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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. ata ilure. 3 \2X 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 < 5 6 •4*"'<»«»v ^^ii' ■/' ^'Mii^ »^V-< ^m.^ v.^;^- ^OVA SCOT/4 ►..ill ^ .,,- ' "'^^ — -^tS^' ' PROVINCE HOUSE Kv-- ^^.. ;. ■■■# 4.....W" ■%•: 'I^Sife, ^ SCIENCE THE ALLY OF RELIGION. By Sir William Dawson, ll.d., k.k.s. The substance of an Address at the Jubilee dmference of the Evangelical Alliance, Mlldmay I'ark, London, July i, 1896. If revelation is the thought, and nature the work of the same Ahnighty and All-wise Creator, we may he sure that they are in harmony, and that when we find students of the Bihie and students of science ranged in opposition to each other there must be mistake somewhere. Believing that Nature and the mhle are one in origin, li propose to notice a few points in which they are unnecessarily placd in antag- onism to t-ach other. The sciences that relate to the natural history of animals, plants, and minerals, and to the strut ture and changes of the earth itself, are, in their sim|)lest or most elementary forins, concerned with facts reliting to material things or phenomena, with their proximate or secondary causes, and with the grouping of such facts and causes under general expressions which we term natural laws. In all this, while they may have much to do with mental culture, and with our material interests and prosperity, they have no direct relation to our religious beliefs or hopes. There is, however, a ten- dency in connexion with the present division of every science into specialties, and with the efforts to teach the rudiments of certain sciences to young peoi)le, to descend to a low materialistic level, which, while making science itself less attractive, may make it, at least, a deterrent from faith in higher things, in the same way that an exclusive devotion to any other worldly pursuit tends in this direction. /; /• Yet those who enter with enthusiasm on the study of nature, cannot be content always to remnin on this low ground. They find rising before them uhimate questions which they cannot solve — cjuestions relating tn the nature of causation itself, and of the natural laws to which it is subject — questions as to the origin and import of the ])roperties of material objects, and to the correlations and combinations of these in the great cosmos or orderly system of nature with all its adjustments and uses. The attemjjt to answer these questions from a merely physical pnim of view and without faith in the unseen and spiritual must certainly be abortive. There is, however, no need of this, for so soon as the student of nature arrives at this point, he can scarcely fail to perceive that, in addition to the world of the seen or pheno- menal with which he is occupied, there must be another world of the unseen or spiiitual, inviting his consideration. It then becomes an object of the highest importance that his entrance into this new field of thought and feeling should be facilitated rather than hindered. I fear, however, that there is much in the current modes of thought and expression in the religious world which tends to bar his entrance. Of these, one of the most important has been the mis-use of the term "supernatural," as distinguished from the natural. The word does not occur in the Bible, nor is the idea which it rei)resents one that is sanctioned by the spirit of God. In the Bible, God, who alone is supernatural, is at once over and in all His works ; and the disiinction l)etween those that we can refer in some degree to secondary or proxi- mate causes in natural laws, and thc^-; that we cannot so understand, is one purely subjeciiv.- or human, and in no way expressive of the Divme action. It is, in short, an idea dependent on our imperfect knowledge ; and hence, if we make such a distinctinn we shall find that as knowledge in- creases, the domain of the so-called supernatural appears to diminish as if about to vanish away. The true distinction |f JS7 t which the Bible adheres to throuii;hout, is that between the natural as embodied in matter and enerjjy, and the spiritual as denoting the domain of intelligence and will. When in this lower world we seek for ultimate causes, we find only one — the human will — which cannot be referred to material pfjwer, nor brought under the dominion of the laws of matter and force ; yet we do not regard reason and will as supernatural, though, like the Creator Himself, they be- long to the unseen and s|)iritual, The F'irst Cause, or Creator, whose existence we must, even independently of revelation, assume, in order to avoid the absurdity of mere chance and causelessness, must also be spiritual, and His modes of action, though inconceivably greater, must have some an- alogy to those of the wmII of which ve are conscicms in