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CANON E. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A._, ON 



side of nature and links all things with God. It frequently 

 passes over intermediate processes, just as we do in common 

 conversation, as when we say (for instance) "it rains." The 

 man of science on the contrary is busy with processes. The 

 first chapter of the Bible describes the origin of the existing 

 order of things. It gives us a bird's-eye view of nature. It 

 is a niultum in parvo, not an encycloppedia. It tells us of results 

 rather than of processes. Its main object is to produce a 

 certain impression on the mind with regard to the living God. 

 Certainly it leaves plenty of room for the investigations of 

 the man of science. He may be an astronomer, a geologist, 

 a meteorologist, a chemist, a botanist, a comparative anatomist ; 

 but to one and all the first page of the Bible says, " Come hither 

 and behold the wonderful works of God." 



The Bible student is liable to mistakes. He sometimes 

 reads into the Hebrew Scriptures what is not in them, and 

 sometimes through mistaken reverence tries to close the door 

 against the enquirer who wishes to know both the "how" 

 and the " why " of everything. The student of nature is also 

 liable to mistakes. He is not content with aiming at a 

 catalogue of the myriad of things which make up nature, nor 

 would he be satisfied even if he could formulate the rules and 

 methods whereby the whole system of nature is carried on. 

 He wants to get further back, to detect nature in its most 

 primitive workings before it got to be what it now is, before 

 the stratification of the earth's crust had begun, before matter 

 had solidified, before the fiery oichidcv had clustered round their 

 centres, before the atoms had ranged themselves into the 

 elements, before electricity had spoken its first word. These 

 investigations are now in full swing. They are grand in 

 conception : but they are attended by a certain risk which may 

 be hinted at by a word which I use in no offensive sense — 

 nature-worship. 



Let us suppose that in course of time Science should succeed 

 in formulating natural nionisn), i.e., should trace all the forms of 

 matter to electricity, and all the processes of electricity to one. 

 This would be tlie master key to nature. It would have the 

 promise and potency of all known phenomena wrapped up 

 within itself, and would be the universal parent of all tilings 

 visible and invisible, including of course the Mind which has 

 discovered this wonderful thing, and tlie human Spirit in all its 

 phases and possibilities. ])Ut should we even then do without 

 God ? There is something in our nature which inevitably 

 demands a hearing, and which appeals not to electricity but to 



