The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1876-02-12


does seem strange Is to sec intelligent men pro-
tossing two opposite beliefs directly destructive
Of each other. 1t il useless for any thinking man
to say that be believes both IN Darwin's hypoth-
esis and in the Bible. Can he believe both that
- God created man in His own image - 70 " haye
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
fowl of the air, and over all the earth, and also
that man is but q form Of life gradually and by
insensible degrees evolved from the lowest form of
creeping life-from the very worm be now treads
beneath his feet. To attempt to chime the two
beliefs is impossible.
The development hypothesis may imply the
same wisdom, foresight and protection, but it
implies also, that man has no right to hope for
salvation through a crucifed Redeemer, or even
that his soul will live after him.
An article in the Independent says: There
are those who hold the name of Prof Huxley as
Synonymous with irreyerence and atheism. There
can be no greater mistake. No man has greater
reverence for the Bible than Huxley
We give Huxley his proper dues when We say
that perhaps no man has more regard for the
truth than he, whatever his peculiar opinions
may be and no man probably more than he
would scorn such a declaration in his own favor,
for no man has shown more irreyerence than
Huxley for the Bible, as an inspired book. Per-
hape Huxley, as well as the rest of the school to
which he belongs, may not be atheists but who
is their God unknowable a vague and in
definite all prevailing cosmic principle, of which
fixed and immutable laws are the only represent
atiues, and unthinkableness the letters by which
they bind the intellect. In view of the growing
popularity of the teachings of the evolutionary
hypothesis, it becomes the duty of every we'll
wisher of Christianity to protest against any ca
pdrte statement of the question and protest, not
with petulance, but with Christian dignity and
frmness against its insiduous encroachments upon
their orthodox faith. 1t is high time that the
Ignorant and unsuspecting Christian should be
made aware of the real character of an enemy,
that appearing in the garb of friendship, is truly
sapping the foundations of his simple faith that
he should know once and for all, that those who
are his teachers and protesting at the same time a
respect for the development hypothesis, are but
Iscariots who would betray with a kiss.
If, knowing the nature and dimensions of his
enemy, and by reason, being convinced of his su-
perior power, a nan makes a voluntary surren-
der, no one has a right to object, even though he
reject the scrutiny but he has every right to
ODJCSG " hyPOSAACJ ILhG nOulO eau nun ItO VIC
grasp of Il giant, unarmed, by representing to
him that there was nothing to fear.
Speaking of his work on the Origin of Species
by natural selection, Darwin says: 81 can see
no good reason why the views given in this vol
ume should shock the religious feelings of any
one." If to admit that man is as soulless as the
50 beasts that PERISH therefore as irresponsible
as they that not providential Intervention, but
natural selection, has made HIM what he is, is
agreeable to Christian theology, then can the
truth of his assertion too be admitted, but not
till then but as no such admission can be made,
and as it would require the farthest stretch of
credulity, upon his theory, to allow man a better
title to Immortality than any other organic being,
from a monkey to a protoccoeus, one cannot, IN
less he be morally blind, admit the force of such
an assertion, even though made by SO great and
generally prudent a man as Darwin.
1t is this friendly face put on it by the asserters
of this hypothesis, that makes the scientific ma
terialism of to-day, SO little Objectionable to the
mind OF the ignorant and half educated for, as
is always the case with such, they are willing to
take on faith a great deal of what they are I'M
able to understand so long as they can see no
conflict between it and their natural inclinations.
The establishment of the evolution hypothesis
is far from complete, and is of a nature probably
never to be demonstrated then why should the
Christian leaning upon a simple belief which
forms a most material help to him in sustaining
the burdens and cares of life be SO unnecessarily
p~erplexed and harrassed by a representation of
the possibilities of deception. 1t has been re-
marked by DIR. Hooker that religion as always
shifting ground TO accommodate itself TO The ne,C
discoveries Of science.
In SO far as error must fall before the light of
truth-and purely human dogmas have been dissi-
pated IN this way-the force of his remark must
be admitted, but with fundamental considerations
it cannot be better applied to religion than to
science itself.
The divine mission of Christ, the immortality
of man and his responsibility to God, are as
much the laws of the Christian to-day as they
were a thousand years ago, and as necessary at
PENDANTS of his consciousness as the law of gravi-
tation and of conservation of energy are to the
astronomer and the physicist. But if as some
suppose possible,-and in contemplation of the
possibility (and for that reason only) are inclined
to extend the hand of NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
can so shift its base as to accommodate itself to
the evolution hypothesis, it will be all that the
materialist will ever require, for it will be the
concession of very existence. Ii reason and truth
can ever lead to this, the Christian can only sadly
say, so let it be; but if faith alone be called upon,
let it be remembered that 9 the pantheistic is a
grand but cold philosophical idea the anthropo-
to us our dead. The one is the dream of the in
t~ellect, the other is the hope of the heart"
oDU.mUcU TVUUrUtnr nU MIN IOC