before them. The old is unwilling to give up its timehonoured reign. The new wants to push out the old, to obtain more room for itself. Now, what is old, whether it be really ancient philosophy, ancient custom,* ancient myth, or ancient physical speculation, or any thing else no more identical with religion, has always been apt to lay claim to a sacred character. And what is new, whether it be, in fact, new metaphysics, new religion, or new speculation of any kind, is in these days equally apt to dub itself by the title of Science. But surely the old, merely as old, is no more to be identified. with religion than the new. Though tradition may always claim Religion as her champion, Religion is not therefore responsible for Tradition's acts. Scientific men, as well as priests and churches, have sought to bolster themselves by appeals to the odium theologicum. Even the illustrious Leibnitz charged the system of Newton with having an irreligious tendency. And Religion, when new, is as apt as Science to be accused of impiety. If any body of men were ever filled with the thought of God, surely the early Christians were; and

*

Euripides, for example, puts the following into the mouth of Greek orthodoxy :-"The divine might is slow to come forth, but sure nevertheless; and it chastises those mortals who foster insensate obstinacy, who from mad opinion refuse to exalt the institutions of the gods. Subtly and perseveringly do they hide their feet in ambush and catch the impious man. For never should we indulge convictions and meditations which are wiser than established practices. For cheap is the effort to believe that the Divinity, whatever else he may be, is not powerful; and what comes from long time is established eternally, and inheres in Nature."—(EURIPIDES, Bacch., 882-896.) The impiety here rebuked consisted in disapproving of Bacchanalian orgies !

yet, one of the charges which the Roman polytheists brought against thern was that of atheism. It is not religion, then, but tradition, that opposes the new; and it is not the new any more than the old that is the scientific. If all uncommon theories and recent-born speculations be science, how many scientific carcasses line the path of history!

4I

CHAPTER III.

THE CLAIM OF RELIGION TO POSSESS EXCLUSIVE KNOWLEDGE AND CONSEQUENT DIVINE SUPREMACY.HUMAN CONDITIONS OF RELIGION.-DIVINE ORIGIN RECEIVED BY RELIGION FROM

OF SCIENCE.-HELP

SCIENCE.

SECONDLY, there are the claims made by both Science and Religion of exclusive knowledge, and, as a result of this, a rightful supremacy over the other.

I take up first the claim of Religion. It is one of the most ancient claims of Religion that to her has been given truth in its absolute purity, direct from Heaven. Scientific investigations are but blind human gropings. There is nothing divine or heaven-descended in them. But religion is a revelation from the Creator himself, conveying absolute and final truth. No human admixture alloys its certainty; no sense-experience nor logical demonstrations are needed to make it credible; no further principles are to be sought for. God has unveiled to man in advance all the information about spiritual things which it is essential for him to have. For the human understanding to pick and dig about these foundations is either superfluous or injurious. If

its investigations agree with the divine revelation, they are but a waste of energy. If they disagree, they are beyond doubt mischievous misleadings. Religious truths are not like scientific truths. Spiritual phenomena are not like material phenomena. They are to be gazed at reverently, not searched into with microscope and dissected with lancet. They should be accepted in faith, not criticized by impious reason. Of eternal and infinite importance, as they are, what is man that he should set himself up as their judge? "In the things of God," Mr. Mansel tells us to-day, as Augustine, and Aquinas, and Calvin, and Edwards, and the great Church authorities in every century, have told the world, "Reason is beyond her depth, and we must accept what is established, or we must believe nothing."

Almost every branch of the Church claims more or less of this exclusive knowledge. Each has some oracle whose voice must be accepted as authoritative, and whose message as divine truth, unmixed with the dross of common human knowledge, needing not that examination and verification which other kinds of truth require before it is worthy to claim man's credence.

At its lowest term, this oracle is merely the spiritual intuition, the voice within the breast. In its next higher form, it is the word of the religious master; in Islam, of Mohammed in Buddhism, of Sakya-Mouni; in Christianity, of Jesus. At a third stage, it presents as ininfallible every verse of some sacred book—Veda, Koran, Bible. At its highest term, the Church, or perhaps its official head, high priest, Grand-Llama, Mikado, or

Pope, becomes the vicegerent of God, and the exclusive declarer of divine truth.

Believing that in herself she has thus a special, direct, and unerring source of divine knowledge, Religion naturally is disinclined to admit the possibility that she has made mistakes, or that Science is competent to correct her, or to find out religious truths undiscovered by her. The investigations of Science are very well so long as they confirm the Scriptures and sustain the Church; but to stray from the orthodox pathway, to criticize or contradict what Pentateuch or Papal College has laid down, is a sacrilege. Evangelical Protestantism, by instance after instance, has disclosed its unwillingness to allow to Science any other position than that of a subordinate and a satellite; and the Roman Church has explicitly and officially declared the absolute supremeness of the Church in all such matters, and the wickedness of looking upon Science as capable of correcting the interpretations of the Church. In the General Council of the Roman Church, held in 1870, known as the Vatican Council, it was defined to be "a doctrine divinely revealed, that when the Roman Pontiff speaks ex cathedra . . . . he possesses that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed his Church to be endowed. . . . The pastors and faithful, of whatever rite and dignity, are bound by the duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience" in reference to doctrines thus defined by the Pope. And in regard to human science in particular, the position previously taken by the Papal See was ratified by the formal decree :