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previously brought into unison with that of God ; while ex- 
perience proves abundantly that an intellectual worldling is 
often blind where an unlearned believer sees intuitively. And 
just so is it with physical science ; the man who has not a 
loving interest in it, can never understand its doctrines, or 
weigh its conclusions. 
Yet neither Scripture, nor logic, nor experience teaches 
that the spiritual mind is all that is needed on the one side, 
or the scientific mind all that is needed on the other side, in 
order to arrive at the fulness of the truth in either department 
of study. 
Assuming then that each student is possessed of the proper 
receptive faculty, and a true interest in the subject, I proceed 
to notice several points of analogy in the temper of mind, or 
the intellectual processes required. The sketch will be a very 
rough one, and nothing more than a sketch ; for the lull 
illustration of the subject must be left till either I, or some 
one with greater leisure, may take up the subject in a separate 
treatise. 
The first requisite for a successful prosecution of any inquiry 
into the ways of God either in Nature or Revelation, is a reverent 
spirit , — a desire to arrive at the truth — a remembrance that 
what we are studying is incomparably greater and nobler 
than our first impressions of it. This is surely self-evident. 
Flippancy is fatal to success. And here the student of each 
department may often learn a lesson from his brother; for, 
unhappily, there are theologians who think they can overthrow 
the careful deductions of scientific men by a few dashing 
remarks ; while there are philosophers who anxiously inquire 
into the mysteries and apparent contradictions of nature, yet 
fling aside the Bible at the first seeming discrepancy either in 
its statements or (more foolish still) in the statements of its 
interpreters. 
A proper reverence will evince itself, by the care taken to 
arrive at whatever is the truth, by the adoption of the best 
methods, and by a readiness to reconsider our views, when- 
ever any new facts or fresh arguments appear to throw any 
reasonable doubt on their correctness. 
Passing from this moral requirement to intellectual ones, we 
may remark that the first step in any process of investigation, 
is to ascertain the facts on which our conclusion is to be based. 
Now this is a most difficult thing, though, unfortunately, 
people often think it so easy. Thus, turning first to Nature, 
let any ordinary observer try to describe such a common phe- 
nomenon as the rainbow. What a string of errors his account 
will probably be as to its apparent height and size, its distance. 
