METHOD OF CREATION 55 



triumphs. If the existence of a Supreme Spirit must 

 be assumed in order to account for the present condi- 

 tion of things, then Theism is established. 



Whether the Creator created living beings suddenly 

 or slowly, whether he made them directly from inor- 

 ganic matter or created some from others by the 

 process of evolution, whether he created by fiat or 

 by the use of secondary agencies, is of importance 

 only as it helps us to understand the nature of the 

 Creator himself. 



It is certain that the bodies of all animals and 

 plants consist of a few simple kinds of ordinary mat- 

 ter. It is certain that the plant gets its food from 

 soil, water and air, and that its tissues are converted 

 into the tissues of animals. The plant is not the less 

 noble that its cells are made of inorganic matter, nor 

 the animal the less elevated because its body is con- 

 structed of the materials furnished by plants, nor is 

 man less spiritual because he subsists on animals and 

 plants and minerals. 



If the plant can grow into an animal, if the worm 

 can be developed into a fish, the fish into a reptile, 

 the reptile into a mammal, and the mammal into a 

 man, then the fact of such origins does not degrade 

 the higher forms into the lower, but it shows the 

 greatness of the Power that has created them. 



But we would be blind, if, having concluded that 

 the above was the method of creation, we should also 

 affirm that soil, plant, worm, fish, reptile, mammal 

 and man are essentially alike. The attempt to prove 

 this is a mistake which has been made by some 

 evolutionists. 



It is this effort especially that the Theist resists, for 

 he regards it as Atheism. He denies that man is only 

 matter and force. He denies that all the members of 

 the series, although constructed of the same material 



