, 1889-03-21

purpose, we according tc the theory Of se
lection. can conceive as the necessary pro-
! ductioB OF natural selection working
without purpose.
You observe here that Prof Backel has
gone over to the ground Of Mr.. Darwin OF
natural selection which IL a tacit conces.
sion that his theory Of spontaneous gener.
alton might some day break down as we
have seen it has most signally done.
Then If natural selection is TO oe adopted
as 1t is by large class OF evolution.
ists, there is this serious obstacle confront
ing him and them at the very threshold OF
active being; namely there must be some-
thing to select from before the selection
can take place, and there must be large
variety to select from to have the fittest to
survive the not fit, which must outnumber
greatly the fit, If that oft repeated
formula OF Darwin the survival of the
tttest,' Is worthy place in true science
there must OF necessity have been a wide
margin TO select from before natural selec.
tion could operate. This rugged obstscle
has never yet been surmounted. 1t is
due to Charles Darwin, however, to say
that he admits that there must have been
miracle performed by an intelligent first
cause to create one or few simple beings
to start with, but this being done all the
countless species OF plants and animals
have been evolved without further aid
from the Creator. But most of the leading
evolutionists hold that nothing but blind
law has been concerned in the work of our
varied creation. | submit that such a
theory OF creation is a thousand. fold more
miraculous IL true, than that God created
all living species OF plants and animals iu-
Guiding man by specific acts; than the
theory of atheistic evolution This theory Is
is souarely in the face Of the well estab.
lished fact. that ''there can be no effect
without an adequate cause. This law is
as true and better established than New
tons law of Rravitation. No well bal.
anced scientist of this or any aye would
dare to openly assail this law of cause and
effect, though many evolutionists do assail
1t indirectly, inferentially, and substanti-
ally. IL some traveller through Africa
should come upon the great pyramids and
the sphinx without ever having heard
of them, he doubtless would be surprised
at their immense size and
construction, with the tremendous and
ponderous blocks of stone piled one upon
another to the hight of hundreds of feet!
IL he should investigate them internally
and witness the inscriptions. hierogli.
phics, paintings and sarcophagi with
their embalmed mummies, his surprise
and wonder would further increase. Sup
pose be should sit down and philOsophize
thus: ~ see these ancient monuments and
am struck with their size, crypts. sarcop-
hagi, and hieroglyphic, a significant his.
tory of o dead past. l conclude that
all this Is the result of Natures wond-
erful operations; ''some favorable con-
ditions" assorted by natural selection;
some peculiar environment of matter"
probabably the result OF spontaneous gen.
eration." see in all this 'some promise
and potency of every form of life;" some
happy concurrence or chemical affinity
among the sandstones; in word, this is a
significant monument of the Survival of
the ittest." He talks like an evolutionist.
While thus soiloquizing, some traveller
or antiquarian steps up and interviews
him. and suggests that probably some au-
cient people during the times of the
Pharaohs we're the authors of these
piles: he could aptly reply that
there were no living witnesses of that;
that there were no engines or machinery
extant that could have placed those vast
blocks at that elevation! Therefore it
must be the work of nature and has been
evoIuted from some primary pattern that
came into existence through the potency
there is in natural law. Which is the
greater philosopher of the two, gentlemen
of the nineteenth century--the antiquarian
who concluded that the Egyptians raised
them or that they came there accidentally.
without purpose or plan or intelligent
agency? The cases Hre az nearly
analogous as is pos ible la other
words, which would be the more striking.
miracle, the building of these pyramids
by skilled mechanics or the doctrines of
natural selection without plan or "pur.
pose Which is the greater miracle
think you, that a personal, intelligent and
omnipotent Creator made all the species
of living beings with their peculiar char
acteristics and with capacities to perpetu.
ate themselves; or that all these originated
from the 'simple moneron" of Hackel OF
natural selection" without anything TO
select from. of DarwinP IL il evidently a
greater wonder to witness such immense
and varied results from inadequate cases.
than to suppose that God the great First
Cause, created all living tribes and
endowed them with capacities to perpetu-
ate their respective species as we now con-
staptly witness they do and ever have done
since the dawn of earliest historic times.
Remember the well established law that
every effect must have an adequate
cause" No plan or purpose in creation
Now If these learned men would sit down
ano reverently examine a human hand, or
an eye, or an ear, they could not fail TO see
adaptation OF means to an end, in these
marvellous instrumentsi The relation of the
hand to the necessary avocations of life
of the eye to the light, with its delicate
and perfect lenses for the refraction of tn e
rays, and the back chamber to receive i'm
ages, and the consummate system OF
nerves to transmit these images to the
sensorium or brain, and the ear, and its
relation to sound, witt its exquisite bones,
caverns. tubes and drum, for the mod difjk,.
ton of sound! No purpose or plan in all
this varied and delicate machinery! all