The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-04-05
WHAT'S REDEMPTION?
REV. LYMAN ABBOTT APPLIES THE
EyoLUTI0NIsrs THEORY.
The Development OF the whole Man In
the DenRition Used by the Modern
school-Redemptfon of Cities.
Brooklyn Eagle.


Lyman Abbott's text was: And he said. So
IS the kingdom OF God. as If a man should
cast n seed into the ground; and should sleep.
and rise night and day. and the seed should
spring and grow up he knoweth not how"
Mark iv. &c. q. DR.. Abbott said:
John Fiske has somewhere described ev-
olution as Gods way OF doing things. In
this course of Sabbath evening sermons on
The Theology of an Evoutionist,' / have
tried TO show you that one may be a pro-
found believer in God. and in God as a Gre
ator Of the universe, and believe that Gods
way Of creating the universe is the way of
evolution. In the second sermon 1 tried 10
to show you that a man may believe in sin
and fall in the awfulness OF sin and the re-
atty and terribleness of fall, and yet not
believe that sin came into the world through
Adams disobedience in the garden Of Eden;
that he may believe In the awfulness Of sin
and the terribleness of the fall, and yet be-
lieye that man was created by an evolution
airy process and has been brought forward
to the present stage of his moral develop
ment by an evolutionary process; that Gods
way of making man is the way OF evolution.
In the third sermon on The Bible tried
to show you that one may believe in inspira-
ton and neutrality-suspicious. believe in in
that Gods way of making the Bible was the
way OF evolution; that the Bible itself is
growth. And tonight / am to speak on
Redemption and 1 am to try to show you
that one may believe profoundly in redemp-
ton through Jesus Christ. and believe that
Gods way of redeeming the world is an ev-
dictionary way. You already have caught
the significance OF the text: The end of re-
demption is the kingdom of God-in the in
dividual and in society; and Christ says the
kingdom of God is as If a man should drop
a seed in the ground, and it should grow,
he knows not how. The kingdom of God is
growth. In other words, He says that the
laws of the spiritual growth are like the laws
of the vegetable kingdom; and then, to make
this meaning still more clear He says ii
grows from seed, and He draws the process
in the rest of the parable, of which / have
not read the successive stages. The king
dom of God is a growth from a seed. The
spiritual laws are analogous TO the laws of
the vegetable kingdom.
What is redemption? What do we mean
by this word which has come now to be a
theological word, but in its original was not?
OF course. it is figure. Practically, all
theological words are figures. They are
metaphors Redemption is figure derived
from captivity A man is captured by bril-
gands in Italy He is carried off into the
mountains and kept there. Messages are
sent to his friends; they must raise a purse
of money and send to the brigands; If they
do not the man will be kept a captive there
ne will be put to death. And the friends
raise money and send it and ransom or re-
deem the captive from the brigands and set
him free, and then he returns to his home
and friends again He has been bought with
a price, he has been redeemed. This figure
mas been taken by the Bible and applied TO
the process of God God Tedeems the human
race. AS TO the price which is paid for his
redemption, / am TO speak Of that later in
the sermon on Christ as a sacrifice, and
ton whether the payment of a price, the
rendering of a sacrifice, Is consistent with
evolution, is question to be considered
hereafter. Tonight L simply wish to lay
open before you the evolutionary conception
OF redemption; that is, L wish to consider
stated in the New Testament, a scientific
doctrine, for the Bible does not deal with
science. Inc Bible IS a 3ook written, for the
very phrase redemption Is a poetic figure.
The question is whether. evolutionary
conception of life as growth. there is any
thing that justifies this figure. any analogue
IN that life, anything 20 which that figure
may legitimately and properly be applied
If we look a little further at this Biblical
conception, we then find that redemption is
or three sorts, or that there are three kinds
of brigands from which we are redeemed
VARIETIES OF REDEMPTION.
I'm the first place. We are said to be re-
deemed from the flesh, or from the body,
or from the sinful flesh. In the second place,
we said to be redeemed from our in
EQUITIES or transgressions. In the third place,
We are said to be redeemed from the hand
Of our enemies. Is there anything in evoiu-
ton, anything in the gradual development
of man. by regular processes from lower to
higher stages Of moral developments, by
forces resident within the men themselves,
that just:fies the figure of redemption, from
the body. from iniquity, from enemies? !
must recall once more a scientific definition
Of evolution-as given by Le Conte, substan-
TALLY this: A regular and orderly process
from a lower to higher stage by resident
forces In the first place. then, evolution
believes that man is emerging from an ami
NAL condition. he is given the body because
the body is the animal out of which ne is
eventually 10 be developed. The animal stiH
clings 10 him. II is at once a help and a
hindrance. 1t is help to his spiritual de-
velopment just because it is hindrance.
and because the spiritual development comes
Dy battle ard In no other way. Because
there IS no possible way by which he shall
acquire self control, unless he has animal
passions which are 10 be controlled. There
Is no way by which he can acquire courage
unless he has timidity that is to be over
come by something higher within himself
There must be the temptation within as well
as the moral nature within, or the moral
nature cannot be developed. for Ii is deyel-
oped only by conflict with the temptation.
First Of all, then, man is an emerging and
developing being, drawn out from his being
Fitted up from a lower animal condition He
Is IN battle with his own body. He is as /
said the other night, like the butterfly emery
Ing from the chrysalis; he is like the bird
peeking its way out of the shell: he is like
the seed breaking its husk and emerging
from the ground. The seed is in captivity to
the ground and must break its prison house;
the bird Is in captivity 10 the shell and must
break its prison house; the insect Is in cap-
tivity 10 the chrysalis and must break its
prison house, and as the plant is not plant
until II has broken away from the soil and
come into the sunlight and as the bird is not
a ord until IL has broken out of the shell
and come into the air, so not until the man
mas broken away from the animal and come
out from IL and conquered it and subdued il Is
ne man. Paul says, you remember in
Romans vii. Who shall deliver me from this
BODY or deaths? and he sings his praise to
Christ, the Deliverer-or the word might
equally be well translated, 'Redeemer from
the body OF DEATH The figure is drawn from
an ancient time when men were eha.ned to
the soldier. The man Is chained to his own
animal appstites: he Is bound to his own
neshly nature; he is fastened 20 a corpse, and
he is to be redeemed from that corpse and
delivered from it.
THE ONIY ME~TIInn