Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-08-01
Dr.. L'ANS0N'S LECTURE.

Editors Appeal: Your notice of DIR.
Parsons lecture at GTeenlaw Opera
House as q fine composition, and as
embracing the constituents and laws
of the atmosphere was correct enough.
But permit me to say that the base
less theories of some biologists and
the queries in regard to the past and
the future of man were outside his
subject, and were UnderstrOkes at the
sublime truths of Revelation.
There was ample room for the lee
turer to have shown the effect of the
atmosphere on the blood, on the brain,
and hence on material and mental
development. The influence of that
wondrOus fluid in promoting disease
or health, apathy Or energy, genera
ting bestial passions or lofty spiritual
emotions, lisa theme rs practical as il
is interesting and instructive, display
ing as 1t does the wisdom of the Cre9-
tor in adopting ii to animal and even
intellectual life.
A knowledge Of the atmosphere in
It's effects on health and Yig0r would
be Of immense practical Importance.
But these points, 50 legitimate and 50
essential, tSS lecturer never touched.
Instead of this he guessed there
never was a period when what Gre
termed natural laws, in all their unin-
terrupted sl0WRrss did not operate.
Hence il took millions on millions Of
years before nan existed for the Vegc-
tatiOn of the earth to tit the atm0S-
phere for mans use, a though there
could be no natural laws that are facts
unless there was first some natural
law CT fgct to originate it.
Is it less difficult to believe that the
Great Designer mast have OF neceSsity
created gigantic vegetation adapted Is
giving out oxygen to fit the atmOs-
phcre for the support of animal life
that to admit that be 1t once poured
upon the earth its sea Qf inNigQrating
air?
Why endeaVOr to prove this if il be
not to attempt to divorce God from his
own creation, and to attribute will,
p1rROse, power, to the smallest atom,
10 dumb. dead matter, to anything,
but the eternal living GQd2
The lecturer stated very truly "tpat
our bodies change centenually-rer
ceive their elements from the air and
return them back again" But still
4yeknOW that we are the same per-
sons and tie body we have is still our
body. Bat let tflat slI3n atmosphere
from which I'll present organization
IS supplied through plants and ami
mGis, teCsi-e again these bodies and
hold them from Tor cehtaries when at
the resurrection morn Gods VoitG
shah again call them into existence
wherever tleiF paricles may come
from, viii they not be o. much our
bodies then as they are our bodies
noWY Viii thay be any more changed
than our bodies nave seen during Iifc2
Science when sounded to liz DEPTHS
Echos to the grand revelations Of the
Word of God.
The lecturer asserted with great
scsitiycness that there had been @
steady progress Of the race from
the lowest grade 80 its present
height. This statement is unsups.
ported. The Pyramids of Egyptstand
today monuments Of science and art
that SPEAK G9Wn through thirty CEN
turies, from tie heights Ct human at
t;ina3aDJ. fhe very SCIENCE thai pll-
abled them TO lift the immense stones
to their positions, Is unknown to Us.
The towers and palaces Of Babylon,
traced in their ruins, show that taste
SD skill have retrOgraded rather than
Advanced. Homer and Aristotle tell
US of an intellectual Diatssity reached
before our present civilization wac
BEEN. The boosted progress of the
race in PAy9iaal and intellectual
strength, and in ipofal purity; is a fic-
ton. Theories built on il are aeaeI-
tive, and lead men astray from the
truth.
The lecturer introduced this theory
seemingly to sustain q hypotpesis
which he intimated, viz: That as
man had net always been lord OF this
earth, so he might not always be;
that as q lower order Of animals had
once possessed it, 50 q higher order
yet possess it, that the present
race might become eXtinet-giye place
10 some other imagined superior race,
Not one word intimated faith in the
promised destiny of man and earth, /
IS taught in Gods Word. Not one
qlinting Of that food Of light which !
The Bible throws over earth7s sorrows
and darkness.
" ny iiOts III pItbelSucS ~ Sv9Saii.Sl
theories WaYer in the loom OF doubt,
accept the revelations Of PatmGs?
open the eyes to the rising Of God,
md behold man affiliated to
Deity through the Deus Horpa, Jesus
Christ. However perfectibility un-
,urmounted in the new heavens and
he new earth, when he who adjusted
he wondrous and trembling meehan-
SIN Of the lungs to deeompose the air
md sustain life, the eye to make the
right its pencil, painting images ON
he retina, who has adapted all things
Us to produce sweet sounds,
pleasing sights, and give US joy and
yladness, shall mantle the earth IN
Untold beauty and elevate man to I'M
imagined bliss. S. II. FORD.
STRAW HATS at cost at Wheaton d
CO.'S, Hatters, 1879 Main street.