I am quite aware that it is impossible that I should do complete justice to this part of my subject; or, offer more than a comparatively very small part of the argument which might be adduced. My purpose, in this publication, would not be served by a long treatise; and I shall therefore endeavour to compress the argument as much as possible, begging the reader to judge impartially of what I do advance; and not to condemn the argument because I have been unable to compress that which would require a volume, into the pages of a small pamphlet.
Before I proceed farther, I would altogether dismiss the objection, That we cannot comprehend the phenomena, observing, merely, that that remark applies, with equal force, to a vast variety of subjects and objects, which we are compelled to believe.
“Go ask your mother Earth why Oaks are made
Taller or stouter than the Weeds they shade.”
To the serious, christian man, upon whom this objection has any influence, I would remark, that he who is disposed to admit the truth of that only which he can comprehend, confines his faith in a very narrow circle, within the circumference of which there can be no God!
I here feel it incumbent upon me to state, that I have no sympathy with those individuals who would foster and encourage any Theory by which they hope to damage Christianity; and I wonder that any person can be found so hardy as to endeavour, covertly, to undermine the rock upon which the hopes of so many have been founded; to put out the light which has, for ages, served to guide the pious, humble christian in his journey through life; to take away and to destroy that feeling, with regard to a future world of happiness, which has been the Hope of the pious in all ages, which Hope they have cherished in their hearts, in every difficulty and in every distress, and which has been to them, on the stormy ocean of the World, as an “anchor to the soul.”
Mine is a far different object, I desire to shew the unlettered Christian that he has not believed in a “cunningly devised fable,” but, that his Faith rests upon a sure basis, and that he may take his Bible in his hand and laugh to scorn the insidious attempts of the learned infidelity and skepticism of the world. [19]
I believe much harm is done to Religion by the well intentioned but idle fears of Christians, upon the introduction of any new Science; their Faith and not their Fears should be called into exercise. I believe the Bible to be given by the Author of Nature, and that he never gave any information to his Creatures which could ever be adverse or inconsistent to any subsequent development that Nature could afford.
I dare not admit the idea that the testimony of Scripture depends for its acceptance upon the sufferance of Modern Science. I take vastly higher ground, and believe that the Christian man may approach with confidence to the investigation of any phenomena in Nature, in the assurance that, so far as it is true, it will not be found inconsonant with what he rightly considers to be the Word of God.
Much of the difficulty in the minds of well meaning Christians, in all ages, in relation to discoveries in Nature has doubtless arisen from the peculiar and poetical language in which the Scriptural Record is expressed. In the fact that it was just so expressed as to be understood by the particular people to whom it was originally given. That it does not profess to be a guide to man, in his researches through the arcanum of Nature; but, incidentally alludes to natural phenomena only so far as the people of that age were acquainted with such subjects, and in order only, to give a proper impression as to the greatness and goodness of God.
Had these propositions been more generally observed, I venture to suggest, that Religion and Science would not have been found so often in circumstances of apparent collision.