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1 2 3

32X

PREFATORY REMARKS.

The object of the writer of the following short Essays is
to place the subject of Infidelity in so plain and concise a
form before the minds of general readers, as to make it easy
for those who have not time nor opportunity to read books
on the subject, of more extensive and elaborate form.

If my design in this, my first effort, adds to the defence
of Truth against Error and Atheism, I will feel myself highly
gratified that I have given a helping hand to the active
ministers of the Gospel, and friends of Divine truth.

I have mentioned some of the ancient Greek philosophers
on purpose to show the difference and contrast between
them and modern Darwinian Agnostics and Positivists of the
present time, and that the ancient Greeks were men of
higher and purer conceptions of thought than the Free-
thinkers of the present day, although they lived in darker
times.

J. S.

^soi^ /S<S^ ^G/6

c-y/.

True religion can not suffer by its principles being thor-
oughly investigated, and enlightened conclusions are also
likely to convince the Sceptic. The state of religion in the
present time is momentous, and presses on its advocate to
*^ Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."

Natural philosophy seems to be the machinery which the
Materialists, Agnostics and Atheists now employ to over-
throw the principles of the Christian religion, and involve
the human race in worse than Antideluvian and Babylonian
darkness.

It is because some men are ** without God, and without
hope in the world," they wish to obscure the atmosphere of
truth, and lead men into the paths of libertinism in which
they themsel alk ; or to get a name as innovating philo-

sophers, who can lead the minds of untaught men back into
worse than primeval darkness. And it is because these
philosophers have the " magic of a name," as discoverers of
phenomena in the fauna axid Jiora of foreign countries, and
the geological strata of the globe, that they may lead men
astray. They are naturalists, botanists, geologists, &c, and
seem wiser than other men, and wish to appear so to the
public, that they may have blinded followers. These may
do infinite harm to simple and sincere believers in revelation.

/ao4s^^

—4—

The discoveries of Newton and Herschel, and the writ-
ings of Dick, have done much good to the cause of truth
and science ; but those men were Christians ; their dis-
coveries "display the glory of God, and show forth His
handiwork." They demonstrate the being of God, and con-
firm the believer in his faith in the Scriptures.

While the Darwins, the Spencers, the Comptes, the
Huxleys, the Tyndals, &c., of modern times, have, by their
vain philosophy, caused many to rest their faith on second
causes, and leave God, the great First Cause, out of the
question.

The Materialism of the present day seems to raise an idol
of its own, and to fall down and worship it. The theory,
or rather the hypothesis of evolution, is most deceptive in
its tendency, — many of its surmises are unverified, while
its advocates present it to the unlearned and credulous as
a system of true philosophy. But as long as such philosophy
remains unverified in any one pointy it is vain and deceptive,
and can not be accepted as established truth, much less can
such be regarded as an element of Christian faith. It seems
to be what the Apostle Paul warns men against in his
Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians. (Eph. v. 6) :
" Let no man deceive you with vain words : for because
of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children
of disobedience. Again (Col. ii. 8) : " Beware lest any man
spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tra-
ditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not
after Christ."

In fine, no evolution as set forth in Darwin's " Origin ot

the

Species," or his '• Descent of Man," can be accepted by the
person who believes in the being of a God, without disbe-
lieving the word of revelation. Nor can he accept evolution
in ethics, as taught by Herbert Spencer, and others of the
same class, without impairing his faith in the existence of
God, for all those forms of evolution are only inventions of
Agnostic Infidelity and blind Atheism. Evolution in Ethics
or Positivism has only for its purpose the denial of God's
beings and the worship of human intellect, as man improves,
mentally, from generation to generation. Therefore, their
only objects of adoration are, and will be, such men as
Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Socrates, Byron, Plato, Aristotle,
Charlemagne, Milton, Dante, Julius Caesar, Hypocrates,
Paul Leibnitz, Bacon,* David Hume, &c. These are cases
of mental evolution, and all such will be their only gods of
the future, — the modern mythology of the Positivists. From
all such let all believers of Christianity and the Bible turn
away.

No man need ever expect a Utopia upon earth. Upon
earth to find that would be impossible, while such views are
held by men in matters of religion. All man can do is to
conform to the golden rule, as near as possible. A strict
conformity to justice and truth is necessary to consolidate
the moral good of human society. The Christian religion
does not admit of persecution on account of difference in
the opinions of men ; they may be left to their own de-

* Bacon, Shakespeare, Milton, (Sr'c, are not here mentioned or
classed as Pagans or Sceptics, but because they are specimens of
evolved intellect ; they are classed by the Positivists as cases of mental
excellence, worthy of their veneration. For the Positivists have no
god but humanity.

de-
lusions, but let Christians of every shade of belief avoid the
infidelity of the times. For, as in the times of the French
Revolution, infidelity was one of the chief causes that led
to such bloodshed throughout Europe ; so let men cultivate
Scriptural Christianity as it leads to peace and good-will in
all nations as well as among men.

The following lines will clearly describe the effects of
both :—

Atheism paves the way
For mobish rule and Despot's sway ;
But Scripture truths inspire the mind
With motives just, for actions kind.

