Daily Republican., 1882-11-29
MN. RREOHER's VIEWS.
His Idea In Reg ard 20 the Theory


His Idea In RoR ard 10 tho TheOFJ
OF Evolution.
The New York Tribune OF this morn
ing says: Mr.. Beecher made the an.
nouncement in Plymouth Church, Sun
day morning that he would preach
as 10 his custom, on National topics, q
II O'Clock on Thanksgiving morning
He then preached to an audience fillin(
the entire church upon power as thu
test of theology, and gave his views Of
evolution.
He said he proposed to preach severa
sermons to show that advanced think
ing conformed to the inDermost teach
inge of Scripture. He did this both for
the sake of himself and his geople and
for multitude of ministers who wavor.
ed between new and old teachings. He
also wanted to reply to those who said
he had wandered from the truth. He
received letters asking if he believed
In the Immortality of the soul and q
personal God. The fools were not only
not all dead yet, but they seemed to be
multiplying.
In the sermon Mr.. Beecher said that
the ology which could do nothing was
nothing. All systems of preaching
must come to the test of the power Of
God over men. 1t must have power to
convince men, convert them, build
them up and sustain them here and
hereafter. The views of men who had
sympathy with the great euds of re-
ligion, but who believed that there
were better means to them than those
of the fathers, were valuable; and Mr..
beecher said that he counted himself
among these advanced religious think.
ers. If modern theology helped men
better than the old theology 1T would
stand. Theology must advance. Men
could read Paul's theology of revolution,
and yet when Darwin formulated his
theory they started back and said,
isn't this the Devil coming out of
Hell?" But his great-great-g -great-great
great. t.grandfather, Paul, held the same
The bold statement that man came from
the ape must be modified 80 as to come
to the point where man was differen
tiated from the ape line, as the oak and
the pine started apart in the mosses,
Far back the ape ran to mt usCle and
bone while man developed In the brain
and intelligence, and finally reason,
imagination and Sorl we're developed.
This was only hypothesis, a sagaclous
scientific guess. But if the hypothesis
explained the facts better than any
thing else, it became theory. By this
hypothesis the power Of God was
as fully shown as by the old theo-
ry. This view might have greater power
to help men than any other. Man fol-
lowed the analogy of the seed and the
animal. The baby was little brute
animal. Nothing was SO helpless as
the little sac full of bones and flesh
called a baby, The world was not God,
but its laws were the paths of God
feet. The more complicated the plan
the more the need of Designer. The
more scientific the plan of the world |
the more unthinkable is a6heism. The |
God depicted in orthodox creeds was
an Internal demon, worse than any i'm
agined by Dante, and every honest |
man was called upon to say that he |
would not worship such God, even if
he were damned for it. All violation |
Of Law was not sin, but action by the i
animal passions rather than by the |
spiritual instincts was sinful. There
was no such thing as original sin. Mr..
Beecher further said that he believed |
that multitudes of men would be an
nihilated hereafter, because sunk in |
But all who lived for
love and sympathy would gain life
sternal,