The record-union., 1894-05-28
ROYAL BAKING POWDER.
FUTURE LIFE eoF ANIMALS
Are They Included in the Grea
Scheme of Redemption!

Are They Included in the Great
Scheme of Redemption.
Most of the passages in Scripture which
are supposed to testify to the Immortality
of the lower animals appear TO us to have
no bearing on the question at all. But we
would not say the same of the great pas
sage III which st. Paul speaks of the
whole creation as grOanlng and travail
ing in pain until now, waiting for the
redemption of our body" which no doubt
implied, and was intended to Imply, that
there is some ''1ar-otf divine EVENT.
to which not only man, but the whole
constitution OF terrestrial nature, IS
journeying as a traveller Journeys to-
ward his goal.
Let it once be admitted that the pur-
pose OF creation is an ideal purpose. and
that that ideal purpose will by slow de-
grees he realized, and it becomes very
difficult not to accept evolution as tend
ing not only in its higher, out also in its
lower phases, TO the elimination OF all
that is evil and the development OF all
that is good. Whether redemption IN
this larger sense is TO be achieved by all
creatures made subject to the law OF sui
terlng and sacrifice, or whether there
may be a law OF RECEPTION for the type
which vet does not include any redeinp-
ton of the individual lives which are in
say. IL is quite beyond us TO judge
whether there may not Oe plenty of finite
creatures which are mere instruments In
the discipline and education of beings
higher than themselves, and which have
| no greater claim to auy individual I'M
mortality that the grain OF sand or the
| crystal or the flower.
That is quite tenable view, and the
| late Charles Kingsley surely went beyond
the region OF even probable evidence
when he said, as Canon Wilberforce re-
ports him, that "Christ lived, died and
survived as much for the minutest insect
| sucked into the jaws OF a whale as for the
| most intelligent of human beings" 1t
may be so; but it tar transcends anything
OF the nature OF revealed truth TO declare
that it is so. Unquestionabiy redemp-
| ton is, in the first place, revealed to us as
| redemption from sin, and we cannot con-
| ceive creature incapable of sin as need
| ing redemptiOn-at least in the only sense
| in which redemption was announced by
! Christ-until it has so far risen in the
scale of creation as to be capable of both
| sin and righteousness. And it is surely
| mere conjecture whether every ephem-
eral being which fits across The
| scene is destined for such a career in
the invisible world as will event.
| ually raise it to the stage Of moral
and spiritual existence. But this at least
may be said, that there are several beings
| below the level of man which appear TO
have both strong personal affections and
! rudimentS at least of conscience. Even
! Mr.. Romanes is one of the most earnest
believers in the conscience OF the dog,
and there can be no question at all that
the dog is capable of kind of fidelity
which presents all the characteristics OF
! loyal and passionate devotion. When
! that is the case, and no doubt the same
remark applies to many other animals
! besides dogs. thereappearto be the germs
| of true moral and spiritual quality, and
we could hardly accept the truth of hu-
| man Immortality, without thinking It
most probable that the same persistence
of individual life may be expected in
races displaying such qualities whose life
| is limited to the visible world, and has
not as yet been even partially lived in the
invisible. 49,
Wherever something like human affec-
tions and human fidelity has been dis
| played, we may fairly look for ultimate
! participation in human redemption. But
we should very much hesitate to assert,
with Charles Kingsley, that every mi
nutest insect sucked into the jaws of a
whale" has the same share in Christs
! life and death and resurrection as beings
who have felt the burden and revolted
against the calling yoke of moral evil.
| There is surely far greater chasm be-
| tween such an insect and a moral being
than there is between the corn OF
wheat" which, when it dies. brings
| forth much fruit and the animalcule in
| question. 1t seems to US that the reasons
which make for human immortality only
/ begin to tell upon the issue after we have
reached the level in which the germs OF
moral and spiritual life show themselves.
Beneath that level we see no more ex-
plicit evidence OF expecting continued
| individuality and growth than there is
for expecting the evolution of nature
susceptible of such growth. Redemp-
| tion and restitution imply something to
redeem and restore. But there is no
more need for redemption and restitu-
ton, so far as we can judge, in a worm or
a sea-anemone than there is in turnip
or nettle.-London Spectator.