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KEV. F. BAYLIS, M.A.^ ON 



day. The mission-field is then the most likely place to find 

 experiences parallel, in the conflict between light and darkness, 

 between good and evil, to those of our Lord Himself and His 

 Apostles. 



It seems to the writer certain beforehand that no such 

 marvels will be found as will compel belief in the intervention 

 of God. Not even the miracles in the Gospel records do that, 

 and they were not intended to do it. It would therefore be of 

 little use to set out a series of instances of supposed special 

 providences, of wonderful answers to prayer, of spiritual 

 revivals, of demon possession and exorcism, if the idea were 

 to find an argument for the existence and working of God 

 which could not be refuted. After very severe sifting of its 

 authenticity, a story must always be open still to any possible 

 efforts to explain away what may be subjective belief only, or 

 delusion, or coincidence ; and it would be only to court defeat 

 to offer an instance supposed to be able to defy doubt on all 

 such points. The suggestion is not that these events and 

 experiences prove anything. It is that they occur with 

 such frequency and with such remarkable features as to demand 

 the attention of anyone who maintains that " miracles do not 

 happen," or who would dogmatically assert that the human race 

 comes nowhere into experimental touch with the super-human. 

 It may perhaps just be added that, for what it is worth, this 

 evidence would generally be presented from the mission-field 

 as betokening evil influences beyond the human, quite as really 

 as the super-human good. 



Missions mid the Teaching of Science. 



There is one broad aspect of mutual relations not yet referred 

 to, which calls for recognition as of growing importance. It is 

 the place of science in the general enlightenment of Africa and 

 the East, and its bearing on missions. 



There is little to be said here save that the relation is, on the 

 whole, a quite happy one. 



Christian missions mean propaganda for the best religion, 

 and it has been well said by Prof. Gvvatkin* that " the word of 

 science to religion seems everywhere the sante. The highest 

 ideal may b3 true, but the lower must be false. So science has 

 been a destroying spirit and has filled the temple of truth with 

 ruins. But the things she has destroyed were only idols. 



* The Knowledge of God^ vol. ii, p. 278. 