our- selves. Hence arise two different but not contradictory modes of expressing ourselves respecting material nature. The first is that which relates to secondary causes and natural laws ; the second that which relates to the First Cause as pre- sent in all jjhenomena. In ordinary elementary science we are occupied with the first asjject of the matter. In more philosophical science, and in religious beliefs, we rise to the consideration of the latter. So far as we can understand, not only the whole material universe^ but even the spiritual world, must be within the domain of Divine law ; but in any case we may be sure that God is over all and in all, and this is the apjjropriaie view of Holy Scripture, which speaks of all things as originnting in Cod, and does not, except on rare occasions, concern itself with secondary causes. Let us not then present to our scientific friends the partial and inaccurate distinction of the natural and the superna- tural, but the true and s;-rii)tural one of the Natural and the Spiritual. We shall thus find the real meeting-place of Science and Religion, excluding atheism and agnosticism, and leading easily and naturally to the Almighty Creator and loving Father and Saviour presented to us by Divine revel- ation. 4 Nor should we forget here ihat revelation sanctions this union of the natural and the spiritual by claiming for (lod the creation and the constant care of all things in heaven and in earth, and by its ai)i)eals to nature as evidence of His being, power, wisdom, and lf)ve. Christ Himself, though the great Revealer, and asserting that only through Him can we know the Father, does not disdain to call on the sjiarrows, the ravens, and the flowers of the field to be.ir witness with Him. Paul assures the heathen people of Lystra that (iod has not left Himsell without a witness in tiial He '"did good, and sent them rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts with food and gladness." In the noble intro- duction to his Ki)istle to the Romans, he defines more clearly than any other writer |)recisely what we can know of God from His works, when he says: " 'I'he invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being I)erceived through the things that are made, even His eternal power and divinity." These two things all men may perceive in nature — power beyond our conception and contrivance beyond our com|)re- hension ; and the whole eternal, and so far above us that they must be held to be divine. Haul goes even further than this, and proceeds to argue that those who fail to glorify this Almighty Architect of man and nature, and to give thanks to Him for His goodness are " without excuse." But he has the authority of the (iospel to add to this the proclama- tion that even for those who have neglected and despised the manifestation of God in nature and have turned it into the basest uses, a loving Feather offers mercy and salvation through Jesus Christ. Another point on which there seems to be much mis- understanding between writers of popular science and Christians, is that which relates to the nature of faith as dis- tinguished from credulity and superstition, and its ])lace as one of the springs of human action. It has even been said, on no mean authority, that the progress of science has made I II I faith "a cardinal sin," while on the opposite side we often hear the demands (if science for material evidence denounced as hostile to faith, i'hysical st icnce, no doiii)t, has to insist on proof of its lacts and laws, either by observation, experi- ment, or mathemalic al demonstration. Yet it cannot dis- pense with taith in its own precei)tions and intuitions, and in the testimony of others with reference to facts and pro- cesses. Still more are we dependent on f.iith in the dt)main of the spiritual. In a (piestion of how much weight a heam will sustain, we may ap|)ly a mechanical test, and alter this a mathematical calculation, but who can test or calculate the trust of a t hild in a parent, or of one friend in another? Yet this may be (piite as sure and reasonable as the other, though |)erha|>s not reasoned out at all, but based on affec- tion or on experience. In this domain a glance, a gesture, or a word, may be as trustworthy as a demonstration in mat- ters physical ; and without this assured faith the world could not go on for a day. All this applies still more clearly to our relations to (]od. He is willing to give us physical proofs of mateiial matters ; but, in regard to our higher spiritual interests, He declines to give us a physical "sign from heaven," but he presents to us the testimony of a Divine Saviour, full of goodness, love, trui+i and self-sacrifice, and invites us to trust in Him, as willing and able to save to the uttermost. Our faith in such a person as the Christ of the Gospels is our own willing trust ; yet it is also