Life and service

Front matter

BY

Rev. Lewis Powell, D.D.

PASTOR FIRST MK.THODIST CHURCH HOPKINSVILLE, KY,

Foreword

No one who accepts the Bible as the Word of God and who observes the trend of religious thought and life can well remain silent at this critical time in the history of Christianity. The very citadel of religion is being attacked, and a battle more fierce than the gigantic struggle now going on in Picardy is being waged, while the outcome is far more vital to humanity and to the Church universal than the great European war.

The skeptical attitude of most college and university men; the growing sympathy of educated preachers for higher criticism and its methods of interpretation; the general drift from the plain, literal meaning of God's Word ; the calling in question by many of the fundamental doctrines of the gospel ; the blind acceptance of the untenable postulates of evolution; the output of German kultur; that criticism parading in the name of science — these provoked the writing and publishing of this book, Life and Service.

It is not only a protest against these offenses, but it is a record of the writer's unwavering faith in the God-breathed, infallible Word of God, which contains all things necessary to< salvation. It is also a purpose to set forth those principles by means of which life may articulate itself with service to humanity and to< humanity's Redeemer.

The material for this book has been largely prepared at sundry times and for certain occasions. One of the chapters was prepared Xo be read before the Investigators' Club at Owensboro, Ky., four years ago*, and was received by the Investigators with a good deal of interest and commendation. Two of the chapters were read before the Athenaeum Club of Hopkinsville, Ky., during the past year at intervals of four or five months, and both papers were enthusiastically received, some of my brother club members expressing the hope of seeing the papers in a more permanent form.

I have a number of distinguished friends who have urged me to write, but writing was never an easy thing for me to do. However, during the past winter I have done a good deal of writing, and some of the material I had on hand suited the purpose had in mind to be accomplished in publishing this book. All the material has been worked over, and the papers I am using in the making of this

Foreword 7

volume logically fall into place and pertinently contribute to the message I wish to give to the public.

I am not offering this book to the public because my friends have asked me to give out some message in this form, nor because my brothers of my literary club have asked me to put the messages I have given them into a more permanent form, but because I am under a feeling of compulsion. I believe I am led of the Spirit in publishing this message of Life and Sevrice. I pray that every one who takes the time to read these pages may catch the vision and receive the message.

I am particularly anxious to be of help to the rank and file of young preachers and to public school teachers. On the minds of these two classes the impression has been made that there is an irreconcilable conflict between the Bible and science, which I think it is plainly shown in the first chapter, "Things True and False in Evolution," is not the case.

The first three chapters deal largely with scientific, philosophical, and doctrinal matters; but they discuss the vital relationship of faith and practice. The last six chapters are designedly practical, and upon the observance of the truths which they present depends our usefulness in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.

I pray the blessing of God upon this little book and upon every one who reads it.

Lewis Powell.

Hopkinsville, Ky., April is, 1918.

Introduction

There are certain words which have a cumulative significance. As the realities for which they stand are brought into fuller view or receive emphasis from new conjunctions of thought and action, these words come to' be more effective in awakening consciousness and stimulating effort. Life is to-day emphasizing and expounding itself in a way to put into new relations and give new significance to the whole category of words which describe its offices and possibilities. The phenomena of life become more real and the history which life is making becomes larger and more cosmic with each new turn in the tide of human affairs. Service, which describes the truest and most profitable employment of life, is thus naturally put in the way of a constant augmentation of demand and opportunity.

It is to expourid these noteworthy accidents and conditions of life and to challenge to a diligent and truth-dedicating service that our author has put together the various essays and discourses contained in this volume. The viewpoint is that of the busy pastor and the sympathetic observer of current life movements. The discussions here presented, taken as a whole, will impress the reader as a medley of ideas suggested by several of the major topics of present-day discussion. This aspect of his work is admitted by the author himself in his Foreword, but the work is none the worse for this fact ; indeed, it gains in a quality of readiness and directness from the offhand and occasional method of treatment. There is a unity of purpose and discussion suggested by the title and realized in the ordering of the matter of the author's thought. We opine that exception will be taken to some of the views put forth, especially in the chapters which advert to scientific and technical matters; but the frank, practical, and manifestly sincere motive of the discussion must be admitted, and these are arguments without which even logic often loses its force. A book is the author's best, given in permanent form to his generation and left to that generation to pass upon and, if it sees fit, to pass on to a future time. The fact will not be missed by the reader of this book that the author feels himself to be offering to his contemporaries the best results of his own dealing with certain vital questions that affect the life and service of the everyday man and Christian. If the message be read and accepted in

