LECTURE II.

THE SCIENTIFIC VIEW:

THE RELATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION TO NATURAL SCIENCE, ESPECIALLY TO THE THEORY

OF EVOLUTION.

Sir Harry S. Parkes, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., Her Britannic Majesty's Minister to Japan, on taking the chair made the following remarks :

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

I have taken this chair with considerable hesitation, because I feel that it is not in my power to contribute by any remarks of mine to the value and interest of the lecture we are about to hear. I have been induced to do so, however, because I think that the plan of these lectures has been happily conceived, that they are specially recommended by their practical and instructive character, and that the gentlemen who are gratuitously giving so much time and labour to their delivery should readily receive any minor support that others may be able to render. I have also been influenced by the reflection that laymen, by evincing an interest in these lectures, may assist in demonstrating to our Japanese friends that the great subject of which they treat is not regarded among ourselves as the affair of a particular class, but as affecting all classes and conditions of men, and that, though the teaching of Christianity necessarily devolves upon those who devote themselves to that high and benevolent work, its practice concerns the well-being of every individual. The value of religion consists in its being a vital motive which may serve

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Introductory remarks

[LECT.

as a guide in life as well as a solace in death; and if it lead, as it should do, to self-denial and self-control, to probity, peace, and good-will among men, its beneficial influence not only on the individual, but on the family, on society, and on the State is self-obvious, and can scarcely be over estimated whether considered from a moral or from a political point of view.

The subject of the present lecture is the Relations of Christianity to Natural Science, especially to the Theory of Evolution. The religion of the Christian differs from science in this, that it is not a matter of demonstration from external, observation, but has its origin in the heart; it is therefore a work that has to be undertaken afresh by each individual, however humble or however elevated his position, in order to meet a personal need that no science can supply; and it is not a matter of the progress of the species, or the progress of any science in which those who follow can profit by the labours of those who have preceded them. Religion may be said to deal with the moral field of man's nature, and science with the material; but a knowledge of the true conditions of the latter is a most important aid to a right appreciation of the aspirations of the former. It is therefore wholly a mistake to suppose, as some would have us suppose, that science is opposed to religion, or that religion shrinks from the researches of science; both aim at Truth, the one as a guide to knowledge in the seen and finite world, the other as a guide to conduct which shall best fit us not only for our duties here, but also for future life in the Unseen and the Eternal. The great truths of the scriptures are not to be impugned by the interpretation or misinterpretation which fallible man may place on some of their figurative passages, such as those which relate to the so-called six days of the Mosaic cosmogony, or those which are said to assert, though in a technical sense they do not assert, the immobility of the earth. Why, science itself now supports

II.]

by the chairman.

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the mighty epochs figured in that cosmogony with a sublimity and a simplicity unapproached in any other description of creation; and we in this day are not to be charged with error or ignorance because we speak, inaccurately in a technical sense, of the sun rising or setting, or of the ascension or declination of the heavenly bodies.

Man, prone at all times to magnify his own learning, and sometimes forgetting by whom he is endowed with those mental powers which distinguish him so widely from the brute creation, and of which endowment with its attendant responsibilities no theory of Evolution can either deprive or relieve him, is occasionally inclined to attach too great weight to his own deductions, and to claim for his last hypothesis the authority of fact. On the other hand, the fallibility of human assumption is as observable in some of the dogmas and doctrines of men as it is in some of their scientific conclusions. There have been many views of revelation which have proved to be erroneous, and if science be opposed to such views, and aids us in correcting them, we should thankfully accept its teachings.

While on the one hand the Christian religion has been attacked with crude theories, so also have some of its believers shown a want of faith by fearing such attacks. They, in common with all professing Christians, should rather from the past take confidence in the future, remembering that the progress of human knowledge is the illumination of revelation, and that the discoveries of science have greatly contributed to the intelligent advancement of the Christian cause. And as fresh light is permitted, by means of man's research, to break from time to time on our limited perceptions, and to reveal to us a deeper insight into the illimitable magnitude and minuteness of the order of the universe, the more reason have we to recognise in this vast work the finger of a divine Creator, and while sensible of our own littleness, but also of our great hope, to exclaim with

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Introductory remarks.

[LECT.

the Psalmist of old, in the spirit both of religion and of science, "How manifold are Thy works O Lord; in wisdom hast Thou "made them all, the earth is full of thy riches."

It remains for me to introduce the lecturer to the meeting, and in doing so I feel that it would be superfluous for me to make any personal allusion to Professor Ewing, whose scientific acquirements have been so long and so favourably known to this community, both foreign and Japanese.

II.]

The basis of science.

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THE LECTURE.

Before discussing the relations of natural science to religion we must make sure that we know what is meant by science and what by religion. It is very certain that a great many quarrels have sprung up for no other reason than that the contending parties have given different meanings to the same word. If they had settled their definitions they would have found there was nothing to fight about. Now I think that a great deal of what has been said about the relations of science to religion would not have been said if the speakers had taken the trouble to lay down for their own guidance and for the guidance of their hearers, just what these words mean. To avoid, then, the danger of beginning with a misunderstanding, we shall try to do this in as few words as may be consistent with clearness, only premising that a consciousness of the difficulty of the task is no reason for shirking it.

The materials out of which we build up science are the facts which we learn through our senses. But these in themselves are not science any more than a pile of tiles and timber is a house. We must not only observe; we must measure and compare; we must collect those facts together which have something in common, and decide what that common feature is, and we must try to explain them by pointing out that they follow from some simpler or more general results of our experience. For this is the only kind of explanation that science can ever give or ever hope to give. She can only tell you how a complex fact is to be expressed in terms of simpler facts, and if you ask her for an explanation of these simpler facts, she will perhaps lead you a step, or even two or three steps, further back, so that