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< / SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1908. RELIGION AND THE LAW f j By REV. EVERETT DEAN ELLENWOOD, PASTOR UNIVERSAL1ST CHURCH AW Is the beginning of civiliza tion. It U the result of man' L first conscious conception of God. The recognition of the existence of that power not ourselves, which ■tkes for righteousness.” Is always in injunction with our recognition of rtaln Used rules and regulations rough which human safety ami hap- i r eKs are to be secured and main- mod. Therefore, the man who rccog- ,PK the value of lav acknowledges lief In the existence of God, even hough his private philosophy may not dmlt the fact. A Law-abiding People. As a nation we consider ourselves a liflous people. We are given over to .. op.crvances and the customs of Worship. Every known brand and type I religion flourishes here unmolested. ■ would appear then that we must oe re-emineAtly a law-abiding people; hat the laws of our land must receive he immediate and loving allegiance of who have brought them Into be lt is an unhnppy commentary y .., our boasted civilisation that a ar<Tul and unprejudiced analysis of he spirit and temper of the*Amerlcan .enplc and a faithful examination of udlolii! records makes denial of this rood boast. , e not exactly a lawless people, cannot with honesty claim for in-selves that we are In reality a law- hldltig people. Not until we shall find hit the vast majority of our people ■ in tile law" through natural choice er Ilian fear of the penalty for Its tetion, may we know ourselves to S*?j rul j; law-iovln* and law-abiding: • *»?* H one th,n » to be submls- ®;Y e to ,aw * In the absence of any other motive to decency this is well. It Is undoubtedly the beginning: of right eousness, but It Is quite another thing to actually live in the law, and to be able to say with Israel’s noted singer. oil, how I love thy law.” The really law-abiding citizen spends no time In endeavoring to evade the provisions of the laws of hls community, but endeav- ors rather to fully acquaint himself with nil the Intricacies of accepted leg islation, In order that he may not un wittingly become a transgressor. He does not ask “how far may I go and still keep out of the penitentiary?” but rather, “how may I best observe the spirit as well as the tetter of this law? Causes of the Failure of Law. Various causes may be assigned for the altogether too general and \uay disregard for law in this country. In too many minds this evil is due. no doubt, to a grievous misinterpretation of the function and the object of law. Much wholesome education is needed In certain quarters to convince men and women that the law is designed to insure for each individual the largest and fullest liberty rather than to oper ate for the curtailment of personal privilege. We need also more wise and careful supervision of our legisla tive bodies In order that the menacing mass of foolish and venal laws shall be abolished and prevented. We are not suffering from any lack of legislation. Rather are we already surfeited by It. Our statute books bulge with laws and enactments whose obscurities and In tricacies are at once the despair and the Joy of the lawyers, making absolute Justice as difficult to secure as the parabolic passage of the camel through the eye of the needle. It Is high time that wd should . cbmmence sending statesmen Instead of politicians to the legislature. Class legislation is an other of the serious menaces to our na tional Integrity. No law Is worthy the sane consideration and Willing allegi ance of enlightened iqen whose opera tion cannot be calculated to unfailingly work happiness and comfort to all the people. The only possible Insurance for universal respect and observance of law exists In.absolute' impartiality In the enactment and the enforcement of leg islation. So long as our distorted con ception of the Interpretation and appli cation of law sends to the chain gang the wretch whose temporary exigency or hereditary propensity appropriates a loaf qf bread, and sends to congress the skillful villain who wrecks a bank or •teals a railroad, so long shall we labor against fearful odds to teach men to become law-abiding citizens. We need to learn, too, that we do but spend our labor in vain when we attempt to leg islate ahead of public sentiment. The law Is always the creature, not the cre ator of a public sentiment toward right eousness In any given Item of conduct. No law* may be counted upon to pro.ve anything more than a constant source of irritation and discord whose enforce ment is not demanded by the majority of the people. The zealous, but fanati cal advocates, of new and special legls- REV. E. D, ELLENWOOD. Igtion need to learn that the attempt to legislate public sentiment Is about as logical as Don Quixote’s battle with the wind mills. Exaggeration of Individualism. Probably one of the greatest diffi culties in the way of ready observance of law’ Is the prevalent exaggeration of the individual consciousness. This Is, above, all else, the age of the Individ ual. While true progress is only pos sible through the possession of an es sential amount of egotistic