FOOLS"

The ship to which we refer is. of course, our earth which is voyaging its way through space, loaded with passengers, every one of whom is doomed to death. Their attitude is not dissimilar to that of the passengers in our parable; for the great majority are absorbed in the affairs connected with, and bounded by, this mortal, transient existence, either in pursuit of knowledge or the allurement of pleasure. Suggestions of escape from an evil plight are either treated with indifference or levity by them according to their particular mental make-up. Thus we feel that, in the aggregate, mankind deserves the description of Carlyle (we believe), whose cynical definition of them was:

"A ship of fools floating through the universe."

To students of nature we would say: Reconsider your position and learn to put first things first; by-and-by there will be plenty of time and endless scope for the study of natural sciences, once the ideal and safe surroundings of the Kingdom of God are reached.

To those who read to find truth, we would say: Leave the so-called Thinkers' Library books alone for a while; remember that they are published by an organisation whose avowed object is to discredit religion; for this reason they welcome the help of all and sundry who can contribute toward this end: Gibbon and Mark Twain; Voltaire and Bradlaugh; Wells and Tom Paine; it matters not how motley the list, as long as they help the Godless cause. Also, for a while at least, get out of the malarial undergrowth of Darwin's Origin of Species or Drummond's Ascent of Man. Get into the sunlight; breathe the invigorating air of the wind-swept mountain top of Paley's Natural Theology.

Paley deals with the same natural phenomena as does Darwin: but nature with God in it, which makes all the difference. As a result, Paley does not have constant recourse to "if's, "perhaps's," "maybe's" and "we suppose's." There is, rather, a ring of truth about all he writes; and it is a ring that has not become cracked with the passage of time. In this monumental work of Paley, sceptical, but nature-loving, men may indulge their love of nature with an enquiry after God, and be led to perceive an adequate cause for all natural phenomena. Paley does not speculate; he develops his theme in logical, link-by-link demonstrations, and gradually forges them into an unbreakable chain of irresistible reasoning.

If we advise the skeptic to study Paley and Natural Theology, we only mean it to be as an introduction to revealed Theology--Bible Theology; for without this as a finality, all other knowledge is futile.

We have found that the powerful arguments of natural religion, when once grasped, will often arouse the initial interest in certain types of minds and prepare them to listen with respect to what the Bible has to say. However that may be, even if at present a skeptical reader does not even want to believe, he should at least acquaint himself with the Christian arguments. He will at least be a better unbeliever afterwards, or he may, even as others have done before him, become converted to the Christian point of view.

If he refuses so to acquaint himself, why is it? Can it be that he is afraid? Can it?

OUR RELIGIOUS FRIENDS

And now a word to our religious friends. Are you quite happy about what you have read of your leaders' desertion of Bible teaching in favour of nebulous Evolution?

Do you really believe that Christ will approve the action of your church, and your bishops, in calling in question and denying what he so often declared to be God's infallible word? Having failed you--as you must admit-- in this fundamental and vital matter, have you still confidence in their own man-made doctrines and man-made hopes?

You may not, as yet, believe that they are man-made. You may be quite settled in your beliefs of the immortality of the soul, for instance; of heaven at death, and so on; but are you sure, quite sure about it? If so, are you so assured as a result of Bible revelation on the point--quite sure that the Bible teaches it? Are you?

We firmly believe that you have only men's word for it. You may be surprised, to say the least of it, to learn that the great man who led your revolt against the Church of Rome rejected these doctrines out of hand.

No, we have not made a mistake; we refer to the great Martin Luther. He declared:

"I permit the Pope to make articles of faith for himself and his faithful--such as the soul is the substantial form of the human body--the soul is immortal--with all those monstrous opinions to be found in the Roman dunghill of decretals." (Luther's Works, Vol. 2, folio 7. Vide "A Declaration.")

Luther was not alone among the early reformers; we could quote William Tyndall, for instance, who translated the Scriptures into English and suffered a martyr's death in A.D. 1536. He says:

"In putting departed souls in heaven, hell, and purgatory, you destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection....

" The true faith putteth the resurrection, which we be warned to look for every hour. The heathen philosophers denying that, did put that souls did ever live." (Vide "A Declaration", page 28.)

