HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times, 1890-12-25, Page 24
TIITA ATODERN PULPIT
.RETAIGION, A,ND 1ODBBTSQLEITOB,
anthropology hasactually removed usfurther For the klea a God, is neither emphilosos ment. Impatient of delay, unaccustomed
,from the proof of seh a connection e, tiv . phicalisor =scientific. In two essays, pub- to weigh evidezece, with A theory cut•and-
" when we study the fossilmau of the quater- hashed some years ago on the "Nature of 'dried to account for each fact as it emerged.
nary period, who must, of course, haveetood Atoms " mad the" Origin of Force," the late entirely indepeodent, of any examination of
comparatively near to our primitive ances- Sir defin Herschela-an illustrious and ven- the fact itself, they passed, apparently'with-
Ry
en the order of descent, or rather a as. erable navae-distinctly arrives at the con- out any consceous Mock, from the undoubt-
Be The• Bishop otemmeneseer. cent, we always flail a man, just such as elusion that, except. upon, the hypothesis g conieti
invm thet the man before them was
'An there are divemiries of operations, ut men are now;'and thee "we marmot teachi of a presiding miad, a hypothesis based on a, murderer, to the equally undoubting coo-
d b
Stu thesante mod who worketb. ail hi elle' we cannot pronounce it to be a, conquest of the phenomena of =maven emmelouseese and victim that be was a god. No sane roan,
-1 Corinthians xii. 6. science, that mart descends tom the eke or the ascertained powers a our °wee will, the since the scientific temper has been formed,
As one reads the list of sueeessive victor- 1front any other animal; we can only indi- organisation of atoms and the derivation a wool venture, in a platter of religion, to
ies of sciencewithin the last 50 years one is 1 cat e it as a irminhesis, however probable it force arebothinexplicableand inconceivable, draw such random conclusions as these,
Lost in amazement at the vast domains that may seem, azia however obviousa solution Certainly this hypothesis does not seem. to
have been brooth
ght, in e progress of siiien- i
it may appear." And he adds, n the very mreligious inquirer the proper freme of mind
e less reasonable or even less scieotifie " Again, the philosophic lias taught the
tifie investigation, out of the power of sense in which I aloe:raking these remarks, than the theory of Lucretius, who in a fa.
in which every inquiry, iit is to have
darkness into the assured inheritauee of the Laud with all the weight of his acknowledged mous address was matched against Bishop f
Overhaug
ltildren ofOverhangingMais ast
vauthority, " vright at present to Butler -and meant, I think, to have the a, good result, muse he pursued. It must
triumphal procession I trace, however, the be undertaken, not to fortety a fore-
edoled. In this record of
We hae no gone conclusiou, but with the simple dei
d one element of disquietude.
It is just this, stated in the front of my sire to discover truth. i How legible,' said
outline of a single Goethe, writing to a friend, ' the book of
conquests 1 fin
thesis, simply, broadlymnequivoeallys-Will
there at last, when the final problem is solv-
ed, beanie placeleft for God, for Christianity,
for prayer, for conscienee, for free WM, for
responsibilk , for duty, for faith in the
unseen?, " ts progress In seience, says a as the basis ex instructton, espect- untecems.
certain writer `is the true test of the ally the attempt to dispossess the "But miracles," some me may say, "both
civilization of a, nation." Will there, when Church, and to supplant its dogmas from the scientific and from the philosophic -
the perfeet epee& has arrived, be any recoge forthwith hy a religion of evolution- al point of view are impossible. You: COW
tatiOn Of iOtkedieeS like these, which have be assured, every such attempt will make not expect me to believe them." 1
- yelp. t.9 believe therliote eriaillegiance that is due to truth.
