You have now gone over the greater struggles in the long war between
Ecclesiasticism and Science, and have glanced at the lesser fields. You
have seen the conflicts in Physical Geography, as to the form of the
earth; in Astronomy, as to the place of the earth in the universe, and
the evolution of stellar systems in accordance with law; in Chemistry
and Physics; in Anatomy and Medicine; in Geology; in Meteorology; in
Cartography; in the Industrial and Agricultural Sciences; in Political
Economy and Social Science; and in Scientific Instruction; and each of
these, when fully presented, has shown the following results:
_First._ In every case, whether the war has been long or short,
forcible or feeble, Science has at last gained the victory.
_Secondly._ In every case, interference with Science, in the supposed
interest of religion, has brought dire evils on both.
_Thirdly._ In every case, while this interference, during its
continuance, has tended to divorce religion from the most vigorous
thinking of the world, and to make it odious to multitudes of the
most earnest thinkers; the triumph of Science has led its former
conscientious enemies to make new interpretations and lasting
adjustments, which have proved a blessing to religion, ennobling its
conceptions and bettering its methods.
And in addition to these points there should be brought out distinctly
a _corollary_, which is, that science must be studied by its own means
and to its own ends, unmixed with the means and unbiased by the motives
of investigators in other fields, and uncontrolled by consciences
unenlightened by itself.
The very finger of the Almighty seems to have written the proofs of
this truth on human history. No one can gainsay it. It is decisive,
for it is this: _There has never been a scientific theory framed from
the use of Scriptural texts, wholly or partially, which has been
made to stand_. Such attempts have only subjected their authors to
derision, and Christianity to suspicion. From Cosmas finding his plan
of the universe in the Jewish tabernacle, to Increase Mather sending
mastodon's bones to England as the remains of giants mentioned in
Scripture; from Bellarmin declaring that the sun cannot be the centre
of the universe, because such an idea "vitiates the whole Scriptural
plan of salvation," to a recent writer declaring that an evolution
theory cannot be true, because St. Paul says that "all flesh is not the
same flesh," the result has always been the same.[158]
Such facts show that scientific hypothesis will be established or
refuted by scientific men and scientific methods alone, and that no
conscientious citation of texts, or outcries as to consequences of
scientific truths, from any other quarter, can do any thing save retard
truth and cause needless anxiety.[159]
Such facts show, too, that the sacred books of the world were not given
for any such purpose as that to which so many men have endeavored to
wrest them--the purpose served by compends of history and text-books of
science.
Is skepticism feared? All history shows that the only skepticism which
does permanent harm is skepticism as to the value and safety of truth
as truth. No skepticism has proved so corrosive to religion, none so
cancerous in the human brain and heart.
Is faith cherished? All history shows that the first article of a
saving faith, for any land or time, is faith that there is a Power in
this universe strong enough to make truth-seeking safe, and good enough
to make truth-telling useful.
May we not, then, hope that the greatest and best men in the
Church--the men standing at centres of thought--will insist with
power, more and more, that religion be no longer tied to so injurious
a policy as that which this warfare reveals; that searchers for truth,
whether in theology or natural science, work on as friends, sure that,
no matter how much at variance they may at times seem to be, the
truths they reach shall finally be fused into each other? The dominant
religious conceptions of the world will doubtless be greatly modified
by science in the future, as they have been in the past; and the part
of any wisely religious person, at any centre of influence, is to see
that, in his generation, this readjustment of religion to science be
made as quietly and speedily as possible.
No one needs fear the result. No matter whether Science shall
complete her demonstration that man has been on the earth not merely
six thousand years, or six millions of years; no matter whether she
reveals new ideas of the Creator or startling relations between his
creatures; no matter how many more gyves and clamps upon the spirit of
Christianity she destroys: the result, when fully thought out, will
serve and strengthen religion not less than science.[160]
What science can do for the world is shown, not by those who have
labored to concoct palatable mixtures of theology and science--men like
Cosmas, and Torrubia, and Burnet, and Whiston--but by men who have
fought the good fight of faith in truth for truth's sake--men like
Roger Bacon, and Vesalius, and Palissy, and Galileo.
What Christianity can do for the world is shown, not by men who have
stood on the high places screaming in wrath at the advance of science;
not by men who have retreated in terror into the sacred caves and
refused to look out upon the universe as it is; but by men who have
preached and practised the righteousness of the prophets, and the
aspirations of the Psalmist, and the blessed Sermon on the Mount, and
"the first great commandment, and the second which is like unto it,"
and St. James's definition of "pure religion and undefiled."
It is shown in the Roman Church, not by Tostatus and Bellarmin, but
by St. Carlo Borromeo, and St. Vincent de Paul, and Fénelon, and
Eugénie de Guérin; in the Anglican Church, not by Dean Cockburn, but
by Howard, and Jenner, and Wilberforce, and Florence Nightingale; in
the German Church, not by Pastor Knak, but by Pastor Fliedner; in the
American Church, not by the Mathers, but by such as Bishop Whatcoat,
and Channing, and Muhlenberg, and Father De Smet, and Samuel May, and
Harriet Stowe.
Let the warfare of Science, then, be changed. Let it be a warfare in
which Religion and Science shall stand together as allies, not against
each other as enemies. Let the fight be for truth of every kind against
falsehood of every kind; for justice against injustice; for right
against wrong; for the living kernel of religion rather than the dead
and dried husks of sect and dogma; and the great powers, whose warfare
has brought so many sufferings, shall at last join in ministering
through earth God's richest blessings.