WHO CAN STOP A BALL ON AN INCLINED PLANE ?

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 86, 19 December 1874, Page 8

WHO CAN STOP A BALL ON AN INCLINED PLANE ?

OtTB excellent contemporary, the 'Presbyterian Banner,' is grieved that the scientist Tyndall has endorsed the monistic hypothesis of human existence, and the ' Methodist' conies out with all its power to stay the fearful current of infidelity and atheism. We are of opinion that the conclusions of Professor Tyndall are, to a certain extent, the result of principles constitutionally inherent in Presbyterianism and Methodism, and that Mr. Tyudall is only a bolder, braver, and more outspoken man than his fellows. The limitation which wo place to our assertion is that Tyndall should have halted before the God of Nature asmanifested by the lightof reason, for says St. Paul (Bom. i. 20): " The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things tbat are made : His eternal power also and divinity : so that they are inexcusable." When, however, we consider that to the mind of Tyndall the scientists have swept away the God of Bevelation the power of an avalanche, we might, were it not for the Holy Scriptures, hold him excusable in wiping out the God of- Reason. The Reformation started (better, perpetuated) the emancipation of the human spirit from the guidance of the Holy Spirit in the Church, and consequently placed the reason of man on the throne of the Holy Ghost. Having usurped the office of God, it began to examine the sayings of God, and in judging .God by His words pronounced, that He was not. What follows ? The human spirit filled with Tanity and blinded with pride, looked into- itself, emancipated itself from the saying of David : " The light of Thy countenance is written on us, O Lord," and though it had eyes, it saw not, for the imprint of the face of God was invisible to its gaze. Then followed the theory of evolution, the eternity of matter, and the gross materialism -which are the shame and sorrow of our age. The Evangelical Alliance wished to stay infidelity on one hand and superstition on the other; but having disowned the infallible teaching, living, ever-abid-ing power of the Spirit in tho Church, and having been disinherited of the seven living streams of sacramental grace, and having been without a sacrifice, we ask the members of the Evangelical Allianco churches, " Who can stop a ball on an inclined plane ? The pagans of Greece and Rome had a more exalted notion of man's origin and dignity than Tyndall, Darwin, Tyler, Lubbock, and that class. Ingrained in their very language was what our scientists of the nineteenth century call the dualistio hypothesis. Anima, or the breath of life, was common to men and auimals j animus, or soul, superadded feeling or passion to the breath of life ; or mens or mind, was the intellectual principle by which beheld the sequence of cause and effect, forejudged in the future, and remembered iv the past. The English language has no three words of precisely tbe same import as the above, a fact which goes to show that the ancients studied the hypothesis of evolution in the light of reason with more precision than Professor Tyndall and the clairvoyants of our day. Human consciousness, the common sense of mankind, the testimony of ages, and the innate absurdity of the monistic theory of Tyndall are Godgiven, irremovable obstacles to materialistic iihantfismagoria. Remove away from Tyndall and Kant their pomp, of terminology, and their ideas, when placed in plain English, fall by their own weight. The work of the scientists will do one good at the least ; it will bring reason and revelation into full view of each other, and show our Protestant Christians that there are but three depots between the cradle and the grave ; first, revelation in its fulness iv the Catholic Church ; next, natural theism, and lastly, blank black atheism. Outside of sacrificing God's truth, tho Catholic .Church would do anything to throw its temple doors open to all mankind. That it cannot 'do, for only by intoleration in truth can it withstand tho current of atheism, infidelity and materialism, which is desolating so many lands in our age.—' ST. "ST. Tablet.'