THE following little account by Lady Hope of the death of Charles Darwin, the evolutionist, is startling: it is a most wonderful narrative, and contains the account of a great and terrible tragedy.
Darwin is propped up in bed, and he looks out over the lovely landscape as the sun is setting. He is reading — the Bible! Said Lady Hope: “I made some allusion to the strong opinions expressed by many persons on the history of the Creation, its grandeur, and then to their treatment of the earlier chapters of the Book of Genesis.
“He seemed greatly distressed, his fingers twitched nervously, and a look of agony came over his face as he said:
“ ‘I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything; and to my astonishment the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them.’”
Was there ever a more dramatic scene? The very soul of tragedy is here exposed to us. Darwin, enthusiast for the Bible, speaking with glowing enthusiasm about “the grandeur of this Book,” reminded of that modern evolutionary movement in theology which, linked with skeptical criticism, has become a blight in all the Churches and has destroyed Biblical faith in multitudes — Darwin, with a look of agony, deploring it all, and declaring, “I was a young man with unformed ideas,” and imploring his visitor (“I know you read the Bible in the villages,” he said) to gather servants, tenants and neighbors together and preach to them Jesus Christ!
This remarkable picture of Darwin is a challenge to every Modernist. What an overwhelming criticism! “The Last Words of Darwin,” from the “Journal” of the Wesley Bible Union.