J. SINCLAIR,

Pres. Minister^

Lvoid the
t French
that led
cultivate
i-will in

fTects of

isier.

AN ESSAY-THE PRIMEVAL STATE OF MAN,

sbowhtg^ tsa sakoer and assubsxt? of
atheisic and aonosticish.

It is possible, and morally certain, that man, after his
creation, was in a state of innocence and purity ; but, after
his fall, his mind was darkened by sin. In this state, it is
recorded, that God left him to his own devices ; hence fallen
man had to search out, by observation of his senses, the
being and attributes of Deity ; so, till the time of Moses,
men were left to the darkness of their own imaginations,
without a written record. The flood came and all but eight
persons were swept from the face of the earth. All historj'
was traditional before the lime of Moses, who gave the first
reasonable record of creation. Reasonable, because it was
the only possible account or explanation of the truth as the
work of an Almighty hand, or an omniscient Being who
has existed through the ages of eternity. Before the light
of revelation men must have been in a st o of mental and
moral darkness concerning their own existe*ice, and the ex-
istence of things around them, — the visible universe, and
the origin of all things, and this darkness of mind continued,
with the exception of the Jewish nation, till the times of the
Redeemer, who, in the fullness of time, came and shed the
light of the Gospel on the minds of men who were in the
regions of moral darkness till His coming. For instance,
let us glance at the opinions of heathen wise men and philo-
sophers before the coming of Christ- Take some of the
wisest : Socrates and Plato, " they taught and believed in

! ,

— 8—

the immortality of the soul, and the existence of a supreme
Being," hut their ideas on these subjects were indefinite ; yet
they are called the wisest of the heathen philosophers.
Socrates died 400 years before Christ, and Plato 348 years
before Chnst. Homer, the greatest poet of the ancients,
" believed that water was the origin of all things ; " he died
907 years before Christ. Thales, one of the wise men of
Greece, ** looked upon water also as the origin of all things ; "
he died 548 years before Christ. Aneximander considered
" that the earth was formed in the shape of a cylinder, and
taught that men were bom of the earth and water mixed
together, and heated by the beams of the sun ; he con-
sidered the sun a circle of fire like a wheel, about 28 times
bigger than the earth;" he died 547 years before Christ.
Anaximines, a Gre^ k philosopher, said " that the air wa? the
cause or first beginning of every created being, and was a
self-existent divinity, and that the sun, moon, and stars had
been made from the earth. He considered that the earth
and the heavens were a solid figure on which the stars were
fixed like nails ; " he died 504 years before Christ. Leucippus
first invented the hypothesis of atoms and a vacuum ; he
died 428 years before Christ.

Lucretius, a Roman poet and philosopher, taught in his
great poem (De Rerum Natura), " that there is no God, and
denied also the immortality of the soul, and declared that all
things were at first formed from iht foriuiius concourse of
atoms meeting and striking in empty space (vacuum), and
forming all things animate and inanimate in the universe ; "
he died, by his own hand, in the 44th year of his age, 51 —
some say 54 — years before Christ.

The blessings Christianity conferred on mankind since
the days of heathen darkness have passed away, are now
menaced by a new sect called Agnostics, and, as the term

— 9—

signifies, they profess to knoiv nothing but what is evident
to tlieir senses ; and, what seems most strange, they profess
to know that men at first were descended from monkeys !
Charles Darwin, a modern naturalist, writes that men came
at first from monkeys, in the following process, viz. : ** From
a clot of slime in the depths of the sea, which, became a
piotoplasm, or first mould, which produced amoeba, which
produced sponges, which, in the course of an extent of time,
practically infinite^ became tailed apes or monkeys, whence
man was finally generated, and, through non-use of the tail,
man (ape) lost the tail during the Miocene period of geol-
ogy." A singular announcement by Mr. Darwin, who pro-
fesses to be an Agnostic (a know nothing), but the truth of
this rediculous hypothesis has never been proved, nor can
be shown,

Mr. Darwin must have understood that, arguments taken
from analogy are often very deceptive, for it does not follow
that because he finds that frogs and monkeys have four limbs
that bear a resemblance to the hands and feet of man, that,
therefore, he is a descendent of either. He might as well
conclude that man is a distant relative of the cayman of the
West Indies, or the crocodile of the Nile.

Professor Huxley says : —

" So long as a single link is wanting in Darwin's ' Origin
of Species,' &c., his hypothesis cannot be regarded as es'
tabhshed truth." » '

And this opinion, is in a mere scientific point of view,
what can Christianity say in a gospel sense ? Mr. Darwin
may have contributed to science by som^ of his writings,
but has overstepped the line in his " Origin of Species "
and " Descent of Man." His Hypothesis on this subject
more resembles the incoherent language of the monoman-

(2)

iac than the language of a philosopher. Here the chain is
broken, and the language of Pope will apply : —

** From Nature's chain, whatever link you strike,
Tenth, or ten thousanth, breaks the chain aliku ;
The least confusion but in one, not all
That system only ; but the whole must fall."

