454 



CONCLUSION. 



mysteries, without knowledge of the good to come 

 therefrom. The progress of scientific discovery is in- 

 deed the progress of the human race, and the question. 

 Old bono ? is now no longer asked of him who would 

 reveal hidden truths. Wherever men have sought 

 wider fields of gain, or power, or usefulness, there has 

 been science in the midst of them, — guiding, sup- 

 porting, and instructing them. Wherever men have 

 sought to plant, among barbarous peoples, the emblem 

 of the only true religion, there has she gone before, — 

 opening the gates and smoothing the pathway. She 

 has lifted the curtain of ignorance from the human 

 mind, and Christianity, following her advancing foot- 

 steps, has banished from the West the ancient super- 

 stitions, and the dark Pantheism of the East and the 

 Fetich worship of the savage tribes are passing away. 

 The light of science and the gospel of our Christian 

 faith have moved hand in hand too-ether throua;h the 

 world, and, overriding the barriers of custom, have, 

 with unselfish zeal, steadily unfolded to the human 

 understanding the material interests which concern 

 this life, and to the human soul the sacred truths of 

 Revelation which concern the life to come. 



