CHAPTER I

Introduction

"Man only-rash, refined, presumptuous man—
Starts from his rank and mars Creation's plan!
Born the free heir of nature's wide domain.

To Art's strict limits bounds his narrow'd reign;
Resigns his native rights for meaner things,

For Faith and Fetters, Laws and Priests and Kings."
Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin.

A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PROBLEM.

WE LIVE between two unexplored continents.

Much of the past is to us a silent land, from whose shores no echo comes that can add to history a single trustworthy word. The other continent is the future. This is also a silent land, except here and there a word is spoken and recorded on the prophetic page which helps us to anticipate coming events. But, for the most part, the future gives no intelligible response to the questionings of either the intellect or the heart. According to the Hebrew letter, the things hoped for rest upon faith, and faith itself finally rests upon the Word of God.

With respect to these two mysterious continents there are just two sources from which we may derive information. One is the testimony of written history; the other, the testimony of the rocks. In dealing with the far distant past, we are shut up to the Book of Revelation and the Book of Nature for all the help that can possibly be found, and even this help often comes short of what is needed to solve many perplexing problems. Nevertheless, when these books are properly interpreted, they unite

in a testimony which makes certain all that is necessary for us to know as regards both the past and the future. Religion and Science are not enemies; they are the best of friends. One is not subordinate to the other; but they are co-ordinates, and consequently of equal rank in settling many difficulties. They are really different segments of the same circle of truth, and are mutually helpful in revealing to us "God's way of doing things."

Of the two books under consideration Nature is the older. The testimony of the rocks reaches far beyond what is known as the historic period. But with respect to some things this testimony is not always trustworthy, for the reason that our present environment is very different from that which existed during the Formative Period of the Physical Universe. We cannot with absolute certainty use our present data from which to estimate dates. and conditions with respect to the evolution of physical things. We cannot be positively sure of our facts. Our conclusions, therefore, must be derived from premises which are necessarily hypothetical, and such conclusions should always be accepted tentatively, not with dogmatic assurance, and especially when these conclusions practically contradict the Bible. The latter, no matter what may be thought with respect to its inspiration, is, after all, the fullest and most satisfactory written record we possess of the remote ages of the earth and of man.

When, however, the two records-that of the rocks and that of the Bible-are taken together, we are able to understand that all progress is by stages, and that through these stages the movement is from the lower forms to the higher. The law of progress is now very generally named Evolution. But this law is certainly maintained and directed by a living agent, while at the end of each respective stage the law is either changed, or else it is reinforced by a new potency by which the lower form is carried over

the chasm which separates between the stages and is united with the higher order of existence which has been reached.

A failure to take this fact into account has misled some evolutionists, and is really the fundamental reason why evolutionism is rejected by many earnest thinkers. There is, however, no sufficient cause for this rejection. That the Great Creator works through law is no longer disputed by anyone who is capable of judging in such a case. But nature is not a perpetual motion, which, when once started, runs on forever without any reinforcement of power from the outside. God has not retired from the universe. He is doubtless resting, so far as inaugurating any new stages of progress is concerned. This is especially true as regards physical things; but it is probably not true in the higher regions of activity, known as the intellectual, moral and spiritual. It is more than probable, in these loftier spheres, that the Divine energy has frequently been exerted in acts of creation since the proclamation of the sabbath at the close of the six days wherein the physical universe was set in order. In any case it is certain that the rest referred to in Genesis must correspond to the periods in the story of the six days of the Renovation. These periods end with the creation of man, and then the period of rest began and has probably continued to the present time.

The whole process

But, however this may be, we know that all evolution, in the lower forms, leads up to man. He is the consummation of all that went before him. of development found its completion in that wonderful being who was "created in the image of God." Consequently, man is the Pleroma of all the ages, the fullness of the Divine conception as regards the whole process of creation. This fact accentuates immensely the theory concerning the final destiny of the Spiritual Man as it is set forth in

the concluding chapter of this volume. In the light of the supreme importance of Man, as the Crown of all Creation, it is not difficult to understand how this earth may, indeed must be, practically the Center of the Universe, not only from a physical point of view, but also from an intellectual and moral point of view. The earth, as the incubating and developing planet, should necessarily occupy a place in the solar and stellar systems somewhat commensurate with the great office it fills with respect to the numerous worlds which are yet to be inhabited.

But, an interesting and important question is raised just here. Is man himself the result of a process called Evolution? At least three views are held with respect to the origin of man. The first is that man is entirely the product of a direct creative act; the second is, that matter contains within itself "the promise and potency of all things," and that, therefore, out of this matter every form and condition of life, including man with his trinity of body, soul and spirit, is the immediate result of Evolution; a third view is that the body was originally produced by a long process of development, and that when this body was prepared for its reception, the soul was brought into existence by a direct creative act.

In this volume a view is presented somewhat different from any of the foregoing, and yet including something of all of them. The view maintained is that physical man was first "formed" out of the dust of the earth, or out of existing matter, and then psychical man followed immediately, or after an interval of time which cannot be definitely determined, and that finally pneumatical man was "created," thus completing the trinity-body, soul and spirit and endowing man with a gift from above by which he had conferred upon him the image of God.

It is believed that Genesis ii, 7 is explanatory of this evolutionary process. The verse affirms that "Jehovah

God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life"-literally "the spirit* of life"-"and man became a living soul." The latter part of this passage may be properly rendered from the Hebrew as follows: "and breathed upon his face the spirit of life, and the man became a living soul." Does this breathing "upon the face," instead of "into the nostrils" (as is the usual rendering), suggest the conferring upon man "the image of God"? If so, then it is clear that the verse quoted settles the question as to how man received his spiritual nature, and also what that nature involved. He already had a body and a soul; but the breathing upon his face "the spirit of life," transformed that face into the Divine image or likeness, and endowed the soul with a quality it did not before possess-namely, spiritual life.

Now the points in the passage to be carefully noticed are at least three: (1) the physical man was formed out of existing material; (2) the psychical man or soul was made before it was endowed with the living quality which it received when man was created in the image of God, by receiving a spiritual gift from above, which constituted man a living or speaking being; (3) when this soul became a living or speaking being, man was at once differentiated from all the lower animals by wearing the image of his Creator and using the language of articulate speech.

The position assumed in this volume is that there were really two Adams created, and yet only one; and consequently, the notion that man received his spiritual nature at the time Jehovah God breathed upon his face, may seem to be out of harmony with what Paul says in 1 Cor.

*The Hebrew is n' sha-mah, and this is probably synonymous with roo-ach-Spirit. (See Deut. xx. 16; Josh. xi. 11, 14; 1 Kings xv. 29; Ps. cl. 6; Ecc. xii. 7; Prov. xx. 27; Isa. xlii. 5). In any case n' sha-mah clearly implies roo-ach or spirit (see Gen. vii. 22; Ps. xxiii. 15).