PRE-ADAMITE MAN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XIII, Issue 4460, 29 February 1876, Page 5 (Supplement)

PRE-ADAMITE MAN.

To the Editor o£ the*HERALB.-~ rv ' Sib, —A sermon by, theßer. Dr. Wallis appeared recently in the page 3 of one of your contemporaries. The object of the sermon was to repudiate the existence of pre-Adamite men. My attention having been rather frequently called to this sermon, trill you permit me to point out, as briefly as_ [ can, one or two matters in which 1 think Dr. Wallis is in error and also to explain a part of the subject which seems much misinderstood. The text selected viz:—Acts 17, 26, has been much relied on as upsetting ;he theory of the pre-Adamite man. I confess I should have expected Dr. Wallis Tould have commenced by stating the different interpretations that have been given ;o that text. Dr. McCausland, in page 292, >i "Adam and the Adamite," goes thoroughly nto that matter. He explains that ;he word rendered "blood" is singular]y mough omitted in no less than 14 of the jhief manuscripts—including the two most jelebrated, viz., the Vatican and the Alexanlrian—while it is found in 14 others, some of vhich are of good authority. The word nay clearly therefore be an interpolation iltogether, and in any case must be a very loubtful basis oa which to build a theory. Dean Alford translates the passage not 'hath made of one blood," but "caused jvery nation (sprung) of one blood to dwell n all the face of the earth." Further, Dr. ?ye Smith says, in regard to this passage, 'It cannot be proved that one blood neceslarily signifies descent from a common ances;or — for admitting a specific identity ihough having proceeded from several foci of treation, both the mental physical jUaracteristics would be the same in all eslential qualities." I recommend the careful )erusal of the whole chapter in Dr. McCaus□ud's book, where this and one or two other exts are carefully considered and explained. . cannot agree at all with Dr. Wallis' idea of he amazing fertility of Eve—nine hundred children, or 450 even on his more moderate istimate, seems to me to approach the ridicuous. Had such been the case I believe it 70uld have found record in the Bible. Longived though they were, none of the early matriarchs appear to have had very exces- , ive families, and the names of all are isually carefully given, and when the Bible l aentions Cain, Abel, and Seth, it is, in my ] pinion, making a very bold assumption in- • 'eea to say that numbers of others were i lorn between the birth of these. The Bible j a in fact far more explicit in this matter han Dr. Wallis seems to be aware of. The j tarrative concerning the expulsion of Cain i as he admits a strong argument in favour 3 f other races existing at that time) is % ecorded in the earlier part of Genesis 4. At g he 25th verse we are told Eve bare another i on, and called his name Seth, "For God" 1 aid she, " hath appointed me ano- a her seed instead of Abel, whom Cain a lew." If Eve had sons- between the t eath of Abel and birth of Setb, this verse f 3 necessarily false. Further, we are expressly $ old that after the birth of Seth, Adam lived t iOO years, and begat sons and daughters, a t oiut Dr. Wallis quite overlooks when he says, 'It is incredible Adam and Eve should have g ved nearly 900 years and yet had only three a hildren." Certainly the Bible never says s' Uey did, but any one who will carefully read o fenesis 4th and sth must, I think, be con- n inced that Dr. Wallis is entirely mistaken tl i his ultra-prolific theory. And now wherein r< es the objection to the idea of pre-Adamite tl len ? The ordiuary idea is that the whole ti ice sprang, GOOO years ago, from Adam and t< Ive. Alas, if they did, how low in physique c< ad intelligence have millions of human ol eings sunk ! The Negro of Guinea beats Io is fetish or god if his wishes are not com- " lied with, and hides him in his waist-cloth el : about to do anything he is ashamed of, so cc iat his god may not see what is going on. n< he North £ ustralians have no idea of a n< upremc Being, aud are of opinion it signifies A ofching if the} do good' or evil; in fact, ac» cr >rding to Eyre, McGillivray, and others, v< ley have no words for right and wrong, ai leir good and bad having reference to taste d< ad bodily comfort only. The Indians of ea alifornia believe