280 HARMONY OF SCIENCE A>'D CHRISTIANITY. 



tains; each, in the same manner, having one under her 

 care. The Ne'reids were inferior goddesses of the sea. 

 From Baldwin's Pantheon. 



LESSON 129. 



Harmony of Science and Christianity, 



After all the attacks of infidelity, and of theoretical phi- 

 losophy, the religion of Christ, when contemplated through 

 the medium of science, has had a complete and victorious 

 triumph. It has been often objected to Christianity, that it 

 is unfavourable to the progress of knowledge ; that it dis- 

 courages scientific enterprises ; that it is inimical to free 

 inquiry, and has a tendency to keep the minds of men in 

 blindness and thraldom. The history of Christianity, since 

 the Reformation at least, demonstrates that the very reverse 

 of what the objection states is the truth. Christian nations 

 have been, of all others, most remarkable for favouring the 

 advancement of liberal knowledge. In those countries in 

 which religion has existed in its greatest purity, and has 

 enjoyed the most general 'prevalence, literature and science 

 have been most extensively and successfully cultivated. It 

 is also worthy of remark, that, among all the professions de- 

 nominated learned, the clerical profession may be considered 

 as having furnished as many, if not more authors of distinc- 

 tion than any other. And if we join to the clergy, those 

 lay authors who have been no less eminent as Christians 

 than as scholars, the predominance of learning and talents 

 on the side of religion will appear too great to admit of com- 

 parison. The discoveries made in mechanical and chemical 

 philosophy have served to elucidate and confirm various 

 parts of the Christian Scriptures. Every sober and well- 

 directed inquiry into the natural history of man, and of the 

 globe we inhabit, has been found to corroborate the Mosaic 

 history, and the reports of voyagers and travellers have 

 served to illustrate the sacred records, and to confirm the 

 faith of Christians. Never was there a period in which so 

 much light and evidence in favour of revelation were drawn 

 from the inquiries of philosophy as in the present era ; nor 



