The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1898-08-31

lion uttered his voice all the other
beasts of the forest were still, and he
said: "Peace, brothers and sisters Of
the forest. 1 think we have been placed
in the spheres for which we were in
tended. I think our Creator knew the
place that was good for u.s." He could
proceed no further, for the whole con-
vention broke out in an uproar like the
house of commons when the Irish ques-
tion comes up or the American congress
the night of adjournment, and the rep
tiles Kissed with indignation. at the
leonine Gambetta, and the frogs croak-
ed their contempt, and the bears growl-
ed their contempt, and the panthers
snarled their disgust, and the insects
buzzed and huzzed with excitement. and,
though the gorilla of the African forest
with his club pounded, "Order, order,'
there was no order, and there was a
thrusting out Of adderine sting, and a
swinging of elephantine tusk, and a
stroke of beak, ard swing of claw, un-
til it seemed as if the convention would
be massacred.
Just at that moment at the door Of
this natural alnphitheater of the forest
the curtain of the leaves lifted, and the
bolts and bars of the tree branches were
showed back, and there appeared Agas-
siz and Audubon and Silliman and
Moses. And Agassiz cried out: "Oh,
you beasts of the forests, have studied
your ancestral records and found yon
always have been beasts, you always
will be beasts. Be contented to be
beasts" And Audubon aimed his gun
at q baldheaded eagle, which dropped
from the gallery and as it dropped
struck a serpent that was winding
around one of the pillars to get up
higher. And Silliman threw rock Of
the tertiary formation at the mammals,
and Moses thundered, every beast
after it's kind, every bird after its kind,
every. fish after its kind" And, 10, the
parliament of wild beasts was prorogued
and went home to their constituents,
and the bat flew out into the night, and
the lizard slunk under tie rock, and
the gorilla went back to the jungle, and
hungry wolf passing out ate up the
primal germs, and clumsy buffalo up
set the protoplasm, and the lion went
to his lair, and the eagle went to his
eyrie, and the whale went to his palace
of crystal and coral, and there was
peace-peace in the air, peace in the
waters, peace in the fields. Man in his
place, the beasts of the earth in their
places.
Brutaliying Tendencies.
But, my friends, evolution is not only
infidel and atheistic and absurd; it is
brutalizing in its tendencies. If there
is anything in the world that will make
a man bestial in his habits, it is the
idea that he was descended from tho
beast. Why, according to the idea Of
these evolutionists, we are only su-
perior kind of cattle, a sort of Alderney
among other herds. To be sure, we
browse on better pasture, and we have
better stall and better accommodations,
but then we are only Southdowns
among the great focks Of sheep. Born
of O beast, to die like beast, for the
evolutionists have no idea Of future
world. They say the mind is only su-
perior part Of the body. They say our
thoughts are only molecular formation.
They say when the body dies the whole
nature dies. The slab Of the sepulcher
is not q milestone On the journey up
ward, but wall shutting Us into eter-
nal nothingress. We all die alike-the
COW, the horse, the sheep, the man, the
reptile. Anninilation is the heaven of
the evoirtionist. From such stenchful
and damnable doctrine turn away.
Compare that idea of your origin-an
idea filled with the chatter of apes and
the hiss of serpeuts and the croak OF
frogs-to an idea in one or two stanzas
which quote from an old book of more
than Demosthenic or Homeric or Dan
tesque power: "What is man that thou
ert mindful of him, and the son Of man
that thou visites, him? Thou hast made
him little lower than the angels and
hast crowned hin: with glory and hon
or. Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works Of thy hand; thou hast
put all things under his feet, all sheep
and oxen-yea, and the beasts of the
field, the fowl of the air and the fish OF
the sea and whatsoever passeth through
the paths of the seas. O Lord, our
Lord, how excellent is thy name in all
the earth.
How do you like that origin? The
lion the monarch Of the field, the eagle
the monarch Of the air. behemoth the
monarch of the deep, but man monarch
of all. All, my friends, have to say
to you that am not SO anxious to know
what was my origin as to know as to
know what will be my destiny. do
not care so much where I came from
as where l am going to. l am not
so interested in who was my an
cestry 10000, 900 years ago as 1 am
to know where / will be 100000
years from now. 1 am not so much
interested in the preface to my cradle
as l am interested in the appendix
to nv grave. | do not care SO much
about protoplasm as do about eternasln.
The "was" is overwhelmed with the
"to be- And here comes in the evolu-
tion I believe in, not natural evolution,
but gracious and divine and heavenly
evolution-evolution out of sin into
holiness, out Of grief into gladness, out
of mortality into Immortality, out of
earth into heaven. That is the evolution
l believe in.
Evolution from evolvere, unrolling!
Unrolling of attributes, unrolling OF re-
wards unrolling of experience, unroll.
ing of angelic companionship unrollipg
of divine glory, unrolling of p1oviden-
tial obscurities, unrolling of doxolosies,
unrolling of rainbow to canopy the
throne, unrolling Of new heaven and
a new earth in which to dwell righteous
ness. Oh, the thought oyerwhelms me!
1 have not the physical endurance to
consider it.
Monarchs on earth of all lower orders
of creation and then lifted to be