

7 



292 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



reaches of change, which, on the evolution doctrine, ex- 

 tend indefinitely, are being traversed every day before 

 our eyes in brief spaces of time. Inorganic matter is 

 being changed in vast quantities into protoplasm, cells 

 are being evolved in immense numbers at every mo- 

 ment, and growth from germ-cell to the perfected 

 organic structure is accomplished in instances of slowest 

 development in a few years. From molecule to proto- 

 plasm ; from protoplasm to cell ; from cell to organism 

 is not this an epitome of the age-long process of 

 evolution? What power is working out at every 

 moment such marvellous results ? It is the power of 

 living things : the condition of the accomplishment of 

 these inexplicable effects, is the, possession of that 

 mysterious attribute called Life. Surely what is being 

 done every day by living creatures, may have been 

 done in the origin of these creatures by that Being 

 who is the source of their life. 



It is charged against the creationist that he de- 

 grades the idea of creation to the likeness of human 

 invention that God is represented as a skilled arti- 

 ficer constructing the universe after a plan. But the 

 charge may, with greater effect, be retorted on the 

 evolutionist, and with this difference that he likens 

 the cause of all things to a workman with a very 

 limited amount of skill. He takes human progress as 

 his pattern of the method of cosmic activity. Limited 

 in intelligence, in experience, and in power, man is ever 

 advancing by tentative efforts. He makes many fail- 



