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interpretation of the written book. Still less, I think, in 
science. With all the stupendous discoveries of these days, 
with the telescope, and the microscope, and the spectroscope 
in our hands, what have we reached ? Is not geology yet a 
fluctuating science ? Is there anything settled in anthropo- 
logy ? I select these two because they are the two which 
seem to come most into collision with the Word. Have these 
two sciences arrived at such a state of certainty and fixity, 
that their adherents can say to us believers in the Christian 
Scriptures, “ Here are clear proofs of the erroneous character 
of your text-book ; this is our creed, and we will weigh it 
against yours ,} ? In short, how dare the men of science tell us 
that they are logically persuaded of the falsity of our prin- 
ciples, when they are not yet certain of their own ? Then, on 
the other hand, we readers of Scripture as well as of Science 
must be very careful how we assert our Book to be opposed 
to the conclusions which our adversaries allege against us. 
This leads me to touch upon an error into which we Christian 
believers may run some risk of falling. Do not let us commit 
the grand mistake of pooh-poohing the discoveries of scientific 
observers. There is always a danger lest the teacher of Faith 
should undervalue sight. We know that our opponents fall 
into the converse of this error. They teach sight, and under- 
value faith. The ultima ratio of the positivist is often this, 
“ You donT expect one to believe that — a clumsy forgery and 
ridiculous invention ! you cannot require me to take notice of 
an absurd string of meaningless or contemptible legends ! 33 But 
(to borrow an idea from Dr. Newman) the Bible has been long 
enough in the world, and believers in it have been in the 
world long enough too, to justify all in dealing with it and 
with them as a fact. So we claim to be treated as a fact. 
If so, we must not refuse to assent to facts in possession 
of the other side. The carved and shaped flints in the drift, 
the bones of extinct animals, the geological terraces, the 
lake-dwellings, the submerged forests, the Nile mud, — all 
these are facts. They must not be ignored or undervalued s 
Let us remember that we have cautiously to test the inferences 
drawn from them, and show, as we can show, that these 
inferences, where legitimately drawn, are not logically incon- 
sistent with a single paragraph in the Scriptures, if rightly 
understood, and not pressed beyond its meaning. 
Another caution, and I have done. We must be veiy 
careful in this Institute not to tread upon dangerous ground. 
We must not become theological ; we are a scientific society. 
We are certainly at liberty to examine, exegetically, the 
meaning of Scripture statements which we defend; but we 
