THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. 



The latest born of all the sciences is that of Religion. It 

 is a peculiar outgrowth of modern thought. It has arisen because 

 of the prevalence of free opinions and unrestricted inquiry, and 

 not in any manner from a spirit of irreverence or atheism. The 

 time has now fully come when every man must be able to give a 

 reason for the faith that is in him. If the religion which we 

 profess is better and truer than those which have gone before it, 

 we must be able to tell how and wherein it is so. 



There has arisen in these latter days a Comparative Theology, 

 corresponding to the old science of Comparative Anatomy. This 

 last has brought out the points of excellence and adaptation 

 which the human form has developed out of that of its old time 

 progenitors. The other will bring to light the excellence of the 

 Christian system as compared with the lowlier religions which 

 preceded it. In no other way than by the searching criticism 

 and comparison of this new science can the true Faith be made 

 to stand out prominent among the similar beliefs which anteceded 

 and heralded its coming. The published volume of the lectures 

 of Max Miiller on the Science of Religion is a work which 

 redounds more to the credit of the Christian Faith than all the 

 labored treatises on Evidence, Church History and Exigesis. 



The late Win. Whewell, a distinguished historian of science, 

 has demonstrated that all scientific discoveries and great advances 

 have had their preludes, their antecedent periods, in which the 

 thoughts of philosophers were concentrating on those subjects 

 and the lights of knowledge were gathering to the focus of those 

 final disclosures. If I am not mistaken there was the same pre- 

 lude to that which w T as new and peculiar in the Christian Religion, 

 antecedent periods when the vain philosophy of the old world 

 was struggling to the formulation of that grand truth of the 



