94 REPORT—1863. 
the objects in the material world with which he is surrounded. The establishment 
also of special degrees in science is a step in advance for which we are indebted to 
the University of London, Natural sciences are particularly valuable in mental 
training. They promote accuracy of observation and of description, They teach 
the student to ra at the objects around him not with an idle gaze, but with an 
intelligent discrimination, They ensure correctness of diagnosis, and encourage 
orderly and systematic habits. 
The British Association, in its perambulations, does much good by bringing such 
subjects prominently under the notice of directors of educational institutions in 
various parts of the country. It stirs up many to see the yalue of this kind of 
knowledge, and gives practical illustration of its bearing on the ordinary business 
of life. Thus the Association has an important influence on the town in which it 
meets, not merely by what it does during its sittings, but also by its after-effects 
on the population. The very preparations made in the locality for the meeting 
haye hed been productive of much permanent good. They have been instru- 
mental in bringing together collections which have formed the nucleus of a local 
museum, and they have been the means occasionally of introducing sanitary mea~- 
sures of the highest benefit to the inhabitants, 
In conclusion I would remark, that the contemplation of the works of God is 
only second to the study'of His Word, It was too often supposed that science and 
religion were opposed. Dr, James Hamilton remarks :—‘ Science and religion 
long stood in doubtful opposition. There was much needless dread among the 
believers in the one, and much needless boasting from the disciples of the other, 
Religious men expressed their convictions with the mingled caution and asperity 
of fear, while scientific men hastened, with an air of unholy triumph, to place their 
discoveries in direct opposition to the statements of Scripture. Time has done much 
to reverse these positions, The prog soe of inyestigation, the growth of scholar- 
ship, the enlargement of knowledge, have removed many of the objections formerly 
brought against Scripture, and enabled its defenders to give them full and satis- 
factory answers. Now there is less of unbelieving dread on the one hand, less of 
unseemly boasting on the other. It is no longer necessary to scoff at revelation in 
order to appear witty, or required to question its truth in order to appear learned, 
The advocates of a heayen-given Bible have learned to use the weapons of their 
opponents; they can walk abroad among the mysteries of science with as fearless 
a step as the most daring unbeliever, and are able to claim the result of its highest 
teaching in proof of the statements and doctrines of the Word of God. The 
attempts to produce opposition between the works and the Word of God have 
utterly failed, The longer it continued, the greater became their harmony; as 
they approached, their enmity was laid aside—they discovered they were friends. 
The clear eye of Science looked on the serene face of Religion, and received some- 
what of her benignant expression; the pale brow of the ambitious student has 
bent over the page of Revelation, and his eye blazed with light brighter than the 
fire of genius, for it was radiant with the hopes of a coming immortality,” 
It is clear that religion and science must bein harmony, The works and the 
Word of God cannot be at variance. The two books of Revelation and of Nature 
are complete and perfect as regards their author. In the one we have a revelation 
in regard to matters of eternal moment—that Word which is true from the be- 
ginning, which cannot be broken, and which abideth for ever,—on the discussion 
of which we do not enter at the meetings of the British Association, As concerns 
the great truths thus revealed, he that runs may read. The Book is not intended 
to teach science. ‘The Bible, however, never does violence to facts, nor to the 
principles of sound natural philosophy. Never in one single instance will you find 
it in opposition to the just ideas which science has given us regarding the form of 
our globe, its magnitude, andits geology. There is no physical error whatever in 
the Scriptures ; and this transcendent fact, which becomes more admirable in pro- 
portion as it is made the subject of closer investigation, is a striking proof of the 
inspiration which dictated them, even to their least expressions.” 
he other book has been placed before us in order that it may be examined by 
the intellectual powers of man, and that its truths may be gradually evolved in the 
course of ages. The investigation of these truths, depending on man’s powers of 
ree a 
