research have made us more familiar with the plans and purposes of God. Increasing attention and enlarging knowledge will doubtless expose the weakness and fallacies of many of the positions now taken, and theories now confidently held, and much that is now regarded as science and scientific, will be relegated to the abandoned and effete positions of the past. This is scientific evolution applied to mind power and its achievements, and as the years come and go the contributions that each age shall make to the sum of knowledge, will constitute the foundation stone on which the great temple of truth is being builded. New thinkers will be born, and new facts and principles will be discovered, and of much that we now call science, and that is held in veneration because of the honored names that held and taught it, will be clearly written-"The former things are passed away."

Let all due honor be given to those who during the last century have diligently explored the mines of truth and have been making more plain the laws of inanimate and animate nature, and the plans by which God has disclosed His power and wisdom, before "He stretched out the empty places of the North, or His wisdom had laid the beams of the morning." But long ago, when as yet none of these wise men were, there were men of stalwart intellects and fertile brains, who had entered the same fields of thought and studied the same phenomena, and whose observations and conclusions had contributed much to the researches of modern evolution. The light of truth in all ages falls upon the thoughtful mind at about the same angle, if not with the same clearness and hence the phenomena of matter and mind, of natural and vital forces, have always arrested the attention of the world's best thinkers. Long before Humbolt and Haeckle, before Darwin and Huxley, before Wallace and Spencer had reached their conclusions and launched their theories upon the thinking world,

the Greeks had taught that all natural things sprang from certain primal elements which contained potentially all the forms of animal and vegetable life.

Anaximander held that animal life is begotten from the earth by heat and moisture, and that man, as we know him, came up through a long line of changing forms and is the product of countless transformations. Darwin's origin of Species, and Huxley's Man's Place in Nature, after all, are but the extended and enlarged theories of these early writers, modified by the progress of knowledge, colored by the light of accentuated observations, and dignified by the invention of new and more scholastic terms. Emmanuel Kant, who ranks amongst the most learned writers, held the theory of the mechanical origin of the universe, and that the different classes of organized life are all related through the processes of generation from a common germ.

If we read all that these masters of thought and students of nature have written, and carefully study the theories they held, it will be found that the doctrine of evolution, then and now, is fundamentally the same. If it is admitted that all forms of life originated in a primary germ or cell, yet we are still confronted by the origin of the germ and the mystery of the cell remains unsolved. Reason tells us that behind all phenomena there must be an initial cause from which have proceeded all the mutations of matter and all the gradations of of life from monad up to man. If, run ning through the various forms of life there are found similar structural conditions and characteristics, which extend from the lowest even to the highest, the logical inference is not that the one was developed from the other, but rather that each and all are the product of one supreme originating cause. Forms of structure may be homologous in part or in whole-may correspond both in form and in function—and yet not have been developed or evoluted from the other.

Life-power may indeed be one in principle, and yet be expressed in and through a multitude of widely different organizations. Deviation from typical forms may be due to conditions not contained in the antecedent life-force, but to the material conditions through which the vital forces act. Environment-the conditions which surround the beginning and unfoldment of life-forms-may advance or hinder their perfection, but it cannot create conditions of being not potentially contained in the germs or cells from which they were evolved.

Neither evolution nor law, nor environment, are creators of conditions but rather are the exponents of an antecedent power by which they are produced. Evolution means a power that evolves something-law implies a potency that controls and directs-and environment describes the external conditions or the surroundng circumstances when and where power is manifested.

If we begin our investigations at any point in the long line of life, from its earliest dawn up to its highest manifestation, the evidences that in all, there is an oneness of principle in the variety of manifestation, will increase as we advance. We will find, in all the forms of life, that the law of reproduction is invariably after its kind, though because of its environment, it may be varied from the original life type. These variations of form in the processes of evolution, have given rise to many and learned discussions upon the origin of species. It has been maintained on one hand, that the introduction of new species was by a special creative act; and on the other, that they are the natural results of the changing and advancing conditions of the vital force contained in the original life

cel. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Huxley, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Spencer, Mr. Haeckle and Mr. Mivart, have each learnedly discussed this intricate problem, but their divergent and diversified opinions, indicate that there is much still to be known, even by scientists, before their conclusions can be deemed much more than a mere guess.

Errors and truth, theory and facts may be so blended and welded, that only the most critical study and careful analysis can detect the combination. Learning and ripe scholarship are good grounds for our confidence in the positions taken and the conclusions reached by men of science, but prejudice and pre-conceived opinions often blind even the most thoughtful to the logical results of their own tenets. Evolution, intelligently conceived, simply means God's way of doing things.

Whatever theories are held and whatever dogmas are maintained, it cannot be denied that lying beyond all our theories and behind all that is now claimed for evolution, there is a concealed potency that must have contained in itself all that is. The uniformity of method, the coöperation of forces in producing specific and beneficent ends so manifest everywhere, cannot fail to suggest to the careful student of nature that in all, and over all, there is a power and wisdom that extends from dust to Deity.

As we rise from the simple to the complex, the conviction of intelligent supervision increases, and the thoughtful and spiritual in faith and love will cheerfully join in the acclaim-"Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord, God Almighty, in wisdom hast Thou made them All." T. F. HILDRETH, A.M., D.D.

the representatives of all the Republican factions that the contest this year is a doubtful one. No such confidence appears to exist among Republicans as enemies of Mr. Bryan in the Democratic party seem to entertain.

