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EVOLUTION AN OLD THEORY.

are certainly the two most important pages in the history of budding Christianity. The Epistles of S. Paul, indeed, possess, in their absolute authenticity, an unequalled advantage in this history. Not the slightest doubt has been raised by serious criticism against the authenticity of the Epistle to the Galatians, the two Epistles to the Corinthians, or the Epistle to the Romans." Now to admit the genuineness and authenticity of S. Paul's Epistles, is to admit the existence of Christian Churches within less than a generation after our LORD's resurrection, amongst whom all the facts and doctrines of Christianity were accepted, and formed the basis of their daily lives. It is, indeed, to admit Christianity. This is a great advance upon the infidel notions of the last century.

It is also a fact that the theory of Evolution, which has taken such hold upon a portion of the scientific men of the present generation, has been held in former generations, given up, and now put forward again. Not to dwell now upon the notions of Lord Monboddo and the elder Darwin, about the descent of men from apes, which was scouted and laughed to scorn in the last century, the whole doctrine of Evolution is quite an old story revived, only, we trust, to be again rejected. In Cudworth's "Intellectual System" he discusses with great keenness the question of the

CUDWORTH'S REFUTATION.

239

origin of life, and pronounces, it is needless to say, very strongly against the possibility of its springing out of what he calls "dead and senseless matter." It is curious to notice how closely he here approaches to the recent phases of such discussion, and how little of essential novelty there is in even the most startling theories of the modern scientific world. In speaking, for example, of certain speculations which attributed the origin of life, not only the sensitive in brutes, but also the rational in man, to modification of matter "by organization alone," he might be supposed to be characterizing the theory of evolution in its latest form. . "The hylozoic atheism," for so he calls it, "bringing all conscious and reflective life or animality out of a supposed, senseless, stupid, and unconscious life of nature in matter, and that merely from a different accidental modification thereof or contexture of parts, does plainly bring something out of nothing, which is impossible." This heresy, which Cudworth thus refutes in the seventeenth century, had so far died away that its revival at the present time by Mr. Darwin and others seemed to be the production of something

new.

And so we see that while great and weighty 1 See Principal Tulloch on Rational Theology, vol. ii.,

p. 264.

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FALSE NOTIONS DIE OUT.

the

discoveries of science, when once understood, fix themselves undeniably in the minds of men, mere guesses and ill-considered theories of rash speculators are rejected by the good sense of mankind, and even though revived from time to time fail to obtain acceptance.

CHAPTER XXV.

SHOCKING DOCTRINE OF EVOLUTIONISTS THAT FORGIVENESS OF SINS IS IMPOSSIBLE.-PASSAGES FROM MR. GREG IN THE CREED OF CHRISTENDOM" CONTRASTED WITH DR. FARRAR'S DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODIGAL SON.

66

THE most shocking and repulsive doctrine adopted by writers of evolutionary principles is the denial of the possibility of forgiveness of sin. Mr. Greg in his recent book, called "The Creed of Christendom," says distinctly, "The common Christian conception of the pardon of sin upon repentance and conversion, seems to us to embody a very transparent and pernicious fallacy. 'Who can forgive sin but GOD only?' asked the Pharisees. There is great confusion and contradiction in our ideas on the subject. GOD is the only being who can not forgive sins!!! Forgiveness of sins means one of two things: it either means saving a man from the consequences of his sins, that is, interposing between cause and effect, in which case it is working a miracle . . . . or it means foregoing of vengeance, Neither take Thou vengeance of our sins;' that is to think of Him as an

R

242

MR. GREG'S NOTIONS

irritable, jealous and avenging Potentate." "To pray that GOD will forgive our sins, therefore, appears in all logical accuracy to involve either a most unworthy conception of His character, or an entreaty of incredible audacity, viz., that He will work daily miracles in our behalf. It is either beseeching Him to renounce feelings and intentions which it is impossible that a Nature like His should entertain: or it is asking Him to violate the eternal and harmonious order of the universe for the comfort of one out of the infinite myriads of its inhabitants." (P. 219.) See how this wretched doctrine of evolution, and, I might add, the extravagance of intellectual impudence, comes in to mar the operation of the holiest and most loving of God's attributes. Equally contrary is the following to the Christian doctrine: "Neither can there be any such thing as vicarious atonement or punishment, which again is a relic of heathen conceptions of an angered Deity to be propitiated by offerings and sacrifices

The misconception is natural to a rude state of civilization and theology. It is the same notion from which arose sacrifices (i.e., offerings to appease wrath,) and which caused their universality in early ages and among barbarous nations. It is a relic of anthropomorphism." (P. 220.) "If the foregoing reflections are sound, the awful, yet 1 The Creed of Christendom, p. 218.