23 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



must have a theology, but it does not follow that every theologian 

 must have a religion. There may be a conflict between theology and 

 some other sciences, and religious men may deplore it," etc. Now, in 

 our opinion, if every religious man must have a theology, and if his the- 

 ology be in conflict with science, he must either be in conflict in opin- 

 ion with that science or abandon his theology. But the truth is, that 

 the real, actual conflict arises from the religious element. The con- 

 flict of opinion is in the theology of a man ; the conflict, as it appears 

 upon the stage of the world's history in acts and deeds, has sprung 

 from the religious nature, even as defined by Dr. Deems. A man may 

 hold what theological views you please and make no disturbance in 

 the world, provided he does not think much about his duty in obeying 

 the commands, word, or will of God, all of which are a part of his 

 theology. For instance, one of the commands of God, as contained 

 in his word, and to which he should render a " loving obedience," is 

 " Suffer not a witch to live." Now, a man may believe in that com- 

 mand simply as a dogma, but, being indifferent in the matter of ren- 

 dering a loving obedience, he will not let it influence his conduct, and 

 so will make no effort to hunt up and have witches burnt. If, on the 

 contrary, he has a loving obedience to God's word, he will trample 

 upon every kindly feeling and instinct of his nature rather than not 

 have the command carried out. 



Accordingly, we find that it has been the pious, the sincere, the 

 believers in duty, those wishing to render a loving obedience to God's 

 word, or what they thought was his word, who have in every age 

 been the persecutors. But you say that they w T ere acting under a 

 delusion. They mistook what was the word of God. But how are 

 they to know what is his word, if direct commands like the foregoing 

 are not his ? Besides, if there was a mistake, it was in their theology, 

 and not in their religion ; that only impelling them to lovingly obey 

 God's commands as they knew them. Religion is but an impulse, a 

 blind instinct. It knows nothing about weighing and comparing opin- 

 ions. Theology furnishes it with these. If these are bad, its conduct 

 will be bad; if good, the conduct will be good. All it knows is 

 blind obedience zeal to do the will of God as it knows it; and the 

 pretended science, which alone can give it guidance, is a science of 

 the Unknowable, the Infinite, the Absolute. 



We will close with a quotation from Lecky's "History of Ration- 

 alism," in reference to Luther: "He was subject to many strange hal- 

 lucinations and vibrations of judgment, which he invariably attributed 

 to the direct agency of Satan. Satan became, in consequence, the 

 dominating conception of his life. In every critical event, in every 

 mental perturbation, he recognized satanic power. Fools, deformed 

 persons, the blind and the dumb, were possessed by devils. Physi- 

 cians, indeed, attempted to explain these infirmities by natural causes; 

 but those physicians were ignorant men they did not know all the 