The Democratic situation presents a very different aspect. Not in the history of the party has there been such unanimity as now prevails in behalf of Mr. Bryan's candidacy. There appears also to be an enthusiasm in his behalf which has not been paralleled since the convention of

1896.

The politicians of Washington are agreed that Mr. Bryan is invulnerable as a candidate. The last stand of the reactionary elements in the Democratic party is apparently being taken upon Governor Johnson's candidacy. It is the current report that Mr. Hill and his railroad interests are behind the candidacy of Mr. Johnson. Governor Johnson's secretary, Mr. Day, and other friends attempted to push his candidacy in North and South Dakota and Wisconsin; they received no encouragement in North Dakota; secured the support of only two out of fifty-six of the South Dakota State Committee, and so failed in Wisconsin that Governor Johnson's name was not mentioned in the convention.

The efforts of Mr. Day, representing Governor Johnson, have aroused a contest in Minnesota led by the National committeeman from that state, Mr. T. T. Hunson, and there is some doubt whether Governor Johnson can secure his own delegation against Mr. Bryan in that

state.

The candidacies of Judge Gray and Mr. Harmon appear to make no impression on the political situation. Mr. Bryan will probably be the nominee by acclamation of the Denver convention.

Never has he had the confidence and affection of the people as he now holds it. The admiration and respect which he aroused in all countries during his trip abroad have strengthened him in the estimation of the American people. His patriotism is believed by all men to be a supreme factor in his ambition, and his lofty private character and genuine Christianity have won the favor of many Republicans who did not appreciate his true character in 1896 and 1900.

The revelations of corruption in high finance and the immoral influences of our dominant commercialism have satisfied many honest Republicans that a man like Mr. Bryan would be a purifier of our social and political atmosphere. The methods of abuse and misrepresentation are no longer available to the opposition. The confidence in Mr. Bryan is increasing daily and probably no man in the history of our Republic has been as strong after defeat as Mr. Bryan has already shown himself to be.

The action of the banks in the recent panic has embittered many of our people and again reminded them that high finance has no patriotism and is an unrelenting despot.

There is a prevalent feeling that legitimate financial interests would be safer under Mr. Bryan than under President Roosevelt or one who represents his policies, and it is not unreasonable to believe that a vast number of our business men will turn to Mr. Bryan in the coming election.

Against a disrupted Republican party, the chances for success are most encouraging and upon Mr. Bryan's nomination, probably all internal opposition will cease and the Democrats of every state in the Union will rally enthusiastically to his support.

GEORGE FRED. WILLIAMS.

HERE is an unfortunate tendency, at this present time, to divide the people of this country into classes not based upon titles of nobility as in other countries which is bad enough, nor upon merit or standing, intellectually or morally, but upon the possession of wealth on the one part and the lack of it on the other. The man who possesses large stores of this world's goods, however obtained, is placed in one class, the man of intellectual attainments in another, and the man who earns his bread by the sweat of his brow in still another; and, unfortunately in the estimation of many, the man of money is placed above all others. Brain and brawn are at a discount as compared with gold.

The newspapers of the country are largely responsible for this elevation of money above the man, riches above worth, the display of wealth above intellectual attainments and nobility of character. The millionaire travels in his private car and the newspapers herald his coming and going with pictures of himself, his family, the servants and employés who wait upon him, and the car in which he travels, with nauseating detail and fulsome praise of his establishment and the wealth he displays. His every movement and what he says are chronicled with offensive detail and if he condescends to do things in the way of ordinary and less favored people, it is remarked upon as a condescension much to be wondered at and commended. The families of the rich display their wealth by flaunting the outward evidence of it in the faces of the supposedly less fortunate poor, and those who are without a surplus of material means. Their servants and attendants are put in a class below them by the menial uniforms or other garb they are required to wear.

The coachman on the box of the carriage displays his own degradation and the offensive display of the lordly gentleman or lady from whom he takes his orders, in gaudy habiliments which stamp him for what he is, a menial without independence of intellect or character, without the semblance of the independent American citizen. The members of the four hundred display their wealth and the characteristics of this supposedly favored class by lavish expenditures and useless extravagance often accompanied by conduct which, but for their wealth would bring them into merited contempt and put them in the lowest instead of the highest class, while the poor shiver with cold and cry for bread. The race track, the gilded saloons, the gambling hells are perpetuated and sustained by the rich, and bring ruin and sorrow to the poorer classes as well as degradation of character and impurity of life to themselves.

Does the general public resent this offensive and dangerous display and misuse of wealth? Is its degrading effect upon the institutions of the country and the lives and character of its people appreciated? Do we stop to think that the massing of great fortunes in the hands of those who make no better use of them than this is a dangerous menace to our free institutions and to the character and independence of our people? Not if we are to judge by the course of the average newspaper of the day or the fawning sycophancy of the times, which seeks to find favor and place with the rich, at the expense of self-esteem and the higher motives and instinctsof true and independent manhood. The newspapers are constantly filled with the details of the movements, the display, the possessions, the personal appearance