e truth in another way, science deals
with one specially abstracted aspect of the facts; it drains them of
their qualitative elements and, reducing them to their quantitative
elements, it proceeds to weigh and measure them and state their laws.
It moves in the realm of actualities and not in the realm of values.
One science, for example, takes a gorgeous sunset and reduces it to the
constituent ether waves that cause the colour. What it says about the
sunset is true, but it is not the whole truth. Ask anybody who has
ever seen the sun riding like a golden galleon down the western sea!
Another science takes a boy and reduces him to his Bertillon
measurements and at the top of the statistics writes his name, "John
Smith." That is the truth about John Smith, but it is not the whole
truth. Ask his mother and see! Another science takes our varied and
vibrant mental life and reduces it to its physical basis and states its
laws. That is the truth about our mental life, but it is not the whole
truth. What is more, it is not that part of the truth by which men
really live. For men live by love and joy and hope and faith and
spiritual insight. When these things vanish life is

"a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

When a man takes that quantitative aspect of reality, which is the
special province of natural science, as though it were the whole of
reality, he finds himself in a world where the physical forces are in
control. We, ourselves, according to this aspect of life, are the
product of physical forces--marionettes, dancing awhile because
physical forces are pulling on the strings. In a word, when a man
takes that quantitative aspect of reality, which natural science
presents, as though it were the whole of reality, he becomes a
materialistic fatalist, and on that basis we cannot permanently build
either personal character or a stable civilization. It is not
difficult, then, to see one vital significance of Jesus Christ: he has
given us the most glorious interpretation of life's meaning that the
sons of men have ever had. The fatherhood of God, the friendship of
the Spirit, the sovereignty of righteousness, the law of love, the
glory of service, the coming of the Kingdom, the eternal hope--there
never was an interpretation of life to compare with that. If life
often looks as though his interpretation were too good to be true, we
need not be surprised. Few thing