THE SCIENCES 35 



patient waiting for fuller knowledge of all things. 

 Theologians should appreciate and take into due account 

 every increase of human knowledge, recognizing that 

 each advance must ultimately prove helpful in inter- 

 preting the data of theological science.^ But in order to 

 do this they do not need either to disparage their own 

 science or to lose their certainty as to the validity of its 

 primary data — such data, I mean, as are summed up 

 in ''the faith which was once for all dehvered unto the 

 saints." ^ Depending as they must upon physical 

 scientists for knowledge of the mechanical aspects of 

 nature, they ought, none the less, to perceive the tenta- 

 tive nature of physical hypotheses, and of the theological 

 inferences which are at first made from them. Time 

 always works in the long run for the manifestation of 

 truth, and this should encourage us to be patient when 

 scientific hypotheses seem to contradict theological 

 conclusions. In such case more mature thought may 

 show that we have been too hasty in supposing that the 

 contradiction is real. If it is real, and the physical 

 hypothesis is able to stand the test of time, we may 

 be sure that the theological proposition which requires 

 modification will be found to be speculative, and ca- 

 pable of abandonment without prejudicing the genuine 

 contents of supernatural revelation. The fact is that 

 the abandonment of untenable theological opinions 

 must always make for a clearer understanding of the 

 fundamental verities of our reHgion. 



1 See Tiling worth, Reason and Revelation, pp. 84-87. 



2 St. Judes. 



