The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-03-04

struct the whole skeleton-nay, mere
footprint on the soft clay, hardened by
time and preserved in the lower strata
of the earth, is sometimes found suffi-
cient to reveal to the wondering eye OF
the discoverer the gigantic form of the
mammoth or the mastadon, the mega
therium or the ichtlyosaurus, which, ages
before man existed, lived and sported and
produced their young, amid scenes of un-
wonted loveliness and surrounded by a
grandeur of vegetation and magnif-
cence of growth never witnessed by hui
man eye, and the bare existence OF which
is certified only by the record that they
have left of themselves in the rocks. For
thousands of years, perhaps ten or hun
dreds of thousands OF years, this world
continued to be the home and the dwell
ing place OF unconscious and unreasonine
creatures. Faith, as we'll as science, in
forms us that animals existed before man.
At last, when the fullness of time was
come, and the world had been made a
habitation fit and suitable for a more
highly gifted being, God resolved to ex-
ercise His omnipotence again by fash
ioning a creature who should enjoy not
only life and feeling and the power OF
growth and development, but still greater
capacities-a race OF beings who should
be able TO take an appreciative and in
tclligent interest in the works OF His
hands. He made man-Adam-and pro-
vided him with a companion-Eve-
formed similar to himself, with the gifts
OF knowledge and understanding and rea-
son and free will, and with the faculty of
communicating his ideas and thoughts
and feelings. This first couple and their
descendants we're destined to rule over
the earth by their superior knowledge,
and to subdue it; and all creatures were
to acknowledge their authority. Now,
We must here remark that the teachings
OF science and OF faith are entirely one
in the sense that geology, as we'll as scrip
ture, points to time when there was no
life of any kind upon the earth. The
scientist no less than the thcologan de-
clares that, among living creatures, man
was the last to appear. Remains OF ami
mails are found in strata below that in
which the remains of man have been dis
covered, which tends to show that IRA
tional animals lived before any human
foot trod the virginal earth Every sci
entific man, every geologist, whether he
be an atheist. an agnostic or Christian,
will admit-nay, more, feels constrained
to believe-that there was once a period,
however remote, when no man brcathed,
a period, in fact, in which the earth could
rot possibly have supported life. How,
then. we may ask, did life commence?
What produced life? What gave the pow
CT of growth and expansion to the grass
and the trees? What infused feeling and
instinct into the animals? Who conferred
reason and free will on man? We reply
God. We reply that God alone gave,
and that God alone could give The SCI
enlist questions his sciences, and their
only reply is "We don't know" "We
can't say They are utterly unable to ac-
count for these facts in any natural way.
Most valiant are theif attempts to in
tcrpret and unravel each successive step
i'll the formation of the earth, but they
are bound to acknowledge themselves
baffled They do but guess and suppose
and surmisc. Or if they do start theory
today, it is only that it may be demolished
and cast aside, by reason Of some fur
their discovery tomorrow Now. without
referring to minor difficulties, we must
here call your attention to the moment
Gus fact that there are four great transi-
tons that, with all their ingenuity, SCI
entists cannot get over, and never will
get over: (1) The passage from nothing
to something; for we cannot suppose mat
ter to be eternal (2) The passage from
the inorganic to the organic. Cd The
passage from the organic to the sensitive
Cd The passage from the organic and
sensitive to the intellectual and reason
able Geology itself testi6es that the or
ganic preceded the sensitive. and that the
sensitive preceded the rational-the ra-
tional coming last OF all, and closing the
series. In other words, science itseli
compels US to declare that there mus,
have been first nebula, first plant, a
first animal and first man. But whence
arose the first nebula? How did it orig
mate? Who set it in motion? Who en-.
dowed it with the complicated laws OF de.
velopment? The same queries must be
made regarding plants, etc. How came
the first plant? Every experiment tends
to make it more and more certain that 3
plant cannot arise except from seed, o,
germ, or bud. Innumerable experiment.
have been made with view OF testing
this truth-again and again experiment
alists have tried to obtain life from non
life, but they have never once succeeded
Nay, they have always been driven back
and forced to accept the well-known die
tum, "Omne vivum ab ovo"-"All lift
proceeds from life."
Misunderstanding.
Misunderstanding lie at the root o
many family discords How often a faith
er dies who loved his son and was love-