Anniversary Address. 429 



I have no intention at all of trespassing upon the domain of 

 the theologian to enquire how far Darwinism and Revela- 

 tion are opposed to each other ; and whether a man may- 

 hold all that Darwin holds and yet be a perfectly orthodox 

 Christian, I am not for a moment going to bring Darwin- 

 ism into competition with the Bible, to talk as if its truth 

 at all depended upon the truth of that system ; to talk, for- 

 sooth ! (as we notice a disposition to do in some quarters) as 

 if we were only waiting for the final verdict for or against 

 the Evolution theory, to decide whether we should retain 

 our Bibles, or, at all events, regard them with the same faith 

 and confidence as of yore. 



Many of the first men of the day have declared themselves 

 to be fully convinced that between Scripture properly inter- 

 preted and true Science, there is no re(d opposition ; but 

 even if there be, Da7'tuinism has not yet taken rank as a 

 science. No : the point which we wish to bring out in relief 

 is this : — Suppose Darwinism to be all true ; admit for the 

 minute that it has attained rank as a science, and has 

 established, beyond reasonable doubt, that each species of 

 plants, animals, of living creatures of every sort including 

 man, was not at the beginning created separately and inde- 

 pendently, did not " flash into existence, " but has been 

 slowly and gradually produced by evolution from few and 

 simple beginnings ; to what extent should we be impeded or 

 hindered in the exercise of natural religion, or the looking 

 up " through Nature's works to Nature's God ?" Bo we, by 

 accepting Darwinism, eliminate God from Nature ? Is there 

 any a priori inconsistency between the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion and what we know or believe about God ? 



These are crucial queries which are troubling many devout 

 minds among naturalists, who, hopelessly puzzled by the 

 attempt to trace any satisfactory fixed lines of demarcation, 

 dissatisfied with the semi-artificial character of our natural 

 systems, distracted by the genera, sub-genera, species, sub- 

 species, and endless varieties in fauna and flora which con- 

 stantly are being altered by successive authors, have des- 

 paired of finding any satisfactory answer to the question^ 



