386 RevieiD of an Mdress delivered before the 



We turn to a brief consideration of the address. Mr. Wins- 

 low has endeavored to maintain the position that there is an inti- 

 mate relation of natural science to revelation — a fact, indeed, al- 

 most too palpable for contradiction. He combats the popular 

 prejudice existent to the contrary, and too prevalent even among 

 the more enlightened of our day. He considers the wide range 

 of natural science in every department as in perfect unison with 

 revealed religion — the Deity pointing out His will and purposes, 

 His wisdom, power and goodness, in the one and in the other. 

 He makes a just discrimination between the particular objects of 

 both, nor overlooks their mutual importance. 



" An unhappy prejudice has often existed between natural science 

 and religion. It has been so frequently and earnestly insisted that sci- 

 ence is at variance with revealed religion, that the friends of religion 

 have sometimes indulged sentiments of hostility against science, and 

 have thus given no small occasion for the reproach, that ignorance is 

 the mother of devotion. A large measure of the prejudice against re- 

 ligion among the more intelligent classes, has come from this source. 

 They have been ' accustomed to regard religion as a sort of Utopia, a 

 land of shadow and of fiction, where, wrapt in pleasing vision, credu- 

 lity reposes on the lap of imposture.' 



" It is too late for a religion to maintain groxmd against the science of 

 nature. She is rapidly extending her dominion, and with the force of 

 demonstration is she challenging the confidence of mankind. Every 

 enlightened and benevolent mind must contemplate her progress with 

 intense interest. 



" Our knowledge of the character and government of God is derived 

 both from his works and from his Word. Both of these are, in strict 

 truth, a revelation; but in accordance with popular usage, and to avoid 

 circumlocution, let us call the knowledge obtained fi'om the one source 

 science, and that obtained from the other revelation. 



" To enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge; to instruct us how 

 to remove or alleviate misery; to open to us ever growing and fresh 

 sources of happiness; to lift our thoughts upward, and introduce us to 

 the great Cause and Guardian of the universe — these are the noble ob- 

 jects of all science. These too are the objects of revelation. 



" But while revelation was given to teach us religion, and not natu- 

 ral science, it is yet evident, that Avhatever reference is had to facts in 

 nature by a revelation truly divine, must be such as to endure the test 

 of all the subsequent discoveries of science; and furthermore, as all 

 true religion is founded in nature, it must exhibit facts in the moral 

 world corresponding to those in the natural world." 



Speaking of geology — 



" Cuvier, one of the most enlightened geologists of the age, deduces, 

 from certain progressive changes on the earth's surface, as well as from 

 the concurrent traditions of many nations, that the first appearance of 

 man upon the face of the earth cannot be referred to a period farther 

 back than about five or six thousand years from the ))rescnt time. 



Geology also instructs us, that since the creation ' the fountains of 

 the great deep' have been ' broken up,' and that mighty floods of water 

 have swept the earth's surface. Especially the last great catachsm, 

 described by Moses, is so fully demonstrated to the mind of every ge- 