the gift of God, who has given us the evidence of it, and the capacity to entertain it and to live by it. Between such reasonable faith and anything deserving the name of science there can be no conflict ; but we must beware not to limit the grace of God by any narrowness of our own. It is often said that students of Nature are, as a whole, hostile to religion. Unfortunately those who are so have often put themselves very much in evidence in their writings and so have given occasion to the enemy. In so far, how- ever, as my experience extends, I have reason to believe that as large a proportion of the votnries of science are pious men as of any other class. It is not to be denied, however, that they have been so unc'er some disadvantages, both on ac- count ot the ( onstant efforts n the mistranslation of single words, have done great niischiet, and tluy warn us agamst the danger of committing the cause of religion either to the sujjport of decayed philosophical or scientific systems, or to that of new views certain lobe modified in the progress ot discovery. The IJible itself, while so explicit as to the Divine creation of and immanence in nature, is jn rfectly non- committal as to secondary causes and theoretical explana- tions ; and this rightly, because it is revelation and not science. It is of the nature of science to be ever advancing. Its goal to-day is its starting point to morrow. Revelation, on the other hand, like the great natural laws whi( h regulate the univ'erse, is unchanging from age to age, yet capable of endless new applications to the wants and conditions of man in every age. Its old truths can never pass away. Its new applications will ever a|)pear till all is fulfilled. We might retort on those who inveigh against science in its attitude to religion, that many of the worst foes of Chris- tianity have been men trained in merely literary and dialectic studies, and destitute of the love and knowledge of nature ; while those chosen of the Spirit of God to reveal to man the plan of redem|)tion, have been in full sympathy with (lod's mighty Wdrks. and have been guided to use them as illustrations of spiritual things. The study of nature has not, indeed, yielded a tithe of what it is ca|)able of doing for the study of the Bible. Just as the archaeologist disinters from mounds and ruins |)ronls of Bible history, so the old Book itself needs mm h digging yet to disclose its wealth of analogy between things in heaven and things on earth. Here, also, a|)pears a special function of the Evangelical Alliance. Nothing in the outward aspect of Christianity is so repulsive to thinking men, viewing it from without, as its divisions and strifes within, and its conformity to human de- m^- 8 ii\ vices outwardly. Those only who represent the Chur|ij i^ Christ in its divine unilyj and as consisting of men untte( with Christ by faiih, andnliviDg under the guidance of iht Divine Spirit, can present'it in its true aspect to our s< ientifit workers, if the Church is the Body of Christ, then it mus be an organism not constituted by man but by God. N( power or skill of man can make or mend the humblest livinj organism, how much less that yvlnfch stands at the head o the Divine system of \he WprW. '^Jt, may be marred o wounded, but cannot hi improved by us ; and it is onl; when denuded of the mean and tawdry rags with which met invest it, and respecting whidr they contend and quarrel that it can appear in all its heavenly beauty. Finally, do we ever expect to be altogether free from th( natural and material, even in the spiritual bodies promisee at the resurrection? In. that celebrated passage in Paul'! First Epistle to the Corinthians, which is said to have hac more than thirty different intqrpretations put on it by com mentators, and in which he tries to explain that in baptising outwardly the human body, we are not applying a Christiai rite to a thing doomed to final dissolution, but to one capa ble of unending life, as well as in the same a|)ostle's beautiiu comparison of the body with a grain that dies to spring u| in a new form, we read that there is a sense in which thi human organism is immortal. In that passage also in th( eighth chapter of Romans, in which he holds that th» whole creation is to partake in the final manifestation of thi sons of God, we further learn that redeemed and glorifiec man is to be associated with a redeemed and glorified nature Even the very little that we have learned here of the work of God may remain in that new world as a new and glorifiec science. Were it not for this hope, I should have had n)ucl less pleasure and interest in enquiring into the ways in whici it has i)leased God to build up this beautiful world — beauti ful even in that state of suffering to which, for a time, it ha been subjected by man's transgression. , /^.# , \:-,t -jiif^'j / ^-^ i \/'