The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1896-09-03
PASSED AWAY.
Rev. John Sinclair Says Good Bye
to Old Earth.

Rev. John Sinclair preached a SER
mon last Sunday morning on the text
Heaven and earth shall pass away
but my word shall not pass away" If
he had preached the same sermon in
Scotland some years ago he might
have been burned as an hereto. The
preacher undertook to show and did
show that the old heaven and earth of
Christ's time had passed away and
that though we had now new heaven
and new earth the words or religion
of Christ were more potent than ever.
At the time Christ spoke those words,
the preacher said, the earth was the
centre Of the universe and all the
other lights were created for it's bene-
fit. For fifteen centuries after Christ's
time this doctrine was held. It was
not till 1913 when Copernicus pub
lished his book propounding the doc
tine of the mobility of the earth and
the immobility of the sun and Galileo
turned his telescope on the heavenly
bodies that the old heaven had to be
sacrificed. What was the effect of
that transformation on the religion of
Christ?
j. Churchmen trembled for the ark of
God Was it probable, they asked,
that if there were myriads of worlds
outside ours of far greater importance,
that the Son of God came into this
sinful world to die for men? AS
tronomy was likely to give the death
blow to the religion of Jesus. Perse-
cution of the scientists began by the
defenders of the faith. Galileo was
brought before popes and cardinals
and the old man on his kness on bare
stones was made to renounce his
theory of the new heavens. He rose
and whispered to a bystander "But
the earth goes round the sun after all.
The result to Christ's religion turned
out to be nevertheless, that the re-
search begun there with reformation
of Europe gave an impetus to Christ
ianity like as it never got before.
Martin Luther, John Calvin and John
Knox were men of that same century
and their power in the propogating of
Christianity was being felt to-day.
The Bible was translated out of the
dead languages and the people as
we'll as the priests began to spread the
words of Jesus.
1t seemed strange that the old earth
should hold it's place till the beginning
of this century. 1t seemed peculiarly
strange that men should not have be-
fore that time found out something
more about the nature of the earth on
which they trod. In the end of the
last century it was almost universally
believed that the world was created in
six literal days. The theological diff
ficulty stood in the way. The Bible
said the world was created in six liter
al days and scientists did not dare
contradict the Bible. Theologians did
not, hundred years ago, think of the
possibility of the Bible being written
popularly and not for scientific pur-
poses. When William Smith of Eng
land published the first geological
map in 1915 and when he was followed
up by Cuvier, Murchison and Miller,
each establishing the fact that the
earth had existed long before man
was on it and that the present crust of
the earth was huge cemetery of the
remains of plants and animals. the
theologians again trembled for the re-
ligion of Christ. For if the geological
theory was true, they argued, it was
fatal to the inspirations of Moses and
the claims of Christ. Then only did
men begin to lay science and theology
side by side, and to find out that
science established theology; that the
evolution theory was not inconsistant
with the Bible account of Christendom
but threw new light on the Bible
which made it more than ever the
book of God.
Since that time the religion of Christ
was being spread more enthusiastically
than ever before. The old heaven
and the old earth had passed away
but the words of Jesus carried with
them more power than ever. Young
men and women in multitudes were
volunteering to carry the gospel to
the heather. Hospitals were being
fitted with nurses from the highest
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