A. T. SCHOFIELD^ M.D., ON SCIENCE AND THE UNSEEN WORLD. 49 



But even those who " see " do not see Christianity in the 

 bhickherry bush. 



llevelation, then, concerns truths that can never be reached by 

 scientific investigation. But this is not necessarily on account 

 of the difficulty of the research, but of the difference between 

 the character and object of the two. 



Science may postulate an omniscient Mind, but revelation 

 reveals a Holy, a Loving, and a Eigliteous God ; and these three 

 characters are still impressed, however faintly, upon His 

 creatures ; for without a sense of moral right and wrong (of which 

 science knows nothing) Nelson's immortal signal at Trafalgar, 

 " England expects every man to do his duty," would be without 

 meaning, and indeed, the ''homo sapiens'' of biology non- 

 existent. The power of Ptevelation in the heart of man 

 consists in the fact that it alone gives the answer to all the 

 questionings and dim feelings that arise in his heart and 

 conscience, and thus puts the" creature in touch with its Creator. 



AVithout both science and revelation no man can be fully 

 developed as a man. AVith only one, half of him is unenliglitened; 

 and if revelation be what is left out, ma,y we not say the greater 

 half. Science may make us " wise as serpents," but revelation 

 alone can make us " harmless as doves." 



Many scientists would fain make a further distinction 

 between the two, and say that science is the study of things 

 that can be known and proved, while revelation deals with 

 matters that cannot be known or proved, but are to be believed. 



But this distinction on careful investigation will not stand. 

 Eevelation, at any rate, everywhere asserts positive knowledge. 

 The language always is " v:c knovj." Knowledge is of two sorts, 

 personal and hearsay. The verification of any facts must be 

 personal, and must become a registered result within our own 

 consciousness. It is the ease with which this is accomplished 

 in the facts of science that constitutes one of the strongest 

 testimonies to its trutlis. It does not merely assert that pure 

 water consists of H^O, and that the union of these two gases in 

 this proportion will inevitably and always produce this fluid, 

 but anyone who cares to make the experiment can do so for 

 himself, and thus cliange his knowledge of the fact from 

 "hearsay" into ''personal"; and this step is everywhere urged 

 by true teachers of science. It is this experimental, or as we 

 call it in medicine, clinical knowledge, which is first-hand 

 knowledge, that is everywhere insisted on in the best schools, 

 and is always of greater value than hearsay or second-hand 

 knowledge from books. 



