The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-03-04
STAMFORD
Removing Rocks-A Masonic Blowout
 Theory of Evolution All Imagination
 God the Cause - The Bristol
Fun eraI.

a good job in removing the ledge o
 rocks which has extended nearly acros:
 Bruce's avenue, at a point just beyond
 the King street railroad bridge. Thes,
 rocks have been where they are evel
 since Stratford was discovered; an6
 have been a nuisance to all travellers
 who wished to go along California
 street
 Miss Alta Bullock the Il year oI6
 daughter of Rev. c. s. Bullock won
 silver medal in the Times contest o1
 New York for the best composition or
 Abraham Lincoln.
 | Yesterday afternoon MT. Reed,
 popular young man of Paradise Green
 left for Clyde, Michigan, near the cen
 tral part of the state, where he ex-
 poets to make his future home. There
 is really but a very poor prospect fol
 a young man who is ambitious ano
 wishes to make his mark in the world
 if he remains in town.
 MT. William R. Hughes, the vel
 known young news dealer, left at mid
 night on Tuesday for Washington
 where he will take in the inaugura-
 tion.' So far as known he is the only
 representative from this town.
 Mrs. Cornwall, wife of the rector o1 | Christ church, recently read an Origi nal story before the graduating class of the Courtland school.
 The Free and Accepted Masons o1 the town mad a big blow out on Tues day evening at the Town hall, in honor of the conferring of the third degree | upon MT. Assum, the town baker. A down. and after working the degree there was quite a spread in the hall. with no end of sandwiches, beer, cof- | fee, sausages, crul1ers. pickles. and | other similar things. After supper | cigars were handed around. and the | air soon became blue.
 On the 18th inst. the night after St. | Patrick's Day. there will be supper | at Neighborhood church.
 | Next Sunday evening at the Neigh l borhood church MT. Bullock will | preach on the Greatness of Gentle ness. There will also be a sermon in the morning followed by the Lord's S Supper.
 l A fortunate young lady in town has | won a $90 gold bond certificate for a | piano.
 Bridgeport hospital, is reported to be very i'll.
 Miss Mabel Johnson has recently en- tertained one of the Embroidery clubs. MT. Fred Nettleton has procured a new moving van. It looks as if many folks proposed to change their places of residence.
 MT. Henry Appleton and family have moved into town from Bridgeport Continuing his discourse on Darwin, Dr. Packard said last Sunday that at the same time with the appearance of his books. other immensely i1npor rtant llutS Ol WOTh were ldh6n up Dy JULIET naSuralists and a new philosophy of the universe-evolution-c into be- ing. The theory demands that there shall have been steady development from the rudest forms to the more highly organized. as an invariab1e rule. whereas. in some of the rocks where the forms of flora and fauna are inn perishably recorded. we find as great degree of perfection. in modern forms. If evolution be true the flora of today should be different and more complex than those of 5000, 900 years ago. but it is not found to be so. Ce- dars. poplars. willows. oaks, are as well defined then as now.
 The theory would demand also that we go back to the earliest specimens of mankind as found in caves and beds of the earth and compare them with forms of the highest apes we should finG far greater approach to likeness than we see today in the same beings. But we find no ape that approaches in it's brain capacity the very lowest forms of man in the world at any age of which we know anything. The theory would seem to demand that an- imals should show an advance in their development. more acute instincts, but there is nothing of the sort seen. The dog of today is not an advance on the dog of 5000 years ago. The gorilla shows vocal organs like those of man but we find no progress towards mans speech in the gorilla. Again facts show that evolution is by no means all progress as we often assume it to be. Many species degenerate. The rate of advance is not uniform.
 Allow me to speak of a few general characteristics of this great and dar- ing hypothesis which has taken so strong a hold upon the world of thought. First of all, we must see that it is all work. of the imagina- tion. This does not prove it untrue at all and, on the other hand. it may be one of the evidences of it's truth. When Tn hn hiGhaSf ra9nhaS of science we are in the realm of ina gination Just as really as we ever can be in that of religious faith. The ulti- mate atom of matter is a pure crea- ton of a scientific imagination and it dwells like the invisible God in light unapproachab1e. No chemist has ever seen it or will ever see it. We adopt the theory of the infinite divisibility of matter and of an atom whose proper ties we assume and we reach ,satis- factory conclusions. The man of re- ligious faith and of scientific study are alike in saying "the things which are seen are temporal and the things which are not seen are eternal We come back to the opening chapter of the Hebrews: By faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God so that things which are seen are not made of things which do appear" Briefly. the attitude of Christian teachers to-day, if I appre- bend it alright, is that of general ac- ceptance of some form of development but with this proviso, that we see in it only method by which God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth. Evolution gives no cause of the one force that appears as heat light, electricity and chemism- God is that cause, Evolution cannot show the original cause of the motion of star dust. Let God be that cauSet Evolu- ton cannot discover the reason for the variations of plants and animals. so we make God, even our God of Chris tian faith. that cause. This theory has no place for the presence of sin and of a Redeemer from it nor a fall of man at the beginning. But these arc facts which we cannot escape and they have as good a right to considera- ton as any facts in any sphere
 At the funeral of the late Mary E. Bristol Rev. MT. Eggleston officiated and the pail bearers were John l.. Porter Elliott w. Peck. Alfred Stacey and Jesse Sherwood. Many handsome floral ,,iecaS 1s-er. receiNEl frAIn Stiles