February 1925
60
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
Evolution of Man— Tke Verdict o fH iston) By Theo. G raebner, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.
We are sure our readers will give a h earty vote oi th an k s to The W alther League Messenger, by whose perm ission we are reproducing th is splendid article showing th e u tte r ia l lacy of th e Evolution Theory from th e standpo in t of hum an progress. We greatly appreciate th e kindness of Mr. W alter A. Maier, E d ito r of “The Messenger,” in n o t only perm itting th e rep rin ting of th e article, b u t in loaning us th e cuts as well. B h SK ten Americans what idea they connect with 1 “ progress” and nine of them will answer “machin- 6 ery.” When we point to American progress we 5* th ink of oil-burning locomotives, submarines, the ings commenced w ith the Masonic Temple a t Chicago! “The fa rth e r we go back in Egyptian history,” says Professor Brugsch,f£‘the more perfect th e ir works of painting and sc u lp tu re;” and Professor Renouf says: “Of a state of b ar barism or even of patriarch al life an terio r to th e monu m ental period, th ere is no historical vestige. The earliest monuments which have been discovered present to us the very same fully developed civilization and the same re li gion as the later monuments. The blocks of the pyram ids bear quarry m arks exhibiting the decimal notation, and are dated by th e months of the calendar which was in use down to the latest tim es.” aeroplane, radio, phonograph, moving pictures, the tele phone, typew riter, adding-machine, addressograph, check protectors, fountain pens,;—-all machinery, or th e product of and made possible by machinery. T h at modern times have scored an advance on ancient tim es in th e mechanical arts may be adm itted. Yet for th a t reason to speak of a steady progress of hum an evolution would be a statem en t possible only if we tak e a very contracted view of progress. Even as regards the mechanical arts, is it tru e th a t gyeat achievements are scored only in modern times? Every modern builder stands in mute amazement hefore th e pyram ids of Egypt. Consider th a t the hugh g ran ite blocks of which the pyram ids are In th e Cairo Museum is a collection from Memphis which surpasses in in terest anything, or, indeed, almost all things, of the kind previously found. It is a collection of modeled heads, now one hundred and thirty-tw o in number, representing th e .different races and tribes of men and women in th a t ancient world. All are characterized by th a t rem arkable development
bu ilt were tran spo rted 500 miles. By what knowledge of mechanics was th is ta sk made possible? Who gave the Egyptians the knowledge and the skill to polish these g ran ite blocks like glass and to fit them so th a t th e jo in ts cannot be seen? You
of th e cartoonist’s skill, so peculiarly Egyp tian, which enabled artists of th a t land to catch in each case th a t personal peculiar ity which distinguished one person or people from another. When these
know th a t the pyram ids in spite of th e ir weight of m illions of tons have not settled in any p a rt to the extent of a measurable
heads are all identified and pub lished by some competent artist we may have our Bible and ancient history illum inated
fraction of an inch. Mr. Fer- gusson, possibly the g rea t est living au tho rity on arch itectu re, w r i t e s :
w ith "th e races of men,” in m u c h t he s a m e fash ion as the school geog raphy. T h e
“N o t h i n g more perfect, m echan ically , has ever been erected since th a t time, and we ask our selves in vain, how long it m u s t h a v e taken before men acquired s u c h expe rience a n d such skill, or were so perfectly organized, as to contemplate and complete such undertak ing s?” On tu rn ing to his pages describing th e buildings at Thebes, erected 3,000 years ago, we find th a t these early Egyptian builders in th e palace temple a t Karnac pu t forth “ perhaps th e noblest effort of arch itectu ral magnificence ever produced by the hand of m an,” ‘‘the g reatest of m an’s arch itectu ral works.” This was in the days before Moses! And the average person thinks th a t th e epoch of big build
statues a n d plaques carved in stone and w o o d to be s e e n in the Gizeh Museum prove th a t the p riest mummi- fiers of Mem p h i s ' f o u r t h o u s a n d years ago pos sessed a pro found knowl
S E C T IO N O F T H E G R E A T P Y R A M ID A T G IZ E H , C A IR O , E G Y P T T h e s to n e s h a v e b e e n la id w ith s u c h a c c u ra c y t h a t th e tu n n e ls w h ic h h a v e b e e n c o n s tr u c te d in its in te r io r a t n o p o in t s h o w a n y s e ttle m e n t. A lth o u g h n o m o r ta r h a s b een u se d , th e r e is in th e s y s te m o f tu n n e ls h e r e s h o w n n o p la c e a t w h ic h a k n if e - b la d e c a n be in s e r te d b e tw e e n th e g r a n ite b lo c k s o f w h ic h th e p y ra m id is b u ilt.
edge of anatomy. Science, therefore, as Lockyer rem arks, is as old as art, and they have advanced together. Another rem arkable fact in this connection is th a t excavations in Italy have brought to ligh t scores of finely finished surgical instrum ents for certain operations, which are in almost every p articu lar of form like those re-invented in modern times and used by th e most advanced surgeons of today. “We are losing all our secrets in th is shabby age,” an architect recently said. “If we keep on, the time
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