The Washington herald., 1922-07-24
MANS SPIRITUAL
AGE Is ALL THAT
COUNTS, HE SAYS
Ancient Origin Is Not VII
tai Point, Asserts Rev.
Hugh Kerr.


Paster Northminster Freshly
terfan Church.
Psalm s0:2--Before the mountains
were brought forth. or ever
Thou hadst formed the earth
and the world. even from ever
lasting to everlasting, Thou art
God"
How old Is man7" That old but
always interesting question has
been revived of late. adding much
to the zest of life. Mr.. Bryan is
going up and down the country
hurting his javelins into the camps
of the Darwinians and asserting,
that man is very recent arrival
on this planet. His opponents are
giving him very spirited response.
They claim that man is by no
means a lately landed immigrant
but in fact belongs TO the Associa-
ton of Oldest Inhabitants. and tills
the soil and occupies the ground
his ancestors lived on for untold
generations. They attach much
Importance to some old bones dis
covered in ancient caves. especially
to jaw-bone found in a cave near
a famous duelling city in Germany.
This bone is extra large, with char
acter lines of self-assertiveness
and therefore. say the anthropol-
ogists. II must be the jaw-bone OF
a man, and because found in a.
c.rtain stratum of rock II must be
near the age of that rock. at least
10000 years old. and they recon
struct (on the blackboard) the
creature that owned that jaw-bone.
from his hairy scalp to his woolly
shins. and turn to us and say. Be-
hold your illustrious ancestori
Other anthropologists examine
carefully that same jaw-bone and
note that the space for the tongue
Is very small, SO small that the
creature that owned il never could
have talked, and so william ].
Bryan vehemently asserts that the
Heidelberg man was no ancestor
or relation of his.
Our time schedules of the forma-
tion of earth's strata have been
badly upset of late. We used to
| think We knew fairly accurately
the order in which the rocks were
formed. Archaean. Csmbrian, Dev-
oman, Eocene. Pliocene. etc.-all
those names used to indicate the
time, the ages. in which those
rock strata were formed. But in
that vast country of Western Can
ada, much of which is still unex-
plored, students OF geology have
found very ancient" strata over
lying what we have heretofore re-
garded as very recent rock. And
this they find stretching out over
large areas. And so we find that
our geological time schedules are
not so trustworthy as We thought
they were. Like railroad time
tables. they need revision. And
that cave In Germany where the
famous jaw-bone was found may
be 10000 years old, or double that.
or half OF il. Nobody knows. and
your guess Is as good as mine
After all what does il really mat
ter? This world-counting time as
we humans count it's very old
and the mountains have been here
a long, long time. But from Gods
point of view they are very young
Before the mountains were lifted
up. the oceans swept over unsounded
depths and winds and storms cav
erned out the rocks that now. like
ruined castles. litter the floor of the
seas. And before all things was
God. Before the mountains were
brought forth. or ever Thou hadst
formed the earth and the world
even from everlasting to everlasting
Thou art God" The mountains will
pass away and the seas will vanish.
but God and Spirit are eternal We
the children, Of the Spirit, are in
terested in the things that abide
How old is truth? When was virtue
born? And when was the beginning
of goodness? These things are time
less. They are attributes. quaiitie.
of God. and he who links up his
life with these eternal things lays
hold of the eternal life of God.
1t is not with mans physical
makeup that We are most inter
ested - let the origin and history
of that be what they may. 1t is his
origin and history as a spiritual
being that count To the learned
doctors who boasted of their long
pedigree Jesus said, Before Abra.
ham was / am" And in His great
prayer to the Father He asked for
the glory that / had with Thee
before the world was. And to u.
all He says. HE that believcth on
Me hath everlasting life" The
question of value is not, therefore,
how much history and time lie be-
hind you. but rather how much of