The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1912-03-28
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4YE anu ny LHeSe, were IHe Hd-
80 tions divided in the earth
after the food.-Gen. 10: 80.
1t used to be very common to hear
people talk of prehistoric times. In
these recent years one who would
speak of prehistoric times, must be
very careful and cautious indeed. For
periods, once definitely designated
as prehistoric, have now become his
toric and the mystic darkness once
covering the ancient civilizations,
has been penetrated by the light of
modern knowledge of old records,
which have been discovered and de-
ciphered, and as a consequence,
many imaginary theories of prehis-
toric times have had to HE away
like the spectres of night before the
glittering arrows of light shot from
the rosy fingers Of the dawn.
Until recent years about all we
knew of Egyptian history of even
the comparatively later period was
the Bible record of the Hebrew cap
tivity and servitude in that land,
and from that time on, we knew
nothing of that great civilization, ex-
eepting Manetho's list of kings, until
We come far down the vista of years
to the days of Herodotus and Diod-
orus, Greek historians, who could
write authoritatively only of con-
temporary events in Egypt. Similar
observations may be made of what
was once considered prehistoric
times in the Euphrates valley, the
home of the Assyrian and Babylon
ian civilizations. Even in the classic
land of Greece it has been but few
years since the events lying beyond
the First Olympiad we're classified in
the prehistoric chapter. The Iliad
was thought to deal merely of le-
gendary events of mythland when it
sung of the heroic exploits and
achievements of Achilles, Ajax and
Hector in the Trogan war.
But now the lips of modern men
have spoken the open sesame to
these long lost ages and from the
tomb of the engulfed past, a skeleton
of the worlds history came forth
and the magic touch of scientific re-
search work is adding more flesh and
blood to this skeleton as the time
rolls on. So, at present, in order for
a man to get into prehistoric times
he has to go beyond even the fourth
millennium before Christ, to an age
and people of which we have no rec
ord whatsoever and no existence so
far as the human race is concerned
except in the subjective imagination
of some scholar desiring new worlds
to conquer So we have to be very
careful in making observations re-
garding the prehistoric age lest our
claims be upset. The famous RO-
setta stone gave Dr.. Thomas Young
the key to unlock the mysteries Of
the heiroglyphics of Egypt, which,
for over two thousand years, had
baffled all attempts of scholars to
read them and as result we have a
reliable history of Egypt as far be-
yond the other side of the days of
David as present history is on this
side. The same brilliant result has
been achieved in regard to the older
civilization of the Mesopotamian
valley.
1t is therefore our purpose to give
certain considerations in the light of
these assured results of scientific re-
search work among the antiquities,
that have made our personal faith
stronger in the Bible record. If any
one, keeping in mind that there is a
wide difference between a fact and a
theory of that fact, will study these
results, he will surely be led to the
same conclusion, that Gods word is
the most reliable and trustworthy
record in the language of men.
In the first place, there is nothing
in these remote periods of human
history to give support to what is
termed the theory of evolution, but
on the contrary, every assured fact
directly contradicts this theory of
evolution. By evolution we mean
the general theory that man slowly
evolved from lower animal and
that, evolving from a lower order of
animal life, he passed through the
stages of savagery and barbarism
up to the plane of being a man with
language and civilization. This
theory of evolution lays it's clammy
hand upon the pen of many histor-
ians and, today such historians are
struggling in the dark to prop up
their fallen theories. They have
been forced to admit in the words of
one of them-''before the dawn of
recorded history man had evolved
Der of the greatest arts had been at
tdlu0U. Ill IAOSO oASACAC
Days there were giants in the land,
giants in intellect and in skill to ex-
ecute. At the very dawn of Egyptian
history the most colossal monuments
ever conceived by human mind were
reared. At the very beginning of
Babylonian history there were found
all the arts of the subsequent ages,
some of which never gained higher
plane toward perfection. The theory
Of evolution breaks down all along
the line, in the arts and sciences, in
the permanence of the race charac-
teristics, and in the natural tendency
Of the human race toward decay.
There is a difference between pro-
gress and evolution. That there has
teen progress along many avenues
h evident, but evolution is a
very different concern, Was the
man who added the latest device to
! the linotype machine a greater gen.
ius than the man who conceived the
idea and made good start toward