Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1916-03-15
"Eu0'ution and the Bible"


luton and its relation to religious
thought this morning.. with special en-
l'hasis upon tho growth and contents
of this collection of books called the
bible. The right sort of a background
for this study IL u birdscye view of
The ground We have already covered in
the present series of sermons This
will give US Il suggestion of the facts
and forces which obtained before bib
licai writer's lived. and is quite neccs-
.ssLry if we are to understand the real
Importance and value of the essen
tial principles of which these pages
speak.
For several Sundays we nave been
NtldylnE evolutionary theories, which
have Introduced us to many interesting
and helpful ideas and suggestions
uiong the line of religious e%ndeavor.
especially III connection with the hui
man notion of God. man. the moral
law. the social order. and now the
book OF Books l deem it the better
part of wisdom 10 place confidence in
the information which has been given
to the world. jdst for the Joy of find
INK out more about God and man and
this wonderful world in which we live,
by some of the Lords fearless and con-
1ident thinkers. Such men have done
much original research work, The re-
suits of which give us a larger vision
and Il deeper faith.
In imagination, evolution carries us
far INTO the future with its fertile s,lg-
gestions and also far into the past
witt; its interesting revelations. If we
could take our place far bach amid
the beginnings of created things and
remain the conscious beings that we
are, what wonders would be shown
us
we would behold the huge mass of
1iYp-njGt and Sfa, 1lSt with tl,o ,,th
cr'ns mists and vapors, revolving
atoms and moving plants. UndOubted-
ly SOC, 1000 years. as we account
time, were consumed in the prepara-
ton OF the earth for human habita- /
ton, from the dim and distant begin
ming, through the various changes and
ages from the Laurentians to- the age
OF mammals and age Of man.
The Path.
Beginning with the feeble traces
OF the nervous system and brain cells, |
whore embodied life begins to lift and
climb, till we come to the early c a
men, cave and tree dWellers. it is tre-
mendously long journey in years. be-
fore we discover man. as u self acting. !
thinking. planning. scheming. invent
ing, hoping and praying personality.
eliminating in such characters as
Jesus. st. Paul, Marcus Aurelius, Soc |
rates. Washington. Lincoln, Edison |
and Burbank.
"From the fighting animal. struggl-
ing for food, while eating it. to an in
dustrious. cooperating friendly asso-
ciate and companions: evolution traces |
the moral law from the animal instinct
of hunger, combativeness, acquisitive-
ness n social desires, through the |
centuries of night and tragedy. to the |
10 commandments n the golden rule. |
AS the race climbed out OF the swamps
and jungles. it's organic life became |
more II more complex. while the
assimulating forces grew more album
dant and fundamentally essential. The
brute individualism. which trampled
upon every opposing force that it pos
sibly could, in the process of growth |
and change, met with a like individ-
ualism in other persons, tribes and
peoples, and h there was a reckon
ing of strength, cunning and power
il development of intelligence and rea-
son, mutual yielding and accommodate
ing treaties. We have no adequate rec
ord of the battles, revolutions and
tragedies of the race, nor of the deaths !
and decay Of empires and civiliza-
tions which took place in the social
order. from practical promiscuity, on
through polygamy, pOlyandry and their
many notifications. to nor
of the struggles of politics from the
war chief to a republic or democracy,
,r from. industrial slavery to organized
abor and Independence, but history
SiNeS us SllIIlpSeS VI WlaU mas Deen
IN parts sufficient to enable US to con-
clude that the social order is improy-
Ing.
Producers Of Bibles.
Here. then, is the right sort of a |
bso$sround for a profitable study of
misa as ~ producer of bibles. Man was
\ religious being long ages before bibles
We're written. Many centuries passed
between the far off nature %worshipers
and the legend of Adam and Eve. Man |
passed through fetishism, idolatry and
mythology and even acknowledgment |
his way to ethical. moral spirituall
worship.
1T was a long journey from the
primitive groupings of religious inn
pulses to the time of written languages
and the SO called Christian scriptures |
were by no means the first to appear.
AS we pass out Of nature. ancestor,
ID. and hero worship. toward Hebrew
liable times. the first religion Of i'm
llortance to claim our attention is the
Egyptian. followed by the Brahmin,
hen the Persian. hen the Chinese,
then the Arabian and then III Gree
Ian. before we come to Judaism. All
these Ethnic religions. as we'll as the
long ages OF idOlatry n superstition,
made some contribution to the Hebrew
religion. Moses and the Hebrew law |
givers. as we'll as ~Pathagoras, Herodo-
tus n Plato, attended a school in
Egypt. which was for its
art science long before the story
Adam and Eve was dreamed of.
These various Ethnic religions were
sects or denominations. whose organic
life was nike religiously. socially and
politically with the life Of the people
in those ages, just as the different re-
ligiOus denominations OF our day are
linked with our modern life and