The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-02-08
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
Views of the Great Divine on Evolu-
ton and Revolution.
A Charaoteristically Bold Stand Taken by
PlymOuth's PastOr-The Bible and
Its Worth.

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, Americas most
| celebrated divine, ectured at the Park Theater
last evening to fair audience, a score of other
attractions and the inclement weather combin-
| ing to prevent the attendance of many who
| would have otherwise gladly awaited them
selves OF the opportunity offered to listen
to the eloquence of the great theologian. 1t was
$50 before Mr.. Beecher arrived. He was in
trodnced by Rev. Oscar C. McCulloch, and pre-
faced his address wish a reference to his former
residence in this city He had lived eight years
in INDIANAPOLIS and never regarded it as possi-
Bile for him to lose HE way in her streets,
but in coming from his hotel to the thearer he
had become confused, and had gone considerably
out of his path, which must account for the late
ness of his arrival. After few preliminary re-
marks, Mr.. Beecher proceeded to the subject, the
following being synopsis of his lecture, the
subject of which was
EVOLUTION AND KEvoLUT ION:
What is evolutioni In its briefest form it nay
be said to be theory OF gradual creation as DIS
tinguished from a theory of Immediate creation.
The old view, founded upon certain passages of
scripture, rhetorical and poetital. believed that
everything was male at once. and by the posi-
tive command of God, "Let there be light, and
there was light" He comma nded and II stood
last. There is something subli me and dramatic
in this conception of supernal power, and this
has been the undisturned belief for ages, that
eVeryt hing, the earth ITSELF was wheeled into
existence by divine commands that all the vegeta-
bic Kingdom lay in n book OF design before God,
and He commanded the grass and shrub and
tree, and they sprang out, as an architect draws
the plan OF house. and straighway 1t comes
Into being; that all insects that the fish of the
sea- sea, that that all reptiles, that all the
or in domesticity, came into life upon the
special ordinance and nd of M ba
Creator That is the old view The new view
does it away entirely. 1t transfers the divine
the general design OF God lying far back in yet
obscure and undeveoped causes in the nature
OF Things which he has fmplanted-generic, as
distinguished from special. To begin at the re-
hottest days, it Is held that the ether. impalpa-
bic, invisible, has in it secreted inherent ee-
ments by which 1t gradually passes through
changes to condensed form. to fluids, at last TO
soldlty; and then, by grindings and vast cyclic
pean changes, IL becomes fit for the lower forms
OF life in vegetation, afterward the fish tribes,
then the tribes in which are ranked the vermin,
as it were then the four-footed beasts, and last,
man; and that same tendency to unfold, to de-
velop, runs on not only among nations and men,
out in every element OF religion, in every ee-
ment Of social life. in every governmental ele-
Dent; so that as tree titst starts from a single
seed, throwing down its root, up its stem, ihranch
after branch in steady succession and evolution.
until it comes to the period of ripeness and
shows then its flowers and Its fruit and its seed,
and at last is consummated by series of CON
tinuous unfoldings-so the whole world has been,
so man has been.
Now, this doctrine has itself been subject to
evolution, as all great discoveries of truths are.
ORIGIN OF THE THEORY.
1t had its infancy when few men, such as
Newton and Calico, had the honor of being the
great heretics Of their age, standing apart from
their fellow-men simply by the fact that they
saw further. Little by little other men caught
their Inspirations, until by and by it became re-
spectacle, for the heresies of to-day are II well
placed, the Orthodoxes of the next generation.
[Appausel And in this way 1t has come to it's
present estate, and even within our easy men,
DRY IL began to be esteemed as solid science.
Thirty years ago and IL was all in the air. with
the exception of few but to-day aver that
there is "A scientific man under forty years of
age, of reputable attainment, that does not be-
hcve in the doctrine of evoution--not in every
application or II, not in every method of ex-
planning the theory. There are yet multi piled
dssension and debates within the body of the
doctrine OF evolution but 1t is the working theory
OF every working scientist on the globe. Germany
long resisted 1t. Germany leads to-day. The
French school we're cautious of IL. They have
yielded their caution and it is the reigning phil
OsOphy Of the scientific schools to-day, England
has been eminent, in that II was given to Herbert
Spencer and TO Charles Darwin to give to that
doctrine an exposition more complete, more
comprehensive, more convincing than it had
ever had at the hands of any other. 1t has been
received with great caution in America, but it
has been received; and that, too, not alone by
the schools OF skepticism-it has been held by
theOstic disciples well as atheistic disciples.
1t is coming to be common ground.
There would be no objection to the theory Of
evolution were it not for man. The theistic
luti0nists tend to belief in the compound theory
namely: Man is the ascent from the animal.
know not why we should call IL a descent. In
one point of view 1t may be said to be, as we say
children descend from their parents. prefer
the term ascent when applying 1t to man; that
he springs from ancestors that were part of the
brute creation. Here is the point where to-day
there IL the most doubt the most repugnance;
and on behalf of the great religious public there
q n
any new development of the revelation of God
in nature is made. They are afraid it will sweep
away the foundations of their faith. An unwor-
thy fear faith that trembles and totters
every time God speaks is not faith that should
sustain any sect nor any body of men. TAp-
plause.I But that old practice of firing Bible
at every new thing ought at last to come to an
end. They fired it at the sun and astronomy,
and it came back on theirgheads and astronomy
marched on. They fired 1t at geology aud geol-
ogy triumphed and men had to find new con-
structions for their Bible. They firing it now
at the origin of man, aud they will take II back
with new constructions gain.
am not afraid Of seeing Christianity swept
away. Anything that can be swept away ought
to be sewpt away. tAppause.l But hold that
the foundation of God stand sure, and in the
near future this very doctrine of evolution that
so alarms many of the churches and many minis
tiers will he found to be a soil down into which
the roots Of Christian doctrine will go, and they
will be no longer conference.-the.
GOD IN CREATION.
The tn cory of evolution does noe of necessity
eliminate the idea of God in creation. 1t is
said that nature eHdued with all the neces-
sary qualities and that there no need of
calling in anything supernal, If, according to
Dat win, according to Haeckel, matter of its
own nature had the power of unfolding-vara-
tion playing all the time against heredity-two
tendencies, the one to continue in the same line,
and the other 10 vary; and the strife between
those two qualities producing a new development
new species, new combinations, and then comes