conscious ness, yet we face great danger of Its over-emphasis at the expense of the Indispensable social consciousness. The tendency of the time Is for the insistent demand for individual privilege and the relegating to the background of sympathy and consideration the needs and the rights of others. The faithful practice of unselfishness and self-sac rifice will do more toward making a truly law-abiding people than nil the formal legislation wjflen civilization has evolved. Moral Effect of Prevailing Theology. It Is not too bold or too broad a statement to declare that the deplora ble and prevalent lawlessness Is in a very largo sense the direct result of the prevailing and popular theology. If we believe that religion is the root of all law, then must we not trace the law's lack of power to error or weak ness in our religious conceptions? We believe that the consciousness of God in the heart is the very beginning of human legislation. The laws by which He reveals Himself to us and by which He maintains harmony In all the vast moral and material uni verse must be our only available pat tern for the laws whereby we shall seek to maintain harmony among the tribes and inhabitants of the earth. Therefore, ft must naturally follow that our conception of the worth and dig nity and nature of our own laws must be but an echo of our Idea‘of God and of the nature of Hls laws and the plan of their operation. If we conceive God and Hls laws to be omnipotent, impartial, constant, and absolutely im mutable and inviolable, then w’e may confidently expect our own laws, fash ioned after this beautiful and flawless pattern, to assume a corresponding dig nity and worth In our minds. On the other hand, if wo have been taught to think of God as a being endowed with human passions and impulses, fickle, capricious, creating a world today and repenting of It tomorrow' and destroy ing ft all that He may have a fresh start, requiting to be pleaded and in terceded with to induce Him to deal mercifully with the creatures He has brought Into being, granting special favors in answer to special supplica tions, breaking Hls own laws with ease and Impunity, and providing the means whereby those who viqlate Hls laws may escape merited and necessary pun ishment, In short violating every known principle of law and philosophy, then surely we may not be expected to en tertain a very exalted opinion or regard for human laws and enactments fash ioned after such an unworthy pattern. When we contemplate the theological fogs through which man has constant ly struggled upward toward God, we cease to wonder-that there is so much of lawlessness among men, and marvel rather that there Is so little. The most Important and hopeful step toward the maintenance of human law and order and wholesome social conditions is the general and avowed acceptance of a theology which is not at variance with normal human reason and experience, a theology which presents a God wor thy of constant and unswerving alle giance, and divine laws which may be depended upon to operate unfailingly and impartially. The man who believes that God will answer hls prayer for the rain hls own crop so much needs, regardless of the fact that hls neigh bor’s unstacked hay will be ruined by the same shower, will bo most likely to demand of a human judge the abro gation of the law enacted for human safety and the remission of the penal ty for the slaying of hls neighbor, on the plea that the victim had crossed his passion or his prejudice. The man who accepts with Joy the theory that the penalty of a world’s transgression was paid by the death of an innocent victim need not be sur prised if he finds himself regarding with easy complacency rather than with dismay the constant defeating of the very ends of human Justice and the unpunished violation of law. In a sane and civilized community the ob ject of punishment must always .be reformation; therefore, we do commit a grievous wrong against the offender whenever we permit hls offense against society'to pass unanswered and with hold from him the penalty required for hls return to citizenship. Let us reform our theology. Let us not expect our own attempts at gov ernment to be any more successful than our conception of the success of the government of God. r~ >•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••§•#•••( ; ». “A DRINK FROM AN OLD WELL” “O, that on. would givs me drink of which it by th* gait." —II Samuel 22:14. By REV. JOHN E. WHITE, PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH "HIS is an Old Testament “short i the well of Bethlehem. I do not wonder It la a tribute to David’s generous heart that he did not it out of the record, r for, on the ..hole. it does not reflect the greatest <iit mi him. David is the center, but the hero, of this bit of ancient lds- y. He whh not always a heroic man. wtia touched with our common In finities. “a touch of nature that makes hr world akin." Possibly that may nc- for the fact that he was a man God’s heat'L and certainly it ac- s for David’s attractiveness to the go. man, a, It Is that quality of humanness comes out here. "Oh, that one touM give me drink of the water of the Bethlehem, which