Book: In His Image

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Is any other proof needed to show the irreligious influence exerted by
Darwinism applied to man? At the University of Wisconsin (so a Methodist
preacher told me) a teacher told his class that the Bible was a
collection of myths. When I brought the matter to the attention of the
President of the University, he criticized me but avoided all reference
to the professor. At Ann Arbor a professor argued with students against
religion and asserted that no thinking man could believe in God or the
Bible. At Columbia (I learned this from a Baptist preacher) a professor
began his course in geology by telling his class to throw away all that
they had learned in the Sunday school. There is a professor in Yale of
whom it is said that no one leaves his class a believer in God. (This
came from a young man who told me that his brother was being led away
from the Christian faith by this professor.) A father (a Congressman)
tells me that a daughter on her return from Wellesley told him that
nobody believed in the Bible stories now. Another father (a Congressman)
tells me of a son whose faith was undermined by this doctrine in a
Divinity School. Three preachers told me of having their interest in the
subject aroused by the return of their children from college with their
faith shaken. The Northern Baptists have recently, after a spirited
contest, secured the adoption of a Confession of Faith; it was opposed
by the evolutionists.

In Kentucky the fight is on among the Disciples, and it is becoming
more and more acute in the Northern branches of the Methodist and
Presbyterian Churches. A young preacher, just out of a theological
seminary, who did not believe in the virgin birth of Christ, was
recently ordained in Western New York. Last April I met a young man who
was made an atheist by two teachers in a Christian college.

These are only a few illustrations that have come under my own
observation--nearly all of them within a year. What is to be done? Are
the members of the various Christian churches willing to have the power
of the pulpit paralyzed by a false, absurd and ridiculous doctrine which
is without support in the written Word of God and without support also
in nature? Is "thus saith the Lord" to be supplanted by guesses and
speculations and assumptions? I submit three propositions for the
consideration of the Christians of the nation:

First, the preachers who are to break the bread of life to the lay
members should believe that man has in him the breath of the Almighty,
as the Bible declares, and not the blood of the brute, as the
evolutionists affirm. He should also believe in the virgin birth of the
Saviour.

Second, none but Christians in good standing and with a spiritual
conception of life should be allowed to teach in Christian schools.
Church schools are worse than useless if they bring students under the
influence of those who do not believe in the religion upon which the
Church and church schools are built. Atheism and Agnosticism are more
dangerous when hidden under the cloak of religion than when they are
exposed to view.

Third, in schools supported by taxation we should have a real neutrality
wherever neutrality in religion is desired. If the Bible cannot be
defended in these schools it should not be attacked, either directly or
under the guise of philosophy or science. The neutrality which we now
have is often but a sham; it carefully excludes the Christian religion
but permits the use of the schoolrooms for the destruction of faith and
for the teaching of materialistic doctrines.

It is not sufficient to say that _some_ believers in Darwinism retain
their belief in Christianity; some survive smallpox. As we avoid
smallpox because _many_ die of it, so we should avoid Darwinism because
it _leads many astray_.

If it is contended that an instructor has a right to teach anything
he likes, I reply that the parents who pay the salary have a right to
decide what shall be taught. To continue the illustration used above, a
person can expose himself to the smallpox if he desires to do so, but he
has no right to communicate it to others. So a man can believe anything
he pleases but he has no right to teach it against the protest of his
employers.

Acceptance of Darwin's doctrine tends to destroy one's belief in
immortality as taught by the Bible. If there has been no break in the
line between man and the beasts--no time when by the act of the Heavenly
Father man became "a living Soul," at what period in man's development
was he endowed with the hope of a future life? And, if the brute theory
leads to the abandonment of belief in a future life with its rewards and
punishments, what stimulus to righteous living is offered in its place?

Darwinism leads to a denial of God. Nietzsche carried Darwinism to its
logical conclusion and it made him the most extreme of anti-Christians.
I had read extracts from his writings--enough to acquaint me with his
sweeping denial of God and of the Saviour--but not enough to make me
familiar with his philosophy.

