EVOLUTION AND CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCE.
In undertaking to account for man, Evolution must account for the fact of Christian experience. Conversion revolutionizes a man. It turns him against his natural likes and dislikes. He even turns against himself and the selfish becomes unselfish. This is not development, for that operates according to the nature of the thing. Develop a wolf and you may get a dog. Develop man from the savage state and you may have the condition of the Greek in the highest state of culture and yet in the lowest state of vice. Introduce Christian experience and you have Christianity with all the civilization which proceeds and flows from it.
There is no such consistent body of testimony for any fact, science or truth as there is for Christian experience. It is the same in all ages, in all lands and in all classes of society, and in all circumstances of life. This evidence is perfectly legitimate and must be considered by the student of human life and character. Let Evolution then account for Conversion which changes man's inner nature, and gives a life which lives contrary to natural human instincts and conduct; and Christian hopes which yearn for deliverance from sin and self and long for the highest spiritual state and hasten to meet the holy and all-seeing God.
The missions of our great cities as well as those of the foreign field are full of witnesses for the transforming effect of Christian experience. The author of this book can vouch for the following from personal knowledge. A business man in Illinois became addicted partly from use in disease to alcohol and the use of morphine and also cocaine. He used all these and in excessive quantities; as much as forty grains of morphine in a day. He tried seven "cures." He visited Europe to consult specialists. He spent in all over $15,000 in seeking a cure and all in vain. By the persuasions of Christians he was led to seek relief in prayer and experienced what Christians call conversion and was immediately delivered from all his appetites. The author of this saw him three months after and found him a sober man and without any desire for drink or drugs. He saw him again a year after and he was still rejoicing in full deliverance. Since beginning this book, a correspondence was had to verify the case still further, and he is reported as follows: "In January, 1899, his weight was 113 pounds. In January, 1901, his weight was 183 pounds. He is an official member of a prominent church, a director of the Young Men's Christian Association and a great worker in both." No evolution can account for such a change. It is as great a miracle as cleansing the leper.
Prof. George Romanes of Oxford, was, it is said, brought back from infidelity to faith by the letters of a Japanese missionary friend, dealing with experimental and practical religion. Evolution asks for facts. Here are facts, and they tell not of Evolution but of Regeneration.