44 



lacking. What we want is intelligent co-operation in the work of 

 education, and not selfish competition, which defeats its own object, and 

 brings disastrous failure on what might otherwise prove a glorious 

 success. Let those amongst us who are able, undertake a share of the 

 work. Let parents and teachers, trustees and commissionei's, make 

 common cause against ignorance, and with the mighty power of united 

 effort, make due provision for the thorough education of our sons and 

 daughters. The matter rests altogether with the people themselves. If 

 they will not take the necessary trouble to fulfil this gi-eat duty, the 

 blame will be wholly their own, but the loss will fall upon their children. 



There are some, indeed, who refuse to encourage scientific training, 

 in che mistaken idea that it must, of necessity, tend to irreligion. They 

 appear to imagine that there is some inherent opposition between the 

 teaching of science and the Holy Scrijatures. But those who have true 

 faith in Divine revelation, have no such misgivings. They feel assured 

 that there can be no opposition whatever between the spiritual truths 

 which have been made known to man by the spirit of God, and the physical 

 truths which the same Divine Being has enabled man to discover by the 

 diligent use of the faculties implanted in him. The Divine teaching 

 contained in the Scriptures has been given for the purpose of training 

 man in the knowledge of God. It sets before us principles for our 

 guidance through life, it inspires us with hopes that reach beyond the 

 grave, and unfolds to us a glorious destiny. 



The object of revelation is indicated by the meaning of the 

 word ; it is the uncovering that which was hidden — the making 

 known that which otherwise would have remained unknown — whereas 

 the aim of science is to use the God-given faculties of observation and 

 thought in the investigation of the works of the Creator. Nobody 

 thinks of looking in the Bible for instruction in mathematics or in 

 botany, iltJiough Moses, who was learned in all the knowledge of the 

 Egyptians, must have been acquainted with the princijDles of the former ; 

 and the latter mvist, in some measure, have been known to Solomon, 

 since his wisdom not only " excelled the wisdom of the children of the 

 east country, and all the wisdom of Egypt," but also included a know- 

 ledge " of trees, from the cedar tree in Lebanon to the hyssop that 

 springeth out of the wall." Nobody ever looks into those sacred writings 

 for instruction in agriculture or architecture, or any of the arts which 

 flourished in those days of old, when the mighty pyramids first cast their 

 shadows on the sands of the desert, or the magnificent cities of the 

 Valley of the Euphrates bore witness to the knowledge and skill to 



