372 



The varieties of our mental structure are boundless^ and 

 these varieties give a peculiar shape and colour to our 

 opinions. We cannot induce men to think alike on everything. 

 They will not consent to suppress their sentiments. That 

 this doeSj indeed, arise from the nature and the free action of 

 the human mind, is evident from the fact that it takes place 

 in every department of knowledge. In science, in literature, 

 in law, in morals, in medicine, in politics, even in the theory of 

 light itself, there are little undulations of opinion, producing 

 differences and debate. In the substance of these things all 

 reflecting minds are agreed, but, in the execution and the 

 details, there is room for a variety of opinion, and a variety 

 of opinion takes place. There are hundreds of questions left 

 under the guidance of general principles and regulations ; and 

 it were absurd to suppose that men of every age and caste and 

 character should all embody those principles without variation 

 in their colour or their form. 



The Positions which the Bible occupies as an Authority 

 ON Natural Science. 



42. I cannot draw my subject to a close without noticing the 

 position which the Bible occupies in the conflict of opinion 

 between rival schools of philosophy. 



There is a quiet scepticism among the disciples of one party in 

 regard to the literal teaching of Scripture on the subject of 

 natural science. It may be well to remember that the Bible 

 was not written to teach us the motions of the stars, or the 

 natural history of our planet, or the rules of criticism, or the 

 details of history. It was written to teach us " the one thing 

 needful.^^ And so intent is its real author upon this its real 

 object, that while the meanest and minutest circumstance con^ 

 nected with that " one thing " is fully and freely noticed — the 

 mighty monarchs and the splendid empires of the surrounding 

 world are passed in almost total silence by, unless when their 

 edges happen to come in contact with the history of God's 

 glory and man's salvation, after which they sink back into the 

 obscurity out of which they had emerged for a moment. The 

 main object of the Divine Author of the Bible was not to write 

 a book on Natural Science, but to place man^s peace, and hope, 

 and holiness, in every stage of its growth, distinctly before his 

 eyes. And this He has done in the most brilliant evidence that 

 ever was presented to the mind of man. 



