Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-09-24

with a large cllele Of reading and thinking
people also, that there were many who look
ed upon them rs the highest expansion OF
religious and refined thought. 1t Is not so
to day, Any man or woman going out into
the tremendous fusion of modern thought.
banded to and fro in the arena of science and
mind and quoting Emerson as either an au'
thority or an interest, would provoke smile
as broad as he who should do the same in ILL.,
erature, quoting Coleridge on the opposite
plane. Both of .hem brilliant, noteworthy
thinkers in their day but that day is past.
However 1t was rot concerning Emerson
that primarily desired to write; it WAS rather
respecting the statements made IN the article
quoted and the definition of Evolution made
by the writer AS one holding the doctrine
of Evolution and having confidence in Its
scleutiiic claims, I must most respectfully beg
leave to deny the picture presented,
Your correspondent describes 'Evo'ution,'
as manifested in primordial atom contain
ing in itself all the promise and potency, pow
or and possibilities of mind and matter that
lead up to God, developed gradually along
the line of patient, orderly, wise, beneficent
law.
need scarcely say to any reader OF such
prominent Evo'utionists of the day as Tyn'
dal, Huxley, Darwin, Haeckle, &C., that this
smooth, unbroken, ongldlng process of Ma
ture is not recognized by them at all. TWO
great gulfs are frankly acknowledged by them
all. Life and mind or soul, meyer appear Ill
Evolution Between the inorganic and the
organic kingdoms looms the gulf Of life. I'M
explained and unknown. Between the spe-
cies of intelligent life as the chimpanzee as
higher and animal development and man as
ha true organic completion-looms another
gulf-mind, soul intelligence disanced in
fnitely by the power of reformation. and
moral and religious perception. None can
more clearly state this than Huxley in his
| frank honesty of a true scientist. After fas-
tours long, laborous and most unwcaried ef-
70 rts to evolve life from the inorganic and
their utter failure Huxley commented to this
effect there can be no doubt Of the failure.
Spontaneous generation must be rellnqushed.
Much as we may as scientists desire to sec
the ascending scale, truth and honesty COM
pei us TO admit the great gulf between dead
matter and organic life remains unbridged
Life can be derived only from life.
1t is a charming swing Of Emersonian
transcendentalism to bound as an atom
smoothly from dead granite up to an mmor.
tai soul; but it is not Evolution, according to
the science of the day, any mole than it is the
common sense of the day for man to claim
the ability to lift himself up over six foot
wall by the straps OF his boots
Only the Divine Word and the truth of
revealed living God, can bridge oyer those
CULTS impossible to science. Take that
Word and the faith AMI light of revcla-
ton and then Evolution is justified, You
haye the first testimony to Evolution thous
ands of years before either Darwin or Emer.
son. The Messlanic record is perfectly just.
fled in the method of creation there proclaim
cd as at one with all Evolution affirms; and
Just where 1t stops and geology closes with
inorganic matter, comes in the record of that
Living God, the will and power of the new
law God said, let the inorganic bring forth
organic, as grass and the herb yielding seed
whose seed is in itssy." Again at the greater
gulf when the evolution of species by that
Divine Will and law had proceeded up to
mammalia and the anthropoid creature type
been given then that same Lying, loving God
"brcathcd into man as His likeness the breath
of that higher life and man became living
SOUL" and thus the scientific Evolution has
its gulf bridged. w.