Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-11
THE WORLD GREW.
Concise Statement of the First Prin-
ciples of Evolution.
THE WIDESPREAD FEAR OF 1T.
A Combination Of Matter and Force Seems
to Leave God Out.
is THIS CONCLUSION JUsTIFIABLE?
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH

| WRITTEN FOB THE DISPATCH
There is charge, and charge means cause,
and cause goes back to the First Cause.
That is the first step in the argument for
God.
There are two effects of the First Cause;
one is nature, the other is man. These
effects we study to learn what the First
Cause is. We begin with nature. We find
in nature the facts Of uniformity end ad-
justment What kind of cause must that
be which has such facts as these for its
effects? Among all the causes OF which we
are aware there is only one which is ade-
quate-that is an intelligent will. We say,
then, that the First Cause is an intelligent
will. That is the second step in the argu-
ment for God.
The other effect of the First Cause is man.
We study ourselves. We find the facts of
intelligence, will, personality ana con-
science. The first two emphasize the teach
ing of nature. A cause must be adequate
to its effect. Conscience must have come
from righteous cause personality from a
personal cause; intelligence and will from
an intelligent will. To the objection that
personality and invisibiIity go strangely to-
gether, we answer that we ourselves are as
invisible as God is. No man ever saw
another man. We are convinced of the ex-
istence of spiritual and personal beings
about us, to whom we give the names of
men and women, by manifestations of in
telligence, will and personality in human
speech and action. We are convinced of
the existence of Supreme Spiritual and
Personal Being, to whom We give the name
OF God, by manifestations of intelligence,
will and personality in the world about as
and within us. To the objection that per-
sonality and infnity cannot possibly go to-
| gether, we answer that the Limitation which
is involved in the word personality" is
altogether in human speech and thought.
1t is an in6nity of expression. The truth
about God includes personality and goes an
infinite way beyond it. This is the third step
in the argument for God.
THE DIFFICULTIES TO MEET.
But the argument is not yet concluded.
| There are certain difficulties which arise
along the line of the argument, which have
been noticed in the previous papers, and
met in one way or another, but which in the
opinion of some people still remain. After
the argument is ended there are questions
which continue to give trouble, and which
ought to be more particularly and ade-
uuately answered. There is the scientific
difficulty which centers about the doctrine
OF evolution; there is the intellectual diff
Guilty, which centers about the limitations
OF human thought, and which takes shape
in agnosticism; there is the ethical diff
Guilty which centers about the problem of
pain.
The first Of these difficulties asks: After
all is there a God? Has not the doctrine of
evolution made the hypothesis OF God"
unnecessary? The second asks: If God is
still can it be possible to know Him? The
third asks: If God is, and can be sufi-
cientIy known, what shall we say of the
pain and sin of the world? Is God good.
To these difficulties, accordingly. we ad-
dress ourselves, beginning with the first.
There is First Cause that is unquestioned
by philosophers, theistic and anti-theistic
| alike. But we're we in the right when we
affirmed that the first cause is mfhd? Has
not the doctrine of evolution taken all the
uniformity and adjustment OF nature, and
all the intelligence, will, personality and
conscience of man, aud resolved all into
matter? II the doctrine of evolution is true,
have we really any mind or any soul, and
is there place LETT anywhere in the universe
for God? Is there any God at all?
1t is not 10 be disputed that the doctrine
of evolution has had the effect of unsettling
good many peoples theology. There are
many who have but an indefinite notion of
its actual meanings, who are filled with
vague alarm, and are prepared to find at
any moment that the whole structure OF re-
ligion has been undermined and is begin
ming to tumble down. Step by step the doc
trine of evolution seems to these frightened
thinkers to be pushing in and slowly but |
irresistibly crowding God and the soul out.
OTHER SIMILAR CASES.
There was similar alarm, however when |
it was discovered that the earth is but an in |
significant star amid vast systems OF stupen-
dous consultations. There was like un- |
rest when the law of gravitation was pro-
claimed. Religion, some people thought, |
had been discovered to have only a sand |
foundation. Religion, however, kept |
straight on. There is the presumption at |
least of possibility that the doctrine of evo-
luton may be proved and still religion be
found to be as strong and lrue as ever.
The first thing is to ascertain precisely
what the doctrine of evolution is. The doc
trine OF evolution is stated by its foremost
teacher, Mr. Herbert Spencer, in these
words: "The integration OF matter and con-
comitant dissipation of motion, which pri-
marily constitutes evolution, is attended
with continuous change from indefinite, in
coherent homogeneity to definite, coherent
heterogeneity, through successive difereu-
tiations and integrations.
The doctrine of evolution. taken out of
the exact language of science, and putinto
single English word, means growth. 1t as
III.
which imagined God making each species
full-grown and by itself-framing a fish, a
bird, a man, either out of previously exist
ing materials, as matchmaker would make
a watch, or else out of nothing-is untrue.
The world was not made; it grew The
parallel of creation is not to be found in the
manufacture OF a watch but IN the growth
of S man. The world grew, as we grow, 1t
ought to be said here that the doctrine Of
evolution does not assert that man is de-
supposed. but rather that man and the ape
are divergent descendants from some exceed
ing remote and long extinct ancestor The
essential word of the doctrine of evolution Is
the word gro,oth.
Now, growth is marked by two steps, a
rise and decline. We call the rise "gen-
eratIon," and the decline degeneration.
A grain o. wheat is put into the ground
and begins to grow; it sprouts, shoots up
stem, flowers, and bears its fruit. Then de-
cline begins, and the stalk dies down to the
ground, and is dissipated Into its original
elements. The wheat which the stalk bore
Is sowu again, and the same process of
growth and decay, generation and degener-
alton, evolution and dissolution, is re-
peated.
NATURES GUIDING POWER
But all the time nature is standing by
and guiding growth with both hands. The
name of one hand is natural selectiop:"
the name of the other hand is Survival of
the fitest.'
Suppose that grain of wheat in the Sec
ond harvest, being planted in better soil.
grows bigger than was Welded in tba &C., |