St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-24
The Theme Of an Interesting
Discourse Preached by
Rev. Vail.
Some Things Beyond Us
Which We Better Let
Alone. ..
What May Be the Effect Of the
Coming Mills Meet
ing.

recent knowledge, especially the scien-
tifc development of the day, and, after
celebrating that Darwin produced new
epoch by his essay, proceeded as fol-
lows:
And the result o. this action on the
part OF the scientific world was at once
antagonized by the churches; its adyo-
Gates Sprang, strongly armed, to the
arena of conflict; Genesis and geology,
miracles, the ages of creation. natural
selection and kindred topics were warm
ly discussed; and remarkably true it is
that a reaction against the older mode
of thinking set in with great force, and
has made itself strongly felt ever since
And the first observed conclusion re-
gardlng this reaction OF feeling shows
us that this tendency to wider knoWl-
edge had a tendency also leading to
skepticism. This tendency is seen from
the fact our telescopes appal us with
the thought of the magnitude of this
universe. With our telescope what do
we see? Seventy-fve millions OF worlds.
The sun, one and One-half million times
larger than our world. Travelling at
the rate of sixty miles an hour,
it would take you 5000 years to
reach Neptune. And if Mr.. Momerle
is right. in reaching some OF the nearest
fixed stars. it would require 90.0OO,0 600 OF
years to complete the journey. linen
the same men set down and tell that
this world is developed from glowing
gas: that it will live myriadS of years
in the course of ages, but that the Ice
will creep down from the frozen north,
and life will continue to give way be-
fore it. until the last man shall stand
on silent shores above sounding seas,
alone, awaiting the grim messenger.
And then we are told that the worlds
composing this system Will
Draw Nearer the Sun,
until at last, with blaze that will out
shine all meteOrs. with pomp that will
beggar all the pageantry of the world.
they will drop into the burning sun and
be destroyed! Now, ask you if our
children. reading this in their school
of doubt as to the Sunday teaching
about worlds and their stability? | con-
fesS it seems but natural to me that this
development should make men doubt as
to there being any place for all immortal
home. At least that would be the first
impression.
1t seems to be then that the first i'm
preston of a materialiStIc kind is |
learned from this tendency to contem-
plate the growth and breaking up of |
worlds. And coming Immediately after |
it is the feeling introduced by our study |
of what may be called secondary causes. |
So much has been SAID about laws and |
their operation, so much has been said |
about the action of natural laws, and so |
much has been said about the evolution |
of life from few primordial germs that |
very many excellent young men land |
older ones, too) are caught and tripped |
by the fact that all this is true, but not |
the whole truth. For they have not |
stopped to see that these are all what we |
properly call secondary causes. That |
you only get back TO primary causes |
when you contemplate them. That it |
you reduce all to few germs with the |
promise of everything from the color, |
scent and charm of the rose to the brain |
of Shakespeare, the few germs" |
are not accounted for, and are more |
wonderful with their possibilities than |
all we have known before. But all the |
same this method of thinking of laws |
of nature and secondary causes has |
been a source of skepticlsm Of the most |
pro nOunced type-a silent sort of skep- |
ticism that has lost faith because it be- |
lieveS the very foundation of churches |
las 1t considers the Bible) has had the
Ground Cut From Uu der
It's statements with every advancing |
year.
In all this we have been following the |
trend of thought influenced by scientific |
thinking that tends distinctly toward |
skepticism. But the scientific mind |
works one side at time. 1t takes up one |
phase of thought to the exclusion of the |
others, and when the men of the coming |
period arrive they hold a new relation |
to knowledge. And just as the great |
AgassiZ accomplished his work and gave |
way to Darwin, who was entirely diff
ferent, so the materialistic thinkers are |
already giving way to men who are
studying telepathy; and manifestations /
alleged to be Spiritualistic by their
friends and called foolish by their enc
mics are now holding the attention
of some foremost men Il note
Schiaparelli, the astronomer who has
attracted so much attention by his
studies of Mars; Lombroso, up to this |
time materialistIc i'll tendency; Prof.
Myers, of Oxford; William James, of |
Harvard; and list that lengthens with |
every moment of thOught)-and these
men, one and all, unite in saying that
while much nonsense has been talked |
under the caption of the occult, still we
ara on the eve of knowing that nature
herself. and a proper study of mind,
makes the old belief in immortality |
probable. They have discovered that
the material thing is not necessarily |
gross; that it may be even reduced to |
a thing refined as energy or motion.
They see in the study of mind the pos
sibility of the new revelation, and the |
most remarkable fact lies in this; |
Myers
Began as a Skeptic.