The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-01
Education and Inndeiity.


AT the regular service in the Twelfth
ward chapel last evening, DR.. ]. E.
Talmage, president of the University
of Utah, delivered an address on the
subject, Education and Infidelity''
A large audience listened with marked
attention to the speakers argument
A synopsis of the address is given be-
low:
The speaker referred to the sacred
ness of the hour of evening prayer,
and the unfitness of dispute and de-
bate in treating sacred themes.
Polemic discussion may serve to elu-
cidate truth to some extent, but more
frequently it does but prove the SUI
periOr powers of one contestant over
the other; as in days of early human
history, diputes at law were settled
by the personal combat of the liti-
giants, the one who was worsted in the
encounter being declared in the
wrong, while the cause of the victor
was regarded as the right. In some of
our scenes of strife over subjects of
political, scientific, or religious inter
est, we seem to have advanced but
little beyond this custom of barbar-
Gus times. We are still prone to
strive after triumph rather than
truth. Such efforts seem wholly in
appropriate to an occasion such as the
present. The audience is here as a
WOrShipping assembly; worship may
include earnest study and sincere in
vestigation; it certainly does not con-
sist in posture of feigned reverence,
or in the simple singing of hymns and
prayers. We can worship best as we
learn more and more of the being and
attributes of our object of worship.
And how may we learn of God? 1t is
not sacreligious to apply rigid means
of reason and test to the study of
deity; nor is it reasonable to suppose
that the full nature of the supreme
power can be revealed by our weak
methods of investigation with micro
scope and chemical balance. There is
much beyond our means of analysis
and test, and none knows this better
than the scientist. Men sought at one
time for the mind as a material OBJ
ject; now they know that it is to the
brain what steam is to the engine.
The existence of a power distinct from
il while operating through the body is
recognized at once by the simplest
thinker and by the most profound
philosopher.
This immortal something. invisible.
intangible, inaudible, is yet declared
The speaker described a visit TO the
estate IF a wealthy nobleman, and the
conception he gained of the owner
personality, though the gentleman
himself was absent. The well-kept
horses of his tenants spoke of his ten
der heart: special favoritism shown
to one who had saved the life of a
member of the nobleman's family,
testified to the gratitude he felt; an
empty servants house, from which
the former occupant had been dis
missed because of drunkenness and
dishonesty, told of the wisdom and
justice exercised in dealing with en-
ployees: the beauty and care shown in
the grounds and within the house re-
vealed taste and love of order; the
curios and furniture of the mansion
showed that the master was traveller
and a lover of nature; when at last
the portrait of the man was inspected
the preconceived ideas seemed fully
warranted May we not apply this
method to the contemplation of Deity,
whose presence is everywhere revealed
by the order and system of creation?
Yet some have said that such study
of Gods works tends towards infldel-
ity and even favorS atheism. 1t IS
doubtful if a true atheist exists in
human form. The nature OF man de-
mands and will find some object Of
reverence and worship. 1t is a popular
error to regard scientist or pnlloso-
pher as a skeptic who is unwilling to
believe aught that cannot be demon
strated. None knows better than he
the narrow limits of the known, the
boundless extent of the unknown.
Human knowledge has been beautl-
fully compared to a small circle of
light Illuminating the dark expanse OF
the undiscovered; it is the effort OF the
investigator to enlarge the lighted
disc; yet by doing so he extends the
dark circumference, and so enlarges
orr COMPREHENSION of the vast I'M
known. The earnest student of nature
has a profound respect for the simple
faith of trusting belief. AS LIE Conte
has ably declared, science has to do
with phenomena Ghe objects of sense)
and the secondary causes of such; but
with the first cause (purely an object
of faith) science is able to do nothing
through sheer inability. Thus geology,
one of the most misrepresented of sci
ences. deals with the rise and develop
ment of the earth; it traces the order
of appearance of living things, but ac-
knowledges her incapacity to explain
the cause of such appearances. But,
il may be asked, does not evolution ex-
plain everything concerning the origin
of living species? Evolution may show
something of the stages and processes
by which the works of creation have
been wrought; it is, however, the re-
suits, not the means. that declare the
Intelligent design and direction. But
geology, which is surely science
founded on the principles of true evo-
luton, does not, cannot explain the
origin of living things. A recognized
master in this science of earth has
written: 1.-The evidence of geology to-
day is that species seem to come in
suddenly, and in full perfection, re-
main substantially unchanged during
the term of their existence, and pass
away in full perfection. Other species
take their place. apparently by substi-
tuition, not by trsnsmutaltion."
The existence of rudimentary organs
and seemingly useless parts in animal,
plant, and human bodies has been re-
garded as a proof of transmutation of
species and as an insurmountable OBJ
stacle in the path of the special crea-
ZIONIST. But the so-called argument
from design so widely and so properly
accepted is incomplete without the
recognition of the argument of beauty;
for The attainment of use and beauty
seems to be the purpose of creation;