f dead atoms, by
chance, why, the motion of atoms being as brisk and vigorous as ever,
should we not expect the same thing to occur occasionally throughout all
the ages?

Anaximander, however, concluded that men, because they require longer
time than other animals to be hatched up, were at first generated in the
bellies of fishes, and there nourished till they were able to defend and
shift for themselves, and were then disgorged and cast upon dry land. So
we are driven to the conclusion that there is nothing in the world too
absurd for those men, both ancient and modern, to swallow down in their
efforts to get rid of the notion of an intelligent creation by the hand
of an intelligent creator.

ESTOPPELS; OR, FOSSILIZATION.

In our religion we find no law requiring uniformity of thought. Think
the same things. Be of the same opinion. These and like statements are
no part of our religion. Faith and opinion are not the same. All
Christians have one faith, "the faith of Christ." "Be of the same mind
and of the same judgment." "Speak the same things." These are to be
taken in their proper relations. The made up judgment is the result of
faith in the judgment of Christ. "I judge nothing by myself; he that
judgeth me is the Lord." The one great mind enjoined is the result of
thought upon the one great subject of the life of Christ, which is given
as the light of men. These imperatives are summed up in the beautiful
expression, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."
Uniformity of thoughts or opinions is a very different thing. A man
would be considered worse than a knave who would throw chains around the
human intellect, so as to put an end to progress in thought; it would be
the stagnation of all in which we are most interested. Christians are
not to be charged with any such wickedness, for they are using all their
powers to produce thought; money and talent are freely bestowed in many
ways to get men to think, and then decide, not in reference to opinions
but facts; not in reference to things which are matters of opinion only,
but of the living object of faith, Christ and Christian duty. There is
no system of things in which investigation, liberty of thought and
action, upon all matters of interest to our humanity, both as respects
this world and the world to come, is more encouraged and insisted upon.
Wicked and unholy thoughts only are prohibited.

Who would paint every flower of the same hue?