The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-21
EVOLUTION AND ATHEISM
a DISCUSSION BY THE REV. j. CUM
MING SMITH.
Man at His Best, He Says, Is Not Self
sumcient-A Sermon by the Rev.
Marion CrosIey.

anu the text see BDu Aldht dA NAAih5o =
cording TO the pattern shown thee in the
mount" He said:
"God spoke these words to Moses. He
was one of the supreme minds of history.
Not only so, he was I'm a high state of splr-
itual illumination. II would seem as II
such an eagle, soaring at such a high, IN
usual elevation. could be trusted TO guide
it's own flight. Surely the best human intel
ligence in its ~lOftiest wing of vision can be
depended upon 10 determine it's own career
ideals. So IL would seem at first glance;
and Immediately an inference leaps up that
supernatural guidance is a superfuity. In
one form or another this suggestion OF the
sufficiency of humanity is constantly APP
pearing in influential quarters. To a GER
tain degree IL sounds a generous note. be-
cause il utters the profound truth that hu-
man souls have the divine light. 1t Is more
than generous. IL has truth at its heart.
Man has self-directins capacity. and this
increases with the splendid evolution or our
race. The more science we know the more
We are competent 10 handle ourselves
Alright, other things being equal.
However, the very idea of evolution In
wolves involution. God never draws out OF
an acorn what he has not put in the acorn.
Evolution is The farthest possible from
atheism. 1t is but a method or process,
and, therefore. demands a mind back of 1t.
when, therefore, you examine the laws
by which the race thrives, you find a con-
slant friction or antagonism between what
ideals the mere race suggests and the su-
perior ideals the few highest minds voice.
Each level creates its own appropriate
Ideals. Benjamin Kidd in both his master
full books shows this very clearly. Men
think human wisdom a sufficient STANDARD
until they discover that human wisdom 1t
self is ceaselessly undergoing changes and
vetoes what once IL affirmed. Then, too,
men glorify the moral standards enthroned
in the bosom and forget that by the law Of
evolution the conscience Is a variable COM
modify. The conscience of America does
not agree with the conscience of Malay or
Turkey; the conscience of the twentieth
century Is far in advance OF the low-toned
conscience of early barbarism. Conscience
itself changes. We require a STANDARD SUI
perior TO ourselves, and that, too, because
we respect our powers and honor our birth
right.
take the crucial controversy between
wagC-earners and capitalists. Our Amer
lea, so friendly to every ambitious man. Is
perhaps the chief theater OF that critical
and far-reaching struggle. Now. where
are the regulative standards? Where shall
we look for a court to legislate? Not in
men. because men of well-poised and deli
cate sense of justice are found on both
sides of the issue. The most sublime prin-
ciples are involved in the contest, and yet,
when you listen to man alone, you hear
but a bedlam of voices. We turn our eyes
to the mount. The Father of humanity
has uttered His imperious will. He saw
through the foggy ages a growing world
that Kept springinS on itself new problems
just because it kept growing, and He
pointed out the final solution.
Not in man, but in God, we reach the
key to the situation. Christ was the apos-
tie of human brotherhood because He was
the apostle of the fatherhOod of God. He
was Revealer as well as Redeemer. If so,
then the ultimate relations between men
they are brethren and that their interests
are essentially the same. Hence the evO-
luton of the race under the guiding hand
of God must move toward this ideal. HUI
man conscience must ripen toward this
supreme STANDARD a~rticulated from heaven.
Culture must mellow toward this superb
and ~indisputable ideal. This is Christian
ity, and Christ was s-uperhuman as well as
human.
IF a distinguished specialist on parks
should visit a city and with the eye o.
creative genius see the natural advantages
of a curving river bank for a drive or
boulevard. we all attach weight TO his ut
terance. Our public-spirited citizens well
.come any device that hances the mate
rial value of our promising city and beau
titles an already beauteous suburb. We
waive little local claims. We accept the
authority of a well-trained specialist.
Strange as il may sound, there are few
well-poised specialists on humanity. for
the reason that most men are too busy
earning their bread to have any surplus
either of brain or time to spend on the
supreme greatness of the world at large.
Those who have leisure are apt TO be stag
nant or overconservative. Very few are
enthusiasts over the weightfer ethical
problems, and yet these are the only posi-
bic elements of human cohesion and con-
structiOn.
THE IMMENSE PROBLEM.
Besides. the world is too immense a
problem for mortals to master. Is there
any mind anywhere adequate to the diff
Guilty? There is. In the infinite mind there
dwell In calm peace those ideals that must
haunt the race until it reaches it's best
estate. How know we the Infinite mind
that is such a womb of unborn ambitions?
L answer, in the Christ who was God mani
fest, clothed with the authority of the In
finite. In Him towering aloft over all our
human heights of wisdom we see those
ultimate laws of duty and reciprocal rela-
ton toward which our wrestling races tend.
This Is the haven where all the varying
fleets will anchor.
I'VE often hear the whisper that the
world does not want any authority to
bride its ambition or thwart it's will. and
that under such authority our noblest
powers are apt to be stihed or silenced
Nothing can be more futile. Nothing can
be more contradictory 10 the genius of
progress. 1t is clear that men must I'M
most things be left TO find out their course
and that such search is certain to develop
the true independence and divine discon-
tent that lies at the root of all growth In
most things strength comes by letting 90
the apron-string of authority. So far so
1 SN'N' NhChf huNCNtlf YOU get below all
these matters and face the mysteries of ex-
istence, when you grapple with the sorrow
and disease And sin of the world. then Won
feel utterly unnerved if you look UP at a
silent sky and believe that infinite wisdom
Is mute. So far as / know, world movers
have banked or almighty love and dos
tiny. We need God. We need more. a God
who has spoken in a large. inspiring WaY
10 assure us that we are His sons; that He
is walking hand in hand with us and NE
with Him, and that We are safe evermore
only when His life thrObs within us
Here there is necessity for a winning
dOgmatism, not of temper. but of message
Here churches must stand with unbroken
front. Here we gain our spiritual unitv
and the gradual downfall of sects
Father has spoken in Christ TO pride His
children-this unitizes churches. or ought
10. All questions of higher criticism arc
tenth-rate or irrelevant in comparison.
they are as men who work noisilV at The
outside fringes or fences: but all the while
the weary people may go far into rho
sylvan recesses of the park and rest i'm
the quiet shades where the harsh echoes Of
hammer or axes cannOt reach"
INFLUENCES AT WORK.
How the Wasfe Places of The E.-.G