So runs my dream. I ask my young readers to help towards making that dream a fact, by becoming (as many of them as feel the justice of my words) honest and earnest students of Natural Science.
But now: why should I, as a clergyman, interest myself specially in the spread of Natural Science? Am I not going out of my proper sphere to meddle with secular matters? Am I not, indeed, going into a sphere out of which I had better keep myself, and all over whom I may have influence? For is not science antagonistic to religion? and, if so, what has a clergyman to do, save to warn the young against it, instead of attracting them towards it?
First, as to meddling with secular matters. I grudge that epithet of secular to any matter whatsoever. But I do more; I deny it to anything which God has made, even to the tiniest of insects, the most insignificant atom of dust. To those who believe in God, and try to see all things in God, the most minute natural phenomenon cannot be secular. It must be divine; I say, deliberately, divine; and I can use no less lofty word. The grain of dust is a thought of God; Gods power made it; Gods wisdom gave it whatsoever properties or qualities it may possess; Gods providence has put it in the place where it is now, and has ordained that it should be in that place at that moment, by a train of causes and effects which reaches back to the very creation of the universe. The grain of dust can no more go from Gods presence, or flee from Gods Spirit, than you or I can. If it go up to the physical heaven, and float (as it actually often does) far above the clouds, in those higher strata of the atmosphere which the aeronaut has never visited, whither the Alpine snow-peaks do not rise, even there it will be obeying physical laws which we term hastily laws of Nature, but which are really the laws of God: and if it go down into the physical abyss; if it be buried fathoms, miles, below the surface, and become an atom of some rock still in the process of consolidation, has it escaped from God, even in the bowels of the earth? Is it not there still obeying physical laws, of pressure, heat, crystallisation, and so forth, which are laws of Godthe will and mind of God concerning particles of matter? Only look at all created things in this lightlook at them as what they are, the expressions of Gods mind and will concerning this universe in which we livethe Word of God, as Bacon says, revealed in factsand then you will not fear physical science; for you will be sure that, the more you know of physical science, the more you will know of the works and of the will of God. At least, you will be in harmony with the teaching of the Psalmist: The heavens, says he, declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork. There is neither speech nor language where their voices are not heard among them. So held the Psalmist concerning astronomy, the knowledge of the heavenly bodies; and what he says of sun and stars is true likewise of the flowers around our feet, of which the greatest Christian poet of modern times has said
To me the meanest flower that grows may give
Thoughts that do lie too deep for tears.
So, again, you will be in harmony with the teaching of St. Paul, who told the Romans that the invisible things of God are clearly seen from the creation of the-world, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; and who told the savages of Lycaonia that God had not left Himself without witness, in that He did good and sent men rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling mens hearts with food and gladness. Rain and fruitful seasons witnessed to all men of a Father in heaven. And he who wishes to know how truly St. Paul spoke, let him study the laws which produce and regulate rain and fruitful seasons, what we now call climatology, meteorology, geography of land and water. Let him read that truly noble Christian work, Maurys Physical Geography of the Sea; and see, if he be a truly rational man, how advanced science, instead of disproving, has only corroborated St. Pauls assertion, and how the ocean and the rain-cloud, like the sun and stars, declare the glory of God. And if anyone undervalues the sciences which teach us concerning stones and plants and animals, or thinks that nothing can be learnt from them concerning Godallow one who has been from childhood only a humble, though he trusts a diligent student of these sciencesallow him, I say, to ask in all reverence, but in all frankness, who it was who said, Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. Consider the birds of the airand how your Heavenly Father feedeth them.
Consider them. If He has bid you do so, can you do so too much?
I know, of course, the special application which our Lord made of these words. But I know, too, from experience, that the more you study nature, in all her forms the more you will find that the special application itself is deeper, wider, more literally true, more wonderful, more tender, and if I dare use such a word, more poetic, than the unscientific man can guess.
But let me ask you furtherdo you think that our Lord in that instance, and in those many instances in which He drew his parables and lessons from natural objects, was leading mens minds on to dangerous ground, and pointing out to them a subject of contemplation in the laws and processes of the natural world, and their analogy with those of the spiritual world, the kingdom of Goda subject of contemplation, I say, which it was not safe to contemplate too much?
I appeal to your common sense. If He who spoke these words were (as I believe) none other than the Creator of the universe, by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made that is made, do you suppose that He would have bid you to consider His universe, had it been dangerous for you to do so?
Do you suppose, moreover, that the universe, which He, the Truth, the Light, the Love, has made, can be otherwise then infinitely worthy to be considered? or that the careful, accurate, and patient consideration of it, even to its minutest details, can be otherwise than useful to man, and can bear witness of aught, save the mind and character of Him who made it? And if so, can it be a work unfit for, unworthy of, a clergymanwhose duty is to preach Him to all, and in all ways,to call on men to consider that physical world which, like the spiritual world, consists, holds together, by Him, and lives and moves and has its being in Him?
And here I must pause to answer an objection which I have heard in my youth from many pious and virtuous peoplebetter people in Gods sight, than I, I fear, can pretend to be.
They used to say, This would be all very true if there were not a curse upon the earth. And then they seemed to deduce, from the fact of that curse, a vague notion (for it was little more) that this world was the devils world, and that therefore physical facts could not be trusted, because they were disordered, and deceptive, and what not.
Now, in justice to the Bible, and in justice to the Church of England, I am bound to say that such a statement, or anything like it, is contrary to the doctrines of both. It is contrary to Scripture. According to it, the earth is not cursed. For it is said in Gen. viii. 21, And the Lord said, I will not again curse the ground any more for mans sake. While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. According to Scripture, again, physical facts are not disordered. The Psalmist says, They continue this day according to their ordinance; for all things serve Thee. And again, Thou hast made them fast for ever and ever. Thou hast given them a law which cannot be broken.