Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-05-24
BRYAN S LECTURES
DOING HARM, SAYS
DR.. ASHBY JONES

William Jennings Bryan is work
ing inestimable harm in telling the
youth of America they must give
up modern learnings or the Chris
tan religion, DR.. M. Ashby Jones
declared in sermon at the Ponce
de Leon Baptist church Sunday
night. DIR. Jones had announced
that he would reply to the address
on evolution delivered by Mr.. Bryan
at the Baptist Tabernacle last week
and his church was packed for the
message.
''Mr. Bryan says that neither Oar
win nor his supporters have been
able to find a fact in the universe
to support their hypothesis. Let me
merely suggest the significance of
this unsupported statement made by
a man who has spent his life, not
III libraries or laboratories, but on
the political stump, in the face of
the universal testimony of the sclen-
tific world" DR.. Jones said.
DR.. Jones stated he would not
challenge the beliefs of Mr.. Bryan
as an individual, if he did not at
tempt to prove that one could not
sincerely believe in the Bible and
at the same time accept the scien-
tific doctrine of evolution, and if he
did not also seek to legislate his own
beliefs upon those who did not agree
with him.
"Mr. Rryan's fundamental denial
of evolution is on the ground that
it is in contradiction of a divine
revelation made in the Bible. While
this position is held by a~large num-
Der of, Christian leaders, there is a
large number, which is ever increas-
ing, of devout believers in the re-
Ngion Of the Bible, who believe there
is no conflict between its teachings
and the theory of evolution.
IT believe the statement that
Jehovah God formed man from the
dust of the ground, but / also be-
lieve the method in which he created
him, and is creating him now, is
the method universally accepted in
the scientific world under the name
of evolution"
Scientists devoted to truth have
been studying this universe in the
stars. the rocks, the plants and the
animals. The answer which they
all receive in regard to the origin
of species is what we call the law
of evolution. Now suppose Mr..
Bryan is right, and God gives an
other answer in the Book. Rather
than think that, Twas tempted to
think that Mr.. Bryan is wrong in
his Interpretation of the Book,
"Shall we teach our children that
the Bible is a revelation of divine
truth concerning our physical uni
verse? Then We must teach them
that the earth is fiat and square,
and rests upon a huge sea. That is
the center Of the universe, and that
the sun, moon and stars revolve
around it. In a word, we must aban-
don our laboratories, observatories
and libraries, and go back to the
ideas of the universe held by men
Of Biblical times.
"Of course this is absurd, and
utterly unfair to, the Bible. 1t is
not, and never claimed to be, a
of physical science. 1t is
the inspired story of the gradual
revelation of God in the life of men;
manifesting Himself with ever in
creasing clearness in terms of the
knowledge and customs of the peo-
pie at given periods of history.
ITO my mind the Bible can be
most clearly and sympathetically
understood from the standpoint of
evolution. It is the story of the
spiritual evolution of man. Read the
story from this standpoint, 1t is the
gradual unfolding of God in human
life, from Jehovah, tribal god of
many gods, to Jesus Christ, the in
carnation of one God of the uni
verse, the Savior of the race.
Just here is my deepest contro-
versy with Mr., Bryan and his school.
He places a false and deadly alter
native before the youth of our land
when he says in substance, you
must either give up modern learn
ing or the Christian religion. AS
one who loves the Bible with a
deathless devotion and believes IN
the Christ it reveals as the incarna
ton of the God who made this uni
verse, protest against this assault
against it's spirituality, and this at
tempt to turn the enlightened rea-
son of men from its true purpose.