Such testimony is scriptural: it is in harmony with the teaching of Jesus. For instance, having in mind his impending bodily ascent into heaven, he said to his faithful disciples,

"Whither I go, ye cannot come." (John 13:33.)

Of David, King of Israel. God said,

"I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart." (Acts 13:22.)

Surely such a one would be eligible for a place in heaven at death? But the testimony concerning David is the same as in the case of Christ's disciples, for Peter declares:

"David is not ascended into the heavens." (Acts 2:3-4.)

Is not heaven-going the basis of all your hopes as an orthodox Christian?--and yet, it has a "heathen" origin, says Tyndall.

Suppose, then, that death is really--death; and that God will only interpose to raise and give immortality to those who have strictly followed His instructions while they lived. What is your position? Are you prepared to take a terrible hazard with your eternal destiny, without at least investigating the foundations for our serious imputations against your church?

"WITHOUT HOPE"

Paul the apostle wrote to the Ephesian believers, and told them that at a recent period in their lives they had been

"Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise."

As a result of this state, they had been in a condition described as

"HAVING NO HOPE, AND WITHOUT GOD IN THE WORLD." (Eph. 2:12.)

Have you ever thought about that? Do you know what it means? If so, are you favourably related to the "covenants of promise," or have you uneasy doubts about the whole subject?

We make bold to say that if you are an average church goer, it is more than probable that you cannot recall Paul as having written any such thing. If this is so, please do not dismiss the whole subject with a shrug of indifference, but think about it. It may be that you will be glad you did so later on, because these are not trivial matters or mere topics for the expression of unimportant opinion, but rather are they matters of divine revelation involving issues of death or life--your life!

We are not now able to deal exhaustively with this personal aspect of the subject; our purpose, however, will be well served, if we can successfully arrest your intelligent attention, make you uncomfortably aware of the unsatisfactory basis of your cherished belief, and reveal the manner of men into whose keeping you have entrusted your spiritual affairs and committed your future well-being. Indeed, it may well be, if you are given to thinking, you have already been puzzled, from time to time, as little inconsistencies have aroused your attention, or matters which seem irreconcilable with your beliefs have perplexed you. It may even be that you are openly dissatisfied with church dogmas altogether. If this is so, then our remarks will not merely have aroused these feelings in you, but intensified existing ones. In either case, you may, at least, be in a frame of mind to accept a friendly suggestion from one who was once similarly placed--one, moreover, whose doubts, misgivings and puzzled questionings have all been triumphantly settled in a manner of which he could have only dreamed in his previous state of bewilderment.

Our suggestion is that you read a book which is devoted to dealing with these doctrinal matters in a thorough and exhaustive manner. It is a book that will dissolve your doubts, answer your questions, and open for you the other wise locked door of much that is difficult to understand. It will dispel the mists of vagueness which have obscured many doctrines, making them but half discernable, and will leave revealed in clear, bold outline the glorious message of earth's redemption as prophetically and apostolically delivered.

This book accepts the Bible as Jesus accepted the scriptures--as the wholly inspired and infallible word of God. Upon this the author proceeds to build, course by course. Gradually he rears his super-structure; each successive proposition is supported, illustrated and proved as he proceeds (after the apostolic example of "reasoning out of the scriptures"), until an imposing edifice is reared, beautiful in design, perfect in symmetry: indeed, just the building we should expect from specifications provided by the divine architect of the Universe, for,

"He that built all things is God." (Heb. 3:4.)

If you desire to lose the scales from your eyes, read Christendom Astray from the Bible. It will bring the Bible into focus for you; the blurred image will gradually change into a clear and beautiful picture of entrancing loveliness and ravishing beauty. Those who know the book (and there are thousands) will not accuse us of overstatement or of extravagant eulogy: especially if, like ourselves, they were enlightened by its instrumentality, and now rejoice in the possession of the pearl of great price. If then you desire to learn the Truth, read Christendom Astray from the Bible, by Mr. R. Roberts.

A LETTER TO AN EDITOR

We turn now to the final phase of our concluding chapter, the summing-up.