la by the That doesn't sound like the lattlrllf Id, does It? It sounds like the In fact, David’s warrior days ire a bo ut fiver. He Is now an old man, living upon the love of hls i-lends, who know what he has been, r whom he still Wields u magic nfluenee. Whims. rely had David’s longing es- aped his lips before three men stood -utstde Hie hold buckling on their •r. “'i he king wants a drink from fell ut’ Bethlehem, which Is by tho mil he shall have It.” £h they sally to die. If necessary, * fight because It Is necessary: for To satisfy an old man’s fancy— « a drink of a certain water In nbedlcnce to what I suppose may Justly “ considered « sentimental whim. I.Rt is the cold, hard fact, when you at it. A moment ago we were raising and sharing David’s sentl- nt. hut 1 want to say this: When i- i-ndnientH and longings in hours f dr.-p.mdenoy are calculated to make for those who Jove us, we are playing u sorry part to give way to < a happy anti fortunate s friends ready to serve him. hut If he abuses hls Influence with hron ;miJ their devotion to him he fle- M Vf s them no longer. It was a lesson HI taught when the three heroes came ack bleeding, bearing the drink from that David did not have the heart to drink it. It Is very difficult to get such a lesson this where it fa needed, for by a strange mischief In human nature the people who give unjustifiable and cruel trouble to those who are devoted to them are proverbially self-righteous and always sinned against In their own opinions. But It is a fact never theless, known to God and right well known to men, that husbands and fa thers by the very power they have to compel the devotidn of the household, are often guilty of unmanly Insistence upon their whims and eccentricities. I am very sure also that wives and mothers sometimes keep their husbands and children miserable trying to please them, when they are in an ugly temper. What a sorrow! Keen as a sword at hls heart would It have been to David If these three grand friends of his had lost their lives to get him a drink of water. It will be harrowing to us for many a long day after. If some time we shall look upon a cold face and have our conscience tell us that we, by heartless moods and unreasonable de mands and extravagant cravings, wrote those chiseled lines of pain and care which death has frozen there for u* to see. Mistaken Longings. This story turns upon the fact, on which great emphasis is laid in the narrative, that David did not drink the water after they brought it. Js that not remarkable? Listening to hls plaint wo would suppose that If ho could just get a drink from the old spring at the gate he would be perfectly happy. But when It comes he disappoints tho three heroes and does not drink it after all. Possibly since they had brought It a long distance it had lost Its freshness and sweetness. David was in the spell of a mistaken longing. Hls imagina tion Invested th© water of the well of Itothleham with a charm It did not pos- Let this teach us contentment. Our longings are often mistaken. The old oaken bucket that hangs In thS well would be a disappointment If It were substituted for your waterworks. The i mill pond of your boyhood, which you J thought a little ocean, and the dear old [ creek you thought a river, were very | Insignificant when you went back to them after the lapse of years.- Do you long for the good old times before the war? Efery thoughtful man knows that th#good old times before the war would be considered bad old times if they were brought in to displace the present civilization. Does any man seriously think that “the old-time religion” of which we sing, the religion of a century ago, would be an Improvement on the Chris tianity of the twentieth century? Granted most gladly that there were aspects of the religion of our forefa thers vital and unspeakably valuable for every age, but the Christianity of missions and charities and philanthro pies and temperance and fraternity and of trained workers and of the Kingdom of God practically realized. Is a vast improvement on the Christianity around which wt throw the halo of rev erential sentiment. It Is worth a great deal to believe that God is marching on; that the gos pel In enriching human life, and that despite manifold error* and evils to combat, tho truth of Christ Is advanc ing all over the world. It was written of Christ, “He shall not fall not* be dis couraged.” When Christ comes It not be to certify and accredit the gos pel of pessimism. Who Drinks Blood? Let us come to the heart of the story. David did not drink the water the three heroes set before him, but I must not leave the impression that he declined It in a mood of mere caprice. The water, no longer fresh and cool, as the water of that old well had been to his youth, but this Is not the cause of hls strange action. When hls three friends placed the water at hls feet he looked upon them, and then the king that was In him, the nobility of hls nature, rose up to the sublime significance of what that water repre sented. If you are fond of fine specta cles, look at this. That water changed to blood In David’s eyes—the blood of heroes, drink It he dare not. DR. JOHN E. WHITE. The