News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1893-09-14
bey,ns nm attack on Cbr;stianitv Il

tellect assails Christianity.
If man jumps overheard from Gu
nard steamer, he makes more excite
meat 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 a platform or pulpit into
infidelity, but does that hinder our glo-
rious Bible from taking its millions into
the skies? | tell you inidelity 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 were enacted in the days
of Robespierre, when shameless wom-
an was elected to be goddess, and she
was carried on a golden chair to a Ca
thedra1, and the people bowed down to
her as 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 ad-
joining the cathedral scenes of drunken
ness and debauchery and obscenity were
enacted such as the world had never seen.
Could such thing as that transpire
now? No, sir. The police would swoop
on it, whether in Paris or New York.
Infidelity is not half as bold now as it
used to be.
"But," say our antagonists, Christi
anity is falling back because science, its
chief enemy, is triumphing over it."
Now, l deny that there is any war be-
tween science and revelation. There is
not fact in science that may not be
made to harmonic with the statements
of the Bible. So said Hugh Miller; so
said Joseph Henry; so said Professor
Hitchcock; so said Professor Silliman; so
said Professor Mitchell.
Joseph Henry, the leading scientist of
America, better known and honored in
the royal societies transatlantic than any
other American, lived and died be-
hever in the religion of Jesus Christ.
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. 1 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 well reject
science because the scientists differ, but
as far as 1 can tell the war of infdel
| scienceagainst Christianity is not so Sc
we're as it used to be, because these men
are antagonistic to each other, and as far
ps / can te1-- 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 any thing.
Do you SUI pose that this Bible theory
about the origin of life is going to be
overthrown by men who have different
theories-50 different theories-aboutth the
origin of life? And when Agassiz comes
out and puts both feet on the doctrine
of evolution and eays in regard to many
scientists, 81 notice that these young
naturalists are adopting as theories in
science things which have not passed
under observation" Agassfz 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 a wasp and the horns of
beetle he begins to patronize the AL
mighty and go about talking about
culture as though it were spelled Gull
| c-h-a-r-culchar!
| 1t makes me sick to see these literary
| tops going down the street with copy
of Darwin under one arm and a case of
transfxed grasshoppers and butterflies
under the other arm, talking about the
Survival of the Fittest," and Huxley's
s.Protoplasm, and the 'tNebular Hy
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, I
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 a whole chapter on
what he calls Errors In Astronomy"
La Place says that the moon was not
put in the right place; that if it had been
put four times the distance from our
world there would have been more har-
mony in the universe. But Lionville
comes up just in time to prove that the
Lord was wise 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
Bixty-fve miles, says Twinig? How far
Is the sun from the earth? Seventy-six
million miles, says Lacaille; 100000
miles, says Humboldt; 10000, 900 miles,
says Henderson,; 104, 100000 miles, says
| Mayer. Only little difference of 49,
| 900 miles! These men say we do
not agree in religion. Do they agree in
science? Have they come up with solid
front to assault our glorious Christian
| ity?
! Even mathematicians do not agree.
| Taylor's logarithms are found to have
| faults in them. The French metric
| system has wrong calculations Talk
about exact sciencesl They are inexact.
AS far as with my little knowledge
have been able to explore, the only ex-
act science is Christianity. There is
nothing under which you can so appro-
priately write, "Quod erat demonstran-
dunn"
Gentlemen of the jury, have you
agreed upon your verdict" the court or
the clerk says to the jury, having been
out all night, ON coming in. "Have you
agreed on your verdict" If they say
yes, the verdict is taken and recorded.
If they say, No, we have not agreed"
they are sent back to the jury room. If
one juryman should say, 81 think the
man is guilty of murder" and another
juryman should say, 81 think he is guilty
of manslaughter, and another juryman
should say, II think he is guilty of as
sault and battery with intent to kill
the judge would lose his patience and
say, $50 back to your room now and
make up verdict. Agree on some
thing"
Well, my friends, there has been a
great trial going on for centuries and for
ages between Skepticism, the plaintiff,
versus Christianity, the defendant. The
scientists have been impaneled and
sworn on the jury. They have been gone
for centuries. some of them and thnv