Earth's Earliest Ages; And Their Connection with Modern Spiritualism and Theosophy

14 Paternoster Row, London - Bothwell St., Glasgow: Pickering & Inglis, 1925. Stated Fourteenth Edition at title page. No date; circa 1925. Part of Students Library from Pickering & Inglish. Includes prefaces to the first, third and fifth editions, and a detailed eleven-page index. Rare early printing of this monumental classic in original pictorial wrapper. Black cloth boards, bright gilt spine titles with several gilt bands, moderate wear, some lower edge wear. Pages generally near very good; fox at endpapers, exterior text block, little bleed at back endpaper. Adjacent title page is full page of reviews for this title. Bind fine, square; hinges intact. Features pictorial dust wrapper in olive, moderate shelf wear, fox; protected in new clear sleeve. Cover and spine titles with illustration in green over olive of smart suited student at library table in study with books in background. Near very good early original printing in scarce wrapper. From front panel: "An able, seasonable and segacious book. Pember's knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures is exact and scholarly, and his interpretation trustworthy and brilliant. - Edinburgh Review" Contents: "Chapter I. Introduction; II. The Creation; III. The Interval; IV. The Six Days; V. The Creation of Man; VI. The Fall of Man; VII. The Trial and Sentence; VIII. The Age of Freedom; IX. The Days of Noah; X. 'As It Was in the Days of Noah'; X!. Spiritualism Part I. The Testimony of the Bible; Spiritualism Part II. The Testimony of History; XIII. Spiritualism Part III. The Modern Outburst; XIV. Theosophy; XV. Buddhism; XVI. Signs of the End; Appendices; and, an Index." George Pember presents the relevance of Biblical events in a beautifully written, smoothly digestible piece of literature. Considered by many the best explanation of the supernatural world and the age of the earth ever written. Pember writes in the preface that his objectives are to remove some of the geological issues associated with Genesis and to show that the "Days of Noah" were reappearing. Pember reconciles the Genesis account of the world's creation with the emerging fossil evidence and the age of the earth with "The Gap Theory" previously proposed by the Scottish theologian Thomas Chalmers. In the Gap Theory, God originally created the universe, but due to the rebellion of some angels, the earth descended into misanthropy, chaos, and life was destroyed. In Chalmers' theory, Genesis presents an account of God restoring or recreating the world after the collapse of the original creation, and, that a "gap" in time exists between the first two verses in Genesis chapter one allowing the period necessary to include the ancient fossil and geological evidence. The fossils were creatures that lived in a prior creation and were destroyed when Lucifer and cohort angels fell into sin. The Biblical story of Adam and Eve is about the new creation of man and woman, and, a later recreation of the world. Pember's argument is an example of how some Christians in the nineteenth century reconciled geological evidence for an older earth without embracing Darwin's evolution. Earth's Earliest Ages then argues that rival non-Christian groups are evidence that end times were being fulfilled. These signs of the end times include: the Spiritualist churches, the Theosophical Society, and Buddhism. As far back as the beginning of time and within every major culture of the ancient world, the astonishingly consistent story is told of gods who descended from heaven and materialized in bodies of flesh. From Rome to Greece and before that, to Egypt, Persia, Assyria, Babylonia, and Sumer, the earliest records of civilization tell of the era when powerful beings known to the Hebrews as Watchers and in the book of Genesis as the b'nai ha Elohim ('sons of God') mingled themselves with humans, giving birth to part-celestial, part-terrestrial hybrids known as 'Nephilim.' When English theologian George Hawkins Pember, in his 1876 masterpiece, presented here in its fourteenth edition, analyzed the prophecy of Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 that says the end times would be a repeat of 'the days of Noah,' he concluded the final and most fearful sign heralding the Lord's Second Coming would be the return of the 'Nephilim, the appearance upon earth of beings from the Principality of the Air, and their unlawful intercourse with the human race.' Jesus Himself, in answering His disciples concerning the signs of His coming and of the end of the world, verified it would be 'as the days of [Noah] were' (Matthew 24:37). The implication is, just as it was before the Flood when the spirits of Nephilim were powerful upon earth (Genesis 6:4), mankind would experience an end-times influence of these entities. Includes two pages at back with lists for "The Student's Library of Thoughtful Bible Exposition," and, "Prophetic Books Which Have Been Helpful to Many." Printed in Great Britain. 494 pages. Insured post.. Fourteenth Edition . Hard Cover. Good/Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.