Page:Evolution and Natural Selection in the Light of the New Church.djvu/8

8 inorganic elements enter into each of the three kingdoms of nature; but the life or vital force and the all-pervading laws which operate to produce, from similar elements, the distinct and varied mineral, vegetable, and animal forms are beyond the reach of such analyses. The operation of this living force and of these laws is so undeviating that it is in appearance automatic, similar effects always resulting from similar conditions; hence it has been erroneously concluded that the life is inherent in the inorganic elements themselves, and that the varied forms of use and beauty are merely the result of a varied combination, interaction, and affinity of those elements. Therefore the Darwinian theory of Evolution, with all deductions drawn therefrom, being based upon these external appearances, rather than upon a knowledge of the interior laws whereby the creative life operates, must necessarily be untrustworthy and fallacious.

The real truth is, that life is spiritual; all organized material forms being visible manifestations and ultimate embodiments of that spiritual life. It is a something in the life and in its varied method or law of operation which constitutes the actual difference between the inorganic and organic, between the vegetable and animal, and, most of all, between the merely animal and man. Creative Life is always intelligently operating according to a deﬁnite plan and ﬁxed laws; the working out of that plan, in all its wonderful manifestations, attesting the existence of one Personal Divine Being whom we call God,—the inﬁnite Source of all Life, Intelligence, Substance, and Law, and who has revealed Himself to us as the ,—the visible God in whom is the invisible. The fact that God always acts according to a deﬁnite plan