And once mere, The philosopher has
assuredly counted for eomethin,g among the sleipsameek, and in its wreck will also briug of course, force
factors of civilization in the.past, and with. with it the greatest perils for the whole ani 1 prepared to say that a Christian faith
out which, I doubt me, smence, whatever position of ficience." And "if,'said Pro cannot exist without a. belief in them, as. often slaown more faith than the theologian
point or pregrees she may have reached, will fessor Phiaips, with that piety that sat so mirecles. And I quite feel the a, priori ob- in the conviction embodied in the maxim,
hardly have accomplished, the highest. de- naturally upon laian, "natural selection be jection to them, as violations of, or at least 4 Napa est Veritas et preruiebit.' Hobe -Heves
velopment of man? thue gifted with the power of go/lane:any rewiations from i known, law. But,es, in the power of truth, to uudattaio iteelf by
'nese aseestiens, pet in no captious spirit, acting for the good ,f its subject, encomogi James Paget says, , hoionee osnnotdaseaTe its own proper evidence, without formiag
are not supertleons, "Eery science, and ing it, or rather compelling it toecontinual or infer all possibilities." Paley's position :tuicein,a,Htnertsallislinocesni boerenetfltedgitno efoxrtereinshelse
espeeially every philosophy,' says Buchner,
"muss necessarily be atheistic-, otherwise it
limits up ageinst itself the path to its own watchful Providence, winch, once brought And, aa to the hlitt°s0Phleal °hleett'i'll tif Irity. He feels that doginee must rest upon
*La, the trettlis " In spite ot the vehement into view, sheals a new light over the whole Hume the seine strong reasoner says, "here., or at least
.,probable, warrents betore
deweveiation of it by M. Pasteur, lia.ickel picture of ,muses and effecte. is a want of logical matice in a steterneut they
I am aware Abet Professor Huxley has., which, while affirmiug the ineredibil- can be thoroughly. received. He would
and the late Profereor Clifferal assert, thet
we must assume the theory of spontaneous given itiquirers a choice betweell three ity of miracles. suppresses all those dm, tory at least to himself, for whiat he profess.,
have every man able to give a reason, satisfac-
genererion; otherwise the theory of er0^ theories. " Either be must beliene that the cumstancee of extenuation -which result 'es 0 believe, And in the selfsame spirit,
melon leeks emnpleteuces, and there is innumeralae variety et creatures now exiat- from our knoiviedge of the exieteme, Pani,
Mill room muet we not say there i3 still ing, anal all the forms of the long geological power, and disposition of the Deity; Hi who, whether while sitting at the feet
or front the natural tendency of
need, for the hypothesis of a Personal Creae series, ham been spontanconely generated concern in the creation, and the end answer! egsGeasiTimieilnid, had eatightehe true temper of
tor. Miracles nave been declared, mein without any particular reason, or that eitch ed by thentirecle; the importance of that end
endagain, to be incempatible with there:ten- has been produced by a special creative ilat, and, its subserviency to the plau pursued in • of els phi -wiling was,
modem philosophy, teller us that the one aim
"by manifestation oi
two conception of law; and that 0 warm or he =est acampt the doctrine 01 descents" the work of luttnre." " EIMWS celebrated the truth, to commend himselfto every MOM'S
mind% sounlie as if they were iinnossibith But as this awesonplisheil professor tells tut principle," says Me, Ji a, mill, "that nothi conecience in the asightorGoa,"andwasueevr
It iiae been peopeeed to test the value of he has "alt his life had a horror of litnitiug mg is credible which ia contrary to experi-
prayer by strauge and as I suppose they the possibilities of things," I submissively' enee, or at variance with the laws of nature, .satiefied. with the result which he bad pro,
dewed, unless he left' every man fully per -
were thought to be crucial experamentes A ask, Is it the province of science to tell me is merely this very Imendess proposition, waded in bis own mind ,
set up this possible connection as a _doctrine lost of the argument -who held that the
of sconce; and lmust enter my deculedproi Atoms ha.d their source of motion in them-
testagainst theattepapt temake a premature selves, and that by virtue of a certaieeiclime.
extension a our doetnnes in thee manner, men • that is given to them, and with the nature becomes to me . Much as 1 fin that
and to be ever anew thrusting into the very help ofeertain little hooks WhiCh are attaollecl is new, 1 find nothing that is emeepeete,e,
foreground of our expositions that which has to cede, they form their affinites-the atoms
so often Fovea an Insoluble problem. Any with niost hooks forming the matter of because 1 hems no system, and desire nothing
attempt to transform our Problems lute greatest density -and SO constitute the aes but the pure Meth. And perhaps the book
doctrines, to iutroduce our hypothesis tual elemental substances of the world i of grace would become as intelligible to
the book of naturebecame to him, if we sought,
to possess ourselves of its coutents with the
same simplicity of purpose, and made our
love of theological system audour reverence sten of Bacon or Luther determined which
for ecclesiastical authority bend to the high- endofteshe Dimiackmenshsoutfildusbecathmeeheaanydierh.elped
give. the world a new and more tremendous
Christmas. A pair of Imre feet in the snow,
a hut without the, a, mouth without food,
were scenes that become uneuduralde
of Europe and England had a habit of keep- ehadoife to
after tar away front the moons nue the church,
genius a society stooa too for awasy from I
the state, and all the lofty and haughty
Charles Diekens had made the wrongs and
griefs of children visible. The large folks
ing their eyes shut when they were any- see its wonders. Nature coin -
advancement -how es tins benetteent. per- is impregnable, Only believe that there le pell d Charlestrek a to live with eat 1
--,, conclusions onthosewhomhecannotpersuade where near a suffering boy or girl. When hem, eieep with, tem ooth, the indomitable
SiaimmmmmmmemW
MARLED MOMS AND IIIIDISTMAS. Worlds once set in mesaon ao not stop cull/ •
The maim once nttesed over slander, "a
There is really no suck thing in the inteli word once spoken is 'revocable," /A as tr114 •
ectual world as a one -mea powers How-- of a good law or a good sentiment as it is of .
lever conspicuous a name may be in SCOne de malicious insinuation. The neglected
pertinent of thought, there are other names children of earth having been led around. ta
which ought to share in the profits read hon. tbe front by means of wit, irony, laughter,
ors of results. The names of great military and sympathy of a mostpopular writer, they
generals stand alone, because the memory will never pass around to the rear of the
cannot carry the personalities of all the val- army of educated men emit women. To in le
=Me officers and privates who served under vent the steam engine was a
the chief, A single term thus becomes a diffieult task, but to forget it is impos- 1,E7
mental and, literary conveniences Instead of sibles To discover liberty was dila- h
mentioning the member and the entire rol cult, but now that it has come it can never e
of all the soldiers who crossed the Delaware be blotted out of menie heeds, If our na-
on that Christmas night, the event stands in
history and upon moves as "Washington
Crossing the Delaware," about six thousand
patriots being omitted.
