Evening star., 1923-02-24

IhoT. Wluaam jennings Bryan, who
kyisited Washington last week, claims
that he has been indorsed by King
Tutankhamcn. Mr.. Bryan points with
pride to the Egyptian mummy, who.
ne claims, is no moro monkeylike
than the veriest evolutionist of to-
day.
Since the old king lived $500 years
ago, this anti-evolutionist argues that
that shows the absurdity of the Dar-
winian theory that We are evoluted
from monkeys or apes. If evolution
were true, he says. there should be
some changes evident in $500 years.
X X
Engineers and astronomers know
that the accuracy of their computa-
tions depends upon the length of the
base of their triangle as well as upon
the exactness of their observations.
No one can measure a distance with
out reasonably wide base. What
astronomer would set his telescope at
one end of city block and then at
the other and make observations, ex-
pecting the differences of his angles
70 enable him to compute the distance
OF a planet 10000 light-years away?
ME- Bryan does not seem to see that
mis- base Is too narrow for accurate
observations.
He forms his conclusions on a pc
rfod of only $500 years. What is
lapse of thirty-three centuries in OBJ
serving the work OF creation? 1t has
been millions of years since the
molten earth cooled enough for IL to
bring forth grass and the herbs of the
field. Millions of years from when
I'm the beginning, God created" and
ever since which He has continued
His infinite work OF creation.
/ wonder il Mr.. Bryan might not
correct his perspective. Science tells
us that the ice age was about a thou
sand centuries before Christ. The
date is approximately fixed by astron-
omy. Half of the northern hemi-
sphere was buried in glaciers hundreds
or thousands Of feet thick-mountains
Of solid ice. Then followed about
$500 years of tropic heat-three-
fourths as long a period as from the
days Of Tutankhamen to the first
Bryan campaign. During all of that
floods covered the earth. Whether
there were men on earth prior to the
melting of the world of ice there is
no positive evidence, but at least for
the last $4,000 to $4,000 years the
earth has been habitable-first upon
the high places-possibly more habit
able to monkeys up the trees than for
men upon terra firma. In view, there
force. Of that great stretch of habit
ability-75o or 500 centuries-what
Tutankhamen's day teach uso The
base is too short for scientific tri-
angulation.
why should the science of evolution
ever be construed as antagonistic to
the orthodoxy of divine creator?
On the contrary. it gives TO creation
an infinite grandeur and majesty be-
yond the conception of those whose
imaginations cannot reach over the pc
riod of a literal week. with a series
of six-day immediate results.
The historian John Clark Ridpath
says:
Great. almost inconceivable, lapses
of time are necessary to any appre-
aspects and vital conditions of the
world. The concept of this slow and
orderly progress of planetary growth
and development is as sublime as that
and endle essness of the material universe.
Certain it is that nature hurries not.
Certain il is that her progress does
not consist of catastrophes. phenome-
nal cataclysms and astounding reViV-
ais. The rate of formation for our
world. for all worlds, has been so
gradual as almost to preclude the
record of its growth by other than
immortal or infinite beings.
The slow progress of world history
and life history is. therefore. fun
damental concept in the work of de-
termining the approximate time at
which a rational form of being began
it's manifestations on our globe.
X \ !:
A child looks into the sky and sees
white clouds afloat and, just beyond, a
blue dome. 1t does not think the blue
is as far above the white AS the white
cloud is above his childish reach. He