568 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



no matter how much at variance tliey may at times seem to be, the 

 truths they reach shall finally be fused into each other ? 



No one needs fear the result. No matter whether Science shall 

 complete her demonstration that man has been on the earth not mere- 

 ly six thousand years, or six millions of years ; no matter whether 

 she reveals new ideas of the Creator or startling relations between 

 his creatures ; no matter how many more gyves and clamps upon the 

 spirit of Christianity she destroys, the result, when fully thought out, 

 will serve and strengthen religion not less than science/ 



The very finger of the Almighty has written on history that sci- 

 ence must be studied by means proper to itself, and in no other way. 

 That history is before us all. No one can gainsay it. It is decisive, 

 for it is this : There has never been a scientific theory framed from 

 the use of scriptural texts, wholly or partially, which has been made 

 to stand. Such attempts have only subjected their authors to deris- 

 ion, and Christianity to suspicion. From Cosmas finding his plan of 

 the universe in the Jewish tabernacle, to Increase Mather sending 

 mastodon's bones to England as the remains of giants mentioned in 

 Scripture ; from Bellarrain declaring that the sun cannot be the cen- 

 tre of the universe, because such an idea vitiates the whole scriptural 

 plan of salvation, to a recent writer declaring that an evolution the- 

 ory cannot be true, because St. Paul says that " all flesh is not the 

 same flesh," the result has always been the same.'' 



'In an eloquent sermon, preached in March, 1874, Bishop Cummins said, in sub- 

 stance : " The Church has no fear of Science ; the persecution of Galileo was entirely 

 unwarrantable ; but Christians should resist to the last Darwinism ; for that is evidently 

 contrary to Scripture." The bishop forgets that Galileo's doctrine seemed to such colos- 

 sal minds as Bellarmin, and Luther, and Bossuet, " evidently contrary to Scripture." 

 Far more logical, modest, sagacious, and full of faith, is the attitude taken by bis former 

 associate, Dr. John Cotton Smith. " For geology, physiology, and historical criticism, 

 have threatened or destroyed only particular forms of religious opinion ; while they have 

 set the spirit of religion free to keep pace with the larger generalizations of modern 

 knowledge." {PiCTON, " The Mystery of Matter," London, 1873, p. 72.) 



* In the Church Journal, New York, May 28, 1874, a reviewer praising Rev. Dr. 

 Hodge's book against Darwinism, says : " Darwinism, whether Darwin knows it or not, 

 whether the clergy, who are half prepared to accept it in blind fright as ' science,' know it 

 or not, is a denial of every article of the Christian faith. It is supreme folly to talk as 

 some do about accommodating Christianity to Darwinism. Either those who so talk do 

 not understand Christianity, or they do not understand Darwinism. If we have all, men 

 and monkeys, women and baboons, oysters and eagles, all ' developed ' from an original 

 monad and germ, then St. Paul's grand deliverance 'All flesh is not the same flesh. There 

 is one kind of flesh of men, another of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. 

 There are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial' may be still very grand in our funeral- 

 service, but very untrue to fact." This is the same dangerous line of argument which 

 Caccini indulged in in Galileo's time. Dangerous, for suppose " Darwinism " be proved 

 true ! For a soothing potion by a skillful hand, see Whewell on the consistency of evo- 

 lution doctrines with teleological ideas ; also Rev. Samuel Houghton, F. R. S., "Princi- 

 ples of Animal Mechanics," London, 1873, preface and page 156, for some interesting 

 ideas on teleological evolution. 



