EVOLUTION AND PREACHING.

Evening Star, Issue 4156, 23 June 1876, Page 3

EVOLUTION AND PREACHING.

To the Editor.

Sra,—Judging by the penchant the Press has lately had for the discussion of Evolution and kindred subjects it would appear as if the public taste were becoming palled by politics. Evolution, no doubt, is a very interesting subject, and will always afford scope for speculation and discussion, but what it seeks to find out will never be found out until men first solve that other little question they have now had a long time in hand, and which beats them as yet, viz., '' whence the milk in the cocoa-nut ?" The solution of this simple-looking little query will at once afford a solution of the other, and tell all about the origin of things. This being the case I would have inquirers just tq turn back to the cocoa-nut and deal with it first. There is no use in taking too much in hand at once.

But far more useful, and incalculably more valuable it would be for us to know whither we are going than whence we came. j What does it really matter to any of us whether we came from the slime of the sea or not? The frail barque is fairly launched on the voyage of life, and the question new is not—who made the rigging? who laid the keel or cut the scupper-holes ? but what is the direction of the unseen current? on what point of the compass are we sailing ? and what is to become of us directly? for onward we are driven towards some shore or another at a great speed, and ought to be all anxiety as to the destiny that await us. j/3ome may urge that this matter is known and settled. Nothing of the sort. Let ministera.ofthaGoapel, whose special business it is to explore this field of speculation for us, and do what they can to give us the details thereof, face this particular topic, seeing that it is of overwhelming importance to i everybodv,.andlet alone the details of man's origin to be taken up by scientific men who have the mind; We want Weßleyan ministers and others to tell us what they know or believe, accompanied by the proofs, not of the thing in the lump or presented in a sort of nebulous condition, but in its details -so far asjtheir several judgments go; for unless we have it given so we cannot grasp what they mean, and if they can't do that the subject must be of a character to transcend investigation, and they had better drop speaking more.about it.~l-am; &c, Veritas. Dunedin, June 23.