uences, that learned prelate pleads, with all
earnestness, against

a hasty denunciation of what _may_ be proved to have at
least some elements of truth in it, a contemptuous rejection
of theories which we _may_ some day learn to accept as
freely and with as little sense of inconsistency with God's
word as we now accept the theory of the earth's motion round
the sun, or the long duration of the geological epochs (p.
28).

I do not see that the most convinced evolutionist could ask any one,
whether cleric or layman, to say more than this; in fact, I do not
think that any one has a right to say more, with respect to any
question about which two opinions can he held, than that his mind is
perfectly open to the force of evidence.

There is another portion of the Bishop of Bedford's sermon which I
think will be warmly appreciated by all honest and clear-headed men.
He repudiates the views of those who say that theology and science

occupy wholly different spheres, and need in no way
intermeddle with each other. They revolve, as it were, in
different planes, and so never meet. Thus we may pursue
scientific studies with the utmost freedom and, at the same
time, may pay the most reverent regard to theology, having
no fears of collision, because allowing no points of contact
(p. 29).

Surely every unsophisticated mind will heartily concur with the
Bishop's remark upon this convenient refuge for the descendants of
Mr. Facing-both-ways. "I have never been able to understand this
position though I have often seen it assumed." Nor can any demurrer be
sustained when the Bishop proceeds to point out that there are, and
must be, various points of contact between theological and natural
science, and therefore that it is foolish to ignore or deny the
existence of as many dangers of collision.

Finally, the Bishop of Manchester freely admits the force of the
objections which have been raised, on scientific grounds, to prayer,
and attempts to turn them by arguing that the proper objects of prayer
are not physical but spiritual. He tells us that natural accidents and
moral misfortunes are not to be taken for moral judgments of God; he
admits the propriety of the application of scientific methods to the
investigation of the origin and growth of religions; and he is as
ready to recognise the process of evolution there, as in the physical
world. Mark the following s