As the war progressed I became more and more impressed with the
conviction that the German propaganda rested upon a materialistic
foundation. I secured the writings of Nietzsche and found in them a
defense, made in advance, of all the cruelties and atrocities practiced
by the militarists of Germany. Nietzsche tried to substitute the worship
of the "Superman" for the worship of God. He not only rejected the
Creator, but he rejected all moral standards. He praised war and
eulogized hatred because it led to war. He denounced sympathy and pity
as attributes unworthy of man. He believed that the teachings of Christ
made degenerates and, logical to the end, he regarded Democracy as the
refuge of weaklings. He saw in man nothing but an animal and in that
animal the highest virtue he recognized was "The Will to Power"--a will
which should know no let or hindrance, no restraint or limitation.

Nietzsche's philosophy would convert the world into a ferocious conflict
between beasts, each brute trampling ruthlessly on everything in his
way. In his book entitled "Joyful Wisdom," Nietzsche ascribes to
Napoleon the very same dream of power--Europe under one sovereign and
that sovereign the master of the world--that lured the Kaiser into a sea
of blood from which he emerged an exile seeking security under a foreign
flag. Nietzsche names Darwin as one of the three great men of his
century, but tries to deprive him of credit (?) for the doctrine that
bears his name by saying that Hegel made an earlier announcement of it.
Nietzsche died hopelessly insane, but his philosophy has wrought the
moral ruin of a multitude, if it is not actually responsible for
bringing upon the world its greatest war.

His philosophy, if it is worthy the name of philosophy, is the ripened
fruit of Darwinism--and a tree is known by its fruit.

In 1900--over twenty years ago--while an International Peace Congress
was in session in Paris the following editorial appeared in _L'Univers_:

"The spirit of peace has fled the earth because evolution has taken
possession of it. The plea for peace in past years has been inspired by
faith in the divine nature and the divine origin of man; men were
then looked upon as children of one Father and war, therefore, was
fratricide. But now that men are looked upon as children of apes, what
matters it whether they are slaughtered or not?"

I have given you above the words of a French writer published twenty
years ago. I have just found in a book recently published by a prominent
English writer words along the same line, only more comprehensive. The
corroding influence of Darwinism has spread as the doctrine has been
increasingly accepted. In the American preface to "The Glass of
Fashion" these words are to be found: "Darwinism not only justifies
the sensualist at the trough and Fashion at her glass; it justifies
Prussianism at the cannon's mouth and Bolshevism at the prison-door.
If Darwinism be true, if Mind is to be driven out of the universe and
accident accepted as a sufficient cause for all the majesty and glory of
physical nature, then there is no crime or violence, however abominable
in its circumstances and however cruel in its execution, which cannot be
justified by success, and no triviality, no absurdity of Fashion which
deserves a censure: more--there is no act of disinterested love and
tenderness, no deed of self-sacrifice and mercy, no aspiration after
beauty and excellence, for which a single reason can be adduced in
logic."

To destroy the faith of Christians and lay the foundation for the
bloodiest war in history would seem enough to condemn Darwinism, but
there are still two other indictments to bring against it. First, that
it is the basis of the gigantic class struggle that is now shaking
society throughout the world. Both the capitalist and the labourer
are increasingly class conscious. Why? Because the doctrine of the
"Individual efficient for himself"--the brute doctrine of the "survival
of the fittest"--is driving men into a life-and-death struggle from
which sympathy and the spirit of brotherhood are eliminated. It is
transforming the industrial world into a slaughter-house.

Benjamin Kidd, in a masterful work, entitled, "The Science of Power,"
points out how Darwinism furnished Nietzsche with a scientific basis for
his godless system of philosophy and is demoralizing industry.

He also quotes eminent English scientists to support the last charge in
the indictment, namely, that Darwinism robs the reformer of hope. Its
plan of operation is to improve the race by "scientific breeding" on a
purely physical basis. A few hundred years may be required--possibly a
few thousand--but what is time to one who carries eons in his quiver and
envelopes his opponents in the "Mist of Ages"?

Kidd would substitute the "Emotion of the Ideal" for scientific breeding
and thus shorten the time necessary for the triumph of a social reform.
He counts one or two generations as sufficient. This is an enormous
advance over Darwin's doctrine, but Christ's plan is still more
encouraging. A man can be born again; the springs of life can be
cleansed instantly so that the heart loves the things that it formerly
hated and hates the things that it once loved. If this is true of _one_,
it can be true of _any number_. Thus, a nation can be born in a day if
the ideals of the people can be changed.

