The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-09-15

elected to high office, Now, let some
man wishing high position in the state
proclaim himself the foe of Christianity
and an infdel, how many states of the
Union would he carry; how many
counties; how many wards in Brooklyn?
Not one.
All, my friends, infdelity in this day
is not half as bold as it used to be. If it
comes now, it is apt to come under the
disguise of rhetoric or fantastic senti-
mentality, know if man with great
intelligence does become an infidel and
begins an attack on Christianity it
makes great eXcitement.-of course it
does, and people come to the conclusion,
weakminded Christians come to the con-
clusion, that everything is going over
board because some man of strong in
tellect assails Christianity.
If n man jumps overheard from Gu
nard steamer, he makes more excite
ment than all the 500 sane passengers
who continue in the berths or ON the
decks, but does that stop the ship? Does
that wreck all the 500 passengers? 1t
makes great excitement when man
leaps from platform or pulpit into
infidelity, but does that hinder our glo-
rious Bible from taking its millions into
the skies? tell you infidelity is not
half as bold now as it used to be.
DIVERSITY OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT.
Do you suppose such things could be
enacted now as We're enacted in the days
of Robespierre, when q shameless wom-
an was elected to be goddess, and she
was carried on a golden chair to ca
thedral, and the people bowed down to
her as a divine being and burned in
cense before her-she to take the place
of the Bible, and of Christianity, and of
the Lord Almighty? And while that
ceremony was going on in the cathedral,
in the chapels and in the corridors adj
joining the cathedral scenes of drunken
ness and debquchery and obscenity were
enacted such as the world had never seen.
Could such thing as that transpire
now? No, sir The police would swo1 >
on it, whether in Paris or New York.
mfidelity is not half as bold now as ii
used to be.
But" say our antagonists, Christi
anity is falling back because science. its
chief enemy, is triumphing over it,"
Now, | deny flat there is any war be-
tween science and revelation. There is
not fact IN science that may rot be
made to ha, CniHe with the statements
of the Bib SO said Hugh MIXER; so
said JOSEPH Henry: so said Profe ssor
Hitchcock; SO SAID Professor Sillimaa; so
said Professor Mitchell
Joseph Henry, the leading scientist Of
America, hett,r known and honored in
the royal societies transatlantic than any
other American, lived and died be-
lever in the religion of Jesus Chris
Joseph Henry knew all the facts of geol
ogy and yet believed the book Of Gene
sis. He knew all the facts of astronomy
and yet believed the book of Joshua, the
sun and moon standing still. Joseph
Henry knew all the anatomy of man and
fish and yet believed the book of Jonah.
If the scientists of the day were all
agreed, and they came up with solid
front to attack our Christianity, perhaps
they might make some impression upon
it, but they are not agreed. 1t is often
said that we religionists are failing in
our advocacy of Christianity because we
differ in our theology. tell you we do
not differ inside the church in theology
half as much as they differ outside the
church in science If they reject our re-
ligion because we differ on some minor
points, we might just as we'll reject
science because the scientists differ, but
as far as can tell the war of infidel
science against Christianity is not so Sc
we're as it used to be, because these men
are antagouistic to each other, and as far
as l can tell it is going to be war be
tween telescope and telescope, Leyden
jar and Leyden jar, chemical apparatus
and chemical apparatus. They do not
agree on anything.
Do you suppose that this Bible theory
about the origin of life is going to be
overthrown by men who have different
theories-50 different theories-aboutthe
origin of life? And when Agassiz comes
out and puts both feet on the doctrine
of evolution and says in regard to many
scientists, Il notice that these young
naturalists are adopting as theories in
science things which have not passed
under observation, Agassiz saw what
we all see-that there are men who talk
very wisely who know but very little,
and that just as soon as young scien-
fist finds out the difference between the
feelers of wasp and the horns of a
beetle he begins to patronize the Al
mighty and go about talking about
culture as though it We're spelled Gull
c-h-a-r-culchar!
Ii makes me sick to see these literary
tops going down the street with copy
of Darwin u Ter one arm and case of
transfxed grasshoppers and butterflies
under the other arm, talking about the
Survival of the Fittest," and Huxley s
"Protoplasp' and the "Nebular Ry-
pothesis," and talking to us common
men as though we were fools! If they
agreed in their theories and came up
with solid facts against Christianity, |
say perhaps they might make some i'm
preston, but they do not agree. OAR
win charges upon Lamarck, Wallace
upon Cope. Herschel even charged up
on Ferguson. They do not agree about
the graduation of the species; they do not
agree about embryology. What do they
agree about?
Herschel wrote whole chapter on
what he calls Errors In Astronomy"
La Place says tat the moon was not
put in the right place; that if it had been
put four times the distance from our
world there y.1uld have been more har-
mony in TIE universe But Lionville
comes up just in time to prove that the
Lord was vice and put the moon in the
right place. How many colors woven
into the light? Seven, says Newton.
Three, says David Brewster How high
is the aurora borealis? Two and half
miles high, says Lias. One hundred and
sixty-fve miles. says Twinig? How far
is the sun from the earth? Seventy six
million miles, says Lacaille; S2,000,00O
miles, says humboldt; sc, 100000 miles,
says Henderson,; 104, 000, 900 miles, says
Mayer Oniy little difference of 2S,-
000, 600 miles! These men say we dc