Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-10-08
PROF. SWING ON MATERIALISM.

II hOrs SVANU Wv MAI HAAEAAo'A'
On a recent Sunday Prof. Swing, of
Chicago, preached sermon on Prof.
Tyndall's doctrine of the origin of life,
which sermon we reproduce as being OF
interest to all who have given the sub
ject any study or reflection. The preach
er took for his text the first verse of the
first chapter of Genesis, I'm the begin
ming God created the heaven and the
EARTH" and, after few preliminary re-
marks, proceeded as follows:
Among the questions that have thus
far escaped solution, no one has baffied
SO many and batfled them so long and so
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 a
most useful and fundamental lesson in
religion, and makes no effort to meet the
want of that soul which seeks the simple
solution of mystery. The Bible does
not pretend to be full key to the great
unknown, but to be a guide to hearts
that are content to begin with certain as
sumptisns and to live in kind of sweet
humility. AS we who are here today
take up life in the nineteenth century,
and dare not think of asking the priyi-
lege of starting where Palestine or
Greece started, or the human race start
ed, that we may see it all and know it
all, so 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 it's eternity past, but only into some
moment far away from the beginning"
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
to free him, as metaphysician or think
er, from the pressure OF enigmas.
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-
dalls is not reached, for the inquiry they
raise is emily to be answered by learn
ing who or what in the beginning made
that creative God. To find who made
man is only secondary thought, the
primary thought being, What is the sri-
gin of conscious life? An inquiry not
to be debated about the hame of man,
for he is special act in the long drama,
but is to be debated about the name of
God as being the first expression of what
is called life. There seems to be in ma
ture two qualities. They seem to be
very different; one of them is called
nir
light, electricity, the gases; the other is
called spirit, and the phenomena OF it
are consciousness, judgment, will, mem
Org, love. Now the great question of
Mr.. Tyndall is 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 others" Did the ele-
ments create mind or mind the elements9
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 to make before you is that / proiong
the vision backward across the boundary oil the
experimental evidence, and discern in that matter
which we In our ignorance ana notwithstanding
professed reverence for its Creator have NTH
erto covered with opprobrium the promise and
potency of every form and quality OF life.
Looking back he would not wish to dis
guise 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
sesses 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
avowai of materialism, perhaps atheism,
as he understands the word, but which
we shall not by any means accept as
necessitating such conclusion. Not so
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 Heavenly Father and future life
for man should be handed over to the
world of legend and dream. There seems
no reason fer charging upon them any
such wish 1t is evident that there have
been men 80 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 50 determined this matter