Telegram-herald., 1890-03-10
THE PRIMITIVE NAN
Adam Was a Type OF Human
Nature, Net : Man.
ACCORDING 10 REV. DR. fLUHRER
There il NJ saeh Thing a Hereditary
STA, 5ut We blast All CLssss coed OF
ksl Tor Ourselves &s Aasns Did-
All Are Born Iato Paradise

When Rev. DR.. fluher arose m his
pulpit last evening he announced that
ne had intended TO preach sermon OF
the water question. bat he had not yet
been able 10 collect all the data he de-
sired and he expected ~ be able 10 pre-
sent That subject for MS discourse next
sunday evening.
Hls subject last evening was " Adam
or Primitive Man" and he chose Tor
hls text Genesis I-30. $50 God created
man IN HIS own image IN HIS own
image created he him."
lie said. There was once first man
whether ne was created IN hls present
form or not is matter upon which
learned men differ. Some contend that
man WAS created perfect beng and
that he fell from his exalted state, and
others that he J. "A being VINO has deyei-
oped from u lower order and Il still IL
the course of development. The bibli-
cal record has nothing 10 prove whether
ne was created about 60O0 years ago or
al much more remote penod OF time.
All, however, 10 agree that he was the
GROWING work of creation. no matter
what the time or the manner OF his
coming into being may have been.
'IhIs history, as | look upon II, does
not give the history of a real man, but
an imaginary one. The account of his
creation j speculative and traditional,
and nothing more. All nations have
their own traditions on TINS subject, and
the earlier or primitive men are accord
ing to their conceptions of his creation.
Not knowing the origin and believing it
10 have been the work OF an invisible
being, they declare that God created
man IN his own imagine.
Il can not agree as most OF the
theologlans do, that man was created a
perfect beng, but believe rather that
he was very imperfect. The perfection
OF Adam was a the innocence Of child
hood. He Is represented as a man sur
rounded by every thing pleasurable,
living in garden. He was SIMPLY
man child. having no knowledge
OF evil. TO the child OF today this
world is paradise until sad experience
and acquaintance with sin and toll
teaches HIM otherwise. We must not
look upon Adam a a real man, but as
y
of innocence. SIN has brought him 4
loss of innocence and gain of knowl-
edge. No man of common sense should
think of tins story in It's literal sense,
although 1t is so considered in Mllton's
Paradise Lost, and in good deal of
bad theology. 1t is an allegory a. much
as is Pilgrims Progress.
Ghe condition of the heart makes
mans surroundings pleasant or un-
pleasant and controls his thoughts.
The primitive man, who was good,
through not knowing evil, was n a state
of perfection not to be compared with
the goodness of the man who, knowing
both good and evil, chooses that which
IS good. All knowledge is gained by
hard experiences. The man who under
takes to use a fail for the first time
bruises himself, when ne Is learning TO
use a knife he cuts himself, and with
fire he burns himself, and prolitlng by
all these mishaps and misfortuncs,
he learns how to avoid them IN the
future and these instruments become
ig his hands valuable servants.
There is nothing more mOnstrous
than the idea of hereditary guilt, and
there is nothing more absurd or ira
tional than the belief that when
Adam snned and fell, all men sinned
and fell with him. | wonder that Chris
tendon has tolerated it 50 long.
That Adam sinned for all OF us, and
we received our penalty of eternal pun
ishnout before we were born, Is an all
Surdity. We must sin or bc good for
and no person can do 1t FOR
US. There Is 10 such thing as inherited
sin. The child of dis>Ipatcd father
may bo weakly and suffer for the deeds
OF hls parent, but hc IS in no way cul-
pablc for his fathers misdCeds.
Adam merely represents the method
of our wrong-dOmg. We have all
that way. When he was de-
tected in his sin, he laid the blame on
Eve, and Eve laid it on tho serpent, or
the devil. We have all inherited this
way of excusing ourselves for our mis-
DONG, and are continually laying the
blame on some one weaker than our
selves
Are you, ladies and gentlemen, in
the nineteenth century. any better con-
sldorng your opportunities than was
Adam?
is not your first impulse to conceal,
and then when detected TO shift the
blame on some one else?
adam il a fair type Of human
nature. Every child Is n new Adam
born INTO Parad -. and innocent of
good and evil. The fall, which Is sure
to come. closes the old Paradise against
them forever, but it opens up a passage
INTO something better. By learning OF
,lu and its consequences, we learn 10
avoid t, and if we profit by our cxperI-
ence, we learn q choose that which is
good for Is own sake
A JEALOUS HUSBAND