, 1877-12-28

-'a'r N>7A iNsN'' ''' -
that men mas watches aud bees
make honey.comhs. We d' not
know from experience THAT a Creator
Of all rhings makes ears and buds.
[(Soa and tho Bible, pp lJ2, lO3I
Whaeif Red Cloud and Chief Joseph
had been brought to the Centennial
or to WashingtonH What if they
had seen the majestic dome of our
National Capitol, and all the mar
vels Of the Centennial? Red Cloud
would have said, il he had followed
Matthew Arnold's philosophy: ~
have had experience in building
wirwams. know the path from
NV house to the hut Of seven Thun
,lers or Bear Paw. know that
every such path is made by some
cause. know that every wigwam
must have been built by some man =
hut this railrosd--l never had ex'
psrience in building railroads. do
not know but that it was fshed out
of the sea. Laughter. This mar
ble Capitol, these wonderful and
strange things in the Centennial! |
have never had any experience in
making columbiads or spinning jen.
nies. | know that the flint which |
sharpen for my arrow must be shaped
by some man; but this colnnbiai, |
do not know but that il grew.
Laughter. This spinning jenny!
l have had no experience IN factor.
les and weaving machines and these
marvels. l think this loom was
EvonvED!' Loud laughter and ap
plause.
donot inthe slightest degree mis-.
represent the reasoning of Mr.. Ar
mold, for the only objection he has to
the aurgmeut from design is that he
has had no experience in world build
ing. David Hume also once made
that assertion, but when he walked
with Adam Ferguson on the heights
of Edenburg one night, he said,
adam, there is G,M." Stuart
Mill admits that the argument from
design proves the existrncr Of a de-
signer; but whether we can prove
that the designer thus proved to
exist is the onlv designer ia the uni
verse is, AS som people think, yet
left in doubt. Palry's argument is
supposed to be overthro~n. A
watchimplies watchnaker, but how
do we know that there was not de-
signer of the matchmaker, or that
there is not a second God that de,
signed the first God, aud = third that
designed the second ani so on!
a design must have had designer,
and the designers designer, and this
designer designer; for every design
is to have designer! Laughter
DO not suppose that am here TO
d. dae this difficulty, though oc.
cassionally it may be that some of
our theological teachers have done
so. have heard that l.y,naa Beech.
er was once approached BY his stu
dents with the question how they
should answer skeptics who told them
that the argument from design
proved too much, They say tc u.s."
the students told their teacher, "that
there may be twenty Gods, for every
design must have a designer, and
every designer a designer, and SO
on" Now Lyman Beecher did not
know how TO answer the difficulty,
or, at least he did not give the scien-
ti6c answer; but he WAS quick, and
so he said 10 his students, TThese
men say there are twenty Gods?"
Yes, "Well, you tell them that
il there is one God it will 20 hard
With them, and II there are twenty
it will go harder yet" Applause
and loud laughter. But the an
swsr to be made is this: That we
cannot have q dependent existence
without an independent or a self.e1.
istent being TO depend upon. All |
existence, TO put the argument in
sillogistic form, is either dependent |
or independent. You are sure Of |
,hatg Yea Well, If there is a do
pendent existencs. there must be an
independent, for there capnut be do. I
pendenoe without something To de. /
pend upon; and an infinite series Of .
links, receding forever, is sn eject
without cause. Your sxium that
every change must have an adequate
cause Is denied BY the theory .: sn
Infinite series You carry ap your
chain link after hnk, And there 10
nothing 70 hang the last link upon.
]. All possible existence s either
dependent Or iadslendeut.
z. II there IL dependent existence
there must bs independent existence.