are really
scientific and do not go beyond ascertained facts and their laws),
have little or nothing to do with religion. Let the age of the earth
be what it may (we shall be very grateful to the British Association,
or any other association, when it has settled for us how old the earth
is, and how long man has been upon the face of it); let man spring in
his physical system from some lower phase of life; let the Bible be
resolved into its constituent sources by the power of modern analysis,
and our views of it greatly change, as indeed they are rapidly
changing,--all this does not change or destroy in one iota the
spiritual life that throbs at the heart of humanity, and that
witnesses to a Spiritual Life above. No science, truly so-called, can
ever touch this or destroy it, for the simple reason that its work is
outside the spiritual or religious sphere altogether. Scientific
presumption may suggest the delusiveness of this sphere, just as in
former times religious presumption sought to restrain the inquiries of
science. It may, when it becomes ribald with a fanaticism far worse
than any fanaticism of religion, assail and ridicule the hopes which,
amidst much weakness, have made men noble for more than eighteen
Christian centuries. But science has no voice beyond its own province.
The weakest and the simplest soul, strong in the consciousness of the
divine within and above it, may withstand its most powerful assaults.
The shadows of doubt may cover us, and we may see no light. The
difficulties of modern speculation may overwhelm us, and we may find
no issue from them. If we wait till we have solved these difficulties
and cleared away the darkness, we may wait for ever. If your religion
is made to depend upon such matters, then I do not know what to say to
you in a time like this. I cannot counsel you to shut your minds
against any knowledge. I have no ready answers to your questions, no
short and easy method with modern scepticism. Inquiry must have its
course in theology as in everything else. It is fatal to intelligence
to talk of an infallible Church, and of all free thought in reference
to religion as deadly rationalism to be shunned. Not to be rational in
religion as in everything else is simply to be foolish, and to throw
yourself into the arms of the first authority that is able to hold
you. In this as in other respects you must "work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling," remembering that it is "God wh