THE RELATION OF SCIENCE TO CHRISTIAN MISSIONS. 117 



of its extension in our own day, among foreign non-Christians. 

 It must, of course, remain true that Christian missions have 

 their share in all the general influences of science upon religion, 

 and upon Christianity in particular. These are matters not 

 seldom discussed and not without their great encouragements, 

 yet with some distresses and difficulties for the Christian pastor 

 and evangelist. Non-Christian and anti-Christian writings of 

 men of some mark in the world of science are not without their 

 effect at home, and it is the same in the mission field. 



" China is being flooded with translations of Agnostic 

 literature. The effects produced at home by the works of 

 Haeckel, Huxley, Grant Allen, and the publications of the 

 rationalistic press are being reproduced in China. In Man- 

 churia a * No God ' society has made its appearance, founding 

 itself upon the Agnostic literature of the West."* But these 

 conditions, though new and of serious meaning in the East, are 

 left on one side here, as being sure to arise everywhere as 

 civilisation makes progress, and not special in any way to 

 Christian Missions. 



For the same reason nothing has been said of the splendid 

 help to the cause of Christianity afforded by the utterances by 

 men of science, of their sincere faith in Christ. It may suffice 

 to allude to the notable series of testimonies collected by the 

 Eev. G. T. Mauley from such men, and set out by him before 

 Indian students.f 



This sketch of the relations between science and Christian 

 Missions has been offered for the reader's consideration, at the 

 request of a representative of the Institute. It cannot claim to 

 have gone beyond the obvious and the superficial. Nevertheless 

 it may perhaps serve the purpose of inviting some little more 

 attention to a really important matter, viz., the crisis, now 

 reached in the world's history, for all that is being done to 

 extend the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. It may attract 

 afresh the notice of a few to the tremendous meaning for the 

 whole world of a transformation which is taking place, in which 

 it is difficult to say whether it is science or missionary enter- 

 prise which has played, and which yet has to play the greater 

 part. It should also be for what it is worth some testimony to 

 the fact that as allies, wdth full mutual trust, science and 

 missions can best make the way that God intends for them in 

 His world. 



* Edinburgh Report. 



t The Views of Modern Science, C.M.S. \d. 