As expressed by Bishop Lewis :—

" Truly, Agnosticism is a contradiction of terms. It as-
serts that we cannot know anything, and yet assumes to
know that we cannot know. As applied to God, it is a
cowardly name for Atheism. In its negation it becomes
ludicurously affirmative ; while denying God it affirms the
deity of matter."

If there be in Darwin's Hypothesis any semblance of
truth, why do not men come in a similar way from monkeys
still ? It is a false system to build men up in unbelief, and
to encourage the commission of sin and crime.

The men of the antideluvian age of the world were moved,
in a similar way, to deny God without fear. So did the men
after the flood, at Babel, when they were dispersed at the
confusion of languages. With such a theory of belief, men
would relapse into primeval darkness. The vain and de-
ceptive ingenuity (not philosophy) of Charles Darwin will
never overt^^um the faith of reasoning men, in the absolute
existence of a wise, great, and omnipotent God, who rules
the universe, whose attributes are made so obvious to the
human mind, by the mafks of infinite wisdom, and wise
design, in the works of creation. Well did the great Sage,
Carlyle, declare that, " Darwin is a man of very little
intellect."

If Darwin's " Origin of Species " were believed, and in-
culcated among men, and become the order of the day in
society, it Would destroy all moral responsibility, and degrade

— tl —

man to a lower place in the scale of creation and beings than
did ever the darkest theories of heathen philosophers, for
some of them professed to believe in one Great Beingy and
in the immortality of the soul ; but Darwin seems to believe
in no God but matter, and this matter, according to his
belief, must have created itseK^ or is eternal, — two great
absurdities, according to man's ideas of cause and effect and
final causes^ or the evidences of design in the works of
creation.

A man may acquire fame as a philosopher, in classifying
^'t fauna ai\d flora of the different regions of the earth, and
studying its geological structure, and when, after all that he
may have discovered, he turns around and says to the men
of the world, " These are all the results of chance, or the
operations of blind, inert matter." He then acts as a de-
stroyer of man's hope beyond the grave, and a polluter of
human society, and a moral enemy to his country. Such is
the tendency of Darwin's " Origin of Species and Descent
of Man." The outcome of all this is Socialism, Commun-
ism and Nihilism, in more monstrous forms than in the days
of the French Revolution.

Thomas Carlyle, the Sage of Chelsea, says :

" I have known three generations of the Darwins — grand-
father, father, and son; Atheists all. The brother of the
present famous naturalist, a quiet man, who lives not far
from here, told me that among his grandfather's effects he
found a seal engraven with this legend, * Omnia ex conchis^
everything from a clam shell. I saw the naturalist not many
months ago ; told him I had read his * Origin of Species,'
and other books ; that he had by no means satisfied me that
men were descended from monkeys, but had gone far tvowards
persuading me that he and his so-called scientific brethren
had brought the present generation of English men very
near to monkeys. A good sort of man is this Darwin, and

— 12 —

well meaning, but of very little intellect. Ah ! it is a sad
thing and terrible to see nigh a whole nation of men and
women, professing to be cultivated, looking around in a pur-
blind fashion, and finding no God in the universe. I sup-
pose it is a reaction from the reign of cant and hollow
pretence, professing to believe what, in fact, they do not
believe. All this is what we have got to. AH things from
frog-spawns — the gospel of dirt, the order of the day. The
older T grow — and now I stand on the brink of eternity —
the more comes back to me the sentence in the Catechism
which I learned when a child, and the fuller and deeper its
meaning becomes : * What is the great end of man ? To
glorify God and enjoy Him for ever.' No gospel of dirt
teaching that men have descended from frogs through
monkeys will ever set that aside."

Genesis i. 26. Here it is recorded that God, after mak-
ing the inferior animals, made man as a special and distinct
being, quite distinct from other beings of inferior rank, giv-
ing him the intellect and power to rule over all, this, man,
in all his states, has succeeded in doing.

The savage as well as the enlightened has, by his inven-
tions, overcome the fiercest animals, which demonstrate that
he was created a quite different order of being.

A Professor, in a lecture on the subject of Evolution,
says :

" Man, in his earliest European advent, was the equal of
modern man. Nor do we find any where any link graduat-
ing from man towards the rank of the brutes. The apes
have a geneological tree. We trace them back to the begin-
ning of the tertiary times. Man has no geneological tree ; he
stands apart as if he had been the product of an inde-
pendent organization. However this may be, he is most
closely related in plan of organization to ti.e other kingdom.
The facts, in short, are such that we may, with Walace, hold
to the evolution of the oth^r animals, and yet not embrace
the doctrine of the evolution of man." * — Professor Winchell.

* The writer here declares his disbelief in evolution so call(*d.

lElORIAL LIHES ON THE 6EIN& OF m

Is)

Creative power in God siHseeing,
First caused msEtter to have a being ;
T'was that Spirit, the mighty three,
Made order and species iir^ to be ;
Then, to finish the mighty plan,
God said, " Let us make man.^

It is made plain by natural laws.
Effects can^ exi^ without a cause *;
The effect, itself displays design,
Intelligence of Almighty mind :
Withoiit a cause can be no notion
Of the phenomena of motion.

