r one.

_Darwin's Difficulty_[78].

The answer to Darwin's objection about so small a proportion of mankind
having ever heard of Christ, is manifold:--

1. Supposing Christianity true, it is the highest and final revelation;
i.e. the scheme of revelation has been developmental. Therefore, it
follows from the very method that the larger proportion of mankind
should never hear of Christ, i.e. all who live before His advent.

2. But these were not left 'without witness.' They all had their
religion and their moral sense, each at its appropriate stage of
development. Therefore 'the times of ignorance God winked at' (Acts
xvii. 30).

3. Moreover these men were not devoid of benefit from Christ, because it
is represented that He died for all men--i.e. but for Him [i.e. apart
from the knowledge of what was to come] God would not have 'winked at
the times of ignorance.' The efficacy of atonement is represented as
transcendental, and not dependent on the accident of hearing about the
Atoner.

4. It is remarkable that of all men Darwin should have been worsted by
this fallacious argument. For it has received its death-blow from the
theory of evolution: i.e. if it be true that evolution has been the
method of natural causation, and if it be true that the method of
natural causation is due to a Divinity, then it follows that the
lateness of Christ's appearance on earth must have been designed. For it
is certain that He could not have appeared at any earlier date without
having violated the method of evolution. Therefore, on the theory of
Theism, He _ought_ to have appeared when He did--i.e. at the earliest
possible moment in history.

So as to the suitability of the moment of Christ's appearance in other
respects. Even secular historians are agreed as to the suitability of
the combinations, and deduce the success of His system of morals and
religion from this fact. So with students of comparative religions.

FOOTNOTES:

[59] [I.e. a theory which comes at first as a shock to the current
teaching of Christianity, but is finally seen to be in no antagonism to
its necessary principles.--ED.]

[60] [I.e. the battle in regard to the Christian texts or
documents.--ED.]

[61] See Gore's _Bampton Lectures_, pp. 74 ff.

[62] Matt, xxviii. 17; Acts ii. 13.

[63] _Three Essays on Theism_, p. 255.

[64] [Note unfinished.--ED.]

[65] [George Romanes began to make a collection of N.T. texts bearing on
the subject.--ED.]