The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1885-01-01


.What the effect of this action will be,
we do not venture to predict. In any
event, the issue portends disaster. The
discussion has brought the Church into
this deplorable dilemma. If the Profes.
sor is sustained, the cry of heresy is
filling the air, and an irrepressible panic
will distract the Church, which, inau.
epced by gross Misrepresentation and
perversion Of his teachings, have associ-
ated in their minds the ideas of atheism,
materialism, and Darwinism with the
Evolution as defued and limited by the
Perkins Professor.
"It may require years to dispel these
groundless apprehensions. On the con-
trary, if DR.. Woodrow is condemned,
then the Church must abolish his chair,
or displace him by electing an unscien-
tiic professor. What humiliating
spectacle will be presented of the
Church lowering her banner and retreat
ing, pale and panic stricken, before the
march of modern science, afraid to meet
the enemy in any field, and while trans
cending her prerogatiye in virtually
making scientific deliverance, erecting
barriers to the freedom of investigation.
To abolish the chair says another, lis
untruly to proclaim our defeat by the
enemies whom the chair was established
to fight. 1t is untruly to confess that the
relation between Gods word and Gods
works, will not bear examination and
free discussion such confession, as it
seems 70 us, the child of fear, and that
fear the child of misrepresentation, dis
honors the cause of truth and dishonors
our great Leader 'As to the tendency
and results of the Professors teachings
he adds, Columbia points to her jewels
who, for twenty five years, have sat
under his teachings, and who testify to
the value of instruction received.
Every conceivable argument and fact has
been pleaded against him; yet no single
instance of pupil hurt by his teachings
can be cited
'"It is due to the opponents of DR.. WIS
teachings to say that they include many
of the most honored and esteemed breth.
rem of our Church, and the ablest cham.
pions of our faith, who cannot be charged
with fanaticism or ignorance, unLess 1t be
ignorance of avhat the Perkins Professor
actually believes. No one can question
the sincerity and depth of their convic.
tions. They profoundly believe, and
intensely feel that our Bible and our
Confession are assailed by any theory
which involves the transmutation OF
species. For our own part, while having
no sympathy whatever with the Evolu-
ton theory, and doubling if it ever can
be proven, we should be deeply grieved
to see our Church exhibiting the spirit
which Professor Woodrow deprecated in
his inaugural address, in 1861, "a spirit
that would crush all progress in science,
if such progress disturb, in the least,
cherished views which may be without
real foundation in the Bible, by the en-
ploymept, not NOW of material instru-
inents of torture, but by that which has
with too much truth been denominated
'odium theologicum.' The utmost encour-
segment should be given to every inquiry
after truth. Not merely should the
inquirer be tolerated, but he should have
reason to know that he is regarded with
and that his results will be
received with candor, while they are
subjected to all becoming tests, before