NEW CHAPTERS IN THE WARFARE OF SCIENCE. 447 



Newton, and Laplace were simply transcribed or evolved from a 

 mass of myths and legends largely derived by the Hebrews from 

 their ancient relations with Chaldea, rewrought in a monotheistic 

 sense, imperfectly reconciled, and then thrown into a poetic form 

 in the sacred books which we have inherited. 



On one hand, then, we have the various groups of men devoted 

 to the physical sciences all converging toward the proofs that the 

 universe, as we at present know it, is the result of an evolutionary 

 process that is, of the gradual working of physical laws upon an 

 early condition of matter ; on the other hand, we have other great 

 groups of men devoted to historical, philological, and archaeologi- 

 cal science whose researches all converge toward the conclusion 

 that our sacred texts were the result of an evolution from an early 

 chaos of rude opinion. 



The great body of theologians who have so long resisted the 

 conclusions of the men of science have claimed to be fighting es- 

 pecially for " the truth of Scripture/' and their final answer to 

 the simple conclusions of science regarding the evolution of the 

 material universe has been the cry, " The Bible is true." And they 

 are right though in a sense nobler than they have dreamed. 

 Science, while conquering them, has found in our Scriptures a far 

 nobler truth than that literal historical exactness for which theo- 

 logians have so long and so vainly contended. More and more as 

 we consider the results of the long struggle in this field we are 

 brought to the conclusion that the inestimable value of the great 

 sacred books of the world is found in their revelation of the steady 

 striving of our race, in obedience to divine law, after higher con- 

 ceptions, beliefs, and aspirations, both in morals and religion. 

 Unfolding this long-continued effort, each of the great sacred 

 books of the world is precious, and all in the highest sense are 

 true. Not one of them, indeed, conforms to the measure of what 

 mankind has now reached in historical and scientific truth; to 

 make a claim to such conformity is folly, for it simply exposes 

 those who make it and the books for which it is made to loss of 

 their just influence. 



That to which the great sacred books of the world conform, 

 and our own most of all, is the evolution of the highest concep- 

 tions, beliefs, and aspirations of our race from its childhood 

 through the great turning points in its history. Herein lies the 

 truth of all bibles, and especially of our own. Of vast value they 

 indeed often are as a record of historical outward fact; recent 

 researches in the East are constantly increasing this value ; but 

 it is not for this that we prize them most they are eminently 

 precious, not as a record of outward fact, but as a mirror of the 

 evolving heart, mind, and soul of man. They are true because 

 they have been developed in accordance with the laws governing 



