The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-05


gences in the universe as much my su-
perlor in intellect as l am superior to the
dogF why should man be the terminus
OF the process Of evolution" So he
reasoned, as all serious souls have rea-
soned long before Darwin was heard o.
Reincarnation-the poss.hi ity If an ex-
istence prior to this mortal lifc-did not
interest him. Life Is roo short, after
all, he used to say, Ito worry about
previous lives. From the cradle TO the
Grave-what is it? Three days at the sea
side. just that and nothing more But
although 1t is only three days We must
be doing something. | cannot spend m '
time throwing stones into the water. But
what is worth while doing?' Then upon
him there grew more and more palp bly,
real at least as a possibility that the
teachings of all the seers OF all the re'ig-
ions, were based on solid fact and that
after all there was God who reigned
over all the children of men, and who
moreover, would exact a strict account
for all the deeds which tlnv did in The
body. He combated the noJi0n; but the
balance of authority was against him
| All religions, in al t.mes-surely he uni
Versal instinct Of the race had something
10 justify It!
< Mr. Rhodes argued the matter out in
his COOL practical way, and decided the
question for himself once for all. TIe did
he decided that II was At least an even
chance that thsre might be a Gad Fur
! Their than that he did no go. A 80 per
cent chance that there IS a God Almighty
1s very far removed from the confident
certainty of 81 know that my Redeemor
iiveth' But 90 per cent chance God
fully believed In is worth more as a fac
tor in life than a 20 per cent faith in
the whole Christian creed.
Mr Rhodes had no sooner ciphered out
his 30 per cent chance than ne was con-
fronted with the reflection: "If there be
God, of which there is an even chance,
what does He want me to do, If 80 be
that He cares anything about what
do?" For SO the train of thought went
on. IF there be a God, and II He does
care, then the most important thing in
the world for me is to hnd out what He
wants me to do, and then go and do it
But how was he to find 1t out? 1t Is a
problem which puzzled the ancients.
'Canst thou by searching find out Gcd:''
Are not His ways past finding out? Per-
haps yes; perhaps no. They did not
know everything down in India" Any
how, Mr. Rhodes was much too prac ical
and thorough-going a man not to set him
self to the task Of ascertaining the will
Of God toward us-if so be that there be
a Cod, OF which, as aforesaid, the Rhode
sian calculation Is that the chances are
even for and against.
Mr. Rhodes, as / have said, Is a Oar
winian. He believes in the gospel OF ev-
olutfon, OF the survival of tina fttest OF
progress by natural selection With such
outfit as this he set himself in his dia-
mend hole to attempt the solution OF the
oldest of all problems. IF there be
God, and If He cares anything about what
| do, them said Rhodes to himself "I
think l shall not be far wrong in con-
Guiding that He would like me to do pref
ty much as He Is doIng-to work on the
same lines toward the same end There
fore the first thing for me to DO is to try
to find out what God-if there be a God
Is doing In this world what are His in
struments, what lines He is going on
and what He is aiming at. The next
thing then for me TO do is to do the same
thing, use the same instruments. follow
| the same lines, and aim al the same mark
to the best of my ability"
| Having thus cleared the way Mr.
Rhodes put on his thinking cap and en-
| deaVored to puzzle out answers to these
| questions. 1t sounds somewhat the way
in which he puts il, but in its essence
Is 1t not the way in which all earnest
souls each according to its own light,
have endeavored to probe the mystery of
the universe? Is not the supreme profan-
ity not the use Of mundane dialect to de-
scribe the process, but rather the failure
| to put the question at all?
The first thing that impressed Mr.
Rhodes as the result of a survey OF The
ways Of God to man Is that the Deity
must look at thing1 n comprehensive
scale. II Mr.. Rhodes thinks In continents
his Maker must at least think in planets
| In other ~STds the divine plan must be
at least xstAFesive with the human race
! If there Aod at all who cares about
US. He care TT the whole OF ms, not for
an elect few IN a corner. Whatever IN
str oayaf IIa ha hot
pable of influencing the whole race.
Hea.e the range Of the instrument or, as
| a papist would say, the catholicity OF
the church, is one OF the first credentials
Of it's divine origin and authority. Hole
| and-corner plans Of salvation, theological
| or political, are out Of court II we can
discover the traces OF the divine plan IT
must be universal, and that agency or
institution which most nearly approx
mates to 1t in the universally OF its In
| fluence bears the divine trade mark.
This conception of the divine ccetlentlal
seemed to Mr.. Rhodes to be Immediately
fatal to the pretensions of all the
| churches. They may be all very good in
their way, but one and all are sick. The
note of catholicity is everywhere lacking.
Even the Roman church but touches
decimal of the race. Besides. all the
churches are but of yesterday. They be-
long to the latest phase of human evou-
! ton. What Mr.. Rhodes was after was
something wider and more universal lie
found 1t in the doctrine OF evolution.
Here, at least, was a law or uniform
method of divine procedure which, in
point of view Of antiquity, left nothing
to be desired and which at this present
| moment Is universally active among all
sentient beings. What is the distinctive
feature of that doctrine? The perfection
| Of the species, attained by the elImina-
ton of the unfit; the favorable handicap.
ping of the Mt. The most capapls Fpe-
Giles survives: the least capable goes to
tho wall. The perfectinR of the fittest
species among the animals or of races
among men, and then the comforting upon
| the perfected species or race the title
| deeds of the future. That seemed 20 Mr..
| Rhodes, through his Darwinian specta-
cles, the way in which God Is governing
His world had governed and will continue
| to govern 1t so far as we can foresee the
| future.
The planet being postulated as the
range OF the divine activity and the per
| fecting of the race by process of natural
! selection, and the struggle for existence
! being recognized as the favorite instru-
ment Of the divine ruler the question i'm
! mediately arose as to which race at the
| present time seems most likely to be the
| divine instrument in carrying out the
| divine Idea over the whole of this planet
| The answer may seem to ChauvinIsts OBJ
| vious enough. But Mr.. Rhodes is not n
| Chauvinist. He was conducting a serIcus
| examination into a supremely Important
| question, and he would take nothing for