The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-09-07
This IS the Fourth William
'ngs Bryan Secretary Of State Whose Return the Cha
talqua Platform While Member of President VIII
sons Cabinet Has Been Occasion of
WordUde Discussion


he ever does know.
1t was at this period that I became
confused by different theories of creation
But ! examined these theories and found
that they all assumed something to be-
gin with. Well. l have a right to assume,
and | prefer to assume Designer back
of the design-a Creator back of the
creation; and no matter how long you
!, draw out the process of creation, SO long
as God stands back of it you cannot
shake my faith in Jehovah. We must be-
gin with something-we must start same
where-and the Christian begins with God
do not carry the doctrine of evolution
as far as some do; I am not yet con-
vinced that man is lineal descendant
of the lower animals. Q do not mean to
find fault with you If you want to accept
the theory; 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 connect me with
your family tree without more evidence
than has yet been produced. 1 object to
the theory for several reasons First 1t
1if,lya
himself in generations with the monkey
it then becomes an important question
whether he is going toward him or COM
Ing from him-and I have seen them go
ing in both directions. l do not know of
any argument that can be used to prove
that man is an improved monkey that may
not be used just as well to prove that
the monkey is a degenerate man, and
the latter theory is more plausible than
the former.
1t is true that man. in some physical
characteristics resembles the beast, but
man has a mind as we'll as a body, and
a 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 traced on one
third of him only-and that the lowest
third
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 it appears-and to follow him
one must exercise more faith than re-
ligion calls for--he finds that scientists
creation are divided into two schools,
some believing that the first germ of life
came from another planet and others
holding that it was the result of spon-
taneous generation. Each school an
s swers the arguments advanced by the
other. and as they cannot agree with
each other, I am not compelled to agrees
with either.
But while I do not accept the Dar-
winian theory 1 shall not quarrel with
you about it; 1 only refer to it to remind
you that it does not solve the mystery of
life or explain human progress. fear
of escaping from the miracle, but why
should the miracle frighten us? And
yet 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 ministrations.
and His resurrection. all involve the
miraculous, and the change which His
religion works In the human heart is a
continuing miracle. Eliminate the mira
being and His gospel is stript of divine
authority.
The miracle raises two questions: "Can
God perform miracle?' and, would
He want tor" The first is easy to an
swer. A God who can make world
can do anything He wants to do with
it.N The power TO perform miracles is
necessarily implied in the power to create.
But would God want to perform a mira
cle?-this is the question which has given
most of the trouble The more 7 have
considered it the less inclined l am to
answer in the negative. To say that
God would not pedform a miracle is to
assume a more intimate knowledge of
Gods plans and purposes than can claim
to have. l will not deny that God does
perform a miracle or may perform one
merely because do not l1now,how or why
He does it, i find it so difficult to decide
each day what God wants done now that
l am not presumptuous enough to at
tempt to declare what God might have