everything else, have grown up
from simple germs: and it is only in the later stages of his development
that man can be said to be a religious being. While an animal merely,
and for a time even after he had attained to a rude and savage manhood,
a life of selfish passion and marauding was justifiable, since only thus
could the survival of the fittest be secured and the advancement of the
race attained.[125] It is fair to say that there are various shades of
the theory here presented--some materialistic, some theistic, others
having a qualified theism, and still others practically agnostic. Some
even who claim to be Christians regard the various religions of men as
so many stages in the divine education of the race--all being under the
direct guidance of God, and all designed to lead ultimately to
Christianity which is the goal.

That God has overruled all things, even the errors and wickedness of
men, for some wise object will not be denied; that He has implanted in
the human understanding many correct conceptions of ethical truth, so
that noble principles are found in the teachings of all religious
systems; that God is the author of all truth and all right impulses,
even in heathen minds, is readily admitted. But that He has directly
planned and chosen the non-Christian religions on the principle that
half-truths and perverted truths and the direct opposites of the truth,
were best adapted to certain stages of development--in other words, that
He has causatively led any nation into error and consequent destruction
as a means of preparing for subsequent generations something higher and
better, we cannot admit. The logic of such a conclusion would lead to a
remorseless fatalism. Everything would depend on the age and the
environment in which one's lot were cast. We cannot believe that
fetishism and idolatry have been God's kindergarten method of training
the human race for the higher and more spiritual service of His kingdom.

Turning from the testimony of the Scriptures on the one hand and the _a
priori_ assumptions of evolution on the other, what is the witness of
the actual history of religions? Have they shown an upward or a downward
development? Do they appear to have risen from polytheism toward simpler
and more spiritual forms, or have simple forms been ramified into
polytheism?[126] If we shall be able to establish clear evidence that
monotheistic or even henotheistic types of faith existed among all, or
nearly