The Washington times., 1894-06-17
Lau Sern0ns for
Sunday Reading

The words sacred and "profane' are
gradually losing and must eventually lose
their old-time place in literature and thought
as all that is in the universe is from the
thought and hand of the great cause and
center OF all things, animate and inanimate.
Nothing. therefore, can be other than sacred
imperfect mind OF man. This being granted,
the men who preach the sermons in stones,
in tho animal kingdom, in all growing
things, in the wonders of the star depths, in
the actions the nature and aflnities OF what
We call matter-the men who spend their lie
energies in making place for God in the
consciousness OF man, and seek TO hhd the
processes by which man has been and is be-
ing created. are certainly in the fore front OF
the little army of the servants OF man, ana
therefore servants of God.
The reason OF things is the unwritten law
of God, or rather the hieroglyphic writing,
the evolving man must learn to read. Against
this army of noble men, and in time past,
many of them martyrs, stands the motley
array of ecclesiasticism. with all its LOUD &C
claim of infalibility and infallible truth-the
assumed sacredness of recorded thought
about God that have been handed, not
'.down TO u.s." but up to us, from a less ma
ture condition of the ever evolving con-
sciousness in man. In our own day we nnd
the earnestness, the humility, the charity,
tine hopefulness among the secular most
Darwin. Spencer, Huxley. Tyndali, Drum
rnond Edson and followers without num-
Der. To this number we may now put the
name of Dolbear who seems in his manner
of work to emulate the manner and to oc-
cupy the same field on which the late Ia
mented Tyndall fought as faithfully that of
the middle man between scientific thought
conclusion, and language and the men OF
affairs-an effort to bring the discoursad
truths of nature.
Within the range of the ordinary compre-
hension of the busy world Of man, in order
that they may be as simulated. The most
distinctive characteristic OF the true scien-
fists is the readiness TO confess the present
limit OF knowledge, and also to give the rea-
sons Tor any conclusions to which they have
arrived. 1t would almost seem that it is the
scientist who has faith in an Infinite Creator,
ever present, ever working by the law that
changes not and that the reiigionist, per Sc.
was not only content to believe in hoary tra-
ditions about God, but feared to study the
intricate workings OF His laws in nature,
least the restfulness of his assumption of a
fnality of truth be disturbed. The scientist
not only sees the evolution of species in the
recorded evidences found in nature, but he
is practical believer in the evolution OF the
thinking principle. He is happy when he is
able to disprove an ancient assumption by
newly discovered fact.
Professor Dolbear says knowledge has
grown apace within the past fifty years"
1t Is generally admitted that more has been
acquired in this time than in all the proceed
ing centuries. Furthermore, the knowledge
thus acquired has not been simply an addition
to the possessions OF former days. it has in
s,ead, been of such a kind, as to completely
overthrow nearly all former notions OF nature,
and its mode of operations, and the new prod
uct can hardly be allowed TO be the outcome
of the work of earlier men. 1t is in the nature
of catastrophe, where old continents have
sunk, and new ones have arisen from old
ocean beds This generation lives in new
world. with new environments. new ideas,
new explanations, new philosophy, new ideals,
and new beliefs. We have new astronomy,
new chemistry. new physics, new psychology,
new natural bistcry. and everybody is on the
qui vive to know what can possibly come
next This does not mean that nature goes
on in different way from what it had
hitherto done. but that we have mentally
grasped a new and Transforming idea. We
have reached an elevation from which it is
possible to survey u broader field, and can in
terpret phenomena better because their rela-
tions are better perceived, and because of this
it is seen that old interpretations were all
wrong and indeed were worthless, because
not true.
"A very large amount of scientific work has
been done by employing hypoth8s that are
now known to be wrong. A working hypothe-
BIS is needful. If il be wrong, one will by and
by find il out and be able 10 amend it, or re-
place it by a better. Ii it is right. it will be
vindicated, and will justify itself, and be gen
orally adopted
Until we know more definitely than is now
known. what the constitution of matter really
IS one can only guess and try" and among
the multitude of workers in all civilized coun-
tries there will be some who who will guess
right to the advantage of all.
There have been many attempts to define
matter, such as, whatever occupies space, or
whatever affects our senses. and so on; but
there seems to be no way to define matter ex-
cept by means of some of its properties. If
we say that whatever occupies space, this is
implied in the statement that the term is prop
erly applicable to every thing that exists in
space: but so far as we know, there may be
any number of things in illimitable space
that are not subject to any of the physical
laws. such as piece of or an air particle are
known to be controlled by.
If we say whatever effects our senses we
are again going beyond our warrants. for
electricity is capable OF affecting several OF
our senses-sight. taste, feeling-and yet
there is no good reason for thinking electric
fly TO be matter. There is one property of
matter that may seem 10 differentiate it from
everything else, and hence, if adopted, will
enable one to be precise about his use of the
term, One part OF the universal law OF grav
itation is every particle of matter in the uni
verse attracts every other particle. This
makes gravitation a universal property OF
matter. The astronomers have observed the
movements of exceedingly distant stars to be
In accordance with this law, and there are no
exceptions to it that have been discovered.
1t will be necessary to invent some new
term to designate the man of the world, as
"materialist' seems to imply beliefin matter
ond in nothing beyond matter; but when 1t is
understood that he can no more define his |
reigning deity than the religionist can prove
the existence of his God, that each must per-
force speak OF attributes and not OF the center
from which the attributes radiate, it renders
the resting place uncomfortably shadowy. |
1t Is evident that our author is not material |
LIST In his thought and hope, although he fully |
declares that every phenomena should be able |
to stand the test of scientific investigation.
scientific men have been often told Of their |
incompetency to investigate so-called |
physical phenomina, then who else can |
properly investigate them?
This paper is not to be understood as i'm
plying that there is no relation between the
living and the dead, for the writer does not |
believe that doctrinel Instead of that he
thinks we are very near to discovery OF a
physical basis for immortality that will trans
form most all our thinking. If spiritual COM
munication is not accompanied with physical
phenomina in the alleged way, it does not
follow that it may not happen in other ways,
that do not do such violence to our funda-
mental knowledge as most of the reported
cases do. The universe is large, not much of
It has been explored. We live and move and
have our being in an environment about
which our knowledge Is most meoger but
our knowledge OF energy we get not only
from the earth, but from the sun and most
distant stars and nebuln. and it is not prob
babe that any contribution whatever will
materially modify our present knowledge
Of it,