John Fiske believed that we live in a natural universe LITTLE^ 

 and that God works through Nature, and that in fact JOURNEYS 

 Nature is the spirit of God at work. 

 Doubts never disturbed John Fiske. Things that were 

 not true technically and literally, were true to him if 

 taken in a spiritual or poetic way. God, to him, was 

 a personal being, creating through the Law of Evolu- 

 tion because He chose to. The six days of creation, 

 were six eons or geologic periods. 



No man has ever been more in sympathy with the 

 discoverers in Natural History than John Fiske. No 

 man ever knew so much about his work as John 

 Fiske. His knowledge was colossal, his memory pro- 

 digious. And in all of the realm of science and philos- 

 ophy, from microscopy and the germ theory, to ad- 

 vanced astronomy and the birth of worlds, his flowing 

 imagination saw the work of a beneficent Creator who 

 stood above and beyond and outside of Natural Law 

 and with infinite Wisdom and Power did His own 

 Divine Will. 



Little theologians who feared science on account of 

 danger to pet texts, received from him kindly pats on 

 the head, as he showed them how both science and 

 scripture were true. He didn't do away with texts, he 

 merely changed their interpretation. And often he dis- 

 covered that the text v^hich seemed to contradict 

 science was really prophetic of it. John Fiske did not 

 taTseTlinything away from anybody, unless he gave 

 them something better in return. Q"A man's belief is 

 a part of the man,' he said. "Take it away by force 



149 



