The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-26
REVISED THEOLOGY
The Rev. Nh. Vail Tits
Against the Popular Re-
1igious Theories
of Ages.
DECLARES THEIR WAS NO FALL
Consequently There Was No Need
of a Savior-GoOd Word for
Darwinism.
DECLARES THEIR WAS NO FALL

| UniVerSaliSt church last night preacned
the last of his series of sermons on
Modern Knowledge. His subject was
1.-The Reconstruction of Theological
Thought Necessitated by Evolution
His sermon in part follows:..
"When the Copernican astronomy was
| established through the discoveries OF
Kepler and Newton, it might well nave
been pronounced the greatest achieve
| ment of the human mind: n as we
have seen, it produced a great revolution
in mans thought of the universe. But
during this century a still greater reVolu-
| ton has been effected. This epoch began
with the publication of Darwin's origin
of Species in 1859. And SO great has
been the revolution in thought that to-
day we may say with Mr.. John Fisk
I don't know of any living scientihc
man of any account, opposed to Darwin
ism as a whole, though of course there
is as there ought to be much diversity
as to subsidiary questions, 10 look
for a competent man who is an anti-Dar-
winian is like looking for snakes In Ire
land. Of the various theories
that have been presented to &C
count for mans origin, the Evo-
lutionary hypothesis is the only
one that has any evidence in its support.
All the other %postulates ave not a
single shred or scrap of proof in their
favor; and in face of the large and
constantly accommodating evidence of the
evolution of men from lower types, 1
must confess it is amazing to me to see
any honest and c~lear-headed mar advo-
eating the doctrine of Special Creation.
EVOLUTION DEFINED.
CAS- Prof. Hurley declares:-'The doc
trine of evolution at the present time
rests upon exactly as secure a founda-
ton as the Copernican theory OF the
motions of the Heavenly bodies. There
is no more reason for supposing that
the scientific doctrine of evolution will
ever be gainsaid, than for supposing
that the Copernican astronomy will
sometime be overthrow. There perhaps
is no more significant word in the vocab-
ulary of today han evolution. Starting
with the physical, it has extended its
range to the moral and intellectual
spheres until all have been brought with
in it's sway-Zoology, geology, astronomy
history and morals, and evolution is
proclaimed to be the great principle thai
underlies all existing things.
'eThere can be no doubt then that a
law affecting all science. and every de-
partment of nature, must Fundamentally
affect orr traditional views of nature, of
God and of man. But every such ad-
vance has been found to conflict in some
point or other with the theological no.
tions handed dow from an unscientific
past. But the t~heologians are ever on
the alert, and war is at once declared
against the scientific intruder. All good
men are summoned to the defence of the
Bible. The conflict RACES iercely until
it is seen hat the scientists are gaining
the day, when 10. it begins to be dis
covered by the theologians that after all,
the new theory is harmless; indeed, there
is no discrepancy between it and Scrip
ture. The discrepancy that had been
supposed to exist being due to a wrong
Interpretation He who has followed the
so-called conflict between religion and
science will admit that every advance,
and every new discovery has raised in
the church the cry of doubt and infidel-
ity.
'But inasmuch as our religious friends
always end by accepting the advanced
knowledge, we cannot help but regard
IIG ddIiSC III 60 q tAN y
entifc wolf in the religious fold. Per-
haps it would not be amiss to glance at
a few of the various forms Of this scien-
tifc wolf. First, it came in the form
of the 0helioeentric theory of the
planetary system. In the early ages the
church held that the earth was the acen-l
tire of the universe, and that the SUM-
moon and stars. .reyoIved around 1t. To
Z. r,L-E- ---1- L.-x
pose if.I a lived in those days, and
dared to call the doctrine in question, I
should have been called an infidel, and
accused of attacking the Bible. But
science has established the new theory,
and religion has been obliged to accept
it. But everyone knows of the terror
of the sheep produced by this discovery;
but now as we look back we wonder
that there should have been any trouble
at all. No Christian today would want
to give up the grand conceptions of
nature n God thus opened to the
human min Surely the wolf has prov
en- harmless
LAW OF GRADUATION.
Next it came in the shape of the law
of gravitation. WHAT was asked. The
universe sustained by law and resident
forces?' And again the cry went up,
inndelity, doubt, opposition to God. But
as usual the ruth was demonstrated,
and religion accepted, and today who
would wish to give up the grand idea,
the conception of law p~ervading infinite
space? Religion has learned that this
law is but the divine mode of susten-
tation of the universe
Next it came in the form of the an
tiquity of the earth. When the science
of geology unfolded and translated the
records of the rocks it was seen that
the antiquity of the earth, instead of
being six thousand years, ran back
through the aeons of time, and that the
sun, moon and stars existed millions of
ages before there was a man to till the
ground. And all are the product of the
law Of evolution. The PRONUNCIATION of
these facts at first, of course, caused
great dismay; but now the wolf is seen
to be a very noble beast, and lies down
In peace with the lambs.
Let us notice one more appearance,
although thera are many we might dis