Introduction. 13

this light, the author, by every token of his own challenge, will cheerfully abide the verdict which shall be passed upon it. The new war-born age is to present its own peculiar difficulties, its contradictions, its problems. Not a few of these problems and attendant difficulties will be such as pass over from the age lying just behind us. Evolution, criticism, social relationships, and questions of religion are continuous in the thought of the world. They change only in their aspects, not in their fundamentals. A new way of approach to them may be found, but when the student has come upon them he will find their facts to be of the flavor and substance of the oldest things. Our author has put some emphasis upon this feature of the general problem. He has also shown, in his efforts to solve the problem, what every man must do whose real purpose in life is ministry and service. We commend our brother and his book to the thoughtful reader and student. H. M. Du Bose.

Nashville, Tenn., April 29, 1918.

CHAPTER I. Things True and False in Evolution

The word "evolution" means the act or process of unfolding, or the growth or development of a plan or of life from a thought or a germ. We may, therefore, with propriety speak of the evolution of history or of the development of a dramatic plot. We might also speak of the evolution of a bird from an egg, a plant from a seed, a blossom from a bud, fruit from a flower, a butterfly from a caterpillar, and a moth from a cocoon. The word has a large range of legitimate uses and applications, for there is undoubtedly a sphere within which evolution does operate. But the word has got itself into bad company and has fallen into disrepute. Confusion has come of the meaning put into the word by Darwin, Tyndall, Huxley, Spencer, Haeckel, and their followers, who claimed for the thing which it represents' a power that does not belong to it.

If I were going to write a comprehensive treatise on evolution, I should divide it into suborganic, organic, and superorganic, and explain that suborganic evolution refers to the development of matter without life and applies to the formation of the solar system from some cruder conditions of matter. Organic evolution would describe the process by which vegetable and animal life has been developed. Superorganic evolution would refer to the principle operative in metaphysical and nonmaterial spheres. These are the ordinary divisions in the treatment of the subject. I am not going to attempt anything like an exhaustive statement of any one of these, but shall make some observations upon deductions drawn from the theory of organic evolution. The rise and spread of the doctrine of evolution as the cause of life is one of the most startling intellectual phenomena of the past hundred years.

The Doctrine Stated.

In brief, the theory of evolution is that everything, animate and inanimate, in the visible universe, including man in his tripartite nature, with all his bodily, mental, and spiritual faculties and functions, came to be what it is through a process of "spontaneous generation, fortuitous development, and natural selection." Fifty years ago this doctrine was almost universally accepted by the wise and learned. But the day of universal acceptance was short, for the simple reason that proof was lacking, and the cumulating evidence has been on the other side.

While there is raised a chorus of authoritative voices in the realm of science in protest against the sweeping generalizations of evolution, still the assumptions are insistent ; and our schoolbooks, magazines, Sunday school literature, and even the pulpits of our evangelical Churches betray a disturbing ignorance in our educators, editors, and preachers concerning the real status of the theory of evolution.

Some Typical Cases.

Some time ago a young minister said to me that he could think of creation only in terms of evolution. I was not surprised at his confession. His mind had probably never dwelt much upon the subject of creation ; and although he held three degrees from a certain institution, it was apparent that he knew nothing about evolution as a science. But the holding of one or more degrees from a university is no evidence that one knows everything or even anything properly. I knew the atmosphere of that institution and how popular evolution was in all its schools. In that university a sentiment obtains that to deny monistic evolution is to proclaim one's self a "mossback," a "fossil," a "back number," "behind 2 the times," and "unscientific" ; and it is always much easier to join the chorus of the wise and learned and cry, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians," than to stand against this thing and find out the truth through personal investigation.

Another minister in one of the most prominent pulpits of New York City a short time ago made the assertion very emphatically that "Evolution is the hope of mankind," which was a very strange announcement coming from a minister of the gospel, and it must have been startling to his congregation— that is, if there were any Christians present who had learned from a better authority that the gospel of God is the only hope of mankind. But that prominent New York preacher is eloquent and has the reputation of being a learned man ; and men who have the reputation for scholarship and profound learning wield a commanding influence, and many follow them blindly.

