The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-03-15
ABBOTT ON EVOLUTION
THE BROOKLYN PREACHER TALKS
OF It RELATION TO SIN.
Man Develops Out of the Animal Stage
and Subject to Moral Laws
Divine Man and Human Man.


Brooklyn Eagle.
At Plymouth Church Sunday evening DR..
Lyman Abbott took as his text: And the
Lord God formed man OF the dust Of the
ground. and breathed into mis- nostrils the
breath OF life; and man became a living
soul"eGenesis ii, z.
In this far-off age" said DR.. Abbott.
some unknown poet perceived the double
nature OF man. He saw that every man is
two men. Man. he said, came from a lower
order, from the inorganic world. But that
Is not all. In this man who came from a
lower order is a higher and nobler man,
and he is linked to the infinite and the
divine. Years pass and another poet APP
peared upon the world-Paul. He, in dra-
matte phraseology, repeated this lesson of
the unknown poet of the remote ages. /
am two men, he said; 1 do not understand
my life. i sit at the loom and there comes
a pattern / did not mean to weave. 1 am
two men; I do not like the things that
come from them; 1 hate them. There is a
sinner that dwells in me; in my spirit 1
concur with Gods will: in my flesh 1 fol-
low the law of sin. So much by way Of
exegesis. When 1 first began anything like
a systematic study of evolution found
treatises and essays abundant to convince
me that the doctrine Of evolution was con-
sistent with design in creation. That it is
consistent with theism. 1 had no difficulty
about that. But / was more than a theist
Il was a Christian; l believed in the splen-
dor and the power OF redemption; 1 was not
willing to surrender this faith I'm the power
and splendor of redemDtion; L could not es-
cape this conviction of the reality and ter
rloleness or sin, and ii seemed to me that
the doctrine of evolution was inconsistent
PIT M hnA 20 orr4 e. 1s@ ~l.s
man was made perfect; that he fell; that
through that fall sin came into the world:
that because sin came in through that fall
Jesus Christ came into the world TO bring
redemption. And her was evolution, with
its declaration that there was no fall, except
a fall. upward; that man began in a lower
animal condition, and gradually has been
evolved by successive stages until he has
reached his present condition. I was per-
picked. Science seemed to make tina very
clear. and yet. on the other hand, l could
not abandon my faith in the splendor OF
Christs redemption, and / could not escape
the reality and terribleness Of sin. While 1
was studying. perhaps incidentally. the doc
trine of evolution, L was also pursuing my
studies in the Bible. All my theology has
have never been much of a student in sys-
tematic theology or in historical theology.
the eni nSd l T may Say nave aaS s oeen STUDENT of ,S Ss
New Testament. AS 1 pursued these studies
/ discovered. rather TO my surprise at first,
that the Bible put no such emphasis on the
fall of man as my theology had ~put-gave
it no such place. Theology had built the
whole scheme of redemption on the fall of
man. That had been the one great basic
fact. Man made perfect-man fallen
man to be recovered. But when i opened
my Bible and began to study l found in the
Third chapter of Genesis the story of the
fall. and nowhere else in all the Old Tesla
ment so much as a direct allusion to II.
Tt was not in the laws of Moses. 1t was
where in the Psalms of David. It was not
in the great prophets. Then l
in any one of the gospels. 1t was never re-
ferred to by Christ. 1t was not referred TO
by Peter, nor by John, nor by James. 1t
was referred to only by Paul. By him only
incidentally, except in one place, and that
place the fifth chapter of Romans IT was
referred to in a parenthesis, which might
would be left unchanged. And / said TO
myself-the process is a good deal longer
than IL is in being told tonight said to
myself: All, then the Bible does not rest
depend upon the doctrine that Adam was
made perfect and fell into the first trans
gression.' Messianic Psalms know nothing
of the fall. Is there no gospel In them? We
have been accustomed to consider isaiah
the gospel of prophecy: There is no refer
a gospel prophecy? Did Christ himself not
understand the doctrine of redemption? III
He did how came it that in all His teach
ing he never referred to an historic ran!
1 can find the doctrine of redemption in
Matthew, in Mark, in Luke. in John; but L
can find no doctrine of fall there.
A THINKERS CONCLUSION.
"And so L came to this conclusion: That
whatever truth there may be in the doctrine
of a historic fall. it is not a basic fact Sin Is
the basic fact. The fall of Adam Is not. So
much by way of trying in five minutes to
remove from your mind the prejudices which
it took certainly months. perhaps years, to
remove from mine. 1 found myself free to
consider the relation Of the doctrine OF evo-
luton to the fact of sin. regardless of the
ecclesiastical doctrine of fall. Man. What is
he? An animal. There is absolutely no ques-
ton about that-he is an animal: Compare
tive physiology makes it perfectly clear ne
has the same organs that other animals pos
sess. He is a vertebrate animal; he belongs
TO the class mammal, and by most scientists
is reckoned in the family or apes. he is an
animal. and he has assembled from a lower
animal. Whether the whole human race has
assembled from a lower amman Is not apso-
lutely certain. The so-called missing link has
not been discovered. The fossil man IS still
far away removed from the highest ape.
But wherever the race came from as a
race. there is absolutely no question that
Won and / as individuals have passed through
animal stages in reaching MANHOOD. EN-
bryology has established beyond all question,
so far as accurate, scientinc, microScopic
examination can make 1t clear, that all AMI
mails begin in germs so absolutely alike tnat
the finest microscope can detect no differ-
ence. and In proceeding rom TINS ser sna e ene
IIIINA lI1 ldooN1
of animal life. Whether the race did or not.
YOU did, / did. The shape and contour or the
dog are found in embryonic man. Inc struc-
ture of the ape is found in embryonic man.
Every man that comes into the world passes
from a germ not distinguiShable from the
germ of the lowest order or amman crea-
lion. I might go further-from the lowest
order of vegetable creation, and passes
through successive stages OF animal Ire un.
Stage ~ ne You and 1 are animals
and we ascended from lower animals.
we may not like to know the fact'
hut il is a fact. But we are more than AMI
mails. We all know that fact, TOO. Wnen the
irste wife saws to her husband: You perfect
br,,tev she is not complimentlng him. "A
nerfect man is more than a perfect brute we
an recognize the fact that there is a gap De-
tween manhood and brutehood. 1t is shown
by language which no brutes reacn IN any
si,ch measures as man reaches. IL Is SHOWN
IN tools which animals do not employ-cer-
tainly to any extent Ii Is SHOWN In the
largeness of reasoning power wnicn runs
beyond all reasoning power OF animals. 1T
is shown i'm the apparently illimitaole DE-
yelonment possible in man. while animal c.
veIopment stops and halts. at a cieariy
noarked line. 1t is shown. above all, In the
moral and spiritual nature of MANN his
independent conscience. In his clear percep-
tion of right and wrong. in his sense OF the
infnife and eternal. in his worship. Prac-
ticaiiv n NAV be said there is no race OF
man ON the face of the globe that has not
something akin to worship. and. 50 far as l
can see, there is not a race or animals tnat
has
HUxLEY'S TESTIMONY.
.I know II is not infrequently the case that
A. x~o1.tf4n tr1fer tho