As an introduction we have first a few relevant things to tell. A few years ago a letter appeared in the correspondence column of the Daily Telegraph; among its contents was the following:

"The doctrine of evolution . . . in scientific circles there is growing tendency to doubt the truth of theories accepted for so many years. There is no evidence that man has evolved from a lower to a higher form: . . . THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT AN EXPERT LAWYER PROPERLY BRIEFED COULD NOT TEAR TO SHREDS WITH THE UTMOST EASE."

Our reason for quoting this letter is that we may tell you of such a lawyer in real life--a lawyer who, having had his eyes opened to the imposture of evolution, is now busily engaged in writing and debating against this plausible theory. Like thousands of other young men in the schools and universities, he was taught evolution in his biology lessons as a matter of course. Everything that favoured the theory was presented to him, but not a whisper of any dissentient opinion. Everything that came from the biological textbooks was unquestionably accepted as true.

"THAT'S FUNNY"

Mr. Dewar left university and his biological studies, and in course of time became a barrister. Evolution was not altogether dismissed from his mind, however, and from time to time he gave it thought. Meditating occasionally upon conflicting ideas, he tells us that he made the mental remark, "That's funny!" Eventually his suspicions became fully aroused, and with legal-like thoroughness he devoted many years to an exhaustive investigation of the claims of evolution. He conducted his enquiry, be it noted, not as a Christian, who could have been biased, but purely as a lawyer who deals in evidence.

The result was such that Mr. Dewar became a confirmed and effective anti-evolutionist.

In a recent debate with a very prominent and able exponent of evolution, Mr. Dewar successfully refuted his opponent's arguments for evolution. His success can be measured by the consequent refusal of his opponent to publish the debate: a refusal accompanied by veiled threats of legal proceedings if he (Mr. Dewar) should dare publish it without consent. Mr. Dewar, realising the legal barrier, was reduced to the rather unsatisfactory expedient of publishing his own arguments only, unaccompanied by the remarks which called them forth or to which they were an answer. The reader who knows anything of the readiness of successful contenders to publish debates will draw his own conclusions from the repeated refusals of Mr. Dewar's antagonist. We mention these matters in order to show what can happen when men are prepared to think and enquire for themselves, and to be guided by evidence alone.

Bishop Barnes said that our university students would as soon disbelieve that the earth goes round the sun, as to disbelieve evolution. But this proves nothing! University students en masse may appear formidable; but take them one by one on this matter of evolution, and you will soon learn what their opinions are worth. Usually they are just school book opinions, as were Mr. Dewar's before he began to think for himself.

A TYPICAL CASE

A few years ago we were associated, for a considerable time, with a young Cambridge Master of Arts and Bachelor of Science. When our conversation got on to the Bible, which it did fairly soon, this young man airily and confidently affirmed that the Bible had been entirely discredited by the numberless discoveries made by science. We suggested that that being so, he should have no difficulty in pointing out a discrepancy or two, beginning with points of greatest error.

He found our insistence on ascertained facts most embarrassing. The imposing array that he thought he had was reduced to a few feeble objections of which it was easy to dispose. Of real facts he had none! We were not surprised--but he was! Later, when we became more friendly, he confessed that he had received a shock. Like so many other university students, he had only been taught one side.

The testimony of a professor engaged in training graduates in biology will serve to confirm the credibility of our story. In a preface to a book on Evolution by Dr. W. B. Scott, Professor of Geology and Palaeontology in Princeton University, U.S.A., there occurs the following by its author:

"My experience with graduate students of biology has shown me that usually THEIR TRAINING HAS SO COMPLETELY TAKEN FOR GRANTED THE TRUTH OF THE EVOLUTIONARY DOCTRINE, THAT THEY HAVE BUT A VAGUE CONCEPTION OF THE TESTIMONY BY WHICH THAT DOCTRINE IS SUPPORTED." (Vide "Evolution Criticised," page 284.)

This, mark you, among students of Palaeontology: not general students, taking less specialised training, like our friend of whom we spoke. Thus the error grows and spreads. The students at university believe it because they are taught it. They, in turn, become teachers, and pass on the poison to the children in the schools, who believe their "university" biology master implicitly. The children grow up into men and women, and thus a godless society is increasingly formed.