A similar necessity of condeosetion and not soon blight the truth they =yelled,
brevity makes Lord Bacon bring iuto the Thus the poor schoolboys, the newsboys
world the inductive philosophy, and Luther tlie bootblacks, the little Tines, the little
brMg in. the Reformatien. The more exact Ma.dges of the western nations will always
historic fact is that the form of philosophic happen
thought was changing when Damn came; to the wourrebeaioberettethreC
l bookssris ti taulasat isakne fag ems
and religious belief and inquiry were in a by Charles Dickens had been read amid uni-
great commotion when Luther appeared, versa laughter and tears.
Things hung in equilibroio, and the heavy It is net known that, in order to see I
well ony piece of ground or blimie of. genes
or drop Of snow, one must aet.hown mto it
mentally and do away wohill distance
which renders all objects obscure. The
difficulty between science and the moon is
that man is compelled to stay too
tion Was slow to uneliron its slaves, it ,
be slower still to forge new chains for the !-
Africans, What if Wilberforce and Garri,
son are falling into neglect, the oeglect
senitication to he separated from an ever- a God„ and miraeleS are DIA incredible,* ,°Re seeks to imp-a:eon° creed by mere autho, theee ere did open it WaS to see how best little map, Dias, mop, maitys„ and
nweitanieal, automatic theory of volition
anteiDickens days even the churelt could
to a 'filial " a le " a "I'. II aSa TOM, Ile NAV their SOU% And at ISA
andIndie more clearly than et could discern wrote them downs "
Whet Buoy= did for eaele Christiau,
see the Peaked and ignometpeople of Africa
ans Needing feet, and hungry feces in Lon. Diekens dia for each child. Bunyan gave
don. form and, race to religious doetnnes, He
The drama of Charles Dickens opens with toratigrttngleittaugtiZee'lloienrerasnogn;618edanadlt8tihnesgilolotc'd
quite a stage full of facts. His parents were
dreadfully poor. They were as dull and. their way to
and bad experience of men and women on
cola as they were poor. Their little bay lesion was maae into a picture, with du as
good and had destinies. Ro-
of all the poor m..411'1,1111 allEnglands
wee one of the hdtthtesti moat emi4ftive apswamp or ree es pack for the shoulders, with
ho was only nineyearia old he was Whenforee.to /dram a$ a neat gate on a hill. Time, under
go out to work for 0 shillings a week. Ile the touch of Mr. Dickens, all the details of
vas eompelled to assoeiate with a had order the tender years of ehildren assume the form
of boys. Ile was so sensitive and ambi- of amazum external reelitiee. Seenes,eounds
aghosts, and auimals are pressed hits> the ser
vice of a. broad charity.
what I ought to believe, or what I ought to that, whatever la contradictory to al " It derogates nothing Vora the claims or tious that his work a,nd associetions were a
has Mien propounded, wheel/. to riam mind% know? Whichever of these alteruative complete induction, is increaible. . . .
appears to dispose vonscience, and make the theories be adopted, if no other is possible, A miracle," he goes on to say, ,, las was tvalue of religiou to acknowledge these obli• daily humiliation, but his pareutsseemed to
ations which she owes to science. She has ' want nth
aieg of the boy except the mo
oney After Mr. Dickens has listened. to a chime
ideas of mate era respensibility utterly ill- I still fall back on the higher truth, "There justly renlarked by Brown) is no contradho een rendered more precious. more attract- ae could bring home ()Read* payeley. f Christmas bells, then the common mind
It 1.8 a ive, by becoming more reasonable. It is a This hardship worked well in the can Also hear the words he heard. Indeed,
weary. are diversities of working, but it is the same mon te the jaw of emee,e and effect; 4
It eaunot he denieal that them views, put Goa who -moreetit all things in all." mew effect introduced by a ilew vailsei °f ' 'reasonable service h -e. true spiritual wor- for, when the grub tweed into a butterfly,
end, it ean lament the stupidity that had to wait
for a book to come along and miaow theta
ferweral he the name of seiev,k,e, and by some the ad me of that cause if it exist there • • • , 1 '
el Ufa leminne profes.som, have causea alarm
and aneivey III many initials -du eray owe,
among the monher-auti while trove the con -
of the tided iteelf, it is imposeiltie
t6A refuse assent to any demonetrateal ,ran h -
es euineeeible 03 it would he for eane ivied
to refeee assent to the COnehligOLI of the 5th
Premositien of the First Book of Euclid -
helmet:. tiireeteniug that truth may fOCIII to
idea.; mviereilv entertaie.ea, the Onxustienee,
, , up, a e aro . o g . there wasno in alt. boyhooda form o we
can be no iloulit; and the only euehte,esed!,e't Alunghty God demigods from His ereatures. or wisdom or laughter or crying or torture with lanhinage. The chimes said 1
improbability which on be ascribed to eue lee would be no wise main who would wish that was not welt known to this mature toil. Toth" veek, TIT. Teeth "rig ter you, Por
litte-oltorettirn Vedic Weave of superetition for i er when he came et age. His case seems one TV,II,le,' fik.,1.1), ',,-=',11.:egusf you, 7.
