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as you will — for hath not God “ set the world in man’s heart,’’ 
though “he cannot find out the work that God rnaketh fio 
the beginning to the end ” ?— and nature will lead you up to 
nature’s God “Know thyself,” we may als° say tin e move 
deeply and completely the better-and you will learn thy sm 
and thy need of a Saviour. When science, as is acknowledged, 
only flounders out of its depth when it speculates as to the 
beginning or the end of things ; and yet when it is confessed 
that the question of questions for mankind, and the grea 
problem of human interest that underlies all others, is to dis- 
cover whence our race has come and to what goal we are 
tending,— Is it wise to turn from the only source winch gives 
us a complete and rational answer to these inquiries ? And 
when Scripture thus goes beyond the scope of all that human 
science can teachus,— is it philosophical to disregard this marked 
difference between the scope of Divine revelation and that o 
human science ? It was to this difference our late Vice-Presi- 
dent desired to call our special attention at the outset of oil 
career as a philosophical society, and, as it turned out at the 
close of his own earthly course. Let us remember and reve 
this parting admonition. Let us also draw an illustration ot 
its wisdom and practical application from another source an 
our own Transactions. In one of our early papers The Various 
Theories of Man’s Origin were discussed, and among them e 
Darwinian theory that derives man from the ape. Most ^per- 
sons, you are well aware, are unable to reconcile that notio 
with what is revealed in Scripture as to man s creation. I he ■ 
are some others, however, you also know, who think they 
their way to reconcile Darwinism with the Scriptures. I he 
discussion of this question, and with the same ^^es^as ton 
taken up in various quarters. Professor Balfour, of Edinburgh 
has recently given an account of an episode arising out of one 
such discussion at a meeting of the Bntish Assomation The 
learned Professor, when m company with Sir David Brewste., 
was accosted by a distinguished Darwinian t^BMe ? 
why he had said that the Darwinists did not believe the Bible > . 
The Professor frankly replied, “ The Scriptures teach us that 
man was made in God’s image ; you say that he rose from a 
brute to be a man, and a man of the lowest grade, instead ol 
being originally the perfect man the Bible tells us he was 
created and from which original state of perfection he has 
fallen.” In answer to this the disciple of Mr Darwin asked 
with unguarded candour, “How could a perfect man fall ? 
Professof Balfour did not reply directly to that ^ 
He did better. He proved from it he was right when he had 
said that Darwinism is irreconcileable with Scripture. e re- 
