al idea to something I had
heard before, and this often developed in a moment, and when I was least
expecting it, into recognition of some familiar article of faith. I was
not watching for this result. I did not begin by tabulating the
doctrines, as I did the Laws of Nature, and then proceed with the
attempt to pair them. The majority of them seemed at first too far
removed from the natural world even to suggest this. Still less did I
begin with doctrines and work downward to find their relations in the
natural sphere. It was the opposite process entirely. I ran up the
Natural Law as far as it would go, and the appropriate doctrine seldom
even loomed in sight till I had reached the top. Then it burst into view
in a single moment.

I can scarcely now say whether in those moments I was more overcome with
thankfulness that Nature was so like Revelation, or more filled with
wonder that Revelation was so like Nature. Nature, it is true, is a part
of Revelation--a much greater part doubtless than is yet believed--and
one could have anticipated nothing but harmony here. But that a derived
Theology, in spite of the venerable verbiage which has gathered round
it, should be at bottom and in all cardinal respects so faithful a
transcript of "the truth as it is in Nature" came as a surprise and to
me at least as a rebuke. How, under the rigid necessity of incorporating
in its system much that seemed nearly unintelligible, and much that was
barely credible, Theology has succeeded so perfectly in adhering through
good report and ill to what in the main are truly the lines of Nature,
awakens a new admiration for those who constructed and kept this faith.
But however nobly it has held its ground, Theology must feel to-day that
the modern world calls for a further proof. Nor will the best Theology
resent this demand; it also demands it. Theology is searching on every
hand for another echo of the Voice of which Revelation also is the echo,
that out of the mouths of two witnesses its truths should be
established. That other echo can only come from Nature. Hitherto its
voice has been muffled. But now that Science has made the world around
articulate, it speaks to Religion with a twofold purpose. In the first
place it offers to corroborate Theology, in the second to purify it.

If the removal of suspicion from Theology is of urgent moment, not less
important is the removal of its adulterations. These suspicions, many of
them at least, are