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 does, 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. 