Many have tried to harmonize Darwinism with the Bible, but these
efforts, while honest and sometimes even agonizing, have not been
successful. How could they be when the natural and inevitable tendency
of Darwinism is to exalt the mind at the expense of the heart, to
overestimate the reliability of the reason as compared with faith and to
impair confidence in the Bible. The mind is a machine; it has no morals.
It obeys its owner as willingly when he plots to kill as when he plans
for service.

The Theistic evolutionist who tries to occupy a middle ground between
those who accept the Bible account of creation and those who reject God
entirely reminds one of a traveller in the mountains, who, having fallen
half-way down a steep slope, catches hold of a frail bush. It takes so
much of his strength to keep from going lower that he is useless as an
aid to others. Those who have accepted evolution in the belief that it
was not anti-Christian may well revise their conclusions in view of the
accumulating evidence of its baneful influence.

Darwinism discredits the things that are supernatural and encourages the
worship of the intellect--an idolatry as deadly to spiritual progress as
the worship of images made by human hands. The injury that it does would
be even greater than it is but for the moral momentum acquired by the
student before he comes under the blighting influence of the doctrine.

Many instances could be cited to show how the theory that man descended
from the brute has, when deliberately adopted, driven reverence from
the heart and made young Christians agnostics and sometimes
atheists--depriving them of the joy, and society of the service, that
come from altruistic effort inspired by religion.

I have recently read of a pathetic case in point. In the Encyclopaedia
Americana you will find a sketch of the life of George John Romanes,
from which the following extract is taken: "Romanes, George John,
English scientist. In 1879 he was elected fellow of the Royal Society
and in 1878 published, under the pseudonym 'Physicus,' a work entitled,
'A Candid Examination of Theism,' in which he took up a somewhat defiant
atheistic position. Subsequently his views underwent considerable
change; he revised the 'Candid Examination,' and, toward the close of
his life, was engaged on 'A Candid Examination of Religion,' in which
he returned to theistic beliefs. His notes for this work were published
after his death, under the title 'Thoughts on Religion,' edited by Canon
Gore. Romanes was an ardent supporter of Darwin and the evolutionists
and in various works sought to extend evolutionary principles to mind,
both in the lower animals and in the man. He wrote very extensively on
modern biological theories."

Let me use Romanes' own language to describe the disappointing
experiences of this intellectual "prodigal son." On page 180 of
"Thoughts on Religion" (written, as above stated, just before his death
but not published until after his demise) he says, "The views that I
entertained on this subject (Plan in Revelation) when an undergraduate
(_i.e._, the ordinary orthodox views) were abandoned in the presence of
the theory of Evolution."

It was the doctrine of Evolution that led him astray. He attempted to
employ reason to the exclusion of faith--with the usual result. He
abandoned prayer, as he explains on pages 142 and 143: "Even the
simplest act of will in regard to religion--that of prayer--has not been
performed by me for at least a quarter of a century, simply because it
has seemed impossible to pray, as it were, hypothetically, that, much as
I have always desired to be able to pray, I cannot will the attempt.
To justify myself for what my better judgment has often seemed to be
essentially irrational, I have ever made sundry excuses." "Others have
doubtless other difficulties, but mine is chiefly, I think, that of an
undue regard to reason as against heart and will--undue, I mean, if so
it be that Christianity is true, and the conditions to faith in it have
been of divine ordination."

In time he tired of the husks of materialism and started back to his
Father's house. It was a weary journey but as he plodded along, his
appreciation of the heart's part increased until, on pages 152 and 153,
he says, "It is a fact that we all feel the intellectual part of man to
be 'higher' than the animal, whatever our theory of his origin. It is
a fact that we all feel the moral part of man to be 'higher' than the
intellectual, whatever our theory of either may be. It is also a fact
that we all similarly feel the spiritual to be 'higher' than the moral,
whatever our theory of religion may be. It is what we understand
by man's moral, and still more his spiritual, qualities that go to
constitute character. And it is astonishing how in all walks of life it
is character that tells in the long run."

