4 SPECIES NOT 



Let us briefly examine the inference first,- 



If every living thing has descended from one 

 form, it is quite clear that man was not a sepa- 

 rate creation. Originating in some undescribed 

 and unintelligible primordial organism, he has 

 been progressing through countless ages by the 

 principles of "natural selection," "modification of 

 form," and "divergence of character/' until having 

 passed through the various phases of organic life, 

 he ultimately became a monkey, and then a 

 man. 



Now there is no possibility of getting away 

 from this position, if Darwin's book is true. The 

 changes taking place through "countless ages," 

 myriads of years in fact before the oldest known 

 geological epoch, the latter being itself a period 

 too immense for human intellect to grasp! 



I need riot stop a moment in endeavouring to 

 prove the vast and fearful interests which are 

 involved in such a conclusion. We are told that 

 in discussing a scientific question, (and I agree 

 in the propriety of the rule,) that we must not 

 mix it up with proof which may be obtained from 

 the Sacred Writings. But the question as I have 

 placed it; or rather as Mr. Darwin has raised it, 

 has gone far beyond the limits of a scientific 

 discussion. Mr. Darwin, it is true, lu;s carefully 

 avoided opening the wider issue by reference to 

 Biblical authority, but he has arrived at a point 

 which has struck at the foundation of all the 

 great truths which the Bible teaches, and therefore 

 it is incumbent upon any one who enters into 



