60 THE OEIGIN OF MAN 



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 



