174 Natural Theology. 



ticism for which there is no cure ; it is an incapa- 

 city to weigh proof. This may exist in connection 

 with great learning and great power of scientific in- 

 vestigation. Where this defect exists, all labor spent 

 in accumulating proof is labor lost. When you have 

 presented one object to a man in clear sunlight and 

 he cannot see it, you know he is blind, and no accu- 

 mulation of objects will enable him to see. This 

 principle was forcibly illustrated by our Saviour, when 

 He represented Abraham as saying : " If they hear 

 not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be 

 persuaded though one rose from the dead." 



We consider the decision of the question how 

 animals and plants came upon this globe to be a 

 matter of investigation as to facts. How that ques- 

 tion will be ultimately decided we have no doubt. 

 Biologists can throw light upon many dark points, 

 but it is upon geology that we must mainly rely for 

 facts. We have not seen any strong argument made 

 out, none that leads us to believe that geology has 

 yet given any satisfactory testimony in favor of the 

 development theory. We have attempted to show 

 that variation is what we should expect to find in 

 species created by a wise Being. And if we are 

 threatened with the authority of great names on the 

 opposite side, we will not be dismayed while we 

 have on our book-shelves the works of the same great 

 men, in which the opposite view is most ably main- 

 tained. We can afford to wait, certainly, till they 

 have refuted their own arguments, unless we get 

 new light in other directions. When the truth 



