The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1911-02-04
DARWINIAN THEORY
is NOT UPHELD BY
MODERN RESEARCH
Chautauqua Speaker De-
clares He Could Find No
Trace of the "Missing
Link"

In a lecture entitled New Light or
the Old Testament" which might also
have been entitled new light on the
theory Of evolution" DIR. Camden M
Cobern. holder of the chair of the
philosophy Of religion at Allegheny col
lege held a large audience spellbound
at yesterday mornings chautauqua
session in the Colonial ballroom on
Fairfield avenue.
DR.. Cobern is an .archaeologist of
note. and his researches in the Holy
Land have contributed considerably to
modern knowledge of the ancients,
aside from traditions
Or. Cobern was announced to
speak at IL o'clock but owing to
delay of train he was unable to
res Gu the city until 1880 o'clock
but his hearers were we'll rewarded
Tor their patience in waiting for
him. His subject in the morning
was Some New Light Upon the Old
Testament
In opening his remarks DR.. CO.
bern said he had spent some time
among the Arabs and found it a
Characteristic of tho race that none
ever did anything to-day which could
be postponed until the morrow and
none ever did anything himself II he
IT for him. He was sorry to notice
that some of the American railroads
seemed to have adopted the char
acterfstics Of the Arabs.
Taking up his subject he referred
briefly to the Old Testament as one
one which had been much misunder-
stood even among the scholars and
which had been regarded as allegori-
cal and not to be taken literally,
More recently he said there had been
a changed attitude toward this great
work and now for the first time We
are able to compare the word Of the
the time and land and compare the
pharseology OF the common speech
of the people with the language Of
the Bible. And In every case he
said, it proves conclusive.
Never again, he asserted, viii the
In its composition, but the natural
expression of the human sound Of
great religious revelations, given by
men in the language of their day
and country. God in His Infndteness
is behind natures laws, and nature
only exists because there was an
author This does not mean, he
said, that the Bible 10 less divine be-
cause We now recognize the human
element in 1t.
Artesian Wells an Old Art.
Taking up the book of Genesis in
the Old Testament with it's renaarka-
BILE description of the creation, he
said that in the light Of recent dis
coveries It could mot be questioned
now, for the metaphors in which 1t
abounds have been explained and
there IL no longer a question of their
meaning. Documents of the time
have been found and deciphered US
ing the same metaphors, and applied
to every day speech Of the peoples of
fha time so that we now know what
those expressions meant to the peo-
pie who heard them, to the men who
received them as the revelation OF
great religious truths.
Taking one particular instances,
the striking of the rock by Moses in
water, he explained that the same
expression is found in other manu-
scripts Of the time and related Of the
Pharaohs, and he showed that it
referred to the cutting Of artesian
wells. which Were known thousands
of years ago. This was only one Of
many instances where the speaker
significance of the present day would
imply something miraculous. and yet
in the days of the occurrence meant
entirely different.
Modern research, he continued,
has proved that there is no history
like that in the Bible, none so accur-
ate in depicting the times and people
of the day, and sceptics are now
willing to acknowledge that there is
none to compare with it. This has
been proved by the work of excavat-
ors in the past, in Palestine, Egypt,
and elsewhere, thousands upon thou
sands of contemporaneous documents
corroborating the words of the Old
Testament