Still another clergyman in the East is reported to have said recently: "There is no escape for intelligent people today from the acceptance of the law of evolution. This law may be stated briefly to be that life on this planet, including man, has developed from the lower to> the higher types. Thus a man has gradually developed from some lower form of animal life. And man in his highest estate has through infinite years developed from man in his savage state." There you have it from a man professing to be called of God to preach the gospel. He is more emphatic and dogmatic than Darwin ever was, for there was always an element of doubt in Darwin's mind, and the most he could say was: "It may be reasonably supposed." But this minister of religion makes an excursus into the region of scientific speculation and imagination and dogmatizes on evolution, and the trouble is that many people believe what he says because he is a preacher and a teacher.

In his manual of "The Religion of Humanity" Dr. Broada says: "Socialism is the evolution of the human race from cannibalism and savagery to f raternalism and philanthropy, from the infamy of the swine to the splendor of God." And then he proceeds to define: "Not all the theories of modern science are of equal significance from the point of view of religious development; indeed, there is preeminently only one concept which could arouse the necessary enthusiasm and devotion and give a basis upon which to construct a new moral ideal, the theory of evolution. This fundamental doctrine, which entails the belief that progress is the law of being of all that is in nature, including man himself, must be the new inspiration." Here is something truly wonderful. It affords a "basis for a new moral ideal," a "fundamental doctrine," and "furnishes the new inspiration."

But Dr. Broada goes farther and says: "More than this, evolution is demonstrating the unity of nature, also proves the brotherhood of the world, the solidarity of creation, and so gives us the foundation for a new moral idea and lifts us out of the utilitarianism which would make it appear that our best endeavors are only of benefit to what is sectional and transitory."

If this be true, then certainly evolution is a great thing, and its blessings are inestimable. And Dr. Broada goes on to say: "And so evolution gives us a new conception of the universe, a new conception of the aim of life, and provides a new theory of ethics, and is thus eminently fitted for becoming the basis for a new manifestation of the religious spirit."

How all these advantages and benefits are to be discovered and applied, the writer does not say. But it was said at the beginning of this chapter that there is a range for the legitimate uses and application of the word "evolution/' This we are concerned to show.

Some Things Tenable.

"First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear."

So far as human life and observation go, the modal of development is from the smaller to the larger.

"Great oaks from little acorns grow; Large streams from little fountains flow."

The study of almost any race of people will illustrate the law of development.

The English nation was born at the battle of Hastings in A.D. 1066, and since that date the English-speaking people have become the dominant race in the world. Along with their growth the English people have developed a unique and remarkable language ; a magnificent literature ; a system of education inculcating high ideals of morality, religion, and liberty ; a democracy, or a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. In other words, we have a form of civilization which challenges the respect and admiration of the world.

And what is meant by civilization? It means the concurrent development of science, politics, and religion. Our civilization is an illustration of evolution in its growth, and hence the word is legitimately used in describing it. There are many other illustrations of this law at work in the history of mankind. Man has discovered, invented, and applied many forces that make for the development of industry, commerce, the arts, the trades, warfare, transportation, science and philosophy, communication of intelligence, medicine, dentistry, surgery, government, and else. He has also brought his genius to bear upon the vegetable and animal kingdoms and has wrought wonders in the development of varieties of plants and animals, securing these developments through domestication and cultivation.

But all this is very different from beginning with one order, class, genera, or species, and developing it into something else. That is the untenable thing in evolution. It is still the unproved hypothesis. It was to bridge this chasm that Mr. Darwin started out in his great work on "The Origin of Species by Natural Selection." If he could have established one case of a given variety of either plant or animal becoming a distinct species, his hypothesis would have stood ; but he could not find the bridge. The best he or any other evolutionist has ever been able to do is to guess at the bridge. When it comes to the question of causal evolution or evolution in transit from one class, family, or species to another, it is all speculation and imagination ; for there is not a single case in which it can be shown that such a thing has ever taken place.

Reverting to the development of a social organism, such as a state, Herbert Spencer says in his "First Principles," "In the social organism integrative changes are clearly and abundantly exemplified," to which we all agree ; and he points out the three kinds of changes which proceed with practical regularity and continuity in the development of human society and which will apply to the English or any other people: "First a change from a less coherent to a more coherent state ; a change from a more homogeneous to a less homogeneous state; and a change from a less definite to a more definite state." But Mr. Spencer argues from the evolution of human society that the same law is also at work among the animals and that it produces changes in the same way as those which result in the developments that are taking place in the social organisms of men. But there is no evidence to that effect. There is no social evolution in the affairs of other living creatures than men. In contrast with the evolution of human society, take such animals as herd together — horses, cattle, sheep, and deer.