miracle, is the imprebability that any h
cause had existeuee in this cases All, I
"ere"' the sake of esenping. the posssilile perils of lot those in which an Oxford or Cambridge !Meg him to us, drag him to us,
fore, which gum has made out 18, that HO seentioism. Mem es a safer mese from long course of steely would have destroyed flaunt and hunt him ; haunt and hunt him;
evidence caul be sufficient to prove amiraele ti ' le els Which I admit to be real • • Break his slumbers, breim hisslumbers, ..
Toby 1, eek, Toby N ea. door open nide. .
Toby Veck-
And mien reading then words with a
solemn Jingle it becomes perfectly evident
that all those'Decemher hells home been say-
ing kind words for ages, but saying them
into stupid ears. Never since this literary
artist lived and died has ally gray church,
tower uttered its voice upon the eve or night -
that commemorates the tar mile of Jesus with-
out sa.ying, amid storm or toll;
Feed the eldhiren, feed the children.
Think of Tim, think of Tim -
Nor will bells or dilutes ever be wordless
again. A great laughter, a great, joker, a
THU COxibicr MATE'S RELIGION AND
mum.
-
A conilict between the claims of religion
and the claims of sisience upon the allegii
nee of the human mind, as though _Way
were rautuallt exclusive atel aettagonistec, the nature riches of a punt . let a toss
is a ceniliet tlilat no wise man would desire to one who dial not previously heifer° the not imaginary. The peril would. be pest, if . of ten years in Greek, Latin, and matlectuae
to. prnvoke. For it would be a emeilitt 'existence of a being or beings with super- ouly the spirit of inquiry were peneIreted tie:shad, interfered with the nature of this
ralseill upon a false issue. Each can pursue natural power: or who believed himself to by a litrii
rer measure of 'reverence and god. poor boy and liadseparatedhim forever from
have full proof that the character of the
, ets own Ivey, et it will only bear in mend its the world's Tom Pipers and Bob Sawyera 1
a ma enotaticeal repugnance to be driven tore* of tie i other. with his having men fit to interfere on the feelings
IV frir '
le eed, how can we better express the A college graduate mightpossibly havenmit-
ten the books of Charles Dickens, but it is
er whet we luve heron taken for such. eats own limitation% without violating the terrii Being whom he recognizes is in cousiatenti ' e '`i '
freta the throne on n lade great thinker, ai which must more or less touch all
If it, le berne in veinal," said Sir Joseph occasiou in question." hearts toolay, than in that exquisite "In- rather well that the world was not com.
lam liseirop Butler hail iaeatel her, hystheo- Hooker, ia thet ti e 1.,ws et mina are not
TDDLIFE ZUVONDLIFIt. vocal 10 Christi," in which the poet, who pelted to run such a risk. The law of aver -
me ea iiihe Rem 'meet at the root of name
, yet relegated ti the d amain of the teachers g , noes makes a collegeoue of the most reason.
`or can the hu en heart he content wtth best interprete the spirit of this yearning
Pats iitia iii: i"'llitl."-t• 11 " caniluet "he, as "as of physical aLieraaN. and that the laws of that 1 k a 1111"viewf f ' sumsu his hopes,and faith, and leave;i
l''''.'n''liat "' thvrt4=11's(lf lift's" alltaltillaY matter are not within the religious teacher's il a•F au it reary o the future age, P able institetions that can be founded,. but
pretence, these maty then work together ,
e meld. 11, e feel that, they aro meestble
m harmony and with good nil' things beyond the visible, We have
Anal he emotes 'Mr. Herbert Spencer's bop that, stretch beyond the grave.
dictum's*" "'Ithit"tt "1"1 siifett°° °re. We are Dot content with the assumea Me-
te lie esetimileal, one basis of the mortality of the race, nor with the told
reeoneiliation must be this deepest, yid- comfort of the posthumous immortality of
est. anal most certain of fads, that the the famous and renowned. It does not
P"wer wilbil the 17iltyer8e iliatiffes,t° 1° tie° satesty inc. who run neither renoweed nor ese thinks bewae not with pot a y and. abuse a lt; SC.
