“The ‘Jukes’ family was founded by a shiftless fisherman born in New York in 1720, Since that time the family has numbered 1200 persons. The following facts are quoted from the records: Convicted criminals, 130; habitual thieves, 60; murderers, 7; wrecked by diseases of wickedness, 440; immoral women, fully one-half; professional paupers, 310; trades learned by twenty, ten of these learned the trade in prison.
“How much of this expense to the state was due to bad blood we can not say. If the original Jukeses had become Christians we have no doubt that the majority of their descendants would have been humble, but orderly, and possibly useful citizens.”
Aaron Burr, a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, lacked but one electoral vote to become president of the U.S. His intellectual standing in Princeton was not equaled by another for 100 years.
Jonathan Edwards was a new creation, as is every other regenerated person.
According to evolution, there can be no new creation. According to the word of God, and the experience of an innumerable host, God is continually creating souls anew, who become “new creatures”. Evolution is not in harmony with the Bible nor the experience of the children of God.
Whenever it can be shown that men become more spiritual when they accept the theory, and become more devoted to saving souls as their zeal for the theory increases, the theory will be worthy of more serious consideration. We await the evidence.
Evolution can not account for the spirituality of man, but tends to destroy it where it exists.
41. THE HOPE OF IMMORTALITY
The belief in the immortality of the soul has been well nigh universal, in all ages, and among all nations, and is taught by all religions. Without it, life and death are insolvable mysteries. A doctrine so universal, so well established by reason, ought not to be set aside without the most convincing reasons and the most compelling evidence. Either this universal belief is due to revelation, or the abundance of proof appealing to reason, or both.
A child is born, suffers agonies for weeks and months, and dies. If no future, who can solve the mystery? John Milton writes his immortal “Paradise Lost,” and dies. Must his great soul perish? Nero murdered his brother, his sister, his wife and his mother, and multitudes of Christians and lastly himself, and was guilty of a multitude of other shocking crimes; while many of the best men and women this world ever knew suffered persecution and martyrdom for doing good and blessing others. Will they all alike meet the same fate—annihilation—at the hands of a just God?