THE main part of the material composing this excellent book appeared in a series of articles some months ago in the pages of “The Presbyterian” (Philadelphia) and “The Christian Nation” (New York). The articles aroused the interest of the readers to such an extent that requests for their publication poured in from all quarters. We read these articles as they appeared in their serial form, and we feel Mr Allen has done a right thing in giving them to the public in the more permanent form of a book. In comparatively recent times powerful attacks have been made on the evolutionary position by such scientific works as Prof. More’s “Dogma of Evolution”; Prof. O’Toole’s “The Case Against Evolution”; Prof. McCready Price’s “New Geology.” These books are severely scientific, and the Evolutionists cannot say that the foemen who have entered the lists are unworthy of their steel. Other books of a more popular style than the foregoing, such as T. B. Bishop’s “Evolution Criticised” (Edinburgh:
* Evolution in the Balances, by Frank E. Allen, Minister, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Winnipeg. Edinburgh: Fleming H. Revell Company. Price \$1.50.
Olipphants), an excellent little book, not nearly so well known as it ought to be; Prof. McCreedy Price’s “Phantom of Evolution,” also an excellent book, surveying the evolutionary field from various standpoints; and Dr Harold C. Morton’s “Bankruptcy of Evolution” (London: Marshall Brothers), have also been before the public for some time. But notwithstanding the good work done already in combating this formidable and well-planned attack against the very foundations of the Christian faith, there is room for such a book as Mr Allen’s. He has dealt with the subject in a fascinating way, he has not shunned to present the truth of God as he met the enemy in the gate, he has culled from authoritative scientific sources arguments sufficiently numerous and sufficiently strong to shatter the citadel of the evolutionary hypothesis. The manner in which he appeals constantly to God’s Word is specially helpful and fitted to confirm the mind of every believing man and woman in the unscripturalness of this science falsely so-called.
After enumerating the insuperable barriers which meet the Evolutionist and which have not been surmounted, Mr Allen then devotes a chapter to that main plank of the Darwinian hypothesis—Natural Selection—which is now dead and buried as far as modern evolutionary science is concerned. A noted American Evolutionist pronounced this sentence over its grave:—”Darwin has already been shorn of his selection doctrines as completely as Samson was shorn of his locks.” Chapters are devoted to Embryology, Comparative Anatomy, Similarity of Blood, Vestigial Organs, Human Fossils and Pseudo-Human Fossils (in which the ludicrous folly of so-called scientific men very learnedly discussing what type of man a bear’s tooth represented is exposed), Reading the Old Stone Book (Palæontology), The Testimony of the Mammoths, The Testimony of the Dinosaurs, Fishes, and Invertebrates, How Account for the Fossils? The book ends with a fine chapter, entitled—”The Harmony of the Two Books”—which, if we get the permission of the publishers, will be given in the pages of the Magazine later on. We have the greatest pleasure in heartily recommending the book, especially to all our ministers and students, and also to those who are teaching the young. Evolution has entered the field of theology, science, and education, and in combating it we should make an endeavour to be well equipped, so that we may be able to give an answer for the hope that is in us.