What caused the stars to run their race.
In orbits true, through boundless space ?
Olobes* inert matter would ever stan*l
Unless propelled hy a mighty hand ;
Making perfect motion in their spheres,
Measuring true both times and years ;

Making it plain to human reason,
To calculate the time and season.
Inert matter would ever stand
Except propelled by a mighty hand.
T*was this which caused the fix'd relation
Between matter's rest and gravitation ;

Which law suspends, in orbic race.
The planets throughout infinite space.
Behold those planets, as they run
In peifect orbit round the sun ;
Around the sun these moving spheres
Perform their course in divers years,

Yet, move with regularity profound.

They ever pass in orbits round.

Let men survey earth's varied fanes,

And say blind chance has raised those towers ;

As well might earthquakes do the same.

And wrecks of floods build fleets of powei-s :

i I

—14—

Anct what are fleets of every natioir

Compared to works of God's creation ?

Castles can't raise themselves erect, !

Without design of architect ;

And what's in man's experience greater

There can't be laws without a legislator.

These laws of God, in ^ace profound,
Propel the stars in orbits round ;
For ever singing as they shine,
** The hard that made us is diviner"
The mind of man, and animal instinct, show
The omniscient God created all below ;

Without this faith there can't be true conjecture

About the Universe's glorious architecture.

These facts proclaim to men of sense

The wisdom of omnipotence ;

Lucretius, Darwin, Voltaire, Payne, ^'c,

Have wr.tfen their dioughts, both base and vain.

But the truth God 16 will still remain.

J. S,

A learned writer says : —

" After careful study of all the theories proposed, inde-
pendently of revelation, we conclude that the first constituent
atoms of the earth must have been created by some power
or force, not inherent in matter ; and that these particles
came into being as simple elements, all at the same time,
forming a confused and shapeless mass. But a mixture of
new created elements would not long remain quiescent or
at rest, as they were endowed with chemical qualities and
affinities, producing motion and combustion rapidly, so as
to produce light. This must have been the light of the first
day of creation, when God said, " J-et there iJ light,'^ as the
sun, moon and stars did not appear till the fourth day. The
origin of all things is ascribed to God. It is reiterated that

—15—

God commanded, God saw, God created, and approved.
The creation of the world had been delegated to no inferior ;
so, too, the creative work was performed in a manner worthy
of the Supreme Being. It was accomplished with infinite
ease. " Let there be light," said the Creator, and instantly
the universe was illuminated. It was an invisible energy
that permeated the world of atoms, and developed fishes,
fowls, and quadrupeds, and adapted them to move in their
several spheres. While other nations believed in their imag-
inary gods, the Jews, though surrounded by idolators, were
thus effectually taught to believe in one great power above
all else. Man's humble origin from the dust of the ground
was fitted to teach him lessons of dependence, when reflect-
ing upon his relations to the Deity, while his high endow-
ments of mind showed his superiority over the brute animal."

The Scriptures given by God to man were not to teach
him philosophy but to explain the simple phenomei a of the
universe, as they appeared to his senses. Abstract science
was left by the Creator to man's intelligence, with which
God endowed him when He gave Adam the intuitive mental
power of giving names to the different species of animals.
(Gen. ii. 19, 20.) But this intuitive power of intellect was
intended by the Creator to be enlarged in man's experience
and observation. So there was ample scope to Adam and
his posterity for the exercise of their mental powers, which
was not given to the inferior part of creation. Hence,
philosophy and science are perfectly justifiable in the eyes
of God, so far as they minister to the glory of God, and the
well-being of man ; but the philosopher is not to use* science
to dishonour God, or debase the human race ; for this would
be to turn the world into a pandemonium.

But when man directs his mind to the study of science it
ought to be for the promotion of truth, of virtue, and the
glory of God. Such were the motives of Bacon when he
discovered and explained his method of inductive philoso-

— 16—

phy, practised by Newton, which led to the finding out of
the law of gravitation — a law which holds the heavenly
bodies, the planets^ &c., in their courses or orbits as they
revolve through infinite space. Such adds to the glory of
the Creator, and shows the wisdom and immensity of His
power. But for Charles Darwin to trace the descent of man
from a clot of slime in the depths of the sea is a degredation
of human thought, only to be deprecated and rejected as a
monstrous absurdity.

Lord Bacon, in his essay, says : —

" A little philosophy inclineth a man's mind to Atheism,
but depth in philosophy bringeth man's mind about to re-
ligion, for while the mind looketh upon second causes scat-
tered, it may rest in them and go no farther ; but when it
beholdeth the chain of them confederated and linked to-
gether, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity."

Pope says :

" Hope springs eternal in the human breast ;
Man never is, but alway to be blest ;
The soul, uneasy and confined at home,
Rests and expatiates on a life to come : ^
But, take this hope away of being heaven'^ heir,
Man dies in doubt, black darkness, and despair;
But hallowed thoughts that on the "Rock of Ages" rest,
Dispel all gloomy fears from the believer's breast."*^

ATHEISM AND DEISM REFUTED.

