Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-11-04


nizes every thought and word and
Iact Or the individual.
There Is a wide difference between
the man who Is trying TO conform
to standard of morality about him
and the man who Is endeavoring to
make his life approximate to a di-
vine standard. The former attempts
to live up to the standard if 1t Is
above him and down to 1t if 1t is
below him and If be Is doing right
only when others are looking, he is
sure to find q time when he thinks he
Is unobserved, and then needs the
inner strength which comes with the
conscious presence of personal God.
II those who are thus fortified some
times yield to temptation, how help
less and hopeless must those be who
rely upon their own strength alone!
Difficulties in Religion.
There are difficulties to be encoun-
tered in religion, but there are diff
culties to be encountered everywhere.
l passed through a period of skepti-
cism when | was in college, and |
have been glad ever since that | be-
came a member of the church before
left home for college, for it helped
me during those trying days. The
college days cover the dangerous pc
riod in the young mans life; 1t is
when he is just coming into posses
sion Of his powers-when he feels
stronger than he ever feels after
ward and thinks he knows more than
he ever does know.
It was at this period that l was
confused by the different theories of
creation. But examined these theo-
ries and found that they all assumed
something to begin with. The nebu-
lar hypothesis, for instance, assumes
that matter and force eXisted-mat-
ter in particles infinitely fine and
each particle separated from every
other particle by space infinitely
great. Beginning with this assump-
ton, force working on matter-ac-
Cording to this ypothesis-creates
universe. Well, l have a right to
assume, and | prefer to assume, a
designer back Of this design-a crea-
tor back Of creation; and no matter
how long you draw out the process
OF creation; so long as God stands
back OF II you cannot shake my faith
in Jehovah. In Genesis it is written
that, in the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth and
cannot stand on that proposition un-
til | find some theory Of creation that
goes farther back than 1.-The begin
ming"
Man not n Monkey.
do not carry the doctrine of evo-
luton as far as some do; | have not
yet been able to convince myself that
man is lineal descendant Of the
lower animals. | do not mean to find
70 nj wi 70 ~
it; all | mean to say is that while
you may trace your ancestry back to
the monkey, If you find pleasure or
pride in doing so, you shall not con-
meet me with your family tree with
out 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
well as a body, and soul as we'll as
a mind. The mind Is greater than
the body, and the soul is greater
than the mind, and | object to hav-
ing mans pedigree traced on one
third OF him only-and that the low
est third. Fairbairn lays down
proposition when he says that 1t Is
not sufficient to explain man as an
animal; 1t is necessary to explain
man in history-and the Darwinian
theory does not do this. The ape,
according to this theory, is older
than man, and yet he is still an ape,
while man Is the author of the mar
velous civilization which we see
about us.
One does not escape from mystery,
however, by accepting this theory,
for it 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 exer-
else more faith than religion calls for
he finds that scientists differ Some
believe that the first germ of life
came from another planet, and 9TH
ers hold that 1t was the result Of
spontaneous generation.
If | were compelled to accept one
'of these theories, ! 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 rest OF the
way, and no one can contradict us;
but If we accept the doctrine of spon-
taneous generation, we cannot eX-
plain why spontaneous generation
ceased to act after the first germ was
created.
Go back as far as you may, we
cannot escape from the creative act -,
and 1T is just as easy for me to be-
lieve that God created man as he Is
as to believe that millions of years
ago He created the germ OF life and
endowed 1t with power to develop
into all that we see to-day. But
object to the Darwinian theory until
more conclusive proof is produced
because I fear we shall lose the con-
sciousness Of Gods presence in our
daily life, If we must assume that
through all the ages no Spiritna,
hnr. Inhnhnl hn co &C