The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1885-06-17
THE BULB OF PERCUSSION.


Mr.. Beecher is devoting the remain
der of his life to an application of the
doctrine ofevolution to theology. After
having preached for nearly half CEN
fury, this gifted man presents the
strange spectacle of turning at seventy
years of age to a new gospel, melted
thereto, as he tells us, by the revela-
tions of science, which is all very well
if he is sure of his facts. The funda-
mental point is, of course, the applica-
ton which is to be made of this doc
trine to the origin of man, and the
modification which would be required
in the teachings of the old theology as
to the Fall, and the imputation of
Adams sin to his posterity. 1t is pre-
cisely here that Mr.. Beecher thinks
that the theory of Mr.. Darwin comes
in to relieve us Of many difficulties, and
to furnish us with more correct view
of the prevalence of sin in the world,
and our relations to the Bible plan of
redemption. The old theory of the
fathers of the Church, and especially
Of the Calvinistic divines, that we were
all ruined by the transgression Of our
federal progenitor, he scouts as the
most revolving of doctrines, and as
making the God Of the Bible little bet
ter than q devil. Evolution, he thinks,
relieves us of all difficulties on this
point, and he accordingly repudiates
the narrative of the fall, as described
in Genesis, as having no higher author
ity than mere Hebrew legend-a
legend which contains no more truth
than the book of Jonah, and the stories
of Samson, and other similar fables,
which he says are to be found in the
Hebrew Scriptures.
The remarkable feature in this bold
and revolutionary attitude which the
Brooklyn preacher has taken in his
old age is that in the act of leaving the
Genesis account to plant himself on the
revelations of science, he has not paused
to ascertain the certainty of the facts
on which he bases his new opinions
We have recently pointed out that
the leading organ of the Naturalsts in
this country, edited by two of the most
eminent professors in this branch of
science that this country affords, ex-
plicitly declares that science has so far
failed to discover any intermediate
forms whatever between man and the
apes or any of the lower animals-that
q great chaSm exists in the pal@onto-
logical record between the beasts of
the field and the oldest relics of the
human species. One would think that
it would be time enough to bear down
the old teachings Of the Bible with the
authority of science, when the in
vestigators themselves in the field Of
science had come before the public
with the necessary facts on which to
rest the new hypothesis. But when
no such facts are claimed by the pro-
fessors of science to exist, it is surely
an extraordinary spectacle among men
of intelligence to see theologian break
away from his old associates, and claim
ing range Of vision far superior to
theirs, stigmatise all who do not follow
him as dotards and fools, and set up q
scientific theological theory which has
not one solitary scientific fact, so far
as scientific men testify, to support it.
1t is absolutely necessary, in order
to establish the evolution of man,
(unless he was ushered upon the scene
during the terrible winter Of the So
called Ice Age-which was period Of
ertinction rather than production, to
ascertain the existence Of tertiary man
that is, the existence Of man in the
tertiary era of geology. The remains
Of man which have been found in the
quaternary geological deposits belong
to a comparatively recent period and
to existing man-not whit modified
from the men and women that exist to-
day. IF man has been gradually de-