Year: 1876

tiah rocks, the accepted theories as to


the age OF life On this planet were over


turned. Geology itself is but in its in


fancy. That quarter of the world in


which philology gives us good reason for


believing that nlaii made his first ap-
peafance is still totally unexplored.


biologists have but scratched the sur


face. OF a very limited section of the
earth. Astronomy, also, has just began


to tell It's story. It may almost be said
that every time good astronomer looks


at the heavens through telescope, he


observes something which modifes the


conclusions or discoveries of his predeces-


sors. Science is not positive, although


its professors are. There is nothing in


our day which can be compared with


Newton's discovery of the law of gravi-


tation. He brought to our knowledge


one OF the supreme laws of the universe;


and yet Newton was christian, and


what he detected in the "great ocean of


truth" only led him to believe more
firmly than ever in the God of revela-
ton. We have lost in our day two


great christian philosophers Faraday


and Agassiz- and that loss is one which
it would be difficult to overestimate.
The weight of their names was a per.


petual check to the assumptions Of the


new school which now rushes forward


once week to announce to bewildered


world that there is no God. They are


satisfied that all the universe sprung


from a single germ, but how the germ


was made, or why they can not make


one like it, are questions left unanswered.


In all essential respects, the religion of


the germ is much harder to reconcile with


reason than the religion of Christ. Mat


thew Arnold insists that we shall not be-


lieve in anything which we can not un-


stand. Can anyone, then, understand


his mystical revelation concerning the
| unknown Essence" which he labor


ously manufactures into a deity? Il


surely is no harder to believe that Al


mighty God made the universe than


that this wondrous and glorious system
! is the result of the spontaneous evolution


Of matter. There must be a beginning


TO everything, even to law and germs, to


matter and essences. What was the be-


ginning? The philosophers reject what


they call the incredible teaching of the


Bible for something tenfold more in


credible. Man dashes himself in vain
/ against the adamantine barriers which
] lie between him and the solution of the


mystery. If the scriptures warn us that


we never pass beyond them, science can


at least carry us no further. The one


gives us ample ground for hope and con-


ISOLATION, and scope for the exercise of
the loftiest faculties. The other bids us
look backward into chaos, and forward
into nothingness.


!, If the teachers of christianity were al


ways as earnest and as thorough in their
J work as the preachers of the germ theory,
and other equally remarkable deities Of
J purely human invention, the latter could


not make the progress which they now
seem to be doing. For their pretensions
will not bear investigation, and their
! conjectures are far more irreconcilable
} with the natural instincts and prompt
ings of the mind-which the philosophers
/ profess to reverence so much-than the
belief that there is God who rules the
world, and that it is ruled with infinite
wisdom, although in manner quite in
| comprehensive to u.s. We do not know
the true meaning of anything we see
around us, or in any of the ordinary con-
} ditions of life. To our apprehensions,
i death is the greatest evil, and yet it is
by no means certain that it is an evil at
all. The general testimony of physicians
is that the vast majority of people meet
, it with fortitude which they never an
ticipated they could summon up. To
the bcreaved survivors, death is indeed
) an evil, an evil hard to be borne. But
, at such times the departed should also
: be remembered. What have they lost !?
They are gone, and we must quickly
: follow. For either grief or JOY, for
either pleasure or pain, our day is short.
: Is it the survivor or the departed who
would be pitied most if we could see and
! know all? DR.. johnson feared death
j excessively all his life-the thought O.
lit rendered him wretched beyond de-
scription for over fifty years, and vet
when it came he bore it cheerfnlly, and
J as one who stood over him bears witness,


"all his fears and anxieties seemed to be
absorbed" Almost everyone who has
, recovered from a dangerous illness will
attest that the fear of death bad no in
! fiuence over his mind, unless, indeed, as
, associated with the thought of the great
beyond. And what is to come then
! must remain matter of belief. not OF


knowledge. No audible voice can reach
us out Of the solemn darkness which lies
before u.s. The teaching of christianity
, can alone illumine it. It is the domain
of faith, and it is wiser on every ground
, to hold to the faith taught by the chris
tian church, than to plunge into the
bottomless sea of skepticism toward
) which the philosophers are ceasebe. sly


endeavoring to push us.


j For what, after all, does their knowl-