Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-04-12
EVOLUTION.
| The FaOous Brooklyn Preacher Lectures
| s,n Evolution and KsvOIutiOn--A
Very AppreclAtiye Audience

Evolution and ksvOlutiOn--A
Very ApPreciAtive Audience.
A fair sized aud appreciative audience
assembled in Fulton opera house last
eveniu. to listen to the lecture of Henry
Ward Beecher on - Evolution and RevO-
luton" The distinguished divine was in
trOduced by Rev. j. Max Hark, pastor Of
tho Moravian church, this city, who said
the lecturer WAS q man whose views on
politics aud theology have ever been at
first decried and then accepted. and stood
as the greatest preacher and the greatest
orator Of the day. Mr.. Beechcr was re-
ceived with applause, which, in fact, was
generously bestowed throughout the lee
ture as tho speaker brought out telling
expressions. As he stood upon the stage
the familiar rOtuud figure Of years ago
was seen to have little changed except
towards greater rotundity, and although
the years of old age are creeping upon
him the firm, resonant voice of his earlier
days shows little dimnution iu its vigor
or in those features of OI OIatOry that have
SO much enhanced the value Of his utter.
ances.
Mr.. Beecher began by saying that per
haps it would bo more in accordance with
the ideas of some people to have an
Reformation" Evolution does not de-
strOy it creates. The American revOlu-
ticn did not destroy law; it made it
better. 1t did not destroy government it
reconstructed it on broader basis. When
we speak of evolution in connection with
revolution, We speak of changes in organic
matter. Within the last thirty years the
world has accepted a philosophy which
was not generally received until Darwin
came. Evolution as the system of crea-
| tion is accepted now in some shape by all
men of intelligence and education. There
are q great mauy phases and elements
connected with this doctrine that
lead men to distrust it. BY cvo
luton is meant tho method Of God in
creating the world. The old idea of i'm
perial force, as borrowed from tho Scrip
| lures, in which God says, Let there be
Light" is now mostly abandoned, because
| that is the way in which God did not make
the world. Evolution teaches us to go
back to the very germs and lowest forms
| of life, and then out of these We SEQ de-
veloped higher forms. 1t is held, said
the lecturer, that from a palpable yet
indistinguishabe mass of matter, which
took on i rotary motion, became ignitiOus,
and under the influence Of gasses ant'
waters by various great forces, tho world
was created, then animal life began, and
the whole vegetable kingdom has taken
its origin in this process. That which is
true of the vegetable kingdom is true Of
animal life. The earliest form is COLL
which takes on other forms, and thus
| by one influence and another animal
life becomes more adapted to its vari-
GUS cOnd itiOns of existence. Ninety-nine
/ IF fIn or
| luton as the hypothesis of the method of
l creation. 1t is not without contradiction,
aud we hear from tho pulpit that evOlu.
ton has had it's day. 1t is true that Ger
tain phases IF iu have run out, but without
these it is held in great force to day.
Among tho numerous supporters Of it are
| those of the atheiStic theory, who
sly there is no necessity of saying the re-
| is a God. There are also great many who
dispute Darwin's theory, that nature is 80
prOdigal that there is a tendency to over
production, in which it is held that sub
| stance would have soon Overrun the world
were it not for tho destruction of tho
weaker by the stronger, and thus the
struggle for existence is going Oh. Many,
| too, hold that this is the true doctrine.
Evolution is not perishing because some
parts of it are dying out. There is a great
popular prejudice against evolution,
and men wonder why a Clergyman
should hold it up. One reason for this
dislike they give i'll the assertion that ii
conflicts with tho Bible. But, Mr..
Beecler held, the Bible is not to be a
guide in science, but only in morals and
religion. In earlier times it was held that
tue world was made in six different days :;
however. when geolOgists began to turn
the leaves of the rocks, men we're very
much staggered and the geOlOgists were
set upon everywhere. But now among in
telligent men this old idea of the creation is
assert, in six days, but in Sd many
"periods, of an indefinite duration. As
an honest man, the lecturer thought he
could not get off so easy from this ques
tion. Tho doctrine of evolution says tho
world was not made by any kiud of in
stantaneity, but it has been developing ~
tho tree uniOlds in it's different stages of
| growth from it's very termination.
Another popular objection to evolution
is tho idea that all evOlutionists are inf
dels. This is generally So in Germany
and France. In England they are mostly
Agnost;cs, who say there may bo a God,
but we cannot demonstrate His existence.
| But in America they arc generally Christ
| ian evOlutiOnsts, and among these Mr..
Beecher enrOlls himself. Evolution teaches
l that animal life has from the first been
going on and when it came to man there
was O stop. Some 60 over this difficulty
by saying that man is no exception, and
that everything in him and in his nature
had its germ in the lower grade from
which he sprung. Others assert that
man has asceuded from the ami
NAL kingdom SO far as form is con-
cerned, but that the breath of God came in
and developed the higher life. The lee
turer was aware of the links and gaps that
exist, aud which deter full connection of
the doctrine of evolution, but they are
being filled up, and the probability is that
| in time we shall find where man came
from. Now Comes the idea that man came
| from a monkey. But it may be shown
that man and monkey developed to Ger
tain stage together, then divergcd in
growth and aptitude to life SO, after all,
the monkey ID only our cousin. The
| speaker did not feel much repuguancs
to coming from monkey, if
he came far enough from it. The ancients
said man was moulded out of the eal tn !;
but he would rather come from monkey
than from mud puddle. Men say that
this doctrine OvcrthrOws tho Christian
religion. But if We accept this evolution
theory, it does not destroy the Scriptures,
! nor the spirit Of God, nor the power of
tho Holy Ghost, but it puts them on the
basis of solid facts. Evolution is the very
foundation of Christianity. The word of
God is one of the most striking facts of evo-
luton. The speaker then traced out the