. The words of a learned divine are the following :

*< Of all the false doctrines and foolish opinions which ever
infested the mind of man, nothing can possiMy equal that
of Atheism, which is such a mon :rous contradiction of all
evidence, to all the powers of understanding, and the
dictates of common sense, that ft may be well questioned
whether any man can really fall into it by a deliberate use of
his judgment."

It is impossible for the mind to conceive, even a plausible
conjecture, how the universe came into existence without the
infinite power and intelligence of the Supreme Being, who
gave the things that are their first existence. Blind, inert
matter could not create itself, much less could it give ex-
istence to the mind. Could the clod of the valley create the
mind of the philosopher, the divine, the mechanic, or the
farmer ? Impossible ! The existence of the human mind
could have no possible cause but that of Deity, from which it
emanated or received its first being, with all its powers of
thought and will. Matter alone could never have produced
an inferior animal^ with its instincts, its wonderful aptitudes
in providing for its young, and the continuation of its kind.
Mere matter could never have created such beings with such
aptitudes, capabilities, and power of thought and contriv-
ance in building their nests, providing for and preserving
their young — therefore, no man, with reason or power of
tliinkmg, can deny the existence of a great, powerful and
all-wise God, whose intelligence and almighty hand formed
the imiverse. If this be granted — and it cannot be reason-
abllf denied — the same great Being could inspire his servants,

^ (4)

I I '<

—18—

the prophets, and apostles, to do miracles and prophesy, to
convince man of his power to overrule the opposition of
wicked men in the early ages of the world.

By this step of reason, we come to speak of the inspira-
tion of the Bible, and the miracles recorded in the Old and
New Testaments. Having proved that there is an all-powei-
ful and qmniscient God, who created and gave laws to both
matter and mindi can it be possible that this same God could
not inspire men to perform miracles, and give a faithful
history of such facts in the times in which they were
performed ?

Take the miracles performed by Moses and Aaron in
Egypt Here we have the history of a people held in bond-
age by a heathen tyrant for a long series of time ; — there
appeared to be no hope that the tyrant would let them free.
Hence, we find it recorded that the God of Israel sent Moses
and Aaron before this tyrant, and enabled them to perform
miracles which overawed Pharaoh and his people so that the
niler of Egypt let the children of Israel free. Here was a
whole nation made free by the manifestation of miracles,
wrought by the power which God gave to Moses and Aaron,
in the sight of both Egyptians and Israelites, yet neither
people could deny the public facts. Then, if the history of
those facts could not be denied, and were not denied at the
time of their performance, it is plain that they could not be
denied, as the Egyptians themselves were so convinced that
they were true miracles that Pharaoh and his people let their
captives, the children of Israel, free. All saw the miracles,
yet none could prove them to be false, as they were done
in the presence of all men, in opposition to the Egyptian
magicians.

Again, Moses and Aaron led the people of Israel to the
Red Sea ; here they had to halt in their march as the ocean

fXi

—19—

prevented them from making a single step in advance.
Pharoah, with his host in quick persuit, when all human
means of escape seemed, to the children of Israel, impossi-
ble, when the word of the Lord came to Moses (Ex. xiv.)
The history of this miracle, if it could be proved to be a
fiction at the time, would not some of them have said at the
time, or after the time of the miracle, that such a miracle
never took place ? But no such denial, or even doubt of
the miracle, was ever expressed by the Israelites ; though all
witnessed it, none could deny that it was done by the power
of God.

Here were 600,000 men, women, and children in the
exercise of their senses, looking on the miracle of crossing
the Red Sea, and no one could or did call in question that
miracle, although the Israelites were inclined, before they
saw the miracle, to murmur against Moses. (Ex. xiv. lo-i 2.)
After this miracle, they all joined Moses in singing the song
of triumph : " The horse and his rider hath He thrown into
the sea." (Ex. xv.)

The many miracles recorded by Moses will bear the same
test as the crossing of the Red Sea.

Since that time, all Jewish^ records, usages and customs,
with the whole Jewish policy, confirm the same, both in
ecclesiastical and national history, together with their cere-
monies in forms of worship, till this day.

The same kind of argument aifd proof can be used to
prove the authenticity of the miracles wrought by our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, as He performed them in the
presence of the Jewish people at the time of His ministry
among men ; and they believed, and many were convinced
that His miracles were the manifestation of Divine power.
Neither Jew nor heathen could confute them at the time they

"V^BI

— 20 —

were performed by Christ ; and, only since that time, Deists,
Atheists, and Infidels have mocked His miracles, but could
not disprove them.

Again, the fulfilment of prophesy proves the authenticity
of the Scriptures. Take the 53 chapter of Isaiah, fulfilled
in the sufferings and death of the Saviour on Calvary's cross,
where it says : '* He was wounded for our transgressions, He
was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace
was upon Him ; and with His stripes we are healed." And
again in the same chapter, 9th verse : '* He made His grave
with the wicked ; " and last clause of the 12th verse :
" And He was numbered with the transgressors ; and He
bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the trans*
gressors." Such direct language could not have been used
by the Prophet to express the sufferings and atonement of
Christ, unless the Spirit of the most High God had inspired
him. Isaiah lived about 760 years before Christ.

