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THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN', SATURDAY, DECEMBER IB, 1906. RELIGION AND THE LAW 11 By REV. EVERETT DEAN ELLENWOOD, ! PASTOR UNIVERSAL1ST CHURCH | H L ,\W' Ir the beginning of civiliza tion. It Is th« result of man’s ttrst conscious conception of Gotl. recognition of the existence of -that power not ourselves, which makes Inr rlghteousrtess," Is always In conjunction with our recognition of certain fixed rule* and regulations nugh which human safety and hap- „i nP es are to be secured and main tained Therefore, the man who recog nizes the value of law acknowledges neHef In the existence of Ood, even iflough Ids private philosophy may not admit the fact. A Law-abiding People. ,\s a nation we consider ourselves religious people. We are given over to the observances and the customs of worship. Every known brand and type „f religion flourlahes here unmolested. It would appear then that we must oe pre-eminently a law-abiding people; that the laws of our land must receive the Immediate and loving allegiance of those who have brought them Into be lt Is an unhappy commentary upon our hoaated civilization that a careful and unprejudiced analysis of the spirit and temper of the American people anil a faithful examination of judicial recorda makes denial of tills proud boast, — are not exactly a lawless people, e cannot with honeBty claim for ourselves that we are In reality a law- ,biding people. Not until we shall find that the vast majority of our people -live In tl)C law" through natural choice rather thin fear of the penalty for Its Infraction,, may we know ourselves to , b * * truly law-loving and law-abiding nation. It is one thing to be submis sive to the law. Ini the absence of any other motive to decency this is well. It Is undoubtedly the beginning of right eousness, but Jt is quite another thing to actually live in the law, and to be *° 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 his community, but erideav- ors rather to fully acquaint himself with all the intricacies of accepted leg islation. In order that he may not un wittingly become a transgressor. He does not ask "how for mav I 'go and still keep out of the penitentiary?” but rather, "how may I best observe the spirit as well as the letter of this law? Causes of the Failure of Law. Various causes may be assigned for the altogether too general and *usy 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 needad in certain quarters to convince men •and. women that the law is designed to insure for each individual the largest and fullest liberty rather tha’n 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 anl 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 we should continence 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 allegl ance of enlightened men 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 :\ loaf of bread, and sends to congress the skillful villain who wrecks a bank or steals a railroad, so tong 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 prove 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 legfs- 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 indlvld 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 trub REV. E. D. ELLENWOOD. lation 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 dlffl- legfslatlon which 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 la In a very large sense the direct result of the prevailing and popular theology. If we believe that religion is the root of all law, .non 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, it 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 His laws and the plan of their operation. If we conceive God and His laws to be omnipotent, Impartial, constant, and absolutely im mutable and inviolable, then we 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 we have been taught to ns'a being endowed with think of God ■ human passions and impulses, fickle, capricious, creating a world today and repenting of it tomorrow and destroy ing It all that He may have a fresh start, requiring to bo 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 His own laws with ease and impunity, and providing the means whereby those who violate His 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 1h ho much of lawlessness among men, and marvel rather that there Is so little. The most Important arid hopeful step toward the maintenance of human law and order i and wholesome social conditions Js the general and avow’ed 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 his prayer for the rain his own crop so much needs, regardless of the fact that his neigh bor's unstacked hay will be ruined J*y the same shower, will be most likely to demand of a human judge the abro gation of tire law enacted for humhn safety and the remission of the penal ty for the slaying of his neighbor, on the plea that the victim had crossed his passion or his prejudice. . The man who accepts wJth 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 his offense against society to pass unanswered and with hold from him the penalty required for his 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 thfe government of God. “A DRINK FROM AN OLD WELL” ... y., “0, that ana would givo mo drink of which 1* by tho gate, .