ly to be pitied. Whence
this dread when brought face to face with Science? It cannot be dread of
scientific fact. No single fact in Science has ever discredited a fact
in Religion. The theologian knows that, and admits that he has no fear
of facts. What then has Science done to make Theology tremble? It is its
method. It is its system. It is its Reign of Law. It is its harmony and
continuity. The attack is not specific. No one point is assailed. It is
the whole system which when compared with the other and weighed in its
balance is found wanting. An eye which has looked at the first cannot
look upon this. To do that, and rest in the contemplation, it has first
to uncentury itself.

Herbert Spencer points out further, with how much truth need not now be
discussed, that the purification of Religion has always come from
Science. It is very apparent at all events that an immense debt must
soon be contracted. The shifting of the furnishings will be a work of
time. But it must be accomplished. And not the least result of the
process will be the effect upon Science itself. No department of
knowledge ever contributes to another without receiving its own again
with usury--witness the reciprocal favors of Biology and Sociology. From
the time that Comte defined the analogy between the phenomena exhibited
by aggregations of associated men and those of animal colonies, the
Science of Life and the Science of Society have been so contributing to
one another that their progress since has been all but hand-in-hand. A
conception borrowed by the one has been observed in time finding its way
back, and always in an enlarged form, to further illuminate and enrich
the field it left. So must it be with Science and Religion. If the
purification of Religion comes from Science, the purification of
Science, in a deeper sense, shall come from Religion. The true ministry
of Nature must at last be honored, and Science take its place as the
great expositor. To Men of Science, not less than to Theologians,

"Science then
Shall be a precious visitant; and then,
And only then, be worthy of her name;
For then her heart shall kindle, her dull eye,
Dull and inanimate, no more shall hang
Chained to its object in brute slavery;
But taught with patient interest to watch
The process of things, and serve the cause
Of order and distinctness, not for this
Shall it forget that its most noble use,