A world which is morally away from God, so that it cannot be subject to His law, nor even care to know His will, nor own His authority, must of necessity harbor within its bosom all of the elements of ruin and self-destruction consequent upon such a state.

This proposition, to which Scripture constantly bears witness, has been demonstrated over and over again in a thousand ways since the very beginning of man's history. It is demonstrated in the rise and fall of peoples, nations and empires, as well as in the personal experience of individuals, and has furnished a field of thought for the endless speculations in which men, in their boasted superiority of intellect,-missing the mark because refusing the light of Scripture,-have indulged, and in which they continue to indulge their wildest fancy, devising all kinds of vain philosophies which, for the most part, leave God entirely out of consideration.

Some, indeed, have condescended to allow the evidence of a God somewhere, but at so remote a distance from their sphere of speculation,-their little patch of highly cultured weeds of noxious philosophy,-as clearly to betray their kinship with those who " did not like to retain God in their knowledge " (Rom. 1:28).

Thus, because of his unwillingness to submit his mind to the humbling revelation of God concerning the origin of sin and death in the world, and their remedy, proud man foolishly attempts to account for these facts in every other way, possible and impossible, which, instead of teaching him the lesson of humility he so sadly needs, invariably tends to minister to his inveterate self-conceit and vain-glory. Such is his theory of the survival of the fittest; and upon the same authority of unbelief, of human wisdom and erudition is based his notion of the so-called "struggle for existence," which is said to be now determining the survival of the fittest. This is as if the Almighty, unable to superintend and care for the creatures He has made, were now, in this plight, depending on their ability to destroy each other as the condition of their existence!

That wilful ignorance of God should bring with it the dismal conception of a blind struggle for existence among His creatures, is not to be wondered at. Indeed, it is consistent and logical. For who can doubt that if God, the Source and Preserver of life, and Ruler of the universe, be dethroned, universal anarchy must inevitably follow ?

This condition is deplorable. For if repudiation of rule, authority and government amongst men be truly called anarchy, is it any the less so when these are denied to God ? But if not, anarchy, it will be seen, is a far more terrible monster, with far greater possibilities for evil, than it has been thought hitherto. It is no longer to be considered a blind monster having only feet "swift to shed blood" of distinguished victims on rare opportunities, but a subtle monster having many heads-heads of keenest intellect, lifted high in glittering seducement on the great tree of modern Christendom (Matt. 13:32). These are the modern oracles of science and learning, to whom is being entrusted the education of coming generations ! And if such be the case, who can question what will be the result? Surely not he who understands the Scriptures, for in them the outcome is plainly foretold. For if such lawlessness, and license, and overweening self-conceit as the skepticism in high places of these latter days constitute the hope and boast of the so-called advanced civilization of the twentieth century, then the time is near at hand, even at the door, when the ever-rising tide must overflow its banks, and in the widening rush of its downward course plunge all classes alike into the great universal whirlpool of the "strong delusion" predicted by the apostle Paul in 2 Thess. 2:8-12, bringing upon them God's swift and just retribution.

Now, as for the survival of the fittest:thank God, apart from the term, which is unscriptural, there is such a thing held out in the Scripture of truth. But so vastly different from the notion of the evolutionist is it, that the very fittest, according to the one, would constitute the unfittest according to the other. For instance, it is written, "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted;" and again, "God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble." The world, on the contrary, is very prone to praise the mighty, the presumptuous and self-willed, without regard to moral character, provided only he be successful, but utterly despises the humble and the righteous, and would fain crush the godly out of existence. In other words, it is that first principle of enmity against God, pride, which, commands to-day as much as ever the admiration of the world, as it remains its principal delusion under Satan's leadership; and for this reason, notwithstanding the boasted progress, man's pride contains within itself, instead of a hope for future and higher development, nothing but the fatal certainty of God's pronounced judgment upon it in the sentence that "pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

So far, then, from the survival of the fittest of which the Scripture speaks being based upon natural development, or creature attainment of any kind, it rests entirely on the moral character, attributes and glory of God, as revealed in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It rests upon His atonement for sin, He having suffered the death of the cross that He might lay the foundation for the redemption of man, and having been raised up from the dead, the exalted Head and beginning of a new creation, beyond the reach of sin and death. God thus reveals before the whole universe, while throwing open the portals of divine glory to man, the One who is preeminently the Fittest.

Thus redemption stands out in glorious contrast with evolution, as God's procedure for raising our fallen race from its hopeless condition, while faith in the Redeemer (open to all through the universal gospel-call that " whosoever will may come ") is His appointed way for individual salvation, and therefore constitutes the only reliable and trustworthy survival to which either nature or revelation gives any countenance. It therefore remains with the responsibility of man, as at the beginning, to choose between life and death, between God's word and Satan's lie, between the gospel of the grace of God to sinners and the doctrines of seducing spirits-the fashionable unbelief of our day, and winds of theories of those who are deceiving others, being themselves deceived.

Finally, the importance of the subject cannot be over-estimated when we think of the issues at stake. The contest between Christ and Satan, in the representative principles of truth and error, of light and darkness, of faith and unbelief, is going on, and every man, according to the nature of the principles by which he allows himself to be swayed, consciously or unconsciously, is being wheeled into line and made to identify himself with one side or the other. The veil of time must shortly be drawn aside to reveal each man in the light of eternity, and to manifest the wisdom or the folly of each, the use made of his opportunities, and the choice which, made in time, determines his future destiny.
A. T. E.