The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-12-20
Richmond, Va, Wednesday, Dec. 90.


set with talk about modern science y
We have made so many discoveries in
science, and the art of literary criticism
has become so refined, that our old-fash-
Toned beliefs begin to carry sort of ques,
tionable reputation, and pert young scien-
lists and pert young theologians Gull OF
q" the most recent researches put on airs
of superior knowledge, and manifest no
sort of respect for the old ways of think
ing, and the old line of apology for the
Scriptures. Here is an illustration of
what we mean: everything now is ex-
planned by the doctrine of Evolution; if
you go to buy stove, the fact is ex-
planned to you that the store has been
evolved from hot brick, and that be-
fore the Egyptians began to burn their
bricks, the prehistoric savages warmed
their water with hot stone. Adam was
an evolution; the Flood was an evolu-
ton; Christ was an evolution. The evo-
lutionists-even the Christian evolution
ists-will admit nothing abrupt in the
processes of this world. Therefore they
reject miracles. When the last trumpet
blows, and the dead are raised, they will
object to it on the ground that nature
does not work in that way; the thing
ought to be done gradually. And so of
the Resurrection of our Lord how can
it be reconciled with the long periods of
time required by Darwinian methods to
bring about a new type of being?
MAN suddenly crosses the speculations
of the Evolutionists; the Resurrection
suddenly confronts the Rev. Newman
Smyth. Your Evolutionist takes no &C
count of either. He pursues his scien-
tifc determinations as if the world had
never heard of the one or the other
And so the Jews stand out in the path of
rationalistic inquiry--an irrepressible
fact. What will you do with them? We
were talking to highly cultivated and
conscientious lady few weeks ago. She
refused to eat oysters-and suddenly we
remembered that she was Je,Oess, and
that nearly $500 years ago Moses had
commanded that whatsoever hath no
fms or scales in the waters shall be an
abomination unto you
We can trace the history of the Jews.
without any difficulty back to the Exc.
dus. What they were in the days of the
Judges and of David and of the Macca
bees and of Herod, they are to-day
There is an element about their national
faith that is indestructible- showing that
it rests on some profound conviction.
Whatever they are, no one doubts the
sincerity of the Jew, nor the depth and
the sincerity of his conviction in all ages.
They believe in their descent from ALra-
ham; they believe in the Twelve Patri-
archs; they believe in the oppression in
Egypt, and in the signs and wonders with
which they were brought out they be-
zjeve in the forty years wanderings in
the wilderness, and in the passage of the
Jordan, and the victorious career of
Joshua in the Promised Land. Down to
this moment, on the 18th of Nissan, they
roast the paschal lamb and search every
crevice Of their house lest any crumb of
leavened bread should remain on their
premises, in commemoration of that fear
full night when there was one dead in
every Egyptian family. Perhaps one
will say, ooh, but we do not know that
this rite was observed in ancient times"
Bat we do know that it has been OBJ
served for 1900 years-by Christians as
we'll as'Jews. We know that Josephus
states that there were 100000 Jews as
sembled at Jerusalem at the Passover
A. D. 65. And we read in 2 Kings
xiii, that Josiah directed the people to
keep the passover, as commanded ain
the book Of this covenant" and the in
spired chronicler adds: Surely there
was not holden such a passover from the
days of the Judges nor in all the
days Of the kings of Israel, nor Of the
kings of Judah" Will the unbelieverin
the Scriptures give us a rational explana-
ton Of the Passover? What brought
those 3,000,000's Of Jews to Jerusalem