The Prophet here describes the sufferings of Christ almost
as if he were looking upon the dying Saviour in His agony
on Calvary. No Jew can explain this chapter away, as it
bears so exactly on the atonement 01 Christ, and His suffer-
ings for men who will repent of their sins.

Again, the prophesies of Christ, concerning the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem, had their fulfilment in the destruction of
that city, in the times of the Emperors, Vespasian and
Titus, when Jerusalem was taken by the Romans, and all
were tak-^n captive or put to death. Vespasian was the first
of the Roman Emperors who died a natural death, and was
also the first of the Emperors who was succeeded by his
own son on the thrown. Christ's prophesy, in the 24th
chapter of Matthew, was, literally, fulfilled in the destruction
of Jerusalem. The institution of the, Lord's supper was

^e^i^t^^

me, Deists,
but could

Jthenticity
h fulfilled
ry's cross,
fsions, He
our peace
Jd." And
^is grave
h verse :
and He
^e trans*
•en used
Jment of
inspired

t almost
5 agony
y, as it
s suffer-

iestruc-
:tion of
m and
nd all
le first
id was
3y his
24th
Jction
r" was

— 21—

appointed by the Saviour before His death on the cross, and
has been observed by all Christians since the days of His
ministry among men, and will be observed till the end of
time, in commemoration of His sufferings and death. Since
that time His gospel has prevailed in opposition to the de-
vices of the wicked, though only at first proclaimed by the
])oor, illiterate fishermen of Gallilee. The Atheist and
Deist may mock, but their mockings are in vain. Since the
time of Christ, science, civilization, and power have increased,
and light and knowledge, both temporal and spiritual, have
made many of the nations of the earth great and happy.

These results can only be ascribed to the influence of the
gospel of truth, which elevates the human mind in the hope
of happiness beyond the grave ; while the unbeliever and
Atheist are " without hope and without God in the world."

The Bible exceeds every other book for its antiquity, and
is vastly superior to the time from which it sprung, in its
literature, in its comprehensiveness and importance.

Sir Isaac Newton said : " The Scripture is the most sublime
philosophy,"

Sir Wm. Tones said : —

•' •

" I am of opinion that the Holy Scriptures, independent
of their divine origin, contain more true sublimity, more
exquisite beauty, more important and finer strains of both
poetry and eloquence, than could be collected from any other
books."

The great astronomer. Sir John Herschel, says : —

" All discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of
confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in
the Holy Scriptures."

This seems to be a true observation from the following
texts, (Job xxvi. 7) : " He stretcheth the north over the

I ,

— 22 —

empty space (vacuum), and hangeth the earth upon nothing."
A prophesy, it would seem, concerning the law of gravita-
tion. Again, (Daniel xii. 4) : ** Many shall nm to and fro,
and knowledge shall be increased." This seems to refer to
travelling by steam and the propagation of the gospel. The
spirit of inspiration could only have predicted in these words
the facts of the present time.

Infinet the Bible gives a more enlightened account of
creation, of the origin of life, of mind, of matter, of the
universe, and of all things that exist, than any other book
or creed in the world. Atheists, Fositivists, and Materialists
have no ground to reason from but inert matter, which has
no power to create itself, nor to give life to animals, much
less to give life and mind to man. Life and mind are phe-
ncminal existences, which only can be accounted for by the
belief in the being of an ail-wise and omnipotent God, whose
attributes are beyond pan's comprehension, and " whose
ways are past finding out." Hence the Genesis and Biogenesis
given by the Creator to Moses is the only true, and even
plausible account, that the minds of reasonable men can
accept or Christians can believe. All the hypothical non-
sense devised by Sceptics and Atheist have totally failed
from absence of proof. The most minute spores, or semina,
or infusiora having the germs of life or vitality, owe their
vital existence to God, as directly as does the whale of the
ocean, or the elephant of the plain. If there be any evolu-
tion, it does not change the species or genera of created
things; all things are as they were from the beginning.
Domestication, care of man, and change of place and cir-
cumstance, may have improved the species of inferior
animals, but has ^lot changed their nature. The wild
elephant and tiger of India are still the same fierce animals
from the earliest times.

—23—

3n nothing/'
of gravita-
te and fro,
to refer to
3spel. The
:hese words

account of
ter, of the
ther book
Materialists
which has
lals, much
^ are phe-
for by the
3d, whose
" whose
biogenesis
nd even
men can
cal non-
\y failed
■ semina,
w^e their
J of the
y evolu-
created
ginning,
md cir-
inferior
le wild
mimals

Some animals have become extinct, as the moa and dodo

)f New Zealand, and the penguin or great awk, even re-

:ently. These facts only show that species of animals have

md are becoming, extinct. But we do not ^ know or read of

[any new species coming into existence by the supposed

[process of evolution. The majority of geologists conclude

;that four or five distant epochs of destruction and* renewal

may have taken place, and can be traced in the organic

remains contained in the different strata ; in other words,

that whole groups have been swept at once from existence

by some powerful catastrophe, and their places supplied by

other races, called into existence by the creating energy of

the Almighty. This would imply that the hypothesis of

evolution is a mere figment, invented by the Sceptic to evade

the truth that " God created and gave order to all things in

the universe."