They have never exhibited any change. They herd together just as they have done from the beginning. Birds build their nests, ants live in colonies, bees hive, and beavers build their dams just as they have done from the beginning. There has been no change in their social organism or methods of work.

Charles Darwin.

Mr. Darwin is regarded as the discoverer of the principle of natural selection, or, as Herbert Spencer would put it, "the law of the survival of the fittest" ; and of the numerous books published by him, his "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" is by far his greatest work. It created a profound impression when first published. It had more to do with promoting, and making popular the technical doctrine of evolution than any book ever written. However, he was not cocksure, but concluded by observing that species "may reasonably be supposed to be nothing more than enlarged, accentuated varieties which descended from a common ancestry." He says: "I cannot doubt that the theory of descent, with modification, embraces all the members of the same great class or kingdom. I believe that animals are descended from, at most, only four or five progenitors, and plants from an equal or lesser number." And then, conjecturing from analogy, he went a little farther and said: "Analogy would lead me one step farther — namely, to the belief that all animals and plants are descended from some one prototype." One other observation should be made, and that is, Mr. Darwin was not a materialist. He never sympathized with Herder and Haeckel in their theory of the spontaneous generation of life; but he believed that God at the beginning breathed upon matter, or, to quote him more correctly, "the laws of life were impressed upon matter by the Creator."

In these brief quotations is the essence of what Mr. Darwin taught and the foundation of his theory of evolution. He was not dogmatic, and he was never certain; but he sets forth this theory tentatively and as a matter of conjecture.

As already implied, Mr. Darwin was a theistic evolutionist, and the proof is at hand that he was also a Christian. The truth is, he lived to regret many of the opinions he expressed and deplored the use made of words he spoke and the conjectures he indulged in connection with his studies in natural history.

Zion's Herald some time ago published a story of the great scientist related by Lady Hope which throws much light on his reverent attitude to the Bible and his personal faith in Christ, and also records his genuine regret for the mischief that had resulted from his speculations in science in the earlier part of his life.

Lady Hope, an Englishwoman and a consecrated Christian worker, some time ago told a Northfield audience the remarkable story of Darwin's religious life as it came under her personal observation. In one of the morning prayer meeting talks at Northfield she said:

It was one of those glorious autumn afternoons that we sometimes enjoy in England when I was asked to go and sit with the well-known Prof. Charles Darwin. He was almost bedridden for some months before he died. I used to feel when I saw him that his fine presence would make a grand picture for our Royal Academy, but never did I think so more strongly than on this particular occasion. He was sitting up in bed, wearing a soft embroidered dressing gown of rather a rich purple shade. Propped up by pillows, he was gazing out on a far-stretching scene of woods and cornfields which glowed in the light of one of those marvelous sunsets which are the beauty of Kent and Surrey. His noble forehead and fine features seemed to be lit up with pleasure as I entered the room. He waved his hand toward the windows as he pointed out the scene beyond, while in the other hand he held an open Bible, which he was always studying.

"What are you reading now?" I asked as I seated myself by his bedside.

"Hebrews," he answered. "Still Hebrews, the royal book, I call it. Isn't it grand ?"

Then, placing his ringer on certain passages, he commented on them. I made some allusion to the strong opinions expressed by many persons on the history of creation, its grandeur, and then their treatment of the earlier chapters of the book of Genesis. He seemed greatly distressed, his fingers twitched nervously, and a look of agony came over his face as he said: "I was a young man with unformed ideas. I threw out queries, suggestions, wondering all the time over everything, and, to my astonishment, the ideas took like wildfire. People made a religion of them." Then he paused, and, after a few more sentences on the holiness of God and the grandeur of this book, looking at the Bible, which he was tenderly holding all the time, he suddenly said: "I have a summer house in the garden which will hold about thirty people. It is over there [pointing through the window]. I want you very much to speak there. I know you read the Bible in the villages. To-morrow afternoon I should like the servants on the place, some tenants, and a few of the neighbors to gather there. Will you speak to them?"

"What shall I speak about?" I asked.

