endency of monotheism to the development of truthful and
exalted ideas of nature. The Hebrew theology allowed no attempt at
visible representations of the Creator or of his works for purposes of
worship. It thus to a great extent prevented that connection of
imitative art with religion which flourished in heathen antiquity, and
has been introduced into certain forms of Christianity. But it
cultivated the higher arts of poetry and song, and taught them to draw
their inspiration from nature as the only visible revelation of Deity.
Hence the growth of a healthy "physico-theology," excluding all
idolatry of natural phenomena, and all superstitious dread of them as
independent powers, but inviting to their examination as
manifestations of God, and leading to conceptions of the unity of plan
in the cosmos, of which polytheism, even in its highest literary
efforts, was quite incapable. In the same manner the Bible has always
proved itself an active stimulant of natural science, connecting such
studies, as it does, with our higher religious sentiments; while
polytheism and materialism have acted as repressive influences, the
one because it obscures the unity of nature, the other because, in
robbing it of its presiding Divinity, it gives a cold and repulsive,
corpse-like aspect, chilling to the imagination, and incapable of
attracting the general mind.

Naturalists should not forget their obligations to the Bible in this
respect, and should on this very ground prefer its teachings to those
of modern pantheism and positivism, and still more to those of mere
priestly authority. Very few minds are content with simple
materialism, and those who must have a God, if they do not recognize
the Jehovah of the Hebrew Scriptures as the Creator and Supreme Ruler
of the universe, are too likely to seek for him in the dimness of
human authority and tradition, or of pantheistic philosophy; both of
them more akin to ancient heathenism than to modern civilization, and
in their ultimate tendencies, if not in their immediate consequences,
quite as hostile to progress in science as to evangelical
Christianity.

Every student of human nature is aware of the influence in favor of
the appreciation of natural beauty and sublimity which the Bible
impresses on those who are deeply imbued with its teaching; even where
that same teaching has induced what may be regarded as a puritanical
dislike of imitative art, at least in its religious aspects. On the