year after the war was over General Robert E. Lee was sitting one day on tho porch of hls home in Richmond, when he saw a straggling group of men hesitating at the cor ner. At length one of them approached the steps, hat in hand. “What c*n I do for you, my good man?” General Lee said. Well, general, mo and some of the boys have come down here to see you.” ‘Where are they?” ‘They are around the corner, general, being as I wasn’t as ragged as some of ’em they sent me to see you.” “Well, what is it I can do for you and your friends?” “Well, general, we’ve been a hearing up In the mountains that they were talkin' about puttin' you in prison at Washington and try In’ you for treason, and all that; so we Just made It up thar In the mountains to give you the best farm ther* was, if you would come up thar where you would be safe from the Yankees. If we ever get you up thar they'd never git you while we was livin’. And you shouldn’t never want for nothin’, neither.” When the man finished hls honest, earnest speech, the tears were rolling down Robert Lee's cheoks. Meanwhile all tho other* had gathered about the front. "God bless you, my dear men; but I cannot take your farm, and 1 cannot go with you. Go back and tell your people that no one Is going to harm me and that I nin well cared for hero.” When David looked at those battle- stained heroes, standing before him with the dear bought draught from the well of Bethlehem, It was no longer David, weak and unktngly, but David of old, a hero himself, thrilled by heroism and valor. He rose to the' moral sublimity of their deed of sacri fice and said: My God, forbid It me that I should do this thing; shall I drink the blood of theso men that lutve put their lives In Jeopardy?” And as he said It he became a holy priest and ponred it out unto the Lord as a sacrament. It was no longer water from the well of Bethlehem. It had passed Into a value far beyond hls selfish thirst, far beyond all that hls longing had ascribed to It. There are some things too precious for idle or selfish using, things that co'iit too much for unworthy employ ment. When we set about gratifying oar tastes and desires, do we ask, "How much blood hus gone Into the making of this thing I want?” If women cul tivated a fine sensitiveness like that Christ suggested when He said, “Not a sparrow falleth without the Father," would they be utterly Indifferent to the presence on their hats of a poor bird, murdered to make an idle ornament? When you are sitting In a theate chosen probably for Its dancers you would reflect upon how much modesty and virtue had to be murdered to make It possible for you to have an hour’s spectacle, w f ould your sense of man hood or womanhood experience no re vulsion? If you realized that the bargain counters you rush early to find some times represent the pitiful servitude, of thousands of half-paid operatives, to the necessity for cheap labor In order to provide for the American bargain passion, would It make no difference to you? That is what Thomas Hood meant when In “The Song of the Shirt” he began the great reform of London sweat-shops: "O, men, with sisters dear! O, men, with mothers and wives, It is not linen you’re wearing out, But human creatures’ lives.” Ths Power of Money. We are often reminded that money is power. There are moments In every man’s outlook upon society when it ap pears to be the only power and the only standard of power the world rec ognizes. Money Is power. Money ought to be power. But the power in money that ought to be, the only power It has a true title to, has no reference to the money Itself, but to what* It represents of human energy and life that gbes Into its cfeatfon. A dollar can claim only so much power as It hns cost of human powers to create It. A dollar Js a stor age battery; It stores up the blood, nerve life force of labor. The Intrinsic value of a dollar Is not determined as we are apt to think by what it will buy of things, but by what has bought It and can buy It. The real fact In the philosophy of money Is that when you spend a dollar you do not buy things, you buy men and women—what they have put or are willing to put Into things of their life apd labor. It therefore comes about (hat there are some things money has no right to buy because they cost too much of blood to bo the objects of trails. For instance, why does the con science of the country protest against the corruption of the ballot and the corruption of government, the buying of votes and the control of legislatures by money ? It is because'cltlzenship in this republic and the free government of this republic was secured at a sacri fice too sacred to bo put on the bargain counter. We have witnessed a remarkable moral tide rise very high In this coun try during the past two years. It le still rising and will rise higher. The great thing of our recent American history is not the splendid prosperity which has dowered the land in every section, but the great thing has'been the awakening of public conscience, for along with it and probably the ex planation of Its force, Is the realization that American Institutions are a value transcending the right of money to control them at a price, though that price were billions upon billions. They were not bought with money, they can not be sold for money. They were pur chased by blood. There are resources of infinite ‘public wrath deposited in the pages of Revolutionary history. Some conception of the possibilities of Indignation In public sentiment hat* been gained by Its manifestations against those who have used the op portunities of a tree government to amass giant fortunes by using legisla tures nnd courts/for commercial' ad vantage. but only a slight conception.