has elapsed since man first appeared is still doubtful. Some," he says, "estimate it at more than 100,000 years, some at only 10,000.” If evolution be true the former estimate is not too much; indeed, it is not enough. But if creation be granted, 10,000 years may be assumed as amply sufficient for the requirements of the case.

In

The calculations of Jewish and Christian Chronologers based on the genealogies of the Bible are unsatisfactory. They give dates for the creation of Adam before the Christian era, which vary from nearly 7,000 to less than 3,500 years. Archbishop Usher, whose chronology is that commonly received, held that man was created in the year 4004 before the birth of our Savior. view of this looseness of Biblical representations concerning time, the learned Dr. Charles Hodge writes as follows: "If the facts of science and of history should ultimately make it necessary to admit that eight or ten thousand years have elapsed since the creation of man there is nothing in the Bible in the way of such concession. Scriptures do not teach us how long men have existed on the earth. Their tables of genealogy were intended to prove that Christ was the son of David and of the seed of Abraham, and not how many years had elapsed between the creation and that event" (Theology, part II, ch. 1).

The

Probably Scriptural chronology for the time after the Flood is no more accurate than for the antediluvian period. Nevertheless Dr. Pusey, the English divine, in his work on the Prophet Daniel (preface xv), tells of a French scholar, Professor De Bruns, who calculated what the population of the world would be in 1880, beginning with six people 2348 years before Christ, which is Usher's date for the Deluge. Assuming the annual rate of increase to be the same as that of the French nation in his day, he found that the world would contain about 1,400,000,000 inhabitants. At this same time two German scientists, Behm and Wagner, issued a volume entitled “Bevölkerung der Erde,” in which they gave the population of the world according to the best obtainable statistics and estimates, as 1,433,837,500—practically the same total as that of the French professor. We do not suppose that the date for the Deluge is reliable, and the calculations in this case were necessarily lacking in exactness, yet the agreement between the two conclusions is remarkable.

The simple fact, however, that the earth to-day is far from being fully occupied by the human family is a strong disproof of the evolutionist contention that our race has dwelt in the world for tens of thousands of years.

ANCIENT RECORDS AND MONUMENTS

Another argument for the recent origin of the human family may be drawn from the records and monuments of the ancient world. Historians agree that the earliest organized nations were the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians and the Egyptians. Cuneiform scholars date the foundation of the Babylonian kingdom approximately at 2,300 years before Christ, and that of the other States, with the exception of Egypt, at from six to eight hundred years later. Hindoo and Chinese civilizations made no mark in the world till a thousand years after the rise of Babylon, tho preposterous claims have been made for them. The chronicles of Egyptian dynasties have no reliable succession of dates, yet according to Canon Rawlinson (in his Origin of Nations) they justify the assumption that this country was politically organized three or four hundred years before Babylon.

This judgment was singularly confirmed by an observation made by Piazzi Smith, the Astronomer Royal of Scotland, in respect to a long passage which leads to a chamber in the interior of the Great Pyramid. Mr. Smith found that the central line of this entrance way is exactly in the vertical plane of the meridian and that instead

of being horizontal it slopes and points toward the north pole, being elevated from the level at an angle of 26° 27', instead of 30°, which it should have were it directed precisely to the pole. This suggested that the designers of the pyramid intended the passage to point like a telescope to that star which in their time was the pole-star. For, owing to "the precession of the equinoxes," the star which for a certain period is the north star, slowly recedes from the pole and may have its place taken by another star. Sir John Herschel, the English astronomer, determined that Alpha Draconis was the pole star and had the exact elevation of 26° 27' in the years 2123 and 3400 B.C.

Considering all circumstances the first of these dates was taken to be that of the construction of the entrance passage. But the great pyramid was built by Cheops, who according to the chronicles reigned 300 years after Menes, the founder of the supreme Egyptian monarchy. We infer therefore that Menes lived about 2400 years before Christ, and the estimate of Canon Rawlinson that Egyptian civilization began about 2600 B.C. may be accepted as probable.

Such being the case the oldest known nationality must have begun its life less than 4,600 years before our time in this twentieth century of the

Christian era, and on this basis we might suppose that mankind made their appearance on the earth much less than 10,000 years ago.

MANETHO AND BEROSUS

The principal author quoted by ancient writers on Egyptian history was Manetho, a priest who lived in the Nile Delta in the third century before Christ and who claimed to have obtained his information from temple records. His contemporary, Berosus, who was a priest of the god Bel, in Assyria, likewise bases his history of Babylon on temple records. Both wrote in Greek. Their works were reasonably authentic so far as human affairs went, but embraced polytheistic fables which had not been known in the early years of the Egyptian and Babylonian empires. For the cuneiform inscriptions in the Euphrates Valley and the hieroglyphic writings found in the pyramids indicate that the original faith of the East was monotheistic, the worship of animals in Egypt and of idols in Babylon being developments of a later day. So far as we can learn man has not in past times ascended from fetishism through polytheism to the belief in one God, but like the Israelites of old has forsaken the Supreme Being for the attractions of idolatry. Neither has the tendency of human