266 



for further explanation of facts or ideas by tracing their history 

 instead of accounting for them by some a priori method; and 

 this is the adoption of the historical method in all manner of 

 investigations into social, political, and religious problems, 

 which Avere formerly solved by a much more summary if not 

 more satisfactory miCthod.^^ 



63. The open attack which is here made upon Holy Scrip- 

 ture is unmistakable. 1 could not have adduced a better 

 example of Darwinism_, as it afiPects religious thought, than by 

 this substitution of an unproved hypothesis for the inspired 

 Word of God. 



64. The same writer, a fair example of the Darwinian school 

 and a shining light among those w^ho are constantly expressing 

 their anger because Christian men cannot reconcile their 

 philosophy with Christianity, admits as fully as possible the 

 position which Darwinism holds -to religion. His remarks 

 ought to put an end at once and for ever to the claims of those 

 who profess that Christianity and Darwinism are compatible 

 with each other. For example, he thus writes : — Darwinism 

 does not make it more difficult to believe in a God. But,^^ he 

 continues, "^it is true that it weakens that conception of the 

 Creator which supposes Him to intervene at stated periods, in 



order to give an impulse to the machinery There is 



another doctrine, which seems to be more nearly affected ; and 

 probably, although we seldom give open expression to our 

 fears, it is this tendency which is really the animating cau^e of 

 the alarm which is obviously felt. Does not the new theory 

 make it difficult to believe in immortal souls ? 



65. Now all this is written by a man of evident ability, a 

 firm believer in Darwinism, and it is published in a journal 

 edited by the historian Froude. I cannot, therefore, be accused 

 of selecting a partial advocate of the doctrine, but rather one 

 who expresses his own belief in Darwinism, and who is there- 

 fore a trustworthy witness of any views as to the effect of 



Darwinism upon religious thought. 



66. As a further and striking example of the effect of Dar- 

 winism upon religious thought, I may refer to the first of a 

 series of ^international scientific works lately published, 

 entitled The Forms of Water in Clouds, Rivers, and Glaciers, 

 by Professor Tyndall, a series of works intended for the in- 

 struction of the rising generation. 



67. Count llumford, a man of great and original genius, 

 occupied many pages of his well-known book^'' in applying 

 to the Design of Providence the law that water when freezing 

 contracts down to 37 degrees, and then suddenly expands 

 down to 32 degrees, the freezing-point. 