* And the bottom Is ait that means a holy valuation upon the sacrifice, la bor and humnn service, which has gone Into the creation of a country like ours. Let ever our thought ascend higher still. This book on which I lay a rev erent hand, the Bible, this church and the soul liberty it smybolizes, religious liberty as a social possession, do yon appreciate what they have cost? The Christian religion, the gospel of Jesus Christ—will you put that In the scales and know what it cost? If you will, never again will you think lightly of It or allow Its message to you and its meaning for you go by with an Idle word or without a sincere* response of consecration. 1 ATHEISM TRIED BY THE TEST OF SCIENCE By REV. JAMES W. LEE, PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH IMHIHIHH'I R ELIGIOUS doctrine, like mathe mntleal. chemical, economic or doctrine covering any other form t fart, in order to be scientific, must imsed upon real experience, valid vldcnee, sound reasoning and must nforni to the laws of the universe. If must answer to action when put o the tost by the will and the prac- lcal lift*, so as not to bring intellectual onfitMon and uctual failure. Reason onstructs the universe of thought out 'f sensations, and if man were not ir ri*M the necessity of acting as well * ■» f thinking, he might take hls men al " rid for science. But ho has a Tactical life to live, and Is therefore J” er ,j lr necessity of dally testing hls nought-world by translating it Into msi.if fart. The Invisible Intellectual taohinery works far down beneath the mfaop. i educing separate impressions nil propositions. The conclu- ached may nppear to be oon- 'istPM the one with the other and ’ v,Ul the facts upon which they are " ! . but not until the thinker steps 'ble the hidden domain of thought fii* hard exterior world of tangible. a< 1 and begins to put hls conclusions [5 l 7 practice, Is he able to determine nc>r scientific value. The alchemists (■■L•* continued to devise schemes PJtract logical processes with a view’ Ending In the elements of nature dklr of life and the philosopher’s but the outside order smashed T*” mental traps as soon as they set netu. Ptolemy conceived a program Avetis with the earth In the nt * s «>f tho solar system, and tried wor ked out in the skies, but " u th ° stars in their courses fought dnst it and destroyed It. Copernicus more successful, because he de- “d ills system from a study of the H™ n * and hence it stood the prac- lost and was therefore scientific. n . Reed exactly upon the same lines ” determine what the religion of scl- "* ’hat we follow to find out what ’ar* of science or the atoms of - n '* - are. When our knowledge of ill nets is such that we can verify ‘' truth of it in sailing our ships, we l?*’ know we have found the stars of “nip. When our knowledge of the • < ules is such that we can verify , tn *th of it in cooking our food nixing out medicines, we may " that we have discovered the of science. When our kmml- ollgion Is such that we and triumphantly, we may know that we have found the religion of science. Perceptions and mental processes are confined within the limits of the per sonal self. We have no Intuitions of things except as they are presented to uh and used for data to build tip gen eral Ideas within us. The Intellect can only compare, contrast and combine the impressions of sense. It is when, therefore, man passes from thinking into acting that he is able to measure the practical value of hls Ideas. Clear- cut, consistent mental propositions thoroughly match the needs of the In tellect. But man needs food and must eat; he needs protection and must find raiment nnd a shelter; alone he Is Im potent, lie must come Into relations with others i f .its kind. He cannot encase himself within tho confines of hls consciousness and give himself up to nothing beside, watching hls In tellectual machinery thresh out the wheat of general idea* from the straw of separate Impressions. The world around him with nil that Is upon It, is In a perpetual whirl. He must move or bo run over. He must act or be de stroyed. He cannot nouse within him self the products of hls thought, how ever fair and ’beautiful they may ap pear to himself to he. lie must re produce them. He must plant his men tal seed corn with a view to future crops. He must sow hls Ideas In the plantation of the world. He must hold hls place In the rushing, mixed pro cession of which he forms a part. Hence, besides hls intellect to turn out thought, he must use desire and will to translate hls mental conceptions Into action. As soon as they visualize themselves and stand before him the form and color of fact, is