70 WHAT IS DARWINISM f 



wanted ; and as these variations were never 

 withheld, it would prove that the sanction of an 

 all-wise and all powerful Being has been given 

 to that which the highest human minds consider 

 to be trivial, mean, or debasing." (p. 290) 1 



The Nebular Hypothesis, as propounded by 

 La Place, proposed to account for the origin of 

 the universe, by a process of evolution under 

 the control of mere physical forces. That 

 hypothesis has, so far as evolution is concerned, 

 been adopted by men who sincerely believe 

 in God and in the Bible. But they hold 

 not only that God created matter and en- 

 dowed it with its properties, but that He de- 

 signed the universe, and so controlled the 

 operation of physical laws that they accom- 

 plished his purpose. So there are Christian 

 men who believe in the . evolution of one kind 

 of plants and animals out of earlier and simpler 

 forms; but they believe that everything was 

 designed by God, and that it is due to his pur- 

 pose and power that all the forms of vegetable 

 and animal life are what they are. But this is 

 not the question. What Darwin and the ad- 



1 That God permits men in the use of the laws of nature to 

 distil alcohol and brew poisons, does not prove that He approves 

 of drunkenness or murder. 



