"THE FOOL HATH SAID" 265 



finite, and in an unpropelled force coming from 

 nowhere. But matter we know is not necessary; 

 it does not exist of its very nature, since that offers 

 no reason for its existence or non-existence. It 

 undergoes constant changes; it is dependent upon 

 a thousand conditions and circumstances; it is 

 finite and can be numbered; and it passes from 

 motion to rest. It is not therefore either im- 

 mutable, or absolute, or infinite in any sense, even 

 in its activities. These qualities can be attributed 

 to God alone. Our reason demands that we must 

 finally come to a self-existent being, that can have 

 no cause outside itself, but exists eternally by its 

 very nature. That is God. 



Materialistic evolution contradicts reason no 

 less when it again postulates, without one spark 

 of evidence, the unaided transition from dead clod 

 to living being, in spite of the admitted impossi- 

 bility of spontaneous generation. And lastly, to 

 pass over all the minor chasms that have never 

 been bridged, it contradicts reason the third time 

 when it would trace back to brute instinct the es- 

 sentially different and wonderful quality of intelli- 

 gence in man. In fine, materialistic evolution has 

 proved nothing and can prove nothing in all its 

 long series of assertions, made without any sus- 

 taining evidence. To accept it is the height of 

 credulity and superstition, a stage below that of 

 fetishism, totemism and idol worship, which with 

 all their crude ignorance are lighted by at least 



