MORAL TENDENCY OF SCIENCE. 



159 



be a niece of glaring inconsistency, either in the 

 tnooiogian on the one hand, or the philosopher 

 on tne other. We have too much reason to sus 

 pect, that the squeamishness of certain scientific 

 characters, in omitting all references to the 

 Christian system, arises either from a secret 

 disbelief of its authority, or from a disrelish of 

 Ihe truths and moral principles it inculcates. 



Taking for granted, then, what has never yet 

 been disproved, that Christianity is a revelation 

 from heaven, and recollecting, that we live in a 

 country where this religion is professed, it follows, 

 as a matter of consistency as well as of duty, that 

 all our systems of instruction, whether literary or 

 scientific, whether in colleges, academies, me 

 chanics institutions, or initiatory schools, ought 

 to be founded on the basis of the Christian reve 

 lation that, in the instructions delivered in such 

 seminaries, its leading doctrines should be recog 

 nised, and that no dispositions or conduct be 

 encouraged which are inconsistent with its 

 moral principles. 



More particularly, in describing the processes 

 or phenomena of nature, an opportunity should 

 frequently be taken of quoting the sublime and 

 energetic sentiments of the inspired writers, and 

 of referring to the facts they record, when they 

 are appropriate, and illustrative of the subject in 

 hand. This would tend to connect the operations 

 of nature with the agency of the God of nature ; 

 and would show to the young, that their instruct 

 ors felt a veneration for that Book which has 

 God for its Author, and our present and future 

 happiness as the great object of its revelations. 

 Why should the Bible be almost the only book 

 from which certain modern philosophers never 

 condescend to borrow a quotation ? They feel 

 no hesitation nay, they sometimes appear to 

 pride themselves in being able to quote from 

 Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno, or from Ovid, Virgil, 

 and Lucretius. They would feel ashamed to be 

 considered as unacquainted with the works of 

 Bacon, Galileo, Newton, Halley, Huygeris, 

 Boscovich, Black, Robison, Buffon, or La Place, 

 and unable to quote an illustrative sentiment 

 from their writings ; but they seem to feel, as if it 

 would lessen the dignity of science to borrow 

 an illustration of a scientific position from 

 Moses or Isaiah, and to consider it as in nowise 

 disrespectful to appear ignorant of the contents 

 of the Sacred Volume. Such were not the sen 

 timents and feelings of the philosophers to whose 

 works I lately referred, which abound with 

 many beautiful and appropriate sentiments from 

 the inspired writings. Such were not the feel 

 ings of the celebrated Euler, whose accomplish 

 ments in science were admired by all the philoso 

 phers of Europe ; nor were such the feelings of 

 the late Dr. Robison, who was scarcely his infe 

 rior. When describing the numerous nebula in 

 the distant regions of the heavens, he closes his 

 marks with the following reflection : &quot; The 

 11 



human mind is almost overpowered with such a 

 thought. When the soul is filled with such con 

 ceptions of the extent of created nature, we can 

 scarcely avoid exclaiming, Lord, what then is 

 man, that thou art mindful of him* 1 Under 

 such impressions, David shrunk into nothing} 

 and feared that he should be forgotten among so 

 many great objects of the Divine attention. 

 His comfort and ground of relief from this de 

 jecting thought are remarkable. &amp;lt; But, says he, 

 thou hast made man but a little lower than 

 the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and 

 honour. David corrected himself, by calling to 

 mind how high he stood in the scale of God s 

 works. He recognised his own divine original, 

 and his alliance to the Author of all. Now, 

 cheered and delighted, he cries out, Lord, hov 

 glorious is thy name ! &quot; Elements of Me~ 

 chemical Philosophy, vol. i. p. 565. 



Again, every proper opportunity should be 

 taken of illustrating the harmony which subsists 

 between the system of revelation and the sys 

 tem of nature between the declarations of the 

 inspired writers and the facts which are found to 

 exist in the material universe. This subject 

 presents an extensive field of investigation which 

 has never yet been thoroughly explored, and 

 which admits of the most extensive and diversi 

 fied illustrations. The facts of geology some 

 of which were formerly set in array against the 

 records of revelation are now seen to be corro- 

 borative of the facts stated in the Mosaic his 

 tory ;* and in proportion as the system of na 

 ture is minutely explored, and the physical sci 

 ences in general approximate to perfection, the 

 more striking appears the coincidence between 

 the revelations of the Bible and the revelations 

 of Nature. And one principal reason why this 

 coincidence at present does not appear complete, 

 is, that the Scriptures have never yet been tho 

 roughly studied in all their references, nor-the 

 system of the material world thoroughly explored. 

 The facts of modern science, of which many of 

 our commentators were ignorant, have seldom 

 been brought to bear upon the elucidation of the 

 inspired writings, and the sentiments of the sa 

 cred writers have seldom been illustrated by an 

 appeal to the discoveries of science. The views 

 which the system of nature exhibits of the plan 

 and principles of the divine government, the 

 reasons of the operation of those destructive 

 agents which frequently exert their energy with 

 in the bounds of our sublunary system, and the 

 connexion which subsists between physical and 

 moral evil, might also form o -c;isional subjects 

 of investigation i as they are all deeply interest 

 ing to man considered as a moral agent, and as 

 the subject of the moral administration of the 

 Governor of the Universe. 



t For illustrations of this position, see Dr. TJro&amp;gt; 

 Geology, Parkinson s Organic Remain*, e. 



