204 THE LIMIT OF SCIENCE. 



to the charge brought against us in the court of Divine 

 Justice, and to ignore the only way of reconciliation. 

 This, I fear, too many of our philosophers and natural 

 theologians do. They offer Cain's " fruit of the 

 ground," without the blood of Abel's ''firstling." 

 But it is not and cannot be accepted ; for there is no 

 way into the Holiest but by the Blood of Jesus. 

 Natural religion can tell us, ex cathedra^ nothing 

 about this. When an anxious conscience demands 

 to know something more of God, something of his 

 feelings towards offenders, of his way of dealing with 

 rebels, whether there is forgiveness with Him, and 

 mercy, — the creatures are mute. One says. It is not 

 in me ! and another says, It is not in me ! All are 

 ominously dumb on such questions as these.^ 



To enlighten us on these points is the grand object 

 of the Word of God. It reveals to man the full 

 hopelessness of his state, drawing aside the curtain 

 from that hideous scene of eternal and utter ruin 

 into which he had fallen by sin. It reveals also the 

 remedy, God manifest in the flesh, bearing as a sub- 

 stitute human guilt, that through the blood-shedding 

 of one spotless and infinitely perfect Victim, there 

 might be full and free justification for every one that 

 believeth. 



* Natural theology is quite overrated by those who would repre- 

 sent it as the foundation of the edifice : it is not that, but rather 

 the taper by which we must grope our way to the edifice. ... It is 

 not that natural I'eligion is the premises, and Christianity the con- 

 clusion ; but it is that natural religion creates an appetite which it 

 cannot quell : and he who is urged thereby, seeks for a rest and a 

 satisfaction which he can only obtain in the fulness of the Gospel. — 

 Chalmers, Bridgew. Treat, ii. 290, 291. 



