The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-06-16
EVOLUTION DOES THE WORK.
nfr. Beecher Declares 1t Makes DARK
Places sIiRht-Annihilation.

nIr. Beecher Declares 1t Makes Darh
Places LIght-AnnihIlation.
BROOKLYN, N Y, June 16 The fourth
sermon of Henry Ward Beecher's series on
Evolution was preached Sunday from the
text:
For the earnest expectation Of the crea-
ture waiteth for the manifestation of the
sons of God For the creature was made
subject to vanity. not willingly, but by rea-
son of him who hath subjected the same in
hope. Because the creature itself also shall
be delivered from the bondage OF corrup-
tion into the glorious liberty of the children
of God For we know that the whole crea-
tion groaneth and they travaileth in pain to-
gether until now. Romans viii, 10.
The preacher said that the two chapters
Romans vii and viii-could never be in
terpreted except upon the theory of evolu-
tion. The following are extracts of the SER
mon.
The old theology makes sin spring from
corrupt nature. l make 1T spring
not unfoded nor developed yet
They made it spring from cor
ruption imputed from Adam. | will save
up Adam for special time; let him rest for
the present [Laughter.l But that is the
old theology, that mankind have had I'M
puted to them his sin, and that it has ut
terly eaten out, destroyed all power of good,
both in body and in soul You would not
believe it, but shall read before l get
through these sermons some extracts that
will make your ears tingle
Evolution says that sin springs from The
struggle for ascendency of double nature,
animal and spiritual that the conflicts OF
life are simply the conflicts between the
under and the upper man. The dramatic
| form of it is in the seventh chapter
| of Romans, where Paul regards sin
as if it were monster lying In wall
| for men, Is there man that doesn't un-
derstand that? Is not the chapter a journal
of your own experienced 1t is the history OF
man from the beginning, and sin itself has
| developed along the line where the animal
| man meets the spiritual man, and there Il
| eternal storm and clouds that never blow
away and thunders that never die out Here
| we have a conception of the true doctrine ol
1 sinfulness. The fact Of it is indisputable
| Evolution gives the reason for it. 1t pour
the light of philosophy upon these strange
facts
So, then evolution expounds and fortifie
the grand fact on which Christ began Hi
ministry To repent implie
universally the need Of repentance. THAI
remains, bat all those things that have beer
| ulllSbu upon bulS W pei piCA ohN "
make men revolt from it will be purget
away in the future. We shall have
clearer and better view of the fact that al
mankind are sinful, and have been sinful.
| Mr.. Beecher was especially severe on th
doctrine Of eternal punishment. he dc
clarsd that he re elected it because be love
God and his fellow men. The doctrine c
sin belongs to the human race, and far th
greatest amount of sin IN all ages has bee
infrmity The deliberate and pnrposed viz
lation of known duty is criminal sin, 10
which men are responsible, both in bod
and soul; hut the vat field of inf1rmity n
mains, where man through ignorance, or
twilight knowledge, or by imperfectness
the use of power, and faculties, hf
stumbled and suffered.
He said man would not put chest {
tools before boy and expect him to Us
them skillfully without being taught ho
and completed the illustration by saying:
There are at least thirty different too
which go to make up the human constitl
ton, thirty different faculties, and man
not blameworthy who docs not know of
hand, instantly, how to Use each Of the
tools; nor is he blameworthy that be dot
not understand every one of the subtle, il
, visible, interior faculties of the brain. II
|
and the most subtle and the most difficult
. any that ever was learned. No man lear
it except by instructions, by public sent
ment, by direct moral influences brought
+ bear upon him. The education of a ms
r should unfold his nature in harmony Wi
himself, i'll harmony with his fellows,
z harmony with God.
a The doctrine advanced during the d
Q course that startled the hearers was that
= total annihilation OF those whose NOR
= natures were incapable of elevation to
!. hi her plane-purely animal natures,
) which he said:
/ And when man has spent the forces in |
II life heTe, and has not reached the conditlo
a which make another stage possible TO hii
suppose he simply goes out He that wou
= live we'll again must live well now; and if
u does not live again at the highest point co
ceivable, he may live long enough to take
10 new road and new start and under bett
. and more favorable circumstances. But
for those that go steadily lower and low
until they lose the susceptibility and the pc
sibility of human evolution and moral
velopment let them keep on. In the gre
t. abyss of nothingness thers is no groan,
Is sorrow, no pain, no memory.