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maintain then, that there is really but one doctrine of evolution, and 
that, as I have sought to show, this is essentially atheistic, or rather pantheistic; 
that it may be in part held by Christians, but is no part of Christianity. 
“ Evolution,” according to Mr. Lea, “ necessarily postulates a starting-point.” 
This starting-point, according to the Scriptures, being a miracle of the 
most stupendous magnitude, and, in the case of man, of the most wonderful 
proportions. “ The first man, Adam, was made a living soul.” * * * § He was created 
at once perfect and the head of all the human race. “ In Adam all die,” they 
all share in the results of his transgression. There can be no Christianity 
where this is denied ; and the truly affecting and consoling portion of the 
burial service to which I have referred loses all meaning to the mourners, 
who so generally in this country find a source of consolation in the words of 
Scripture there quoted. All hope in “ the last Adam” is gone. 
This creation of Adam was accomplished, according to the Scriptures 
(which Christ declared cannot be broken) in a manner most inconceivable 
and objectionable in the view of science ; in fact, only to be received by 
faith. Jehovah Elohim formed man out of the dust of the ground (not out 
of a previously existing ape) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, 
and man became a living soul.” This is not “ derivative creation ,” but it is all 
we have to rest upon — this or nothing ! As to speculations concerning what 
God might fittingly have done, I look upon them as more suited to some other 
place where time could not be unprofitably wasted. 
“ Others apart sat on a hill, retired 
In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 
Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will, and Fate, 
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost .” + 
If the Old Testament in Genesis, and the New in 1st Corinthians, hold good, 
there is no question that man is a special creation. A continually developing 
mollusk or an improving baboon could not stand at the head of the human 
family, involving all mankind in the consequences of its [his ?] actions. 
As regards the rest of creation, we are not told in what manner to 
explain the expressions — “ Let the waters bring forth abundantly ”; “ Let 
the earth bring forth the living creature.” I freely confess I have no 
conception lioio this could take place, and that I only receive the notion 
as an article of faith. I am elsewhere told J of “quaternary compounds,” 
assumed to be transparent, since they have never been seen, con- 
sisting of eight atoms of carbonic acid, six atoms of water, and one of 
nitrogen, which somehow have the gift of coming to life.§ In these, if 
* 1 Cor. xv. 45. t Paradise Lost, Book ii., 1. 557, &c. 
X Physical Life, by A. Buchanan, M.D., President of the Faculty of 
Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, and one of the Vice-Presidents of the 
Glasgow Philosophical Society (page 34). 
§ These are natural constituents of the atmospheric air, which, on being 
diffused through water, combine with the mineral matter which the water 
holds in solution, and so (!) form an exoplasm which assumes the organic 
form, correspondent to its chemical constitution. 
R 2 