On page 150 he answered Huxley's attack on faith. He says, "Huxley,
in 'Lay Sermons,' says that faith has been proved a 'cardinal sin' by
science. Now this is true enough of credulity, superstition, etc., and
science has done no end of good in developing our ideas of method,
evidence, etc. But this is all on the side of intellect. 'Faith' is
not touched by such facts or considerations. And what a terrible hell
science would have made of the world, if she had abolished the 'spirit
of faith,' even in human relations."

In the days of his apostasy he "took it for granted," he says on page
164, "that Christianity was played out." When once his eyes were
reopened he vied with Paul himself in recognizing the superior quality
of love. On page 163 he quoted the eloquent lines of Bourdillon:

The night has a thousand eyes,
And the day but one;
Yet the light of a whole world dies
With the setting sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes,
And the heart but one;
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

Having quoted this noble sentiment he adds: "Love is known to be all
this. How great then, is Christianity, as being the religion of love,
and causing men to believe both in the cause of love's supremacy and the
infinity of God's love to man."

But Romanes still clung to Evolution and, so far as his book discloses,
his mind would never allow his heart to commune with Darwin's far-away
God, whose creative power Romanes could not doubt but whose daily
presence he could not admit without abandoning his theory.

His is a typical case, but many of the wanderers never return to the
fold; they are lost sheep. If the doctrine were demonstrated to be true
its acceptance would, of course, be obligatory, but how can one bring
himself to assent to a series of assumptions when such a course is
accompanied by such a tremendous risk of spiritual loss?

If, as it does in so many instances, it causes the student to choose
Darwinism, with its intellectual delusions, and reject the Bible, with
the incalculable blessings that its heart-culture brings, what minister
of the Gospel or Christian professor can justify himself before the bar
of conscience if, by impairing confidence in the Word of God, he wrecks
human souls? All the intellectual satisfaction that Darwinism ever
brought to those who have accepted it will not offset the sorrow that
darkens a single life from which the brute theory of descent has shut
out the sunshine of God's presence and the companionship of Christ.
Here, too, we have the testimony of the distinguished scientist from
whom I have been quoting. In his first book--the attack on Theism--he
says: (page 29, "Thoughts on Religion") "I am not ashamed to confess
that with this virtual negation of God the universe to me has lost its
soul of loveliness; and, although from henceforth the precept to 'Work
while it is day' will doubtless gain an intensified force from the
terribly intensified meaning of the words that 'the night cometh when no
man can work,' yet when at times I think, as think at times I must, of
the appalling contrast between the hallowed glory of that creed which
once was mine, and the lonely mystery of existence as now I find it,--at
such times I shall ever feel it impossible to avoid the sharpest pang of
which my nature is susceptible."

Romanes, during his college days, came under the influence of those
who worshipped the reason and this worship led him out into a starless
night. Have we not a right to demand something more than _guesses,
surmises,_ and _hypotheses_ before we exchange the "hallowed glory" of
the Christian creed for "the lonely mystery of existence" as Romanes
found it? Shall we at the behest of those who put the intellect
above the heart endorse an unproved doctrine of descent and share
responsibility for the wreckage of all that is spiritual in the lives of
our young people? I refuse to have any part in such responsibility. For
nearly twenty years I have gone from college to college and talked to
students. Wherever I could do so I have pointed out the demoralizing
influence of Darwinism. I have received thanks from many students who
were perplexed by the materialistic teachings of their instructors and I
have been encouraged by the approval of parents who were distressed by
the visible effects of these teachings on their children.

As many believers in Darwinism are led to reject the Bible let me, by
way of recapitulation, contrast that doctrine with the Bible:

Darwinism deals with nothing but life; the Bible deals with the entire
universe--with its masses of inanimate matter and with its myriads of
living things, all obedient to the will of the great Law Giver.

Darwin concerns himself with only that part of man's existence which is
spent on earth--while the Bible's teachings cover all of life, both here
and hereafter.

Darwin begins by assuming life upon the earth; the Bible reveals the
source of life and chronicles its creation.

