SCIENCE AND RELIGION. 87 



declared a theology impossible. But he returned to the 

 manifestation of religion which he saw in the character 

 and teachings of Jesus, from whose figure he now began' 

 to detach the supernatural vestments in which it had 

 been robed. There he found nothing inconsistent with the 

 strictest demands of his science, while a moral image of 

 supreme beauty was presented to his affections ; and he 

 accepted Christianity in the sense in which he believed it 

 to have existed in " the mind of Christ." This attitude of 

 thought is portrayed in the conclusion of one of the first 

 Sunday lectures for the people on scientific subjects which 

 were ever delivered in London, in the winter of 1866.* The 

 topic of the evening had been the "Antiquity of Man." 

 After stating some of the scientific and moral difficulties 

 besetting the ordinary Evangelical view of the Bible, Dr- 

 Carpenter (who had warmly befriended Dr. Colenso three 

 years before) continued in these terms : — 



But to the honest inquirer, who brings to the religious his- 

 tory of the world the same modes of investigation that he applies 

 to the secular — who takes nothing for granted, but endeavours 

 fairly to estimate every fact at its true value — who appreciates 

 at their full worth those noblest instincts of man with which all 

 true progress has been in relation, by action and reaction, both as 

 cause and as effect — and who looks to the religion of the future 

 as destined to exalt and refine these, and to bring them to bear 

 with augmented strength on the great problems of human wel- 

 fare, what but good can come from the freest search into 

 scientific truth? What part does science play that is not in 

 fullest harmony with the highest truths of religion ? Do the 

 Divine words of our dying Master, " Father forgive them for 

 "they know not what they do," appeal less strongly to our deepest 

 sympathies, because asuonomy teaches that the earth moves 



• These lectures at St. Martin's Ilall were under the auspices of the 

 National Sunday League. Dr. Carpenter took great interest in these and 

 similar efTor'.s to extend the range of Sunday teaching. lie was President of 

 the Sunday Lecture Society from its first formation, in 1S69, until his death. 