"Christ Jesus," he replied in a clear, emphatic voice, adding in a lower tone, "and his salvation. Is not that the best theme? And then I want you," he said, "to sing some hymns with them. You lead on your small instrument, do you not?" The wonderful look of brightness and animation on his face as he said this I shall never forget, for he added: "If you take the meeting at three o'clock, this window will be open, and you will know that I am joining in the singing."

How I wish that I could have made a picture of that fine old man and his beautiful surroundings on that memorable day!

Spontaneous Generation.

So far as I know, the doctrine of the spontaneous generation of life originated in Germany, as did much of our materialism and infidelity. Herder, a German philosopher of the eighteenth century, advocated the doctrine of a continuous development in the unity of nature from inorganic to organic, from the stone to> the plant, from the plant to> the animal, and from the animal to man; and he contended that the entire universe, including the bodies and souls of men, is the product of evolution. During the past two hundred years there were many advocates of this theory of life and the universe, but it was about fifty years ago that a number of distinguished scientists lined up with enthusiasm on the side of spontaneous generation. At that time Professor Tyndall emphatically announced that there was in dead matter "the promise and potency of life," but later he took this back. About the same time Dr. H. C. Bastian wrote in his book, "Beginnings of Life": "Both observation and experiment unmistakably testify to the fact that living matter is constantly being formed de novo in obedience to the same laws and tendencies which determine all the more simple chemical combinations, which is another way of saying that life is spontaneously generated, or that organic life comes from inorganic matter." This theory became popular, and for a while spontaneous generation was triumphant. Great scientists like Haeckel, Bastian, Tyndall, Huxley, and Herbert Spencer consented to it, and they with one consent began to advocate Herder's theory of life, and insisted that all life has come from inorganic matter. But it may be said of scientists, as of other people, that "all of them may be fooled sometime, but all of them cannot be fooled all the time."

There was a school of scientists that opposed spontaneous generation all the time and held to' the theory that all life must come from life ; and if life appeared after matter had been sterilized, there was some defect in the experiment. Many experiments were made. With some of these gentlemen the result was always the same, and each experiment resulted in a stronger confirmation of the theory. Dr. Bastian, however, discovered that it was not only necessary to sterilize the infusion that is experimented with, but also that the water and the air in the vessel must also be sterilized. After taking these precautions no life appeared.

Mr. Dallinger detected another fact that Dr. Bastian and others had overlooked in their experiments

— namely, that among the lower forms of life there is a most surprising" vitality. He found that many germs could survive a temperature of three hundred degrees Fahrenheit, and some seemed to be almost fireproof.

All the great scientists, including Professor Tyndall and Mr. Huxley, took the most painstaking care in making experiments ; and they also> took care to sterilize their hay infusion, the vessels, the water, the atmosphere, and as a result the matter experimented with yielded no life. After repeated experiments without the appearance of life, no less persons than Professor Tyndall and Mr. Huxley repudiated the doctrine of the spontaneous generation of life, and they proclaimed to the world that not a shred of trustworthy testimony obtained in support of the doctrine of spontaneous generation. And so for fifty years the doctrine of "life comes from life" has been victorious all along the line, and to-day no reputable scientist will speak in terms of spontaneous generation. It is an exploded theory and a collapsed doctrine.

Continuous Progress.

The contention of evolutionists is that everything in the history of nature, inlcuding man, goes forward by development and that the power that makes for the growth of the plant, the animal, and man is resident within. But as a matter of experiment and observation, those forces that contribute most to development are the agencies without.

Take any of the species of plant or flower you please, and you will find that their finest development has come of domestication and cultivation. Those beautiful varieties of roses, the Marechal Niel, the Woodland Margaret, the La France, and the American Beauty, owe their beauty and fragrance to cultivation or agencies that have been brought to bear upon them from without. We are assured that they were very common blossoms until the horticulturist took them in hand. The same is true of all plants and flowers. The same law of development obtains in the cultivation of all fruits, fowls, and animals. It is outside interference and agencies that contribute most to their development ; and just as soon as outside attention and cultivation are withdrawn, deterioration begins. Domestication and cultivation have wrought wonders both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and always deterioration is just as marked when cultivation is neglected or withdrawn.

And what is true of plants and animals is equally true of man. Man declines physically, intellectually, and morally by neglect. The progress of man upward is, to say the least of it, negligible apart from civilization ; and civilization is the concurrent development of science, politics, and religion. In pagan and unevangelized lands the peoples are degraded, ignorant, superstitious, and bestial, and evolution finds no encouragement in all these sterile places and habitations of cruelty.