in no kind of deity, their cs mguage has no words for God or soul. Dr. ca 'an der Kemp, a missionary to the Kaffirs, in ;ates he never could perceive they had any it iligion or any idea of the existience of a th od. Conscience, says Captain Burton, does ai ot exist iu Eastern Africa, and repentauce he spresses regret for lost or missed oppor- n: mities of crime and revenge. Bobbery lo institutes the nobleman, and murder makes w< xe hero. Is it to levels such as these, with aj he corresponding fall of appearance, habits, oc inguage—-"all that makes a man"—is it to. " tvels such as these the Caucasian (the ye .damite)'and his language and religion have fo illcn ? Even now, after GOOO ycais, the Si 'aucasian does not occupy one-fifth of the in abitable globe, and does not number more cl: ban one-fifth of the earth's population at this sii loment. The vast mass of the earth is ea eathen at this very day—notan edifying, uot co reassuring reflection, if we be all sprung • th :om Adam and Eve. But what if the Great j le: Jreator acted as He did in the natural world j " -gave the lower types before the higher— jar lade every age a progress in creation, from th lie zoophyte to the mammal, from the sea- . ar reed to the rose? What if, as science in sjserts, men once existed whose most th ndaring monument is an implement -of Ist tone or a weapon of flint? What if these were j th ucceededbyothers of higher grade,in turn to •ch ield to generations higher still ? What if at it* jngth the Adamite was made, "the first tii Ldam," the progenitor of the mightiest race 'ac his earth has hitherto beheld ? What if God j' jurposed in Adam and his descendants to is, Jess all men, had he retained his high un- | as alien state ? What if Adam fell, and all was > I\l tot yet lost because in the fulness of time j go i second and migjhtier Adam was to come, ! wl nd "as in Adam all die, even so in Chri3t | as: hall all be made alivo ?" I confess to seeing ! ev lothing incredible, nothing inconceivable |ha iere. The Bible gives a special history and •th hronicle of the Caucasian race, and of that j th nighty race, more especially of one small ; ev >eople, the Hebrew people. If God's way "i >e to work from the one to the many, from ho chosen nation to all nations, who are we xii o deny His wisdom ? The Bible gives, as I 2n jelieve, in the first chapter of Genesis, a wl jeautifully accurate picture of the Crea* wc ■ion. so far as it was needful to be made eq aiown at that time. Other races are su< illuded to subsequently, but the history is wl >£ the Caucasian, as afterwards other nations 24 ire alluded to (mightier far than the wc Jebrews), but the history is of the Hebrews. su The Bible, after giving the origin of the or Caucasian family, becomes the history of a a 3 imall, chosen and peculiar people. But every lai jarfe an& portion of it points onwards, points Sh ;o a future, indicates a time when the do Gentile as well as the Jew should be blessed* th l The time came, yet Scripture still points on- th< ffard. The work of Christ is to be complete stz jne day, in the distant "ages of tho ages." W Sot one-fifth of the earth are to God, ha out "the knowledge of the Lord is to,cover th ;he earth as the waters cover the sea." There Te s to be a destruction of evil and a consummation of good— 41 and when all things jhall be subdued unto Him,. then shall the he Son also Himself be subject unto Him that hi jut all things under Him, that God may be ill in all." These are muffled harmonies, Sc but, at least we may hear their distant diJ BCho._ ' ' ' re

What tho'no mind can ever scan The complex.workings of the plan That forms and smites and blesses man ? II but upon sin's thunder screen ' ; The rainbow of God's Hopo be seen ' Though hwim and cycles intertenej Yet, -when the finished -work if done Tt shall be perfect—/ailing none - j Of any lires beneath the snn. I have felt k ife necessary, jnsfc so far *to explain my views on this subject, in conseQUfihoe of ranch misapprehension o£ them

which has occurred; but I have neither the leisure nor disposition to enter into controversy on the matter. - In fact, these lectures, were delivered in no controversial spirit, but simply as discussing an interesting and important subject, and to aid an association in bhe welfare of which f feel much interest. —I aro, &c., , JED"*TA:KD Ellis, M.D. j