se people spread out in all directions. They populated the
then existing island of Atlantis. And when the terrible earthquake
occurred, whereby this island was sunk beneath the waves of the
Atlantic ocean, why, to these people the world had been drowned! The
story got to Egypt, to Chaldea, and to India. Hence the deluge record
of Genesis."

"But, these primitive people, how ancient are they?" queried Jose.

"No one can form any adequate estimate," said Hitt in reply. "The
wonderful city of Tiahuanuco was in ruins when Manco Capac laid the
foundations of the Inca empire, which was later devastated by the
Spaniards. And the Indians told the Spaniards that it had been
constructed by giants before the sun shone in heaven."

"Astonishing!" exclaimed Jose. "Such facts as these--if facts they
be--relegate much of the Scriptural authority to the realm of legend
and myth!"

"Quite so," returned the explorer. "When the human mind of this
century forces itself to approach a subject without prejudice or bias,
and without the desire to erect or maintain a purely human institution
at whatever cost to world-progress, then it finds that much of the
hampering, fettering dogma of mediaevalism now laid upon it by the
Church becomes pure fiction, without justifiable warrant or basis.
Remember, the Hebrew people gave us the Old Testament, in which they
had recorded for ages their tribal and national history, their poetry,
their beliefs and hopes, as well as their legends, gathered from all
sources. We have likewise the historical records of other nations. But
the Hebrew possessed one characteristic which differentiated him from
all other people. He was a monotheist, and he saw his God in every
thing, every event, every place. His concept of God was his
life-motif. This concept evolved slowly, painfully, throughout the
centuries. The ancient Hebrew patriarchs saw it as a variable God,
changeful, fickle, now violently angry, now humbly repentant, now
making contracts with mankind, now petulantly destroying His own
handiwork. He was a God who could order the slaughter of innocent
babes, as in the book of Samuel; or He was a tender, merciful Father,
as in the Psalms. He could harden hearts, wage bloody wars, walk with
men 'in the cool of the day,' create a universe with His fist, or
spend long days designing and devising the material utensils and
furniture of sacrifice to be used in His own worship. In short, men
saw in Him just what they