- "Plies° he mewl' famous, to say with the old heathen, "My And Time leastmade Mut; Thou artjust. out of college and left to the
made to die.
enselves for
Y the hearth, more frmt upon, the (Amanita
le utter)). inserutable." /
aite's work done, let darkness ince more Thou seemest human and Divine. amusemmt extract more from mimicry, fun, air.
tree, and more music of love in the wiutry
Davio Sweet.
that it lila* depths which evince, with its lir
instrument% ram notpenetrate. "There islet cover me." The hope of irnmortality cannot
realite," said Sir .Tames Paget, in an adinite
, be extingueslical in the human breast. eon -
able address on the relations of eolgy and
, , science and feeliug alike require, alemend it.
science, " There is in reality
, . . 210 artii° Ana the revelation of Jesus Christ alone has
wine is alt t eat some ean pretend to iitrong San of God, immortal love, whoever well read thohlographies of eminent
net he prejeaie d or very ignorant if beWhom eve that have not 250131 Thy face, mon will be glad thee tome hooks have been
litioelaly " but eaut these things be By faith, and faith alone, embrace,
Belleving, weere we cannot prove. written lay what is called "native talent"-
proveas talent in its own native air.
les take rem ealicut instance, Thine ere tbeee orbs of tient and shade,
As painters spring ttp outside of school
Titv t'4 it,svIstAn Thou modest life in man and brute
Thou modest death: and lo Thy foot singers away from Paris or Berlin, 8i great sanest, itn acute reasoner, a powerful
I de not nice& eve that aeoliing.is to be Is on the skull which Thou bast, mulles stateemen come from cornfielas thus came
521(' writer, all combinea in one Olemeehas fought,
epie-eitte Is a reasonable faith the Thou wilt not leave us In the dust; M. Dickens up to a wonderful' authorship af gelled figlr for loll theoltildreaoped hence -
:rase es-semi/en I do not even linew Thou mutest man, be knows not wile, ort for t t lent will be a hotter fire on
thet theiwy of spentammus generation,
waieis sa.s tieveSary to give com-
pleteness to the other. would rweessitate
tia abandonment of faith in Goa ; it woula
hut throw the rfW,!.4 ievoriale one step fate
Mae laaiit. It mite. " a true inferenee
from allaiO.4V that probelay all the ergauie
thni4e whieli have ever on thie earth
have &mewled fn011 SOW OHO primordial
feria into wbieli life was first breathed."
TI4V 0:14,?stion Prout may he true that
im.leheen must be the primertliai snit.
TiOTO may have mien n " aeried,
laginuine yeam, ago, when the
temitrieity of the cattle's 11ibit, whiefx for
the la.st ite4,0uo years has been '016, varied
from `21; All these things may be
true, aud if they are, I do not see that they
will runil affeet ray religion,/ belief. In.
lived, Sir James Paget seem that "the unity
of mature becnines only more and more sig-
nificant aif the Unity of God."
lint are they nnt stated a little too posi-
tively? " It usea to he supposed,"not so
very long ap, "that them] was a dark body
enveloped m a luminous atmosphere. The
reverse now appears to be the truth." And.
yet, the theory of evolution, which was as-
sumed as proved by Professor Tyndall is
ranked by Sir John Lubbock among the
conclusions of science as surely proved "58
the discoveries of the spectroscope and the
development of peometry." I have already
said that it wouldnot disturb my faith, if it
were ; but when I am asked to accept as a
proof, that" without community of descent,
how can we explain the fact that the frame-
work of bones is so similar in the arm of a
man, the wing of a bat, the fore -leg of a
horse, and. the fin of a porpoise," or am told
that if I refuse this I am bound to furnish
another theory of the existence of rudimen-
tary organs, I feel a want of logical force in
these challenges, and I claim as a right, to
- distinguish between what Sir James Paget
calls the distant inferences" of science and
its palpable and clearly ascertained facts.
I am aware that Professor Huxley thinks
he had found a "demonstration of the kind
that I require, in three successive stages in
the genealogy of the horse ;but besides the
precariousness of the adduced facts as evi-
dence of a developmental sequence, few in-
ductive generalisations which have taken
rank among the principles of science have
ever rested upon so namely a basis of ob-
aervation as this. And thinkers of much
eminence have thrown grave doubts on this
theory, which at least bids us pause before
we accept it as the undoubted account of the
present condition of things. "The specula-
tions of Lamarck," which were in the same
direction, says Professor Phillips," have met
with a full and fair examination in Lyell s
"Principles of Geology," leading to a clelib-
trate rmection of the hypothesis, and a deoi-
eive affirmation ot the reality of species in
nature." "Professor Sedgewick,' says the
same eminent writer, " has communicated
to the Cambridge Philosophical Society an
the examination of the evidence bearing on
Darwinian hypothesis not less searching
than that formerly directed by the
same hand into the doctrine contain
ed in the work, entitled Vestiges o
. Creation,' and with the same result -ea a-.
cided rejection of the hypothesis." And if
these opinions be thought antiquated in the
face of more recent research, Virchow, who
surely is in the first rank of the professors,
and abreast of the latest discoveries of mod-
ern miencet preclaime with no faltering
tongue, that, with regard to the 'alleged con-
nection between man and the mat of the
animal kin adom-sO far from " this desider-
atum in science" being proved, on the con -
ho lest num , Thou, and ridicule than from all other sources.
