54 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
NOTES ON EVOLUTION VS. THE FALL OF MAN. _ 
Read before the Geological Section of the Hamilton Scientific Assoctatzon, 
March 28th, 1902. 
AN ESSAY BY RONALD D. GRANT, A.M, D. D, IN REPLY BY COL. 
C. C. GRANT. 
The Doctor at the beginning of the essay remarks that the sub- 
ject, some people tell us, ought not to be spoken in the pulpit—it 
belongs to the platform. He adds (regretfully, perhaps from personal 
experience) that there are some exquisitely holy souls who will accept 
nothing but pious platitudes, while press and platform, by the enun- 
ciation of false principles, are apparently undermining the whole 
structure of Christian truth. Now, no apology was offered and none } 
was required at all in this matter. The subject concerns the 
churches solely. Geologists, who seek but truth, are ever ready to 
welcome investigation, and the silence of the pulpit in a benighted 
Province of the Dominion you so deeply deplore may have had its 
counterpart in Ontario, also, but for one High Church dignitary who 
was never known to miss an opportunity of denouncing our Godless 
university and its scientific teaching. ‘Truly, ‘“‘a brave soul has 
arisen amid the confusion of tongues.” 
The Christian church (meaning, of course, that particular de- 
nomination to which the writer belongs) is not on the offensive. 
Indeed, that may be true of some sect or branch unknown, or it 
may be confined to an out of the way locality, such as British 
Columbia ; but how is it with regard to the pulpit generally? I 
could furnish my learned kinsman of the McAlpine line with a few 
out of many selections from the low, vulgar abuse of a Talmage, to 
the more polished, but not less offensive, vocabulary of other 
preachers. 
I find even the secular press of Ontario has not been slow to 
perceive and condemn the denunciations of your orthodox cham- 
pions. Witness the following extract, one of several which may be 
furnished : 
