Show EVOLUTION VERSUS revelation it is recognized generally that growth is s the product of time and that which is to endure comes of slow accretion particle by particle yet each one ministering to the grand result comparing one thing with another the earth was developed and fitted for its purpose by such periods as seem to man to partake of the infinite or as human phraseology goes the eter eternal nall six days says the record which man has interpreted according to his limited vision and thus created that conflict between so called science and theology which is felt in certain religious circles even at the present day yet there is abundant evidence that those days or periods far transcend all measurements which are familiar to human calculation the foundations of the british govern ment reach back at least to the days of alfred now somewhat over a thousand years ago and probably our welsh brethren would assert that the foundations of rule existing there were laid in the mountains of wales before even the th e roman invader pressed with his bis triumphant foot the soil of britain bep be fore bore or about the time of christ however far we reach backward for the first planting of the seeds of liberty or study the special epochs th thereof ereo such as that when the baron wrested or secured from king john on the field of runnymede that great charter of freedom which still remains we are forever confronted with the fact that evolution is mans order begotten or developed by the processes of experience and determined in part by necessity as it presented itself from time to time the brightest scholar that ever trod the earth entered the portals of progress through the first elements of his mother tongue the masters ot 01 musical conception had to utilize in their most sub sublime I 1 ime efforts the initiatory qualities powers and value of primary notes and tones all the scientific achievements of today their potency and promise sprang irom from meagre observation and small beginnings in the not far distant past just as the child grows imperceptibly to manhood or womanhood as from the tiny seed grows the mighty oak as from the egg the condor or the ostrich from brorn the embryo the elephant and the whale as from almost invisible germs of life flowers and grasses glorify the earth so all things in the order of god shadow forth in part ceaseless yet perennial labor of his children childred struggling upward now from past or present conditions to fulfil fulfill the measure of their creation and the fiat ot of destiny or divine decree made and established in an infinite past one to which the present I 1 is i s batt as a grain of sand or the mote in the sunshine sunshine of a summers day first the seed and soil then the blade then the ear then the lull full corn in the ear is written in words of fire on all things by the invisible finger ot of deity and testified to by human travail and experience whether the great first comm cause or of things is realized or or not so ingrained is is this in in the very constitution ution of man and things that no mother would set aside we toe gradual development ot of her offspring irom from infancy to maturity a any ny more than the farmer or horticulturist would wish for or expect to see springing to glorious perfection instanter tle the creatures ot of his patience or his bis care some of these may appear to possess a transitory beauty may mav appear to be like jonass gourd which came caine up in a night and perished d in a night but no more is expected than Is determined of experience and found to be inherent in their very verv constitution but bat there 11 appears to be in these several ite items ins of experience and vate quite a difference between human knowledge man mans manis Is methods and institutions and those which are divine this 91 have been set out in clear may vot not phrase or as an essential difference marked of philosophy but to the writer to belong to the border land it appears where two great corces meet and then sever ver each working on its own plane harmonious to the higher power no doubt yet comprehended ended of the other r only as it may perceive by reason of the receptive character of insight when illuminated of the holy spirit the word or principle of evolution seems to circumscribe all mans experience and progress he learns and that hardly from experience he changes adapts provides for emergencies as they arise from time to time as he becomes educated so does he evolve auxiliary laws regulations and institutions many of these most of them are trim transitory altory they are expedients their 1 I action is undetermined and the results uncertain there is lit little stability and changes are nude made from partisan feeling without re reference terence to principles which are eternal no reference either is is made to any authority outside e of human interest touch much 0 ot which is momentary no supplication is made to any power beyond man it being apparent that he considers himself equal to the situation hence under evolution as thus interpreted security permanence endurance is rarely prognosticated of any measure recommended or passed by any official or by the represented or convened avis vis dom of the nations individually or arother other wise it was doubtless some such inspirational conception which led the prophets to predict the overthrow of all human institutions government and rule they must have detected in them the elements of disintegration and overthrow and divine wisdom and divine intent must have been to them almost transparent as it were or they could not so confidently and gloriously have shadowed foreshadowed fore an era and rule so far ahead of all past or present t experience a government so far superior ilor as cluid could only find utterance in human 12 expression as to endure for over ever and ever aias the fundamental difference then as it appears between human action and divine purpose is that the one is transitory begotten of expediency evolved from experience or determined by partisanship or popular clamor the other the divine order is of revelation mans wisdom cannot fathom or compass it he know nothing of the natural sequence of principle only as it is revealed from time to io time he could not know of him self that faith must precede repentance and that baptism must follow repentance and that by the laying on of hands there is or could be transmitted or transfused that potent power called the holy ghost or the holy spirit no human experience no sense of necessity could discover or indicate this order or determine the now plain precedence of one principle over another nor could anything of human lore de that the gifts and manifestations of power should or would follow the acceptance cep tance ot of this order or that divine authority to administer would be the key to the vital recognition and reception of the blessin blessings 9 s here enumerated or implied it can readily be seen that if for these primary these initiatory ordinances divine authority and revelation was an absolute necessity that it was still more imperative for the government of the organization or church growing out of the inevitable concentration and unity of believing souls and the argument is vastly mote more potent in its app application 1 to the he prophetic anticipation of the building in up of zion and the establishment of the tte kingdom of goclon the earth it is easy to understand that neither congressional nor parliamentary methods would answer here party spirit and expediency as we know them would be valueless in an assembly moved upon and inspired by the divine spirit the contentious contentions and rivalry now seen would find no place in an assembly presided over by the king of kings and lord of I 1 lords 11 or by his representatives to whom might be given the keys of authority and power the order exhibited there will surely be a counterpart of that exhibited in the formation and preparation of the earth in the determination of sequence and stability as seen in the normal condition of all created things each in its own order having its times and seasons its predetermined location and use by an economy understood nay arranged before begin beginning had its day I 1 that human conditions condition its darkness and struggles its methods of madness and gleams of intelligence may have had their purpose need not be denied but that was doubtless to demonstrate mans ignorance blindness weakness and sin that he from the recognition thereof might seek for redemption from grovelling gro velling inexperience through methods devised of higher intelligence than is his human character of slow growth errs and becomes warped perverted deformed by the influences and institutions of man and human wisdom it is glorified enlarged by the divine spirit and the gospel of god all its accretions thus made are permanent and need no correction evolution under mans banys ideals is superseded by unmistakable growth under the divine order ot of inspiration and revelation from on high the product of the former is transitory must be corrected removed destro destroyed ed the results of the latter partake of the features and characteristics of god and christ they are enduring are eternal and the manifestation of the results of obedience to the loving voice of divine teaching and wisdom alone will unity mankind until all its aspirations and institutions shall be one tor for in him there is neither greek nor jew barbarian bond or free for christ is all in all alu occasional |