Our wills are outs,we know not how.
Our wins aro ours, to make them Thine, The mind of young Diekens.was thus train-
ed by. the joking crowd. He became won-
derfully capable of seeing such youth sat
Sam Weller. The Pickwick Papers came
of ane t le nes wets. eatisflea conscience and feeling. Just as Starving into Submission,
can be the subject of direct sewneific mousy. the Franc= an said, if there were not a
. The disputes begin in questions It is well known Mutt the present policy
Goa "11 would be necessary to invent
in whieliknowledge is neither clearly reveal- of stopping trade and all food supplies m-
illet as Professor Huxley says: that " the
ea, nor clearly within the present reach of barwenian theory of descent !mallet heenpre- tended for the Arab population of the
science -in such questions as•the method et Eastern Soudan is causing great misery
creation, the relation of en= to the lower ° I'm among the natives in that region. A .cori
Bente(' to the palaeontologist
haa th invent, it, to aesount for the plan
animals, the natureand relation of mend and respoutlent writes, from Saukim that serums
nominal. before him," so John Stuart ammosity
matter, on tree will end law, on am against Eugland is developum
held that, oven if the hope of immortality among the people. This is a HOW feature,
possible nature and eondetions of states . of were illueion, it were well matinee:teed;
conscious existence other than those in which for hitherto the evils provoked by the nus -
we live now. No one can snstly maintain
that either revelation or science can supply
nearly exact knowledge on these matters, or
can make us sure of what may be inferred
from what 'WO think of them." And. he
adds," In these discussions it is generally
believed that one side must be in the wrong.
Yet, in many of them, both may be right, comfort and stay. !further that sometimes mothers are driven
and their opposition may be due to their TILE Hammes MINISTER -
both being ignorant of some internmor THE TWO GREAT aiate /NG SERVANTS. ; from One gate and the children from another,
to the south or north to die, and are thus
Pe was the hope of Francis Bacon, expres- never enabled to meet again on earth. A
tied in the preface twills great philosophical.large number of thesepoor exiles are report -
work, the " Instauratio Magna," that by . ed to be wandering about the shores and
his new method of scientific inquiry he had reefs, dragging out a miserable existence
established a true and legitimate union be- upon shellefish, waiting for the better days
tsveen the twat faculties, the empirical and that never seem as if they would dawn.
the rational, wbose morose and illomened .
ferenee from facts in science, that miracles
divorces and reeudiations had thrown every -
are impossible, or a. resurrectionor that thing into confusion in the human family. Extraordinary Confession of Grime.
, '
God became man, so let it be; from the It is on the same ground that I humbly but A singular confession of crime has just
purely seientific point of view, such things earnestly deprecate even the appearance of been made in one of the Paris hospitals.
seem impossible.; but from the religious a,conflicebetween science and Cluistianfaith. The 'ease should act as a powerful stimulant
point. of view we may hold them to bo not We are each of us -teachers of soience and to persons who have secrets they do not
only.hossible but sure; and the religious teachers of religion -being wounded in the wish to be known to actively combat any
house of those Nebo oa ht to be our friends. tendencythey may have to hysteria. A
conviction has a right to be no less strong
that the scientific. Science cannot infer or
define all possibilities."
Surely, the great statement of St. Pad,
which I have prefixed to this discourse, and
which contains the idea that I meant to run
through the whole of it, and th redeem it
from the charge of irrelevancy, is not in; con-
flict witle any greet principle of science.
Man may net be able by scientific processes
to find out God: his microscope and tele-
scope and chemical experiments stop on the
verge of the "inscrutable," and ca,nnot pene-
trate its, abysmal darkness; but if another
faculty can discern through the darkness
"the hands that reach through nature,
moulding men," there is nothing that com-
pels us to reject these inferences of faith,
which are not irrational, which rest 'upon
their proper evidences, which in one form or
other may be 'found universal, and which
have commended themselves to minds which
find no natural repugnance between science
and piety. • ,
Dirt the Christian mysteries give him no
trouble?.was a questiofa asked 'of Sir David
Brewster ° upon • hie death -bed.' • "None.
