CONFLICT OF SCIENCE WITH THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION; OR, MODERN SCEPTICISM MET ON ITS OWN GROUND. BY HERBERT W. MORRIS, A. M., FORMERLY PROF. OF MATH. IN NEWINGTON COL. INST., AUTHOR OF "SCIENCE AND THE BIBLE," ETC. Every one wishes to have the Truth on his side; but it is not every one that K LIBRARY 162 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by P. W. ZIEGLER & J. C. MCCURDY, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C A173 M.87 1876 PREFACE. HE Bible, though not given to teach physical science, yet is closely connected with it in all its branches. Its revelations, narratives, predictions and lessons traverse every province of nature, and are more or less interwoven with nearly all its facts and phenomena. This sacred book, therefore, is open and exposed to scientific scrutinies, tests and criticisms on every side, and of every character; and it has, in fact, already passed through ordeals of this sort of such severity as no other book in existence has encountered. The means and method of assailing the Bible have changed with the changes of time. With the progress of light and investigation, old grounds and old weapons have again and again been abandoned, and new ones taken up. Such a change of arms and tactics has taken place in our own day; and the coming on of this new order of warfare was long since foreseen by those wise to discern the drift of the human mind. Twenty-five years ago Hugh Miller ventured the assertion: "The battle of the Evidences will have as certainly to be fought on the field of physical science, as it was contested in the last age on that of the metaphysics." That prediction was true; it is now being fulfilled. conflict on this ground has already for a length of time been waged with persistent energy. Every object and element on the field of science, which learning and ingenuity could convert into an ally or a weapon against the Sacred Volume, has been seized. The |