Darwin devotes nearly all his time to man's body and to the points at
which the human frame approaches in structure--though vastly different
from--the brute; the Bible emphasizes man's godlike qualities and the
virtues which reflect the goodness of the Heavenly Father.

Darwinism ends in self-destruction. As heretofore shown, its progress is
suspended, and even defeated, by the very genius which it is supposed
to develop; the Bible invites us to enter fields of inexhaustible
opportunity wherein each achievement can be made a stepping-stone to
greater achievements still.

Darwin's doctrine is so brutal that it shocks the moral sense--the heart
recoils from it and refuses to apply the "hard reason" upon which it
rests; the Bible points us to the path that grows brighter with the
years.

Darwin's doctrine leads logically to war and to the worship of
Nietzsche's "Superman"; the Bible tells us of the Prince of Peace and
heralds the coming of the glad day when swords shall be beaten into
ploughshares and when nations shall learn war no more.

Darwin's teachings drag industry down to the brute level and excite a
savage struggle for selfish advantage; the Bible presents the claims of
an universal brotherhood in which men will unite their efforts in the
spirit of friendship.

As hope deferred maketh the heart sick, so the doctrine of Darwin
benumbs altruistic effort by prolonging indefinitely the time needed for
reforms; the Bible assures us of the triumph of every righteous cause,
reveals to the eye of faith the invisible hosts that fight on the side
of Jehovah and proclaims the swift fulfillment of God's decrees.

Darwinism puts God far away; the Bible brings God near and establishes
the prayer-line of communication between the Heavenly Father and His
children.

Darwinism enthrones selfishness; the Bible crowns love as the greatest
force in the world.

Darwinism offers no reason for existence and presents no philosophy of
life; the Bible explains why man is here and gives us a code of morals
that fits into every human need.

The great need of the world to-day is to get back to God--back to a real
belief in a living God--to a belief in God as Creator, Preserver
and loving Heavenly Father. When one believes in a personal God and
considers himself a part of God's plan he will be anxious to know God's
will and to do it, seeking direction through prayer and made obedient
through faith.

Man was made in the Father's image; he enters upon the stage, the climax
of Jehovah's plan. He is superior to the beasts of the field, greater
than any other created thing--but a little lower than the angels. God
made him for a purpose, placed before him infinite possibilities and
revealed to him responsibilities commensurate with the possibilities.
God beckons man upward and the Bible points the way; man can obey and
travel toward perfection by the path that Christ revealed, or man can
disobey and fall to a level lower, in some respects, than that of the
brutes about him. Looking heavenward man can find inspiration in his
lineage; looking about him he is impelled to kindness by a sense of
kinship which binds him to his brothers. Mighty problems demand his
attention; a world's destiny is to be determined by him. What time
has he to waste in hunting for "missing links" or in searching for
resemblances between his forefathers and the ape? In His Image--in this
sign we conquer.

We are not progeny of the brute; we have not been forced upward by a
blind pushing-power; neither have we tumbled upward by chance. It is a
drawing-power--not a pushing-power--that rules the world--a power which
finds its highest expression in Christ who promised: "I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me."




V

THE LARGER LIFE


I have chosen this subject because I have found some young men, and even
some young women, who seem to misunderstand the invitation extended
by the Master. The call of the Gospel falls, at times, upon deaf ears
because religion is regarded as a thing that is necessary only when one
comes to prepare himself for the life beyond. In earlier times many
Christians misinterpreted the Christian religion and, withdrawing
themselves from companionship with their fellows, devoted their time
wholly to preparation of themselves for heaven. _Christ went about doing
good_.

I present my appeal to the young to accept Christ and to enter upon the
life He prescribes, not because they may _die_ soon but because they may
_live_. They need Christ as their Saviour _now_ and they need Him
as their guide throughout life. Some complain of the Parable of the
Vineyard because the man who began work at the eleventh hour received
the same pay as those who toiled all day. Surely, those who complain
have not tasted the joys of a Christian life. No one who follows the
teachings of Christ will begrudge the reward promised to those who
repent at the last moment and are saved. The eleventh-hour Christians
are the ones to mourn because they have lost the happiness that they
would have found in service during the livelong day.

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