7 
statements of Scripture wrong ; rather, leave the two side by side till it shall 
please God to allow us to see the manner in which they may be reconciled ; 
and, mstead of insisting upon the seeming differences between Science and 
t e Scriptures, it would be as well to rest in faith upon the points in which 
they agree.’’ 
In this Declaration we have the “ facts ” sufficiently ac- 
knowledged, although the manner in which they are stated 
may be regarded as open to criticism. The language is some- 
what indefinite, and therefore not likely quite to satisfy those 
who have definite scientific notions, any more than those who 
distrust science, and have no doubt as to their theological 
traditions. But to say that scientific truth is perverted by 
some, in order to cast doubt upon scriptural truth, if that is 
what ^is meant by the words that “researches into scientific 
truth ” are so perverted, is a declaration that scarcely modifies 
censure by its periphrasis. I do not believe the students who 
signed this Declaration meant really to imply that researches 
into science have been purposely perverted, so as to be made 
antagonistic to religion, as it were, intentionally. Giving 
due credit to men of science for having simply pursued their 
studies with the view to discover truth, it is surely a simpler 
account of the present state of things to say, that men of 
science, . pursuing’ their researches in this impartial spirit, 
have arrived at certain cosmological and geological deductions, 
which they believe to be scientifically true, which are un- 
fortunately at issue with what the Holy Scriptures have 
hitherto been supposed to reveal as to the Creation and the 
Deluge. 
But it is perfectly clear — and this is acknowledged quite 
plainly in the Declaration — that there cannot really be a con- 
tradiction between true science and true revelation. “We 
conceive” (the Declaration says) “that it is impossible for the 
Word of God, as written in the book of nature, and God's 
Word written in Holy Scripture, to contradict one another, 
however much they may appear to differ.” And on that point^ 
of course, there can be no difference of opinion ; nor is there 
any such difference. If science and Scripture are at issue, 
plainly one of them is wrong— untrue. There can be no other 
issue. If the so-called “ science ” is really science, though 
contrary to the Scriptures, then the Scriptures must be in error 
or misunderstood. Or, if we maintain the integrity of the 
Scriptures as truly God's revealed word, then what appears 
to be science must be merely pseudo-science, that is, a false 
interpretation of nature. 
I repeat there cannot be a doubt as to this issue and its 
B 