Why should they? We are surrounded
by mysteries. His own being was a
mystery -he could riot explain the relation
of his soul eo his body. Eteryborly believe&
things they could not understand.' ' The
Trinity.or the 'Atonement was a great deep ;
so was Eternity, BO' Was Providence. it
caused him no uneasiness that he could not
account forthem. There were secret things
Omit belonged to God. He made no attempt
to reconcile the sovereignty of grace with
the responsibility of mac; they. ware both
true. He manta wait to see their harmony
deared they .were not cantrary to reason
however Incomprehensible. . . .
thanked God the 'way of salvation was
simple; no laboured argument, • no hard at-
tainment was revived. To belie/eh in tbe,
so belpful Wal it alld. comforting. Memo, government of affairs have been laid against
certainly, has neither the right nor the Egyptian rule rather than the English eon.
power to rob us of it. Humanity -at boast trol. Once more starvation is decimating
the mass of it -is not so rich .thati It scan 'the people, and even the Sheikhs and Thlema
afford to part with whet, to it, isno illusion, I are en want of bread as well as the poorer
butts revealed truth, whichhas provedto it dunes. By official order numbers of natives
actual experience, in hours of darkness, are turned out of Sauldm only to die of
temptation, sorrow, trial, an unspeakable actual want in the desert. It is alleged
truth which, when gamed by increasing
knowledge, will combine the truths they
now hold apart. Both sides are right, in
tnat which may be claimed as well aecer-
taineil knowledge, and distant inferences on
one side should not be allowed to weigh
against knowledge or meat probability on
the other. If it be maintained, as an in.
trary, 1' every positive advance which we
have made in the province an pre -Materiel Lord esne Christ wasi to riVe. either elearness or sohnety to their 3udg-
sida" • •
is a. conflict in whic , if fought out to the young . woman on the occasion refereed to
bitter end, some of the highest interests of was seized with such an acute hysterical at -
society would be imperilled. It is an un- I tack that it was found necessary to place
necessary, and therefore anunrighteous, war. I her under medical treatment. At last she
It would seem that no single resource of the fell asleep. Those who watched by her bed -
human mind is adequate to bear the pres- side were destined to hear a shocking tale.
sure, or satisfy the demands of man's During her uneasy slumber thematient re -
nature, taken at its best or at its worst; coueted with the most painstaking exactness
and the knowledge which feeds the soul, all the details of an assassination which she
and supplies motives to moral conduct, is stated. had recently takee place, and to
at least as helpful and as necessary for the ' which she averred she herself had been a
mass of mankind as that which teaches them 'party.. After she had awakened and was
their place in the universe of matter, oh ex- sufficiently strong to be interrogated, the
plains the framework and mechanism of self -accused criminal was informed of what
that physical body, so fearfully and wonder- had transpired. At first she seemed to be
fully made. greatly shocked and frightened, hut finally
There is another side to this subject which affirmed that what she said was the truth.
ought not to be passed over. There are ser- This was uttered in such a convincing and
vices which the spirit of scientific inquiry has circumstantial ' manner that those around
rendered to the cause of true religion which I her, though disposed to make every allow -
it wouldbe uneandid and ungenerous not to ance for the condition in which she was
recognize. And upon this point I prefer re- ! when the astounding declaration was made,
peating what I said in a sermon preached felt no other course was open to them but
Just thirteen years ago. The repetition will, to inform the authorities of the extraordin-
at least, show that on this subject I have not ary affair. This was done, with the result
changed my mind. I had chosen for any that the woman was taken insto custody.
text a passage (Acts xxviii. 8-6) containing Great interest is manifested as to how the
anincident in the story of the shipwreck, stra.ngs occurrence will terminate.
which had been read in the lesson for the e. •
day, and I remarked :-
" It is the prevalence of the scientific tem- A Great Financial Disaster.
per, more, perhaps, than anything else, "Ah, my beautiful Edith, I 'am over.
which has redeemed religion from supersti- come with anguish."
Mous corruptions, affecting both faith and "Why Reginald I"
practice. Observe the crude and utterly ri I have come to tell you that our marri-
unwarranted, hypothesis by which these age cannot take place. A great financial
'barbarous' Maltese, who received St. Paul disaster has overtaken me."
=dials shipwreeked companions, attempted "Alas, my poor Reginald, but we still
to account for any extraordhuary phenome- love each other; and you forget MIMI have
non. They had kindly instincts; they be- alittbs money."
lieved in God and in the accouptability "Yes, that's just it ; it is so little. I
man -the two fomidations of the principle lways thought that it was at least a huia-
of religion; but, reasoning as they reasoned, dred thousand, but I've just found out that
this mere belief waseinsufficient to give it can't excessi forty thousand at the out -
Zags and reuttry lit England.
Mr. John Sanders of Hemptsille, Ont.,
who was sent by the Dominion government
very naturally teem one whose college had to England. to make inqutries rbartling the
been found in his own oyes and ears. egg and poultry business there7has return -
The "Christmas Carols " were a direo et. In his report to the Finance Minister
aid to an enlarged. and eejuvenated holiday, he says that the market Is practiaally un -
but all of Mr. Dieliens' 'smiting, in Um limited for All manner of farm produce, Tula
memory end. commiseration of the neglected particularly of the prodtte° at the barnyard.
boys, were powerful blows dealt the stony,He states that fowls should be prepared
heart of the world. He made vere visible for the Englieh market as follows: Both
the huinbler classes. He diselOsed the soul turkeys anal geese must, before being killed,
that lay under the ragg.ed clothes, and he'. be starved 24 hours, or at least until the
made more noble all the men and women , crop is entirely empty. Turkeys should be
who would become the friends of the poor. i bled in the neck and the head and feathers
Hail net Mr. Dickens laughed even while left on anl entrails drawn. Geeseshould be
he lampooned abuses, his books would have bled in the same manner, but the feathers
had less influence because they would have should be Ricked off, except those on the
been less read. The world iuns after fun wings, leaving the down on the body and
as flies seek sugar. It is fortunate for the ' the entrails in. Geese must not be
boys of the world that the "Pickwick scalded, but simply . rough plucked. Al]
Papers" and "Nicholas Nickleby " were not petal y should be killed the day before
serious volumes. The lessons against abuse' deliverY to the Canadian purchaser, so that
ter, the lesson being often only a kind of
and cruelty are taught amid roars of laugh. the animal heat mom be completely gone.
