Los Angeles herald., 1908-11-01

lowing IS the address IN tull:
particles infinitely fine and each par
ttcle separated from every other par
ucle by space infinitely great. Begin
ming with this assumption, force work.
ing ON notwithstanding to this hy-
pothesis-craates a universe. Well, I
have a right to assume, and prefer to
assume, u Designer back of the design
"a Creator back of creation; and no
matter how long you draw out the pro-
cess of creation, SO long as God stands
back of it, you cannot shake my faith
in Jehovah. In Genesis it is written
that, in the beginning God created the
heavens and the earth, and l can
stand on that proposition until I find
some theory of creation that goes fur
Their back than "the beginning"
do not carry the doctrine of evolu-
ton as far as some do; have not yet
been able to convince myself that man
is lineal descendant of the lower ami
mails. l do not mean to find fault
with you If you want to accept it; all
l mean to say is that while you may
trace your ancestry back to the mon
key If you find pleasure or pride in
doing So you shall not connect me with
your family tree without more evidence
than has yet been produced. 1t Is true
that man, in some physical qualities,
resembles the beast, but man has a
mind as we'll as a body and soul as
well as a mind. The mind is greater
than the body and the soul is greater
| than the mind, and / object to having
mans pedigree turned on one-third of
him only-and that the lowest third.
! Fairbairn lays down a sound PROPOSE
ton when he says that it is not suf-
ficient to explain. man as an animal;
| it is necessary to explain man in his
| tory-and the DarWinian theory does
| t. 70.
| this theory, is older than man, and yet
he is still an ape, while man Is the
author of the marvellous civilization
which we see about us.
One does not escape from mystery,
! however, by accepting this theory, for
| 1t does not explain the origin of life.
When the follower of Darwin has
| traced the germ of life back to the
lowest form in which 1t appears-and
! to follow him one must exercise more
| faith than religion calls for-zhe finds
that scientists differ. Some believe
that the first germ of life came from
another planet and others hold that 1t
was the result of spontaneous gene
ration.
If 1 were compelled to accept one of
these theories 1 would prefer the first,
! for if we can chase the germ of life off
| this planet and get it out into space
we can guess the r-st Of the way and
no one can contradict us, but If we
accept the doctrine of spontaneous
generation we cannot explain why
! spontaneous generation ceased to act
after the first germ was created.
Points Flaw in Darwinian Theory
Go back as far as we may. We can
not escape from the creative act, and 1T
is just as easy for me to believe that
| God created man as 1t is to believe
| that, millions of years ago, he created
germ of life and endowed it with
power to develop into all that we see
today. But 1 object to the Darwinian
| theory until more conclusive proof is
produced, because I fear we shall lose
the consciousness Of Gods presence
in our daily life, if we must assume
that through all the ages no spiritual
force has touched the life of man or
shaped the destiny of nations But
there is another objection. The Dar-
winian theory represents man as
reaching his present perfection by the
operation of the law of hate-the mer-
ci1ess law by which the strong crowd
out and kill off the weak. If this is
the law of our development we shall
turn backward toward the best in pro-
portion as we substitute the law of
love. How can hatred be the law of
development when nations have ad-
vanced in proportion as they have de-
parted from that law and adopted the
law of love?
But while do not accept the Dar-
winian theory I shall not quarrel with
you about it; I only refer to it to re-
mind you that it does not solve the
mystery of life or explain human
progress. fear that some have ac-
cepted it in the hope of escaping from
the miracle but why should the mir
acle frighten us? 1t bothered me once
and I am inclined to think that it is
one Of the test questions with the
Christian.
Christ cannot be separated from the
miraculous; his birth, his ministra-
tions and his resurrection, all involve
the miraculous, and the change by
which his religion works in the human
heart is a continuing miracle. Elim-
mate the miracles and Christ becomes
merely a human being and his gospel
is stripped of divine authority.
The miracle raises two questions:
can God perform a miracle?" and,
would he want to?" The first Is easy
world can do anything he wants to do
with it. The power to perform mira
cles is necessarily implied in the power
to create. But would God want to per-
form miracle ?-this Is the question
which has given most of the trouble.
I am inclined to answer in the mega
tive. To say that God would not per-
| form miracle is to assume a more
intimate knowledge Of Gods plans and
purposes than can claim to have
Will not deny that God does perform a
miracle or may perform one merely be-
cause 1 do not know how or why he
does 1t. The fact that we are con-
stantly learning of the existence of new
forces suggests the possibility that God
may operate through forces vet un-
known to us, and the mysteries with
which we deal every day warn me that
faith Is as necessary as sight. Who
would have credited a century ago the
stories that are now told of the won
der-working electricity?
Science Still 5affled by Life Secret
For ages man had known the light
ming, only to fear it, now this invisible
current is generated by a man-made
machine, imprisoned in a man-made
wire and made to do the bidding of
man. We are even able to dispense
with the wire and hurl words through
space, and the X-ray has enabled us
to look through substances which were
supposed, until recently, to exclude all
light. The miracle is not more myster-
iouS than many of the things with
which man now deals-it is simply diff
ferent. The immaculate conception is
not more mysterious than any other
conception-it is simply unlike; nor is
the resurrection of Christ more mys-
terious than the myriad resurrections
which mark each annual seed time