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thoughtful minds such a revolution has already taken 

 place. They degrade neither member of the mysteri- 

 ous duality referred to; but they exalt one of them 

 from its abasement, and repeal the divorce hitherto ex- 

 isting between both. In substance, if not in words, 

 their position as regards spirit and matter is : "What 

 God hath joined together let not man put asunder." 



I have thus led you to the outer rim of speculative 

 science, for beyond the nebula scientific thought has 

 never ventured hitherto, and have tried to state that 

 which I considered ought, in fairness, to be outspoken. 

 I do not think this evolution hypothesis is to be flouted 

 away contemptuously ; I do not think it is to be de- 

 nounced as wicked. It is to be brought before the bar 

 of disciplined reason, and there justified or condemned. 

 Let us hearken to those who wisely support it, and to 

 those who wisely oppose it ; and let us tolerate those, 

 and they are many, who foolishly try to do neither of 

 these things. 



The only thing out of place in the discussion is dog- 

 matism on either side. Fear not the evolution hypoth- 

 esis. Steady yourselves in its presence upon that faith 

 in the ultimate triumph of truth which was expressed by 

 old Gamaliel when he said : " If it be of God, ye cannot 

 overthrow it; if it be of man, it will come to naught." 

 Under the fierce light of scientific inquiry this hypoth- 

 esis is sure to be dissipated if it possess not a core of 

 truth. Trust me, its existence as an hypothesis in the 

 mind is quite compatible with the simultaneous exist- 

 ence of all th ose virtues to which the term Christian 

 has been applied. I.t does not solve it does not pro- 

 fess to solve the ultimate mystery untouched. At bot- 

 tom it does nothing more than " transport the concep- 

 tion of life's origin to an indefinitely distant past." 