A DISCREDITED THEORY

Evolution fails to satisfy the man who, like the late Lord Halsbury, wants the evidence, because no real evidence exists. The theory which was once courted and flattered has now become discredited. If it follows Huxley's suggested course it will end as a heresy--and that time is in sight.

A theory formulated to account for unknown causes remains a tentative opinion all the while that one irreconcilable fact remains to challenge its truth. Professor H. H. Newman puts it this way:

"If all the facts are in accord with it, and none are found incapable of being reconciled with it, a working hypothesis is said to be advanced to a proven theory."

This cannot be said of evolution, because not only one fact but many--indeed, all the facts--are against it.

And now, in order to refresh your memory and leave a final impression of the cumulative force of the evidence against evolution, we will briefly sum-up.

SUMMING-UP

First of all, we would remind you of the very questionable origin and nature of the so-called "Missing Link" finds. The value of these was destroyed by the conflicting opinions af anatomists, notably at the Leyden conference. To this we would add the damaging exposures of Sir Arthur Keith and others whose evidence is quoted in chapter one.

Then we would refresh your memory on the self-confessed inability of the evolutionists to demonstrate any change of species: a change upon which the truth of the whole theory depends. On the contrary we saw that much, indeed all, of the evidence proves the exact opposite. You will recall how the sterility of hybrids proved to be a fatal objection to the theory; how that under human guidance and manipulation the sterile offspring--in the few cases where there are any offspring at all--rebuked the experimenters by refusing to go further, thus proving the Bible declaration that all things were made "after their kind." You will also recall the serious challenge which the entire absence of living or fossil "links" constituted: that this absence was quoted triumphantly by anti-evolution professors, and reluctantly admitted by pro-evolutionists, including Darwin himself.

You will now remember the unavailing and unconvincing efforts that were made to account for the beginning of life: how that protoplasm was adduced by the defenders to their own undoing. Also you will recollect how the desperate suggestion of the planetary origin of protoplasm was rebutted by the testimony of such men as Pasteur and Newton. We would remind you also of the destructive discoveries of Mendel; and the consequent disproof of "Inheritance of acquired characters," one of the evidences so necessary to the theory of evolution.

Then there was the short but telling testimony of the bees on the subject of instinct; and how their skill was found to be irreconcilable with the theory of evolution. This was followed by a telling account of the concentrated efforts to change the fly with the pretentious name, Drosophila melanogaster. Remember also how the fly's 800 descendents represented 200,000 years of human history. You will remember, and note, the definite "NO" that these experiments have given to "change of species."

From this we turned to geology, and demonstrated the failure of the evolutionist to show indisputably the earth's age, the age of fossil remains, or any change of species. You will recall, and note, how this line of evidence for evolution collapsed. Arising out of this subject of geology was the imaginary horse link, composed of teeth and a name--Merychippus. This was followed by Professor Huxley's wild and futile attempt to show what time and chance will do. You will remember the fantastic figures involved in simple problems of chance; and how Huxley still left life absolutely unaccounted for.

A CHANGING PANORAMA

After these things we reviewed the general trend of the science of the past. We saw its changing panorama. We watched a long procession of theories become discredited in turn and follow each other into obscurity. We noted the folly of being unduly influenced by apparent tendencies and the danger of concluding their continuance or permanence. You will here recall the illustration of the mistaken insect "astronomers." Then the final lesson of the chapter--the wisdom of waiting and suspending judgment, and how faith in the Bible has been vindicated by a changing science at last harmonising with Bible revelation.

You will then remember the forecast of science: that one great spiritual cause would be found to account for the Universe when modern science reached maturity. Then we read evidence to show that modern science is even now justifying this prediction. Add to this--one great cause, the fact that the mysterious all-pervading force so clearly revealed in scripture, is also being verified by modern experimental physics.

Finally, you will remember how we dealt with the Bible and its contemporaries; of its unmythological character in a world of myths; of the scientific testimony to this fact, even by evolutionists themselves.

Any one of these facts--well established facts--is fatal to the theory of evolution. Their cumulative effect, we suggest, utterly and completely destroys the validity of evolutitionist arguments.

THEREFORE, THE BIBLE IS LEFT IN TRIUMPHANT AND UNCHALLLNGED POSSESSION OF THE FIELD.

Vincit Veritas.

Appendix