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EEV. F. BAYLIS^ M.A.^ ON 



Together they should work, so long as science does not make 

 this impossible for itself, as perhaps it sometimes may, by too 

 rigidly adhering to methods, and by submitting only results 

 which are of little worth until " corrected," for the very 

 existence and working of God. Together they should work, and 

 as both under His richest blessing should they contribute to 

 the fulfilling of the prophecy of two scriptures that " the earth 

 shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover 

 the sea."* 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said that Mr. Baylis had used the word science 

 in a broad and popular sense, as expressing the study and knowledge 

 of natural phenomena ; but he had recognized that there was also 

 a Science of ethics and not less a Science of religion. True science 

 in its enquiries should neglect no phenomena whether natural or 

 supernatural which affect the subject of its research or its con- 

 clusions. Research remains unscientific if it fails in this respect. 

 The Chairman had long felt that the argument which Mr. Baylis 

 had used in his very temperate observations upon the limitations of 

 some anthropologists, might be applied with equal reason to many 

 of the conclusions of the Biblical critic. They were very much 

 what an apostle had described long ago as " words which man's 

 wisdom teacheth." They are the products of human reason rising 

 no higher than the plane of human thought, inconclusive till 

 " corrected " by the recognition of spiritual facts. 



Referring to the lecturer's remarks about the influence on the 

 mind of ignorant people produced by applied science, he could 

 confirm what had been said from the experience of his two sons in 

 West Africa. The native savage, attracted and impressed by a 

 magnet, a watch, or a gramophone, is often the more willing to 

 listen to the missionary's message. On the other hand if Missions 

 owe something to Science, he was convinced that Science owed as 

 much, if not more, to Missions. 



Bishop Thornton was invited from the Chair to make a few 

 remarks. He said : I really have nothing to challenge in this paper 

 though I have examined it most critically. It has filled me with 



* Is. xi, 9 ; Hab. ii, 14. 