able to determine whether they are on all fours with the universe or not. When he launches his mental ships on the real storm-tossed ocean, if they successfully outride the waves, he and all the world know that they lire seaworthy. When Count Rumford converted ids .theory of heat Into the tireless wheels of Coil, every poor man „n earth knew that it was scientific. When Gyrus W. Field turned hls the ory Into a cable of steel under the At lantic, all the world knew that It was scientific. Because an Idea Mr. Held has assumed to be true when put to the practical test did In fact act as though It were true. The way of histo ry Is strewn with the mental debris of l practical test as though they were true, and hence were thrown aside and left ns so much litter along the path of progress. Th© records of mankind are largely taken up with accounts off social, political, moral, religious and I mechanical theories which at one time’ or another were assumed to be true, but which failed to work In practice. All our verifiable knowledge, whether of the world, or man, or God, is such as passed muster with the Intellect, and afterward stood tho test also of the will and practical life. And It may be said that whatever the human intellect from any basis of fact hat* assumed to- be true, that when put to the test of the will and the practical life, did In fact act in universal experience, and so continues to ac(, as though It were true in science. If this were not so our intellectual world of nature and man and God would be illusions. We only know they arc not illusions be cause we can practice them without being discomfited, baffled and thrown back Into our private natures of InF- agination with the sad understanding With ourselves that no rails are laid In the world of fact to fit the mental engtnee we run out from our world of thought to move over them into the uttermost parts of the earth. Will the assertion made by Haeckel that there Ih‘ nothing beside matter and motion If assumed to be true, an swer to action in the practical life a* though It were true? Can this assump tttm be practiced without mental con fusion and actual failure? How will the belief that there is no God work when brought down from the region of Intellectual speculation Into the domain of every-day life? All this we can test by- valid evidence and sound reasoning. Tiie theory has been tried In history over and over again. We can select al most any one of the centuries of civili zation and find In it data sufficient to test the scientific value of the concep tion. In order to make the case per fectly clear we will begin with a period near our own time and within our own memory, and then proceed backward other ages for abundant, practical evi dence of the proposition that w*e cannot assume as true the declaration that there is no Ood, without Intellectual confusion and actual failure. The great revival of religion which began under the Wesleys and Whitfield In the mid dle of the -eighteenth century, domi nated the life and thought of English stlfy th-"T™Vh "..t TVfn'Tivinr „«r theories, once BMUmed to b« true, but I «peaklng people* down to *bout the wh.ch would not act when put tu the middle of but century. ThU move DR. J. W, LEE. ment not only took ecclesiastical form In Methodism, but it. profoundly af fected the life of the people, both in the old and the new world. It stimulated commercial enterprise, created Inter est In general education, modified the ology, and generated,a new political and social atmosphere. Old lines of thought, feeling and action were dis placed by new ones. It revolutionized and recreated English civilization. It Inaugurated a new' time, fresh with new Inspiration and new hopes. The horizon of thought was widened. Into this period, radiating and glowing with the fervor kindled by the preaching of the gospel of eternal truth, Charles Darwin was born In 1809, Herbert Kpenrer In 1820, John Tyndall in 1820 and Thomas H. Huxley In 1825. They were the children of the age Wesley and hls helpers created. The high pur pose with which they began their work was due In large measure to the Invtg orating moral and spiritual atmosphere they breathed from their very Infancy. Their deep ethical sense, their devotion to the truth, was awakened In them by thq moral conditions created by the spiritual lenders of the victorious evan gelism. The light by which they dis covered laws, regarded at the time as destructive of the foundations of re ligion, came to them from the truth the new-time preachers made trium phant. The courage which enabled them to fight for their convictions and publish to the world in spite of all op position evinced the fact that the self- denial and consecration of the religious leaders had found a place In the lives of the students of nature. In 1855 Herbert Spencer published hls “Principles of Psychology,” based {upon the theory of evolution. In 1880 he Issued a prospectus of hls sys tem of Synthetic Philosophy In which 1 beginning with the first principles «*f knowledge, he propped to trace tho progress of evolution In life, mind, so ciety and morality. In 1859 Mr. Dar win published hls work, on “The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec tion, or the Preservation of Favored Races In the Struggle for Life.” In this book he propounded the theory of biological evolution. Neither the "Prin ciples of Psychology” nor the “Origin of Species” w'ere read extensively by the people, but professors, editors and .stu dents read them, and In a very little w'blle almost every intelligent .person on earth had heard of the new doc trines of ’•evolution,” “struggle for,ex istence,” "survival of the fittest," etc. Newspapers; magazines and periodicals of every kind contained long review's and discussions of them. In 1844‘Pro fessor John Tyndall delivered his cele brated Belfast address before the Brit ish association. In that dellyemnce he read God out of the universe. The foundation of things was not intelli gent mind, but blind, whirling atoms. He declared that he saw In matter, in atoms, the promise and the potency of all forms of life. Notice was served on Christendom that the Almighty God, so long held by the belated and be nighted multitudes of all ages- to ne the maker of heaven and earth, must favor, vac*/* in favor of ths Dur« slsmantarv ”*CH*r< atom, the unit of mass and of thought “There was nothing but atoms and void, all else was mere whims out of date; It was needless for man to curry fa vor with beings who could not exist, To compass some petty promotion In nebulous kingdoms of mist.” III. The brilliant attempt of Professor Tyndall to dethrone God In the pres ence of the British association made an Impression without any parallel in the whole history of the Christian church. The atheistic tide was at Its flood. Professor William K, Clifford was saying that in a very little time, “evidence of the same kind and cogen cy us that which forbids us to assume the existence bettveen the earth nnd Venus of a planet as large ns either of them, would forbid our faith in a Divine Creator.” John Motley adopted the fashion of spelling the word God with a little “g.” John Richard Green, the historian, was giving up his creed end hls curacy in th© English church. Rudolph Virchow, the celebrated K byslologlst, was teaching nmterial- im In Germany. Emil DuBois-Ray- mond, another physiologist, whose name Is a household word, was spread- doubt that the existence of God is wholely unnecessary to explain any of the phenomena of the universe than, there is doubt If I leave go of my pen It will fall upon the table." With evolution for an Immanent cause of all things and natural selec* tlon for a general overseer, God wag rendered unnecessary. TOWN GETS LIQHT8 FROM TOWER. LINE. .Special to The Georgia a. Gainesville, Ga.. Dec. 1C.—By reason of the completion of the tower line between Gainesville and Atlanta, sev eral small towns on the Bouthern be tween here and Atlanta will have lights* of their own In the near future. The line nearly all the way Is within a* short distance of several towns, and* they are all seriously considering using electricity to light their streets, busi ness houses am! residences. * ’ " Already Buford has contracted with the North Georgia Electric Company to furnish the power to light the llttls city, and work will be begun at ones wiring the town. . ....... Thiti tower line Is said to be ths see ing the doctrine of atheism in Berlin, ond of its kind in the United States. Wundt, the most distinguished psycho! oglst of the present generation, was representing materialism at Leipelc. This movement to rule God out of ex istence In the seventies was the most grave and serious arraignment of the fundamental doctrine of religion ever kpown in the history of thought. It was not shallow and flippant, but earnest and dignified, and led by men of the highest character. Leaders in Israel were alarmed. Dean Church, scholar and saint, said: •There are reasons for looking for ward to the future with solemn awe. No doubt signs are about us which mean something Which w*e dare scarce ly breathe. • • • Anchors are lift ing everywhere, and men are comtnlt- ttnx themm-lves to what they may meet with nn the net." Georite John Roman*. pnhU.hed a “Candid Examination of Thelem,” In which he said: Inexorable logic ha. forced u. to conclude that viewing the question n. to the existence of a Ood only by the light which modern acience hue shed u-on It, there no longer appeara to be any semblance of an argument In It. can h. .. -— war. The flr*t one ever built wu In New York state, which crosse. the Niagara river ju.t above the fall, and lead. Into Canada. Woman Bound Ov.r, Accused of ateatlng a lot of .liver, ware nnd other article, from the Tab. ernacle dormitory for girl., where «he was employed, Sarah Jones, a negro woman, waa bound over to the state courts Friday morning by Recorder Droyiea. Her bond era. fixed at JJOO. The woman waa arrested by Detect. Ives Connolly and Starnes, who recov ered the stolen goods. Stole Smoli.bloo, The grocery store of Well. & Head, 529 Peter, street, was broken Into by a burglar some time Tbunday night and - one box of tobacco and three boxes of cigar, stolen. The burglar 1 effected entrance Into the store through the front door. The burglary was discovered shortly after midnight by Policemen McGahee and Uutler.