Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-09-28
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE.
The ColviIle Lecture.


WI. Colyille, the inspirational speaker,
had q large audience at Pioneer Hall last
evening. ]. NJ. Avery presided. Mrs.
Wilbur Smith sang in excellent voice and
with much feeling Departed DAYS" and
Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep" Mrs.
Abbie Genung accompanying. For a
quarter of an hour before rising to speak
Mr.. Colville ~improvised at the piano, play
ing with what might be termed the
abandon of feeling. The subject of the
lecture was The Origin and Destiny of
Man. He spoke rapidly, fiuently and
with, ~eloqueuce of earnestness for over an
hour, holding his audience in the perfect
quiet Of profound attention. In no limited
space can an adequate idea of the lecture
be presented. We can only present a few
leading points without accompanying pro-
cesses of reasoning. He believed the
biblical doctrine of creation and the theory
of evolution to be the two extremes be-
tween which truth is found. But these
extremes are not, properly viewed, antag-
onistic. The first a~ttributing everything to
a first great cause accounts for evolution by
inyolution the other is lost when it comes
to the atom of beginning, unable to ac-
count for It's creation. Creation was Divine
power working out a scheme up to man, to
whom there is no successor. That end
attained. the Sons of God sung for Joy"
Divine power, operating for good and con.
~tinuouslly, ii is abhorrent that with life man
shall end. The work of evolution must
therefore go on when man leaves
this stage to progress infinitely toward
a far distant goal. The lower
animals stand still, reproducing their
species but never progressing, but with
mar the power of progression is ~illimitable.
The WI Biblical accounts of creation are
not contradictory necessarily one is partly
allegorical, the other partly historical.
The Godhead is plural, and We can as well
say our mother in heaven as Our Father
and for this 1t reads, Let us make man in
our image" Theodore Parker's sublime
prayer recognizes this plural character. 1t
was not man, but mankind that was
evolved by Divine will. The making of
woman from the side of man referred to
the spirituality and refinement to which
man was lifted up. The serpent was the
development of the carnal nature, the sem
sual side, by which, the Eye of affection
and the Adam of intellect were debased.
and misery brought into the world. The
end of creation was but the close of a cycle
of creation. God did not rest for that
implies that God could be fatigued. The
later days are not the end of the world.
but the close of a cycle of progression.
We stand now on the threshold of a new
cycle, when all mysticism will be cleared
away, the veil rent, and the inner truth be
revealed, and we shall know why the
Bibles have been preserved and were so
holly regarded by all peoples. AS to mans
destiny, II is progressive. From the spirit.
ual he came, a seed knowing not experi-
ence. There is no infinite reward, no in
finite punishment. For misspent lives
there is punishment, as the need is. The
spirits OF the ill-doers are about US gaining
progressive power and right by endeavors
10 restrain and better US. There is no evil
spirit urging us to do wrong, but hosts of
%repentant spirits drawing US back from
i'll. Darwin was no materialist, no
atheist. Over his ashes in Westmins-
ter, religion said at is not known
that evolution is inconsistent with revela-
ton The agnostics come to this 1--WE do
not know"-that is all. We are conscious
beings, therefore the product of conscious
ness greater than ours. Death is the pas
sage to another evolutionary stage. Resur-
rection is not a marshalling of corpses, but
thaADng up OF man out of materialism. 1t
is not true that there is no punishment
after death, but there is a vast difference
between no punishment and eternal pun
ishment. We are to value ourselves only
for the good we can do others. So we are
always sowing, always reaping.
at the conclusion, the audience selecting
the subject Happiness Mr.. Colville i'm
provised a poem for some ten minutes, en-
bracing the doctrine hat all happiness con-
sists in the consciousness of good deeds
done.
The speaker gives q metaphysical lect-
ure at 2:45 to-day, and tonight will speak
at 7:30 on a subject to be chosen by the
audience. He leaves for the East to-mor-
row.