The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-05-05

Listle 0y lttle other men caught their tn- spiration, until, by and oy, it became re- spee,able: for the heresses of to-day are. if well 7 aced. the oTthodoxes of the next generation. Applause And m this way II has come to Us present estate, and eTea within our easy memory II be gan to be esteemed as sohd science. Thirty years ago. and n was all n the ar. wish the exception of fes: bat ,o- day aver ,ha, ihere Is not sDienunc man under forty years of age. of Tepuia- bic attainment. that does TO; believe in the doctrine of evolution not m every application of it: not tn every method of explaining the theory. There are, as vel. multiplied dissensiun and debates within the body of the doctrine of evoiu
 ton. ba, |, IS the working theory of es- ery working scientist on the globe. Ser many long resisted Germany leads to- day. The French school were very eau ,ious of il. They have yielded their eau ;ior. and II IS the reigning philosophy of the scientific schools to-day. England has been eminent, in that II was given to Herbert Spencer and 10 Charles Darwin to give 10 iha, doctrine an exposition more complete, more comprehensive, more convincing than II had ever had d, the hands of any other. It has been re- ee.yed with great caution. in America, bn; t has been received: and that. too. no alone hy the schools of skepiioism-i, has been held by thels,lc disciples as we'll as atheistic disciples. l; $ coming to be common ground.
 Now. there would be no objection ,e ;he theory or doctrine ot evolution. Il il were not for man. This is the critical point. and this is he poin, where there Is a v..ster discrepancy between the genera! believers of evolution. as between the eN- ,remes. Haeckel holds "a the holdes, manner. and with the extremest eNposi- ton. that man is nothing but the unfold ing of the lower animals: that there has been no break that he IS d prolongation of the inferior animal tribe. But Mivau holds, and Wallace holds. and Gray holds that up to that point the doctrine of evolution acted pure and simple. but tha, then came in some special and dl- vine impulse that created a new era. as !; were. or raised evolution to a higher level than i, had before. So ,ha, the theistic eyoIutionis.s tend to belief in the compound theory. namely Man is the ascent from the animal. know not why we should call ], descent. In one pom, of view Il may be said to be. as NC say children descend from iheir parents prefer the term ascent. when applying fl ,o man that he spfings rom ancestors tha; were part ot the brute creation. Here IS the point where to-day there is the most doubt. ,he most repaenanee . and on behalf oi the great religious pub lic there Is this unworthy fear. that comes ID whenever any new development, oi the revelation ot cod IF nature is made. They are afraid it Will sweep away the foundations of their faith. An unworthy fear. \ faith that trembles and tot,ers every time God speaks, is not d faith that should sustain any sect nor any body of men. Applause. But that old practice Of firing bible al every new thing, ought at last to come to an end. They hred Il ai the sun and astronomy. and Il came back on their heads, and astronomy marched on. They fired il at geology. and geology triumphed. and men had to find new constructions for their bible. They are firing Il now !, the origin of man, and they will take Il back, with new oonstrue- tons again. For l hold that then was not the first time when God wrote on ta- bles of stone; that he wrote his thought on the vas,er strata Of stone that run round the globe, and that mark the great epochs of time. There He has written. and at last man has been found worthy to unloose the roll and to read ths writing thereof; and we are reading the history of Gods thoughts and His ere alton in the geological page. and we are reading it now, stiff further along on that sk ffsil tk nf nal life. no, of the terraqueous globe alone. bu, of is populations, and. chiefly of man himself That men should be afraid of these things, indicates wan, of stability of faith-a want of poisc. They are not the men that can say. in the puffs of unbelief and in the controversies of the world: know that my Tedeemcr liveih that nothing can separate Us from the love of God in Chris; Jesus. things present, things to come, height. depth, or any other creature" am not afraid of seeing Christianity swept away. Any thing that can be swep, away, ought to be swept away. Applause. But hold that the foundations of God stand sure, and m the near future this very doctrine of evolution, that so alarms many of the churches and many ministers, will be found to be a soil down into which the roots of christian doctrine will go, and they will be no longer controvertable. On this matter. then, of the evolu- ton of man. find grea, repugnance, grea; fear, more than doubt. l see no objection to IL. There are a great many men who think i, Is unworthy of the dignity, of the glory of man, to have come down from q monkey; and 50 they make little pile of mud and cali iha, the beginning of man-created out of dust Which is inc worst. living monkey or pile of mud. Laughter sand ap- plause.l Look al the man as God creates him in every generation. What IS he. What is the newborn child: Eyes that came, see. ears that cannot hear, hands that cannot handle, feet that cannot walk
 and tongue that cAnno; speak-a little engine of suction, that IS all. Laughter Nothing zero with po,entizli,y, that is all