—II Samuol 22 slien n By REV. JOHN E. WHITE, PASTOR SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH IMMMMHIHHMHI T HIS Is an Old Testament “short story.” It Is a tribute to David's ^onerous heart that he did not leave it out of the record, for, on the whole, It tinea not reflect the greatest credit on him. David is the center, but n«i the hero, of this bit of ancient his tory. He was not always a heroic man. Ho was touched with our common In firmities, “a touch of nature that makes the world akin.” Possibly that may ac count for the fact that he was a man after God’s heart, and.certalnly it for David’s attractiveness to the average man. Now, It is that quality of humanness that comes out here. “Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Itethlehein, which Is by the gate.” That doesn't sound* like the halt Id ield. does It? It sounds like the hospital. In fact, David's warrior days ore about over. He Is now an old man, who is living upon the love of his friends, who know what he has been, whom ho still wields a magic influence. Whims. Scarcely had David’s longing es caped his lips before three men stood outside the hold buckling on their srmor. "The king wants a drink from c well of Bethlehem, which is by tho nr, and he shall have It.” Forth they salty to die, if necessary, i«l to fight because It Is necessary: for fiat? To satisfy an old man’s fancy— to get a drink of a certain water in obedience to what I suppose may Justly be < onsidered a .sentimental whim. That . Is the cold, hard fact, when you look at It. A moment ago we were praising and sharing David's senti ment, but I want to say this: When our yontlments and longings in hours of despondency aVe calculated to make trouble for those who love us, we are playing a sorry part to give way to them. He is a happy and fortunate man who has friends ready to serve him, but If he abuses his Influence with them and their devotion to him ho de- *mej* them no longer. It was a lesson well taught when the three heroes came bark bleeding, bearing the drink from the well of Bethlehem. I do riot wonder that David did not have the heart to drink it. It is very difficult to get such a lesson as this where It Is needed, for by a strange mischief In human nature tiie 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, lip own to God and right well known to men, that husbands and fa thers by the very power they have to compel the devotion of the household, arc 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 his heart would It have been to David If these three grand friends of his had lost their fives to get him a drink of water. It will be harrowing to us for many a long day after.* If some time we ■hail look upon a cold face and have our conscience teil 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 us 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. Is that not remarkable? Listening to his plaint we would suppose that It he could just get a drink from the old spring at the gute.he would be perfectly happy. But when it comes he disappoints the 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 ft mistaken longing. His imagina tion invested the water of tho well of Bethlehem with a charm It did not pos sess. Let this teach us contentment. Our longings are often mistaken. The old oaken butket that hangs in the well would be a disappointment If It were substituted for your waterworks. Tho mill pond of your boyhood, which you 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 yedrs. Do you long for the good old times before the war? Every thoughtful man knows that the good old tlriies 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 Ve throw the halo of rev erential sentiment. It is worth a great deal to believe that God is marching on; that the gos pel Is enriching human life, and that despite manifold errors and evils to combat, the truth of Christ Is advanc ing all over the world. It was written of Christ, "He shall not fall nor be dis couraged.” When Christ tomes it will not be to certify and accredit “Ole gos pel of pessimism. Who Drinks Blood? Let us come to the heart of the story r . 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 wafer, no longer fresh and cool, ns the water of that old well had been to his youth, but this is not the cause of his strange action. When his three friends, placed the water at his feet he looked upon them* and then the king that was In him, the nobility of his 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, drlnk-lt he dare not. DR. JOHN E. WHITE. The year after the war was over General Robert E. Lee was sitting one day on the porch of his home In Richmond* when he saw a straggling group of men hesitating at the cor ner. At length one of them approached tho steps, hat In hand. "What c*n I do for you, my good man?” General Lee said. "Well, genera!, me and some of the boys have come down hero 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 "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 tryln* 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 his honest, earnest speech, the tears were rolling down Robert Lee’s cheeks. Meanwhile all the others had gathered about the front. "God bless you, my dear men; but I cannot take your farm, and I cannot go with you. Go back and tell your people that no one is going to harm me and that I am well cared for here.” 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 unklngly, 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 have put their lives In Jeopardy?” And as he said It he became a holy priest and poured It out unto the Lord as a sacrament. It was no longer water from the well of Bethlehem. It had passed into a valuo far beyond his selfish thirst, far beyond all that his longing had ascribed to it. There are some things too precious for Idle or selfish using, things that cost too much for unworthy employ ment. When we set about gratifying our taHteH and desires, do we ask, "How much blood has gone Into the making of this thing 1 want?” If women cul tivated a fine sensitiveness like that Christ suggested when He said, "Not 1 would they be utterly Indifferent to the presence on their hats of a poor bird t murdered to make an idle ornament? When you are sitting in a theater 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’i spectacle, would 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,nf 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.” The 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 goes Into Its creation. A dollar can claim only so much power as it has cost of human powers to create it. A dollar Is a stor age battery; It stores up th&~ 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 and labor. It therefore comes ubout that there are some things money has no right to buy beeauso they cost too much of a sparrow falleth without the Father,” | blood to be the objects of trade. 