The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-10-08
PROF. SWING on MATERIALlSM

On recent Sunday Prof. SWING O.
Chicago, preached a sermon on Prof
Tyndall's doctrine of the origin of life
which sermon We reproduce as being q
interest to all who have given the sub
lcct any study or reflection. The preach
cr took for his text the first verse of tn,
first chapter of Genesis, lin the begin
ning God created the heaven and tn,
earth" and. after a few preliminary re
marks. proceeded as follows:
Among the questions that have thu:
far escaped solution, no one has batilct
50 many and batfled them so long and SC
perfectly as the inquiry how the world
came into existence. When the Bible
says, In the beginning God created the
heaven and the EARTH it speaks only &
most useful and fundamental lesson in
religion, and makes no effort to meet the
want of that soul which seeks the simple
solution of a mystery. The Bible does
not pretend to be a full key to the grea,
unknown, but to be a guide to hearts
that are content to begin with certain as.
Sumptions and to live in Il kind of swec,
humility. AS we who are here today
take up life in the nineteenth century,
and dare not think of asking the priv.
lcgc of starting where Palestine OF
Greece started or the human race start.
cd, that we may see it all and know it
ALL 50 mankind, finding themselves upon
earth. cannot go back and try to start
forth in creations morning, but must
proceed forward from middle point and
not hope to read fully the great former
chapters of Gods book. Man is not born
into the whole universe, only upon a
very small island in it, and he is not born
into its eternity past, but only into some
tar hn hnr -
of things, and hence his accommodation
of facts will consist of only few leaves
gathered up about his feet. To him thus
situated with an unfathomable depth
around him the Bible simply gives him
the best possible assumption upon which
he can found life, but it makes no effort
I" Tree him, as metaphySician or think
or. from the pressure of cnigmas.
When we are informed that in the be.
ginning God created the heaven and the
earth, The question which now engages
the study and public speech of the Tyn-
'tallS is not reache ed, for the inquiry they
raise is only to DC answered by learn.
ing who or what in the beginning made
that creative God. To find who made
man is only a secondary thought the
primary thought being, What is the ORR
gin of conscious lite: An inquiry not
to he debated about the name of man,
for he is special act in the long DRAMA
hut is to be debated about the name of
God rs being the first expression of what
is called life. There seems to be in ma
turc two qualities. They seem to be
very different; one of them is called
matter, and embraces earth, air, water,
light, electricity, the gases: the other is
called spirit, and the phenomena of it
rp nd 0.-sn
DRY, love. Now the great question of
Mr.. Tyndallis simply this: Which stands
first in the causal order? Did mind give
rise to matter or did matter originate
mind: This question is not one about
the origin of man, but about the origin
of life, and hence it gathers up equally
God and man and bird and fish in one
arm, and air, earth, water, fire, and all
the chemical elements in the other, and
then says: (Which one of these two
groups created the othcr!' Did the elc.
mcnts create mind or mind the elements?
The question is apparently one of God
or no God, or an inquiry into the claims
of atheism.
In this investigation Mr.. Tyndall casts
his vote in favor of the material origin,
and declares that what life we witness of
man or brute must look to matter for its
creator. Let me repeat to you his most
recent and clearest avowal, that it may
again pass through your minds:
abandoning all disguise, the confession that
feel bound 10 make before you is. that l prolona
the vision backward across the boundary of the
experimental evidence. and discern in that mat
which We in our Ignorance and Notwithstanding
our profcsscd reverence for its Creator have hith.
erto covered with opprobrium the promise and
potency of every form and quality of life.
Looking back he would not wish to dis.
guisc his convictions in presence of man.
kind. and this conviction is that he dis
Germs in matter the promise and potency
of every form and quality of life" Mat.
ter is able to develop itself forward into
any quality of life between the worm and
the statesman. To such an end it pos.
sesscs the potency. For if any deity
should be essential to the transit of mat.
ter to life, the matter would not possess
the potency claimed for it by the great
scientist. Hence we find in these careful
and clear words of Mr.. Tyndall an
avOwal of materialism, perhaps atheism,
as he understands the word, but which
we shall not by any means accept as
easily can any one mind or any one
school of minds rid the universe of the
presence of God. 1t is not to be as
sumed that either Mr.. Tyndall or any of
his illustrious companions really desires
that Il Heavenly Father and future life
for man should be handed over to the
world of legend and dream. There seems
no reason for charging upon them any
such wish. 1t is evident that there have
been men SO wicked in all their dealings
with their fellows that they have hoped
or said in their heart there is no God
but when we look upon modern men
who are honorable in all their relations
and who are deep students rather than
wicked souls, we must find in their athe
ism the sincere conclusion of their intel.
lects. And, furthermore, it must not be
supposed that any scientist or common
thinker has SO determined this matter
that he is always an atheist, for the same
possibility of doubt which leads the re-
ligious man or the Christian through
alternate peace and painful distrust i.
present also with the socalled atheist
and must bring him many a moment
when his heart feels the presence of God
The word atheism, therefore, as applied
to this man or that indicates only the
most prominent and most constant state
of the mind, and does not imply that any
human heart has ever been able wholly
to Danish the idea of the Infinite One. fol
as the fact that Christian evidence is moi
mathematical entails upon the Christian
some hours of darkness, SO the parable
fact that atheism is not demonstrable OK
poses the avOwed materialist to the in
roads of beautiful times and seasons il
which the atheism becomes weak indeed
and the religious sentiment bursts fortl
into song. The few atheists with whom
it has been my lot to converse have con
fessed that at long intervals, perhaps
once year, in some sudden manner
from causes perhaps unknown, the con
viction that there is God has come, anl
for an instant filled the whole heart wifi