Fowls should be packed. in eases, each, of
side -play is soen found to be an important which shonld contein not more than -00
part of the drama. After the laughter had Pounds weielbt, say 18 or 20 fowls. Each
ceased the lesson of love reznains. package should be marked with the number
' Mr. Dickens was not 5 believer in the of birds, the weight of the package and
"unities" of plot and person. He began whether it contains cocks or hens. Regard.
books without looking ten pages ahead, but ing
the important question of prices, Mr,
about the • unities " if only it has lots ex
e 12 cents a pound, turkeys at 16 cents and
Sanders says that geese sell wholesale for
the reading world does not Care anythine
should, in the main, point toward some fowls at • anywhere from 80 to 60 cents a
pair. Eggs were always in demand and the.
Inc. The writer saw • to it that the fun
prisons, the courts, the private schools, the .
price laid down invariably higher than
betterment of the humbler millions. The
ezr-cum-locution offices, the self-righteous, could be got in the States. He says: "I.
observed that nearly all the eggs placed on
the argument, even if the love affair of the the British market from European countiies
were packed in long straw, usually bright
the icy -hearted, were all well cared for in
novel at times grew thin. and clean, but in a few instances not so. 111y
That Christmas carol, in which old Scrooge own opinion is in favor of packing in clean
undergoes such a conversion from being an cut straw, and from the experience I had
old sniveling growler about the " Christmas some years ago I intend using it . in future
humbug," is an essay frofn reading which cases shipments. largeenough
eggs should be packed in
nearly any human being living would rise a oh to contain 12 long hun-
better man. Scrooge is so set in amid fun, dreds ; that is, 120 dozen. This size of
puns, jokes, tears, and ghosts that the pieco packages necessitates their being handled by
acts upon the reader like a stage covere two men, and the experience ot European,
with great actors. Humor is never absent. •
h shippers shows that there s a muck
pathos is never absent, wisdom is always on sffmaller percentage of breakage three
hand, and in the end one iof the meanest packed in ' cases that can be!
misers becomes a great heart that would
of handled by one man. These. cases have a
?mean be
love to have Christmas come many times central divisional board, so that
carol, Mr. Dickens leads out his star actor, The usual commission for 'selling • is 5 per
il trade. '
each winter. . When in the opening
. of this sawn into when required for there
he holds the audience to the play.thereafters. cent. although I found some hops willing!
"Hard and sharp as a. flint from whieh 'no I to sell f ir 8 per cent. Ae. the sale and prices
steel had ever struck out generous fire, . of all f nel products in the English market
oyster, Lite cold . within him froze his old are largely infleenced by ' the reputation
She products of the . country from
secret, self-contained, and solitary as an bf
Scrooge, but when the carol is done this which the article cameo, anclias Canadian
poultry and eggs are comparatively new ta
features." Such lines give us the face of
to all people, high and lore, and saving that market, it is of the Sitmost importance
that no inferior article ra should be sent, but
old, mean niiser is seen scattering his smiles
group of families from ruin. a, !that they 'should be packed and shipped in
_ 1 such a manner as to be most acceptable to
. In the" Chimes " and the " Christmas the market and invith g to the consumer. .
Tree" the ' December feast receives more • , -
real help than literature had ever before ex- • The last lineal descendant of Christopher
tended, it. This author has now become eo Columbus, the discoverer of America, is re-
fer removed from the day . of his tretimplf, potted to be d.ying. 'That be has ever done
:that few realize how great' was • his fame. 'anything 'to peepetuatethegloryof his house
The zeal over recent writers, has ben quiet: does not empear. , The inose noticeable thing
in comparison with the entliiipiasm whichlholicernieg, him seeihs to he • that "he is a.
once buret forth,oVer the . name. of Charles breeder of thebest fighting hulls." ' What a
1
'Dickens. Filty thouiand copies of some of degradation is this 1 The discoverer of a,
his publications were sold within a fear days New world have his line go out in a breeder
He waster some years the autocrat of the of fighting bulls. It teaches, however, that.
book trade. ' ' I noble aspirations . are not hereditary
31 that wonderful blare of fame has burntf and that no= can tell ieto what unwors
.down not a little, the impulse given to phl- , thy aesocietidns his u,qrne may be brought bee
anthropy by that fame remains eating still. 1 those who.conte after him,'
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