154 THE THRESHOLD OF EVOLUTION 



is the force of the divine side of evolution, and you may rest 

 assured, that had not Christianity contained the revelation of 

 God's Trinity, it would never have been able to maintain its 

 own against the more favoured religions of Rome, which were 

 more suited to the, as yet, undeveloped soul of man at that time, 

 and the more material spirit of the Roman age of physical 

 power and voluptuous pleasures. I wish my reader to keep 

 this comment in his mind while he is reading the rest of these 

 chapters, as also that the trinity of wars is the most im- 

 portant trinity of this, the Epoch of Hope, throughout which 

 we follow the course of the three great contests for supremacy 

 and rule, between religions, governments and commerce, for 

 this is the epoch of wars as well as of Hope : 



ist. Between savagery and civilisation, or disorder at war 

 with petty states to form empires. 



2nd. Religions at war with governments, for the right to 

 rule mankind. 



3rd. The wars between science and superstition, bigotry, 

 folly and selfishness to evolve commerce, conquer 

 matter and to build up empires for the use of com- 

 merce. 



And as each of these contestants in turn strive for supremacy, 

 we find that the birth of revelation is one of trial and labour, 

 and that as each stage of divine enlightenment becomes evolved 

 within the mind of man, so, in turn, it is crushed to death 

 to give birth to a new requirement that is to evolve a new 

 portion of his mind, or to perfect some new energy of his 

 mind, or some new evolution on the development of govern- 

 ment, science and commerce. 



Now, as I have already mentioned, the first factor that gave 

 rise to the birth of religion in the mind of man was the fear 

 that the glacial period had produced in his dawning mind of 

 the elements that surrounded him. He thus grew to fear the 

 rain, snow and winds that overcame and destroyed him and 

 the works of his hands, and he started to pray to the sun, 

 moon and stars, to the winds, hail and snow, to afflict him 

 no more. Hence he places them above himself, confers upon 

 them spiritual existences, and peoples them with almighty 