1 , 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 citizenship in this republic and the free government of this republic was secured at a sacri fice too sacred to be 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 fs 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, hut the great thing has been the awakening of public conscience, for along with It and probably the ex planation of Its force, Is the realisation 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 hlstoiy. Some conception of the possibilities of Indignation in public sentiment has been gained by its manifestations against those who have used the op portunities of a free government to amass giant fortunes by using legisla tures and courts for commercial ad-, vantage, but only a. slight conception. And the bottom Is all that means n holy valuation upon the sacrifice* la bor-and human service, which has gono 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 end the soul liberty it smybollses, religious liberty as a social possession, do you appreciate w'hat they have cost? The Christian religion, the gospel of Jesus Christ—will you put that In the scales und know what It cost? If you will, never ngnln will you think Ughtly of Jt or allow its message to you and Its meaning for you go by with an Idle word or without a sincere response of consecration. >«•••«•«•«*«••••»•«••«*< ATHEISM TRIED BY THE TEST OF SCIENCE By REV. JAMES W. LEE, PASTOR TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH R KL1GIOUS doctrine, like mathe mat leal. xhemleal, economic or doctrine covering any other form of fact, in order to be scientific, must h* based upon real experience, valid evidence, sound reasoning and must conform to the laws of the universe. b must answer to action when put to ,llP test by the will and the prac- life, so as not to bring intellectual confusion and actual failure. Reason ronstnutK the universe of thought out "f -Limtlons, and If man were not under the necessity of dieting as well « of thinking, he might take his men tal \v..rld for science. But ho has a practical life to live, and is therefore urnlor the necessity of dally testing his th'uifcht-world by translating It Into out.^i.io fact. The invisible Intellectual ,n; > hinery works far down beneath the surface, reducing separate Impressions general propositions. The conclu- *f" n « reached may appear to he eon- the one with the other and the facts upon which they are t>asf d. but not until the thinker steps outside the hidden domain of thought fm-i the hard exterior world of tangible Jact and begins to put his conclusions int,, practice, is he able to determine JMr scientific value. The alchemists [ or ages continued to devise schemes abstract logical processes with a view JJ finding in the elements of nature tn*‘ otixlr of lif$ and the philosopher’s Jton., "but the outside order smashed jn* h mental traps as soon as they set 'Jen*. Ptolemy conceived a program ( >f the heavens with the earth In the center of the solar aystem, and tried in got it worked out In the skies, but ® u the stars In their courses fought “gainst it and destroyed it. Copernicus y ;i ' more successful, because he de- nu,*,j system from a study of the flea veils and hence It stood the prae- npal test and was therefore scientific, proceed exactly upon the same lines to determine what the religion of set * n "' te. that we follow to find out what - tHrs of science or the atoms of Jtu-nir are. When our knowledge of Manets is such that we can verify truth of it in sailing our ships, we ”7 V khow we have found the stars of “Gence. When our knowledge of the ‘Molecules is such that we can verify ; , tr uth of It In cooking our feod mixing out medicines, we »nay sn<« that wo have discovered the rVm* »»f Kcfence. When our knowl- '»f religion Uf such that we can 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 o? things except ns they are presented to us and used for duta to build up 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 his ideas. Clear- cut, consistent mental propositions thoroughly match the needs of the in tellect. But man needs food und must eat; he needs protection atid must find raiment and a shelter; alone he Is im potent, he must come Into relations with others of nls klrd. He cannot encase himself within the confines of his consciousness and give himself up to nothing beside, watching his In tellectual machinery thresh out the wheat of general ideas from the straw of separate impressions. The world around him with all that Is upon it, is in a perpetual whirl. He must move or he run over. He must act or be de stroyed. He cannot house within him self the products of his thought, how ever fair and beautiful they may ap pear to Jnmself to be. H** must re produce them. He must plant his men tal seed com with a view to future crops. He must sow his Ideas In the plantation of the world. He must hold his place in the rushing, mixed pro cession of which he forms a part. Hence, besides his intellect to turn out thought, he must use'desire and will to translate his mental conceptions Into action. As soon as they visualize themselves and stand before him the form and color of fact, „ v Is able to determine whether thev 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 are seaworthy. When Cotint R umford converted his theory of heat into the tireless wheels of toll* every poor man on earth knew that it was scientific. When Cyrus W. Field turned his the ory into a cable of steel under the At lantic, all the world knew that it was scientific. Because an Idea Mr. Field 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 practical test as though they were | true, and hence were thrown aside and left as so much litter along the path of progress. The records of mankind are hugely taken up with accounts of I social, political, moral, religious and i mechanical theories which at "onetime or another were assumed to be true, hut which failed to work in practice. All our verifiable knowledge, whether ot the world, or man, or God, is such as passed muster with tho intellect, and afterward stood the test also of the will and practical life. And It may be said that whatever the human intellect from . any basis of fact has assumed to bej true, that when put to the test of the | will and the practical life, did In fact ‘ act In universal experience, and so continue* to act, as though It were true in science. If this were not so our intellectual world of nature und man and Ood would be Illusions. We only know they are not illusions