Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-11-30
ADAM AND EVE,
Beecher Believes, Were Not Put in the
Garden OF Eden to Be Tempted
and Bring
The TerrOrs of Damnation TO All Their
Succeeding GeneratiOns-God is
Not Monster.

On Sunday last Henry Ward Beeeher
preached sermon on the subject OF advanced
thinking among Christian men and minis
tiers in our time, and which conforms itself
To the very innefmost spirit and genius Of the
sacred Scripture. Il do this for my own sake"
he said, "that 1 may not be misunderstood;
aud do it for your cakes, because there's exists
between every pastor and his people kind
of obligation Of honor, that they should
know what he believes and what II il he is
teaching them; ard also 1 do it for the sake
of nullitudes of clergymen who are per-
plexed in smihd. They cannot keep ON in
the old way Of theology; and, they do not
like to take on new way. They therefore
hang setueen the wind. neither going one
way nor the other. l do IL also as a reply
TO those who say that this church and its
pastor have wandered from Christian truth
l receive letters asking me if believe in the
immortality OF the soul, and see letters
sent to my friends asking whether believe in
a personal God. The fools are not all dead
vet, but they seem to multiply very rapidly.
How long must q man preach, and how wide
mist the preaching be distributed, before
men will understand the least about his doc
trine? From the passages of the text il is
evident that power is the substance of theoi-
ogy, for that is what Paul says. A theology
that has no power on human life is not
Christian theology, and the best test Of the
doctrines advanced is, What power have
they? What can they do for men? the
ology that can do nothing is nothing-no
better than idolatry. Paul, in setting forth
his career, would first exclude by declaration
from his ministry all mere personal element.
He says / won't use excellence of speech,
meaning eloquence, beautiful language, lit
al. - L l.
but it was auxiliary, and 90 far Inferior 10
real power that he would not employ it. 4
determined am5ng you,' be says, to know
nothing but Chriet, and I do not mean to
know Christ except as the crucifed one
the cruci6ed criminal Jew. That truth
which makes the power of God nearest to
man is the nearest like the Pauline preach
ing and nearest TO Christ-like preaching.
Paul would not preach a God of power
aud glory nor God of law and Of DEGREES;
nor would he present the Greek conception
of God as being erernally happy, but
he says, I shall preach a suffering
Christ; the death of Christ; the suffering of
Christ; the crucifxion of Christ; Christ,
representative God; view OF the open door;
through which we can see what was the real
uature of God, that is the Pauline concep-
ton of God, one that suffered for the sake of
love. 1t must be power that shall con-
vince men of sin and rebuild them In right
eousness or convert them; build them UP in
holy life, and sustain them in every emer-
geucy OF human life, and capable of in
spring men with the grandest thought Of
what life Is. All preaching, all schemes that
leave out the boundlessnesi OF the great in
visible world; all schemes that are made up
Of mere ingenuity-all such will be futile.
They may be beautiful, but 20 is the moon;
they will not be fruitful. 1t must inspire
men with sympathy with their kind; they
must become the saviors of the human race.
The advanced thinkers on the subject of re-
ligiou, the men that are in sympathy with
the great needs OF the church, have always
sought and still seek its best welfare, but
they insist that they are better instruments
to work with than those which the fathers
have employed, aud they have got beyond
such insirumeuts and have adopted new
ones, although the end TO be attained lie the
same as Of old.
81 count myself to be among those that
say, Il better iBstruments can be obtained by
which those ends may be accomplished, we
have right to use them. In regard 10 the
point of the sinfulness of man, If the views
Of il as represented by what may be called
the modern school are of kind to dilute
the sense of sinfulness, or are likely 10 OBJ
scure it by kind of silver mist, or wrap
men in a kind OF sectriiyj and il they are
open to the charm of preaching on the sub
ject OF human nature, a system OF truth that
will lead to complacency and self-content
and take off the pressure of conscience; if
they do this their condemnation is sure; time
will overwhelm them. But if they preach
SO as to give better understanding of sin (;
If they can give back to each man such a
sense OF sin, practical and cumulated; if
they have the power 10 reveal TO each man
his sinfulnsss and the conviction that If God
don't help him be is ruined; if they teach
this, these modern doctrines, as they are
called, will sand; no mstter how much
councils may condemn them they will
stand. Paul Thought that there was a
double nature, Paul of the flesh and Paul
of the spirit, and men have been reading
this for ages, but when Darwin comes and
says man was once lower animal, they cay
such teachings atheistic. Why, before
Darwin was thought oil, or his great-great-
great grandfather, Paul was a Darwinian
and taught that each man was two men, and
| that one man was an animal, and that the
other Has spiritual creature, rational
| soul. The hypothesis Of one school is that
! man is developed from The animal kingdom.
1t is held that man is the child of the ape,
and thai our ancestors were monkeys; but
these are not the beliefs of the more enlight-
ened evolutionIsts. They teach that going
back along the line of development you will
come 10 a point where-not a monkey or an
| ape; but somewhere back-there was a point
on which man and ape we're together, and
that they have been diverged. The ape de:
| veloped toward the left, growing more of
muscle and bone, and the man diverged to
| the right, growing more toward brsin and
nerve; that this vas fat back beyond the ape.
| You are not worthy of 80 honorable pa
| rentsge as the ape, although mulii;udes mi
| to return to the parent stock very ofIen; but
| far beyond that, IN the process OF deyelop-
ment, and under great natural laws, the
| reason began TO enlarge its sphere, the sensi-
bili:ies, the Imagination and the moral sense
came into action, aud men grew toward ulti-
mate perfection. I am not now undertaking
20 say that this is proved; il is but an ny.
| pothesis bu. if it is case that answers all
the conditions applied 10 il, then the hypoih-
esis at last becomes theory and becomes
| truth. If see a tree Just felled aud the
ak lying near | know that a man has been
there; although L cannot prove it. Now, it
| is hypothesis that map has unfolded from a
| lower TO higher estate under divinely-ap-
pointed natural laws; and when see a seed
| planted and its leaves unfolding, going
| through all the natural stages OF the infu-
ences Of natural laws, shall l say God did
| not make it-uature made il? No; ssy il
| was God through nature which made it.
| "When q babe is born il is nothing but a
| little animal and a very poor one at that.
1t has DO voluntary control of its muscles,
can't control its feet or its hands. 1t is a
| little brute animal, and if it was not for the
angelic Potentially that belongs TO it it
would be the poorest thing on the face Of the
earth. That little sackful OF meat and bones
that we call baby would BE- nothing but for
the hope Of its future. 1t gradually unfolds
| and ripsns, and at last comes development,
and we have the full man az the son of God /;
and you see this acting through the hum an
| species from the lowest condition up 10 the
| highest condition, and yet these men that zee
| it all, that go rocking il in the cradle, when
| they hear il in the pulpit they cay: Where
on earth is our minister going?' Now, il
| taught doctrine that the world created man,
that would be one thing; but don't say,
| just in proportion as you make the miracle
of life large the more indispensable il be-
| comes that there should be something more
| mighty than The physical laws of the globe.
You need intelligence and design back of il
TO maintain creation just in proportion az
| you make it complicated and difficdlt.
"Humsn science shows that the world az
unfolded from small beginnings, and il ia
4 III. al.