The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-07-07

| and an absolutely eSsehIidl llih miss
| ing?
! The second gulf is that between vege'
| table and animal life.
The third lies between any one true
! species of animal or plant and any
/ other species.
! 1 will mention one more, and to ma
terialistic science the greatest of all diff
| fculties, that abyss that lies between
the nature of the animal and the self
conscious, reasoning, moral nature OF
| man" These are few of the insur-
mountable obstacles which Christian
science points out as fatal to material
ism But let us ask this opponent OF
Christianity, What of man." Mankind,
says Mr.. Huxley, lis a wilderness OF
apes" Mr. Darwin tells US that man
is descended from a hairy quadruped,
related to the ape, descended by many
changes in untold ages, though mar
supial, reptile-like, fish-like animals,
and finally is derivable from a clot of
gelatinous substance whose origin is
absolutely unknown.
The last question which 1 ask is,
WHITTIER is man bOund?" Is there any
after-here for man? Listen to this de-
spairing wall of materialism as quoted
by Mr. Van Dyke from the "Cosmopo-
lis" January, 1896: Man, born of
blind force and unconscious matter,
quickened by some mysterious cruelty
to consciousness of his own origin
and a foreboding of his. ineXplicab BILE
destiny, he 'drees his weird between
two fathomless abyesses of gloom as
one who is indeed weary and heavy
laden. The music with which he accom-
panies his march towards the blank
and dismal bourn rolls and clashes
through the literature of every land
with deep and mournful discords, as if
man had at last invented that strange
organ of expression which satirist has
called the miserophon.
1t has always been a wonder to me
how men who believe in no God and
hold that we are the product of blind,
unreasOning but inevitable necessity,
can yet hold men responsible for their
acts. If their theory be true, then it is
the refinement of cruelty to hold men
responsible for their deeds, however
vicious, seeing that necessity compels
them so to do. / have endeavored to
give you briefly but accurately a sum.
mary of the teachings and conclusions
of materialiSm, which you are sure to
encounter. l wish to warn you that
much of that which is taught as science
is utter rubbish, having no foundation
in fact and lacking in truth and COM
mon sense. Fortunately for us as Chris
tionS, such men as Dana, Dawson, Ag-
ASST, Argyle, etc., have exposed to our
view the skeleton beneath the fair ex-
terror of materialism. Again 1 endorse
the sentiment, Investigate fearlessly'
and stop not half way With a poets
intuition Tennyson has accurately
grasped and stated the facts in saying:
Not only cunning casts in clay;
Let science prove we are, and then
What matters science unto men,
At least to me? 1 would not stay
LET him, the wiser man who springs
Hereafter, up from childhood shape
His actions, like the greater ape,
But / was born to other things
Now let us turn to Christianity and
find what it has to say about these
same questions with which we have
been interrogating materialistic views
of the universe and man. In this quest
you will find abundance of assistance
in the works of such Christian scient-
lists as l have just mentioned. Let me
add that you will get much more ac-
curate information on these points
from their works than you possibly
can from the ablest opponents of ma
terialism. The reason is that the
Christian scientists are just as thor
oughly conversant with all the range
of scientific facts and theories of the
universe and man as their opponents,
and to this add the personal, vital ex-
perience of the reality of the life and
influence of Jesus Christ in their own
lives as the most potent influence there
present. 1 shall also refer you to what
the Bible has to say about these things
and again remind you that in 1.-The
Man Christ Jesus you have the centre
and circumference of genuine Chris
tianity.
We ask the first question again,
Whence all things?'' l listen and
there comes down the line of over
thirty centuries the Christians an
swer, I'm the beginning God" Let me
say in passing that it has taken over
5000 years for opponents of Christian
ity to get enough knowledge of them
selves and this universe to be able to
even intelligently question this answer,
u SdI uOInIAS vi ulSpIONIuS It's dCSu-
racy. l notice also that it has been
almost without exception in Christian
lands, under Christian influences, that
men have been civilized enough to do
any profound investigating along these
lines.
Of the Christian answer, I'm the be-
ginning God" Sir William Dawson
says: Here we have a fundamental
statement which demands no proof, be-
cause we can substitute nothing else
for it. If we say, There was no, be-
ginning, the universe is eternal we
have proposition unthinkabIe by us,
because we cannot imagine an eternal
and such succession, if con-
ceivable, would preclude all develop
ment. If. we say, In the beginning
the heavens and, the earth were self |
we have a proposition which |