Science and Religion.

THE CREATION. I do not attempt to tell how it is, but how I have come at it in my studies. Science has had its growth, and those who have been in the study a life-time confess how little they know. The object of the Bible is not to teach men science, but to teach God to men. If subjects of science are here, it is with the aim to teach God and to establish the kingdom of God on earth. The Bible appeals to man, as man sustaining. relations to God; and that which is not to the point in this respect is passed over. It appeals to all men, and, therefore, must be adapted to all men. The Bible, therefore, uses popular language, the language of the senses. It speaks of appearances. The language of science is very different. Science seeks laws; and as the Bible is not to teach science, as such, I am prepared to find things spoken of in the Bible which are according to appearances but not true according to science. We speak of the sun as rising and setting, which is not science. So it may be with some of the language of the Bible. And so I do not look for physical science in the Bible. The subject of the Bible is God and man and their union through the God-man.

There are these two kinds of language, popular and scientific; and we should not criticise the one for the other.

What was the object of the history of creation? To show God as the author. The whole family of man, except that of Abraham, was in idolatry. Now what is the bottom line or principle of idolatry? It is the worship of the material. The worship of the true God is spiritual.

All material things were worshiped; and they had so many gods that they could have no idea of the unity of creation. Now the only way to speak to any nation is to use the words they understand. This account of creation was given to teach the unity of God and confound idolatry.

The religion of the world was polytheism, excepting that of the Persians, who had a dual religion - two worlds and two gods; one physical and the other spiritual. And God, through Moses, gives this testimony of truth against all these false systems. It was not written for scientific readers, but to correct error. True, here are scientific subjects. Mathematics is the basis of science, and science teaches the unity of the universe. But philosophy is the mother of science, and Moses lays the foundation of science by teaching the unity of the Creator. All science is based on the unity of the universe. There are two ways of studying nature the empirical, which is by observation; the other by natural laws, or the type principle.

The idea of God shapes the form that science takes in any nation or age. The affections furnish the motive. God is love, and hence the unity of his designs. The will works for the end; hence the unity of God's purpose. The intellect plans; hence the unity of God's laws. Laws are nothing only so far as they teach God's actions.

The Bible does not settle what the world was made of. It is a metaphysical question. Space and time are the two fundamental ideas of all history and science. The unity of God's plans may be seen in all history.

Science began in Egypt, from whence Europe took it. Religion began in Asia. Socrates was the father of moral science and Aristotle the father of physical science. It takes the whole universe of God to complete one soul. The progress of the world has not been direct.

The Latin church had the power of organizing and centralizing. The Greeks speculated. In the last days of Rome the emperor claimed to be God. Calvin came and asserted the sovereignty of God. It was needed; but he carried it so far that he destroyed human freedom. That doctrine became a strong power; but finally there was a reaction, which also went too far. Then came the subject of free-will; and thus it has been in zigzag course, one extreme following another. The doctrine of sovereignty, carried to extreme, begot two reactions -the reaction of the affections against it, or Universalism; the reaction of the intellect, Unitarianism. Thus progress in religious thought has been irregular in its course, though all the while approaching a straight line.

In the fifteenth century there was a great era of physical discovery and material interest. Spain carried it so far that she killed her spiritual nature, so that to-day she is the least spiritual of any people.

In the sixteenth century God opened the spiritual world to man by means of the Reformation.

Philosophy is abstract; science is concrete.

Now all

these things were providential; and the time has now come when we are trying to harmonize both the spiritual and the natural--the Bible and science — and in the spirit of Christ we may find all this power of reconciliation. The world knows so much that it must know more; we must find harmony or let one go. The practical question of our age is to stem the tide of the love of wealth. The theoretical question is the harmony of the Bible and science; and the theological question is the harmony of sects.

Then we should not try to make technical science of the Mosaic account of creation. The animal man was first, and had its particular career first. There was the age of grossness and licentiousness. Then came the reaction, and religious people became ascetic. Some of the saints mortified the body, thinking it duty. When any new step in spiritual life is to be taken there must be a foundation of science for it to stand upon. This is seen in the change from patriarchal life to national life. You can not have a nation without territory, material services — science. God's chosen people had faith, but in order that they might become a nation and enable them to become the kingdom of God to the world they must have science.. For this purpose God sent them to Egypt to school. Thus it took the faith

of Abraham and the science of Egypt to do the work. It was so in later times. There were two churches at first, one at Jerusalem and one at Antioch.

At Jerusa

lem they held to the old Mosaic form; at Antioch they claimed that all who had the spirit of Christ were his. At the latter place they were first called Christians.. Why? Because there was a revival, and they not only

had there the Holy Ghost, but they were also taught. At Jerusalem they had only the Holy Ghost, and were narrow in their views. Something more was needed.

We must not only touch the heart but teach the head. The babes must be fed or they will die. And thus the church must be wedded to science

the theory, but to the real knowledge.

not merely with

We need health. There is a shocking degree of ill health among Christians to-day. It has no business to be so. There is a shocking degree of premature death. It should not be. Science is needed in these things. The education of Moses in Egypt enabled him to make health-laws for the Jews. I believe we have done great injury by neglecting these material things. We want to save men and not souls. We want to learn to teach the people science and the laws of health and still save them from materialism.

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