SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY. i 59 



some human, but not all, become divine." But the principle is the 

 same, as if all mineral did become vegetable, etc. It may become 

 vegetable, probably in its turn will become vegetable ; there is no par- 

 tiality or preference on the part of Nature. The same in the higher 

 spheres. All men are approximately divine, such men as Plato and 

 Paul vastly more so, of course, than the great mass of men ; but the 

 difference is one of degree, not of kind, like the difference between the 

 half -fliers and the perfect fliers among the birds. Yet Professor 

 Drummond dare affirm that certain members of a species are endowed 

 with a hind of life which is denied to certain other members of the 

 same species, and he makes this declaration, not in the name of the- 

 ology, but in the name of science ! 



Far be it from me to seek to belittle or discredit the true Christian 

 life of any man or woman — the life that conforms, however imperfectly, 

 to the example set by Jesus of Nazareth. 



"What I urge is, that the natural philosopher is bound to consider 

 such a life as not contingent upon a certain belief, or the acceptance of 

 certain dogmas, or upon any one historical event, but that it has been 

 possible to man in all ages, and is more possible now than it was in 

 the time of Socrates, only by virtue of the force of the teachings, and 

 of the immortal example of the founder of Christianity. 



To the impartial observer such a man as Julian the Apostate ap- 

 pears as about the best Christian of his time, although he utterly 

 abjured Christianity, and was a pagan to the last drop of his blood. 

 To be a Christian, in the higher sense, is to live a certain life, not to 

 subscribe to a certain creed ; or, in the words of Milton (though Mil- 

 ton would probably have repudiated this application of his words), it 

 is to " dare to think, to speak, and to be that which the highest wisdom 

 has in every age taught to be best." 



It may not be amiss for me to supplement or qualify the foregoing 

 pages with a page or two which have a different bearing. In the 

 first place, let me say that I have not so much spoken for myself 

 therein as I have spoken for that attitude of mind which makes sci- 

 ence or exact knowledge possible — a state of mind which, in our time, 

 I am aware, is carrying things with a high hand. I know full well 

 that science does not make up the sum-total of life ; that there are 

 many things in this world that count for more than exact knowledge. 

 A noble sentiment, an heroic impulse, courage, and self-sacrifice — how 

 all your exact demonstrations pale before these things ! But I recog- 

 nize the fact that within its own sphere science is supreme, and its 

 sphere is commensurate with human reason ; and that, when an appeal 

 is made to it, we must abide by the result. Theology assumes to be a 

 science, the science of God, and as such the evidence, the proof upon 

 which it relies, must stand the test of reason, or be capable of verifi- 

 cation. Religion, as a sentiment, as an aspiration after the highest 