THE ABSURDITY OF HATERIAUSH.

Of all forms of human belief, none could possibly be more
unmeaning than to think that mere matter could form or
produce all things which exist in the universe without the
intervention of mind; and that mind must have been both
omniscient and omnipotent, for all things animate display
both power and wisdom. Unconscious matter alone could
never have produced animal life and thought. Between
purely vital aiid purely physical action, not the faintest
analogy has ever been shown to exist. The living world is
absolutely distinct from the non-living world, or matter, com-
pared with the antiquity of matter. Probably, the phenomena
of life may have been very recent, and an addition to it, not
of a refined kind of material force, but a transcendent energy,
conferred on matter which controls and regulates both
matter and its forces according, it may bey to laws, but not
the laws of inert matter. Matter may have existed before
life, even a very indefinite time. Before the Creator caused
life to exist, matter may have existed millions of years in
the formation of our globe ; as the researches of geolog;'
may have made plain to thinking minds. Hencei the phe-
nomena of life is a very distinct principle from matter, and
can only be explained in this way^ viz. : That the Creator
gave that living principle as a ruling agent in connection
with and after the rude elements of matter were brought
into being.

Materialism, which leads to Atheism, has been half ac-
cepted by hundreds of persons during the last few years.
The writings of Darwin and other modem Sceptics, have
(5)

--26—

led many into this error. The Materialistic doctrines seem
to accept, as a truth, that the non-living and living are one
and the same, and that every living thing is just as much a
machine as a watch, a windmill, or hydraulic apparatus.
According to material contention, everything owes its exist-
ence to properties of the material out of which it is con-
structed. But is it not strange that it never seems to have
occured to the Materialistic devotee, that neither the watch,
the steam engine, the windmill, the hydraulic apparatus,
nor any other machine known to, or made by, any individual
in this world, is dependent for its construction upon the pro-
perties of the material particles of the matter out of which
its several parts have been constructed ? The simple truth
is, that the essential phenomena of all living beings cannot
be explained without recourse to some hypothesis of power
totally different from any of the known forms of power, or
modes of mechanical energy peculiar to matter. Materialism
may be called a chief element in the Atheistic creed, but''^
vital energy which sustains and gives action to mind in the
suggestive operation of thought, must differ widely from any
quality in matter ; the materialism, then, of the Sceptic,
becomes a chimera of the human brain. It is because the
Atheist cannot deny the existence of matter he deifies it as
matter of necessity, for he might as well deny his own existr
ence as the existence of matter.

David Hume once made an attempt to deny the existenc
of matter, by reasoning from Bishop Berkley's " Theory of
Ideas," as that writer said in his ** Principles of Human
Knoivledge^^ that what are called material objects are nothing
more than impressions on the mind, or what we would call
ideas ; therefore, it is only the idea we reason from that we
can know the existence of external objects, so Hume drew
his conclusions from this theory of Bishop Berkley. This

t-"

—27—

eflTort of Hume to deceive men about the reality of matter
was a piece of the most absurd sophistry. It shows what
men who are infidels will do to deceive others and gain
followers and dupes. But neither the philosophical tran-
scendentalism of Berkley, nor the palpable scepticism of
Hume, will, in any way, effect or destroy man's belief in his
own material personality, nor his belief in the substantial
existence of material objects around him. The object of
the Atheist and Infidel is to destroy all ground of the
Christian's hope, and leave nothing in its place.

But all efforts of the wicked have been in vain to accom^
plish this end. To blot the idea of an all- wise God from the
minds of men has been the fixed intention of all infidel
writers since the beginning of time. But the religion of
Christ, the Saviour of men, has resisted all their efforts.
While the pantheism of Greece and Rome have van ished
from the world, the superstitious forms of religion in heathen
lands are yielding to the truths of Christianity, and the clouds
of error are being dispelled by the light of the gospel. The
Christian's hope gives peace to man /tere, and elevates his
mind to contemplate the glories and happiness of heaven
beyond the grave, while all other forms of religion leave him
in doubt, darkness and despair.

The Lucretian system of infidelity was, that the universe
was at first formed by a concourse of infinite atoms passing
through infinite and empty space, apd, striking against one-
another, formed the worlds.

The Darwinian sysw,im of infidelity represents to the men
of the world, of the present time., that men were at first
descended from a clot of slime in the depths of the sea, and,
after passing through various changes, became monkeys and
then men. This hypothesis seems to be as absurd a myth

—28—

as the nativity of Venus from the /roth of the sea, or the
birth of Minerva from the brain of Jupiter ; a mosl rediculous
element of agnostic belief !

