230 LIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND SCIENCE vi 



we must be prepared to choose between the 

 trustworthiness of scientific method and the 

 trustworthiness of that which the Church declares 

 to be Divine authority. For, to my mind, this 

 declaration of war to the knife against secular 

 science, even in its most elementary form ; this 

 rejection, without a moment's hesitation, of any 

 and all evidence which conflicts with theological 

 dogma is the only position which is logically 

 reconcilable with the axioms of orthodoxy. If the 

 Gospels truly report that which an incarnation of 

 the God of Truth communicated to the world, then 

 it surely is absurd to attend to any other evidence 

 touching matters about which he made any clear 

 statement, or the truth of which is distinctly 

 implied by his words. If the exact historical 

 truth of the Gospels is an axiom of Christianity, 

 it is as just and right for a Christian to say, Let 

 us " close our ears against suggestions " of scientific 

 critics, as it is for the man of science to refuse to 

 waste his time upon circle-squarers and flat-earth 

 fanatics. 



It is commonly reported that the manifesto by 

 which the Canon of St. Paul's proclaims that he 

 nails the colours of the straitest Biblical infalli- 

 bility to the mast of the ship ecclesiastical, was 

 put forth as a counterblast to " Lux Mundi " ; 

 and that the passages which I have more particu- 

 larly quoted are directed against the essay on 

 "The Holy Spirit and Inspiration" in that 



