240 Anniversary Address. 



scended from at most only four or five progenitors, and plants 

 from an equal or less number. 



" Analogy would lead me one step further, namely to the be- 

 lief that all animals and plants have descended from some one 

 prototype. But analogy may be a deceitful guide. Nevertheless 

 all living things have much in common, in their chemical com- 

 position, their germinal vescicles, their cellular structure, and 

 their laws of growth and reproduction. Therefore I should infer 

 from analogy that probably all the organic beings which have 

 lived on this earth have descended from some one primordial 

 form into which life was first breathed by the Creator." 



This bold conclusion would fly in the face ot Revelation, 

 tradition, and the consciousness of our moral being. The 

 theory is one eminently ingenious and pleasing to the vanity 

 of man. 



But the postulates on which the argument is founded are 

 too numerous and too vast, in their demands of time and 

 circumstance, to shake our faith, in the revealed word of 

 God, in its reference to that most important of his works, 

 the intelligence and moral being of man. Influenced his 

 mind and moral condition undoubtedly is by circumstances, 

 but I cannot conceive by what process of evolution man 

 could be elevated from the irrational creation, except by the 

 direct intervention of his Creator. The intellect of man, 

 besides, has been so constituted that the idea of a God is in- 

 nate, and nearly identical with the consciousness of his exist- 

 ence. " There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the 

 Almighty giveth him understanding." 



While, however, we disagree with the deductions of Dar- 

 win, he must be allowed the credit of having added mightily 

 to scientific information. Too many, even of our ablest 

 philosophers, allowed themselves to be drawn into a belief in 

 his doctrines, but I think I already observe a re-action. 

 Theories, like those of Darwin, however plausible they may 

 at first appear, are likely to end in disappointment, as their 

 truth can never be proved. 



Our safer course is to rest our belief on the miraculous 

 interposition of an all wise God at man's creation, gifting 