Mr. Darwin's hypothesis that man was at first eifolved
from a clot of slime in the depths of the sea, will appear
quite absurd from the following argument : Evolution of a
living being cannot be conceived or predicated of inert mat-
ter, for it requires animal life to exist, either in embrio or in
addition to matter, before life can exist in matter ; for all
forms of animal and vegetable life or vit?*lity are quite dis-
tinct from inert matter ; to speak of spontaniety of life in
mere matter, is absolute nonsense.

I St. The most minute spores or semena or infusoria^ owe
their vital existence to God direct, as the Giver of all life, as
certainly as does the whale of the ocean, or the elephant of
the plain, through their species, which was at first brought
into being by His creative power.

2nd. Vital motion is quite different from mechanical
motion ; the former is self-moving, the latter is moved by
some power external to itself.

3rd. All modes of life and motion are entirely distinct
from inert matter.

4th. All modes of action and motion of inert matter are
either produced by vital or mechanical forces. ,

5th. Matter, being unconscious, is destitute of mercy and

justice, and devoid of reason and intelligence^ — could form no

aws of Providence such as are seen in the adaptation of

t eans to certain ends, which are conspicuous in the works

of creation.

The hypothesis of the Lucretian Materialist, that all
things having life, and life itself, have been caused 2X first by

-29—

cosmic nebulosity, and the gyrations of infinite everlasting
atoms passing through infinite space and striking against
each other, and forming globes and worlds, ure but the in-
ventions of Atheism and materialistic folly.

As to Darwin's hypothesis, that man was first evolved
from a clot of slime in the sea, will appear quite absuid, as
life is a very different phenomenon from inert matter. To
speak of spontaniety of life in mere matter is absolute non-
sense. If any living being could evolve from mere matter,
then inert matter might become the copious fountain of
animate beings without living progenitors. But the per-
sistency of species in both animal and vegetable beings in
the world, shows plainly that evolution is a mere chimera of
the brain of the man who wishes to eliminate God from
the universe. Every living being, from man to the lowest
animal, must have a parentage^ or they cannot come into life
without an animate cause. Every being, both animal and
vegetable, must bring fonh after its kind.

All remains of man which are found in the tertiary strata
of the globe, have iheir living representatives in the present
race of living men, and these remains are only found in very
recent deposits, and distinct from other animal fossils, which
are the remains of inferior animals which have long passed
away ; showing man to be the last of God's creation^ and
proving that the Mosaic account is authentic and reasonable.

In conclusion, it is evident that evolution, as held and
taught by mod.ern freethinkers, is a figment of Atheism which
has for its object the change of human thought and belief to
palpable absurdity, viz. : To ascribe the creation of all
animal beings to inert matter. These modem Sceptics
would have men to believe this absurdity instead of the
Bible. The Mosaic account of creation is to be swept out

—30—

of existence, and the guesses of two atheistic philosophers
are to be substituted instead of Scripture truth. If such a
revolution of faith should take place generally in society,
then we might bid adieu to justice and order among men.
It is evident that, so far as Atheism prevails, oaths in courts
of justice can be of no use.

Dr. Paley says :-—

" Remove once out of heaven God, who rules the universe,
and there will never be any God upon earth. If man's
nature had not something of subjection in it to a Supreme
Being, and inherent principles obliging him how to behave
himself towards God, and towards the rest of the world,
government could never have been introduced or thought of.
Nor can there be the least mutual security between governors
and governed where no God is admitted. For it is the ac-
knowledging of God in His supreme judgment over the
world, that is the ground of an oath, and upon which the
validity of human engagements depends."

It must be plain to every sane mind, that the Giver of all
life at the beginning of time must have been one independent
Being, or Divine energy, which gave all things their existence
at first

The human mind is incapable of forming any other idea or
belief. Man's imagination may wing its flight to the regions
of immensity, and within the compass of human thought, he
can find no object to rest upon but the omniscient, eternal,
and self-existing Jehovah, who alone gave life to all beings
on the globe, and fixed the genera and all species all animate
things ; therefore, the new doctrine of evolution is false, and
leaves no ground of reason to the Darwinian Agnostic on
which to build his supposed theory of his so-called evolution.

JAS. SINCLAIR.

EIPLANATM OF THE PLAN OF THESE SHORT ESSAYS.

i,
.f.
rs
c-
le
le

The object of the writer is to make the subject as plain
to the common reader as it possibly can be.

Bible Christianity of all denominations, without distinc-
tion, is one side of the subject, and Infidelity and Atheism
the other. While the want of sound reason, or a foundation
of human belief, on the part of the Atheist, is clearly shown,
the Bible Christian, of whatever denomination he may be-
long, has both the scriptural and philosophical arguments
made plain to his understanding. . The arguments here are
short and direct, so that they will be easily comprehended by
the current reader.

Hoping that this humble effort may aid in the spread of
Christian knowledge, when the darkness of Atheism and
Agnosticism are now making strong efforts to benight the
minds of men, by unsound reasoning and philosophy falsely
so called.

This little work, as a short treatise, may give some light
where it is now wanting*

J. a

JAMES HOPE & Co., BOOK AND JOB PRINTERS, BOOKBINDERS, &c.. OHAWA.