PROFESSOR SALMOND'S LECTURE.

Evening Star, Issue 4158, 24 June 1876, Page 2

PROFESSOR SALMOND'S LECTURE.

Professor Salmond delivered the seventh of his series of lectures on " The Christian Evidences" last evening in Knox Church class-room. Notwithstanding the very unfavorable weather there was a good attendance.

Professor Salmond at theoutset proceeded to comment upon the proof of Christianity as derived from miracleß. It was said that, if the Lord Jeßus Christ did control the winds and the waves, if He did multiply the loaves and fishes, raise the widow's son and Lazarus from the dead, and Ho Himself rose from the dead, He is proved to be the Divine Messenger of the Christian religion that He promulgated, ttten argued that the miracles did not take place, while others endeavored to explain away the miracles on account of the magnetic influence that Christ exercised over the bodies And soulrt of men; but this latter argUmdnt Would not apply, for instance, to the healing of a diseased person by Christ fifty miles away. The position tftken up by Strauss and others of his school was simply "that miracles are per se and inherently impossible/ and it is better to have nothing to do with them." He would ask why impossible t It was said that miracles were impossible because they were contrary to the fact of the uniformity of Nature. Supposing they admitted that Nature had been uniform up to the moment that Christ raised Lazarus from the dead, it did not necessarily follow that Nature would be always uniform in the future. The principal proposition that miracles were impossible arose from the atheistic or deistio theory. The deist took a mechanical view of the Universe-—that in the beginning God wound Creation up like a watch and set it going, and so it goes spinning 6n according to the lawe of its mechanism—and that God is outside of it, as we are outside of our watch, for e\er. He would like to put to all the opponents of miracles this question: Do you admit that at one given point, indefinite ages ago, there ( was a stupendous miracle ? What could be a greater miracle thau to at once summon the Universe into view ? To create the world from a single germ would be a more stupendous miraclo than any recorded in the Bible. After referring to his belief in the great power of prayer, the lecturer said he did not want to oi)en up the recent controversy again, but that those who had been taking an interest in the controversy had probably read a quotation said to be from Dr Tulloca, Principal of St. Andrews, affirming that the doctrine of Evolution was in perfect harmony with the Christian revelation. He then read extracts from a report in a Scotch paper of Or Tulloch's lecture, from which it appeared that the quotation had been garbled. Professor Salmond said he had been filled with consternation at Principal Tuiloch being placed iu such a position as that assigned to him by a recent writer in the ' Daily Times,' I and it was a relief to his mind that he had ' seen this extract. I

A vote of thanks to the rev. lecturer concluded the proceedings.

When does not a son take after his father ? —When tbe father leaves nothing for him to take,