SCIENCE FROM THE PULPIT. 737 



from the pulpit. If the young student of theology has had a rigid 

 scientific training, it will prove of great advantage to him in the 

 future. Leading minds in the Church recognize that, if the material- 

 ism arising from the spread of scientific ideas, received at second hand 

 and fondled until they have deadened religious faith, is to be com- 

 bated successfully, it must be attacked by men who are not mere su- 

 perficial readers, who get up their knowledge of science as they would 

 the history of the Reformation. There is a type of character at the 

 present day which is seen in almost every community. The men con- 

 stituting it, with the most superficial knowledge of science, have their 

 own views upon the causes of natural phenomena. They believe in 

 animal magnetism in the connection of electricity with every thing 

 that fails to be explained by any other agent. They speculate upon 

 the constitution of suns and comets. Said one of this class to the 

 writer lately : " Do you believe that the sfm is heat ? You are wrong 

 if you do. I believe that it is electricity." The minister must deal 

 with this type, with sound knowledge. An omnivorous reader, a vil- 

 lage wiseacre in science, may easily have, in these days, a little sect 

 of his own in a community. The minister, therefore, cannot ignore 

 science, if he would reach all hearts. Yet an illogical and incomplete 

 treatment of Nature's laws, and wrong deductions and false applica- 

 tions, will be quickly criticised by men who, however much they like 

 to have hypotheses of their own, are harsh and critical to those of 

 their minister. 



Let us see what the training is which is to enable our young divin- 

 ity students to successfully combat the modern scientific materialism. 

 We shall take the catalogues of four leading divinity schools the 

 schools at Andover, Harvard LTniversity, Yale, and Princeton : 



At Andover, the junior year is devoted to the study of the Hebrew 

 and Greek Scriptures, systematic theology, homiletics, church history, 

 and elocution ; the middle year is devoted to systematic theology, 

 the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, church history, and elocution ; the 

 senior year is devoted to church history, homiletics, Hebrew and 

 Greek Scriptures, pastoral theology, and elocution. 



In addition to the regular course of instruction, special courses of 

 lectures are delivered by eminent clergymen on foreign missions, home 

 missions, and Congregationalism. 



At the Harvard Divinity School the course consists of the fol- 

 lowing : 



Hebrew Language; principles of criticism and interpretation; the 

 literature, canon, and exegesis of the Old and New Testaments ; bib- 

 lical archaeology and geography ; natural religion, and the evidences 

 of revealed religion ; the philosophy of religion ; systematic theology; 

 philosophical and Christian ethics ; the ethnic religions, and the creeds 

 of Christendom; ecclesiastical history, and the history of Christian 

 doctrine ; church polity and administration. 

 VOL. vi. 47 



