t ninety-six million years. Sir
George Darwin, basing his calculation wholly upon astronomical data,
puts the earth's age at a minimum of fifty-six million years. Joly
arrived at his estimate by a calculation of the time required to produce
the sodium content of the ocean, and concluded that the age of the earth
is between eighty million and one hundred million years. Sollas is said
to have made careful study of the matter and he finds the minimum to be
eighty million, and the maximum age to be one hundred and fifty million
years. But perhaps the most exhaustive study of the matter, and that
made by the use of the later scientific knowledge, was by Bosler, of the
French scientists. He bases his calculations upon the radio-activity of
rocks and arrives at a minimum earth age of seven hundred and ten
millions of years. Thus it will be observed that as our knowledge grows
the estimated age of the earth increases.

In the face of such facts what becomes of the assertion that God so
loved the world that he sent His Son to help ignorant humanity about two
thousand years ago--but never before? What about the hundreds of
millions of human beings who lived and died before that time? Did He
care nothing for them? Did He give his attention to humanity for a
period of only two thousand years and neglect it for millions of years?
Two thousand years, compared to the age of the earth, is less than an
hour in the ordinary life of a man. Does anybody believe that God, in
his great compassion, sent just one World Teacher for that brief period?
What would we say of a father who gave one hour of his whole life to his
child and neglected him absolutely before and after that? Countless
millions of the people who lived and died prior to the coming of the
Christ were very much like ourselves. They belonged to ancient
civilizations that often surpassed our own in many desirable
characteristics. They were educated and cultured in their time and
fashion. They were fathers and sons and mothers and daughters and
husbands and wives, with the same kind of heart ties that we have. What
of them? Were they permitted to grope in the moral wilderness without a
Teacher or a ray of light? Of course the idea is preposterous. If God so
loved the world that He sent his Son two thousand years ago He sent Him,
or some predecessor, very many times before. By the same token He will
come again. The only logical escape from such a conclusion is in the
materialist's