THE SERENE EVANGEL OF SCIENCE 1 



Bv Fred B. R. Hellems 



I 



"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will 

 give you rest." 



The words came so gently, so trustingly, so winningly, from the 

 lips of the reverend speaker, that even careless ears were quickened to 

 hear his lesson. 



"When Science can offer the stricken heart a substitute for that 

 divine promise, it may overthrow the Christian religion. Until then, 

 mankind will seek a shelter in the shadow of the cross, a balm in the 

 loving care of a Father who is at once the all-wise and the all-kind." 



As I listened, the voice of the speaker became the voices of a 

 thousand Christian apologists from St. Matthew and Francis of Assisi 

 to Cardinal Newman and the pastor I had loved since childhood. 

 Here the faithful have ever found a stay against the persistent aggres- 

 ion of Science, a bulwark against the pervasive tide of Humanism. 

 Through the centuries the thoughtful Christian has been repeating in 

 changing forms the experience of St. Augustine as he felt himself 

 carried away by the irresistible charm of Plato, and exclaimed, half in 

 self-support, half in criticism of the great Athenian's teaching: 

 Nemo ibi audivit vocantem, Venite ad me qui laboratis. 



And even as this cry represents the heart of Christianity, so it 

 suggests the error of the extreme assailants of revealed religion. 

 Shelley, with his passionate, idealistic pantheism; Huxley, with his 

 conscientious, militant agnosticism; Swinburne, with his almost 

 demoniacal bitterness; Haeckel, with his incisive, relentless material- 

 ism — all these, and countless others, have failed to reckon with the 

 strength that is rooted in weakness. Their onslaughts have often 

 appalled the simple and kindly by sheer ferocity, no less than they 



1 Reprinted from the Forum, Vol. XLIX, pp. 607-617, 1013, with permission of the editor. 

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