EVOLUTION AND RELIGIOUS APATHY.
By C. M. Snow
WHAT books have had the greatest influence upon the thought of the nineteenth century?” This is the question recently propounded by The Outlook, and to which answers were published from G. Stanley Hall, president of Clark University; W. De Witt Hyde, president of Bowdoin College; Arthur T. Hadley, president of Yale University; Henry Van Dyke, professor of English literature at Princeton; Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and James Bryce—all men who are thoroly conversant with the literature of the day, and who aim to be familiar with the prevailing thought of the people. Each of the above named submitted a list of ten books which he considered had “had the greatest influence upon the thought of the nineteenth century.” It is a singular fact that while each of these men mentions books which are not given by the others, yet there is one book which they all agree must have a place among the ten. That book is Darwin’s “Origin of Species,” the book upon which is largely built the modern theory of evolution, the theory of man’s descent from lower orders of animals. Now these men are not giving a list of what they consider the greatest books of the century, but a list of the books which are having the greatest influence upon the thought of the people of this century. Viewed in this light, their answers are significant indeed; and their unanimous decision in reference to Darwin’s book is startling, to say the least. The influence which this learned theorist is exerting over the minds of the people can not be estimated, but is eating like a canker into the religious life of the people of this generation. A careful, prayerful study of the Word of God and a real experience in Christian life would have armed the people against the work of this insidious, undermining foe; but the people have neglected that armor, have neglected the study of the Word, held their Christian experience too lightly, allowed themselves to be lulled to sleep by pleasant words, and when this foe came in with its subtle insinuations, they were prepared to receive it as a friend. At first they imagined they could in some way hold to the theory of evolution and still be Christians,—still believe the Bible. Thus disarmed, the enemy soon had them at his mercy; and they forsook the divine truth for the human theory, the temple of God for the slough of doubt. Unfamiliar with the use of that shield which would have quenched all the fiery darts of the enemy, they were vulnerable at every vital point. Doubt robbed them of the quickening power of a real Christian experience, and then merged into actual disbelief; and disbelief of God’s own account of the origin of life in the earth set the muck-rakes of God’s accusers at work searching for the secret of life in the protoplasm, the amoeba, and the missing link. The propounding of great questions to which they could discover no answer, the discovery of phenomena which they could not explain, and the building of a false theory upon their undiscovered answers and unexplained phenomena, was labeled Science, and familiarity with it made a requisite of scholarship. Then by this class, ministers of the Gospel were held to be behind the times unless they could disbelieve God because they were not able to fathom all His secrets. It became “fashionable” to be an evolution theorist; it became “out of style” to have implicit confidence in God’s Word; and the fashionable pastor of the fashionable church yielded to the influence of his fashionable members, and “set the style” for many another whose foothold upon the Rock was insecure. This is no fanciful linking of events in the popular drift toward clerical infidelity. It is the sorrowful setting forth of what has actually taken place and is taking place in all parts of the country. The church is in the wilderness of her great temptation. In too many cases she is yielding to Satan’s suggestion, and is trying to get4the bread of life out of the stones of the desert. She breaks them open, finds a fossil, and discovers(?) that her Master’s record of creation is untrue. Eve found out in the same way that she could not die. God told man in Eden, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan scoffed, and Eve doubted. God has told man the secret of his existence. Satan has scoffed again, and the fashionable church is doubting, and logical doubters grow cold in church attendance. Here is one of the secrets of the empty pew, the dry sermon, and the decline of spirituality in the churches; and that decline will increase and the number of empty pews increase just in proportion as the theory of evolution supplants the truths of God’s Word in the minds and hearts of those who have called themselves Christian. It is bound to be the case. Evolution deals in fossils. The starfish forces open the shells of the mollusk, sucks out the life, and leaves the empty shell to fill with mud and form a fossil. That is what evolution is trying to do with Christianity. With many individual professors of Christianity it is succeeding. They have been robbed of Christian life, spiritual vitality, and all they have left is the dead, fossilized form of what they once had been. The man who has ceased to believe God’s Word can not be expected to put zeal and whole-heartedness into the worship of the One who indicted that Word. The true believer expects to meet God in the place dedicated to His worship; but what incentive has the logical doubter for attendance at such a place? What incentive, then, has the evolutionist for such attendance? What heart has the “spiritual adviser” in his spiritual advice when he is fostering and propagating a theory which is diametrically opposed to the truth of God’s Word? Satan planned his masterpieces of deception for the last generation of men upon the earth, and we are in that generation. In this thing he has struck at the very root of true religion, belief in God’s Word, and thousands upon thousands of casual, careless Christians are caught by the deception. We are told that they are men of the brightest minds; but they are minds which have submitted to the leading of God’s enemy—minds which were naturally bright, but which have given more attention to strange philosophies than to the truths of the religion they professed. Therefore they became narrow toward God and broad toward every species of doubt and unbelief. But there will be those who will “stand fast” in the midst of this devastating flood, whose anchor will never drag, however turbulent the sea. These are they who have made a thoro, daily, prayerful study of God’s Holy Word, who have yielded to the leadings of God’s Holy Spirit, and have learned to know and feel their acceptance with Him. “Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind.” “Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” “That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost.” “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.” “I have more understanding than all my teachers; for Thy testimonies are my meditation.” The brightest mind in the world is dull when compared with that of the fallen “covering cherub,” and consequently unable alone to cope with his deceptions; but the mind that is fully submitted to the will of God has a shield which that enemy can never pierce. Thru lack of that submission thousands will go down to destruction; but the protection which such submission gives is within the grasp of the humblest soul upon the earth.