Ill 



SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY 



/^NE of the latest phases of the religious thought 

 ^-^ of the times seems to be a desire to get rid of, 

 or to explain away, the supernatural, — at least to 

 reclaim and domesticate it and convince mankind 

 that it is not the irresponsible outlaw we have so 

 long been led to suppose, — a desire nearly a^ marked 

 in the theology as in the science of the day. Thus, 

 the Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Temple), in his Bampton 

 Lectures of 1884, on the " Relations between Reli- 

 gion and Science," upholds the belief in miracles, 

 without calling to his aid the belief in the super- 

 natural as the word is commonly used. A miracle, 

 he urges, may be only some phase of the natural 

 not yet understood ; the turning of water into wine 

 by word of command, or the miracle of the loaves 

 and the fishes, may have been accomplished by the 

 exercise of some power over nature which is perfectly 

 scientifiic, but of which man as yet has imperfect 

 control. 



And the Duke of Argyll, in his " Reign of Law," 

 cautions us against assigning an event or a phe- 

 nomenon to the agency of the supernatural until we 

 are quite sure we understand the limits of the natural 

 — the natural may reach far enough to include all 



