science! Invisible atoms, or molecules, supposed to exist in protoplasm, but which no microscope has ever detected, are imagined to contain the power and potency of life, and without a designing mind to have evolved from slime, first a tadpole or earthworm, and finally man! In other words, these wonderful molecules have wrought all the mighty works usually ascribed to the Almighty. How these atoms, accepted as the final cause of all things, came into existence and survived all the vicissitudes that the earth has experienced from gases, water and intense heat, are some of the marvels that science has not explained.

But we cannot discuss the various existing schools of evolution. The "fittest," if there is any such, may survive; but they are conflicting and are more likely to destroy each other, and then the voice of truth will be heard.

Evolution is prima facie inconsistent with the Bible, because its great advocates are nearly all unbelievers. It is emphatically the theory of infidels, skeptics and atheists-the pet philosophy of all the fools who say in their hearts, there is no God. It is used by Huxley, Spencer, Hæckel and others in support of infidelity. The present age is materialistic, and the tendency of speculative thought is to the denial of the spiritual and of God, or a refusal to recognize His presence and agency in the affairs of the world; and hence the popularity of evolution

with this class of minds. It attempts to account for creation and all the phenomena of mind and matter without Divine interposition. They deny design, intelligence and will in creation, and reduce everything to the action of properties and forces inherent in matter. They stop at secondary causes, and ignore the maker of the laws and forces they put in the place of God. Spencer assumes the self-existence and eternity of matter. On this assumption, God and the universe are co-eternal; they are two parallel existences, and we can just as well infer the existence of matter from God as the existence of God from matter. The Bible declares that God alone is eternal and that He created all things. The meaning of the word translated "created," in the first verse of the Bible, is not settled, but many of the best scholars think that it implies creation out of nothing, and this is the meaning usually attached to it. It seems to express the idea that matter is not self-existent, or eternal, in opposition to all heathen philosophers, and is the only word to express an original creation. Other words are used in reference to God's work, which mean to "form," shape," or "build," out of existing matter. In Gen. ii. 3, it is written that God "rested from all His work which He had 'created and made.'" Here the best and most natural interpretation is that He first created matter, and then fashioned it into various organisms. This is strengthened by a consideration

of the means by which God produced the universe: "He spake and they were made; He commanded and they were created."

Scientists tell us that creation out of nothing is inconceivable, and we admit the truth of the axiom "ex nihilo nihil fit," but it does not apply to creation by the Almighty, who is infinite in power and resources, and to whom nothing is impossible. Contrary to this maxim of science, St. Paul teaches that the universe was "not made of things which do appear," or, in other words, that this world which we now see was not made out of any matter now appearing or existing, but out of nothing, at the command of Him who "spake and it was done;" and this the apostle describes as one of the first articles of faith. Science cannot possibly teach us anything about the origin of the universe, but "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God."

Evolution, as generally understood, is creation by the laws of nature. Everything must have a cause, and every effect is the result immediately of some law. The laws of nature are numerous. Who made them? The evolutionists answer through their prophet, Mr. Spencer, that their author, or ultimate cause, is "unknowable." But the human mind, conscious that it would not be in existence without an omnipotent, intelligent creator, and feeling that such a creator, if a benevolent being, would not leave his

creature without a knowledge of its creator, is not satisfied with such an answer, and irrepressibly clamors for a final cause. Evidently the laws of nature are not ultimate. Is it not more reasonable and more scientific to assume that these laws are all made by God, the only final cause? On Him, as the Creator, the mind rests satisfied. No one doubts that God could have formed the present universe by a process of evolution, and if it was possible to prove that, it would not be inconsistent with theism, and might be held consistently with belief in the Bible. The Bible idea is, that God is constantly present in creation, controlling and directing all things so as to work out His eternal purposes, and to do this He must exercise His providential care and protection unceasingly over all His creation; and to exclude Him from His providential care of His works is virtually to dethrone Him. The attempt to account for the origin of creation on natural principles, though coupled with theism, and ascribing every phenomenon to some secondary cause, has a sure tendency to withdraw the mind from the contemplation of God and invisible things. If God has always operated by natural laws, then what need at all of His interposition? How prove that He exists apart from matter? And would not pantheism be the logical result? On such a theory there can be nothing supernatural, and, of course, it is fatal to revealed religion. Men argue in this way: Evolution, they

say, is a law of nature. If the laws of nature are unchangeable, there can be no miracle, no special providence, and, of course, it is idle to pray for any blessings requiring a deviation from the laws of nature; and hence the writers of the Bible are in error, and it cannot be God's word. They forget that we can ourselves control, or set aside to some extent, the laws of nature and accomplish our purposes despite their opposition. We can overcome distance by steam, telephone and telegraph in a way that a few years ago seemed impossible and miraculous. If we can in, a measure, master the laws of nature, how much more can God! He can certainly do His pleasure, without reference to natural laws. Nothing can control His power but His own will.

If creation was not supernatural, and all things the product of natural laws, then the same natural forces will operate in the future, and there can be no coming of Christ; for no divine Christ could ever have existed, and there can be no resurrection, no future state, no judgment and no eternity. Man dies and goes to dust and ashes, and what laws of nature will evolve his remains into a new spiritual body, or evolve the new heavens and the new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? The plain teaching of the Bible is that God created all things by the immediate exercise of His power; but evolution, as accepted by believers in the Sacred Volume, teaches that He created by the slow operation of natural laws, of