English
In short, scholars are divided into two great oppos- ing groups, or schools ; one of which is properly called the evolution school, which teaches that man, in his inception, was only a nucleus or simple cell, the same perhaps as a worm or frog or monkey ; that he develops upwards, and upwards, and in his travels of ascent passes through the gradations of inferior animals, un- til finally he passes, and surpasses them all ; with great- er brain power, he stands supreme in development, at the highest round of the ladder, the lord and ruler of all animal life. Buddha and Jesus, and all the great ones of earth, came from nucleated cells. Such is the starting point of all life, without exception. The other grand division is called the "creation school," and it clings tenaciously to Genesis, which teaches that God formed man out of the dust of the A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 171 earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of Hfe, and man became a Hving soul. (6) Later on, he forms every beast of the field out of the ground. (7) Man was not yet, by the record, immortal, and he was driven out of Eden lest he might eat of the tree of life and become immortal, in other words, live forever. (8) We may truly say this, at least, that there is appar- ently nothing any more supernatural in the creation or birth of a human body than in that of a rat, or cater- pillar, or ape. The creation school, at every turn, points us to Genesis and Eden, that beautiful garden which has been vainly sought for by generations. But Eden seems to be a myth which baffles all our search. Section 2. However all this may be, there was, and is, a something invisible to mortal eye, whereby one of these forms developed into a horse, or ape, or snail, and the other into the man who has written this line. (9) But, "If true, through lower forms I came, To me today it's all the same." Suppose for a moment that we admit man was evolved from an inferior order of beings; his closest ante-type is the monkey. But evolution is orderly; it (6) Gen. 2, v. 7. (7) Gen. 2, v. 19. (8) Gen. 3, v. 22 to 24. (9) Dr. Pritchard in his Natural History of Man, strikes the creation theory of Genesis a crushing blow. 172 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES has a law ; it is governed by law ; and law presupposes a law-maker. Then who made that law? That is the question. The monkey did not make it. The protoplasm did not. The nucleated cell did not. That law did not come by chance. Neither is that law a matter of chance which sends this earth around the sun once every year, making a great circuit of more than five hundred millions of miles. I must write it down that the maker of that law which sends our earth around the sun, made also the law which controls the protoplasm and the minutest atoms in existence. You may call it "the first great cause;" the Hindus call it Brahma. In other words, they call it God, and so do I. ( lo) Now if man was made, as the record says, in God's own image, man must, on looking about him, have wondered who he was, and what he was, and whence he came, and what he was here for. Genesis ought to be corrected. Go back w-ith me, reader, in imagination, to that hour. Man has just been "made;" the last touches have just been put upon him; he breathes, he lives, he opens his eyes, he looks about him. He knows no language, for he is the first and only human be- ing on this whole earth. At the moment of his coming he has no use for language. He has no father, no mother, no friends. He is alone in the world. If God or an angel should speak to him, he could not (10) See concluding remarks •where this matter is more fully discussed. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 173 answer, as there is no language that he has learned or invented, for language is an invention. The first man did not know that he had a tongue, or, if so, he did not know what it was for. He was naked and alone. (11) Even Genesis says he was naked. When Eve was "brought unto him" (12) Adam must have watched her with great and increas- ing interest. Now, is it true, or is it a pretty little fic- tion, that the serpent and Eve held that colloquy about the fruit and good and evil at the time the Lord was walking in the garden? (13) What did Eve know about good or evil and death ? She had just been made. (14) As that is all a bit of romance, I will here give what is, perhaps, more nearly a correct sketch of what probably happened in the first or early days of my distant grandparents. Adam was, no doubt, much pleased to see the fascinating beauty of this newly-made woman. He noticed at once that she had some resemblance to himself. Her limbs were much more beautiful than his own. Her round and solid breasts, he wondered what they were for. These two young people watch each other for a time, until finally Adam approaches the new arrival. He gestures to it — there is a friendly gesture back. He puts out his hand (11) Gen. 3 to 7. (12) Gen. 2, v. 22. (13) Gen. 3, v. 1 to 8. (1-4) If Genesis be true, Adam had been engaged in naming the cattle, and it must have taken him a long time to name every beast of the field and every fowl of the air. Eve was not mad until after the cattle and birds were named. (Genesis 2, t. 19 to 22.) 174 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES and it is taken. Here is the first marriage on earth. Marriages have always since been made on earth. The first couple have tongues but no speech. They can only communicate by gestures and by signs. As yet they do not know what their tongues are for. They may have had teeth, but they do not know what they are for. They are mysterious even to themselves. Perhaps they are on the banks of some river, and the waters are moving on to the sea. They themselves can move; what the waters are they do not know. It is their first sight of such a thing. \\q may call them Adam and Eve, or any other fanciful name; but the true Adam and Eve were never in any beautiful gar- den, nor did the true Eve talk to any serpent or pluck any forbidden fruit whereby she and her husband were cast out of any garden whatever. Genesis is a beautiful fancy picture : let us not cast it aside. It is lovely prose, almost poetry, but the ground was not and is not cursed by the Almighty. (15) Section 3. Adam and Eve have gone down em- balmed in history; yet they had barely wit enough to know that they could move about like some of the animals which they saw around them. We will sup- pose that they have been "made" but a few hours, and therefore have no remembrance of anything whatever. Their bodies are healthy, but their minds are as an in- fant's a few hours old. They are not idiots, but they know less than the monkeys they see in the forests. (15) Gen. 3, v. 17. A QUESTION OF MIRACLES 175 (16) Let us follow them a little further. The sun is sinking low in the heavens ; they watch it, and it seems to them as if it were slowly dropping yonder in the dis- tance to the earth. They know not what it is, nor what it is for ; soon it is out of sight, and the shadows begin to creep over the earth. They go hand in hand to find where it disappeared; but are, of course, out- stripped in the race; and night, black night, rayless, catches them unawares. They wait and watch, but the sun does not return. Then some stars are noticed above their heads, but they know not what they are. How could they, for they never saw any such thing before? Meanwhile a strange feeling begins to agitate their stomachs. What it is they do not know, for as yet no morsel of food has ever passed their lips. They are weary, also; and, finding some leaves by the trunk of a fallen tree, they cover themselves and are soon wrapt in slumber. When the man awakes, some flies and gnats are biting the woman's face, and as he is brush- ing them away she awakes and, seeing that act, gives the man such a sweet look of love that thenceforth they are inseparable. It was the first ever given be- neath the skies. "What God hath joined let no man put asunder." Slowly in the East the heavens begin to brighten, and then something resembling the thing which dis- appeared gradually lifts itself up, and they can see (16) I am following the correct Genesis, as near as possible, on the Bupposition that Adam was made. i;6 A QUESTION OF MIRACLES each other again.