be cause we can practice them without being discomfited, baffled and thrown back into our -private natures of im agination with the sad understanding with ourselves that no rails are laid In the world of fact to fit the mental engines we run out from our world of thought to move over them into the uttermost ports of the earth. Will the assertion made by Haeckel that there Is nothing beside matter and motion if assumed to be true, an swer to action In the practical life as though It were true? Can this assump tion 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? AH this we can test by valid evidence and sound reasoning. The 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 tj other ages for abundant, practical evi dence of the proposition that'we cannot assume as true the declaration that there Is no God, 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 Knglhgi *4ify the l ff h inliving our theories, once assumed to be true, hut speaking peoples down to about the JntlSSoJty which would not act when put to the middle of last century. This move ment not only took ecflesiastfcal 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, C'harlt?* Darwin was born in 1809. Herbert Spencer in 1820, John Tyndall In 1820 and Thomas H. Huxley In 1825. They were the children of the age Wesley and his helpers created. The high pur pose with which they began their work was due In large measure to the Invig 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 the moral conditions created by the spiritual lenders of the victorious evan gelism. The light by whldh they dis covered laws, regarded at the time as destructive of the foundations of re ligion. came to them from the truth the J new-tline preachers had made trlum- i phant. The courage which enabled ! them to fight for their convictions and I publish to the world in spite of all op position evinced the fart that the self- J denial and consecration of the religious * leaders had found a place In the lives 1 of the students of nature. > In 1855 Herbert Spencer published | his "Principles of Psychology,” based J upon the theory of evolution. In i 1860 he Issued a prospectus of his sys- , torn of Synthetic Philosophy, In which i beginning with the first principles -»f ? knowledge, he proposed to trace the i progress of evolution in life, mind, so- j clety and morality. In 1859 Mr. Dar win published his work, on "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selec tion, or the Preservation of Favored Races In the struggle for Life.” In (his book he propounded the theory of biological evolution. Neither the "Prin ciples of Psychology" nor the "Origin of Species” were read extensively by the people, but professors, editors and stu dents read them, and in a very little while 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 reviews and discussions of them. In 1844 Pro fessor John Tyndall delivered his cele brated Belfast address before the Brit ish association. In that deliverance 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 uf all ages to he the maker of heaven and earth, must favor. in favor of tha ours •laoMnuor ••*rh*r* can 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." doubt that the existence of God is wholely unnecessary to explain any of tho 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 tion tor a general overseer, God was rendered unnecessary. 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 as that which forbids us to assume the existence between the earth and Venus of « planet as large as either of them, would forbid our faith In a Divine Creator.” John Morley adopted the fashion of spelling the word God with a little "g.” John Richard Green, the historian, was giving up his creed end his curacy In the English church. Rudolph Virchow, the celebrated physiologist, was teaching material ism in Germany. Emil DuBois-Ray- mond, another physiologist, whose name is a household word, was spread TOWN GET8 LIGHTS , FROM TOWER LINE. Special to The Georgian. Gainesville* Ga., Dec. 15.—By reason of the completion of the tower line between Gainesville and Atlanta, sev eral small towns on the Southern be tween here and Atlanta will gave lights of their own In the near future. The line nearly all the way la within a short distance of several towns, and they are all seriously considering using electricity to light their streets, busi ness houses and residences. Already Buford has contracted with the North Georgia Electric Company to furnish the power to light the little city, und work will be begun at once wiring the town. This tower line la said to be the sec* Ing the doctrine of atheism In Berlin, ond of Its kind In the United States. Wundt, the most distinguished psychol ogist of the present generation, was representing materialism at Leipslc. 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 known In the history of thought. It woa not shallow and flippant, hut 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 we dare scarce ly breathe. • * • Anchors are lift ing everywhere, and men are commit ting themselves to what they may meet itli on the sea.** George John Romanes published a "Candid Examination of Theism,” In which he said; Inexorable logic has forced us to conclude that viewing the question as to the existence of a God only by the. light which modern science has shed u*»on It, there no longer api>ears to be bu> semblance of an argument In its The first one ever built was In New York mate, which crosses the Niagara river just above the falls and leads into Canada. - Woman Bound Over. Accused of stealing a lot of silver ware and other articles front the Tab ernacle dormitory fdr girls, where she. was employed, Sarah Jones, a negro i woman, was bound over to the state courts Friday morning by Recorder Broyles. Her bond was fixed at $200. The woman was arrested by Detect ives Connolly and Starnes, who recov ered the stolen goods. Stole 8mokables. The grocery* store of Wells & Head, 329 Peters street, was broken into by a burglar some time Thursday night and one box of tobacco gnd three box* * of cigars stolen. The burglar effected entrance into the store through the front door. The burglary was discovered shortly after midnight by Policemen McGahee and Butler. I at . ■ I m