Meditations on the Essence of Christianity, and on the Religious Questions of the Day.Guizot, François
Religion
Meditations on the Essence of Christianity, and on the Religious Questions of the Day.
Guizot, François
Christianity -- Essence, genius, nature; Philosophy and religion
No one certainly will contest that this is the language of a
fervent disciple of science. It is impossible to have a keener
apprehension of its beauty, and to accept more completely its
laws. What mathematician, natural philosopher, physiologist, or
chemist, could speak in terms of greater respect and submission
of the necessity of observation, and of the authority of
experience? Dr. Chalmers is not the less for that a true and
fervent Christian; his religious faith equals his scientific
exactitude: he receives Christ, and professes Christ's doctrine
with as firm a voice as he does Bacon and Bacon's method.
{118}
Not that for him religious belief is the mere result of
education, of tradition, of habit; but it, on the contrary,
springs as much from reflection and learning, as his acquirements
in natural science themselves; in each sphere he has probed the
very sources and weighed the motives of his convictions. How did
he, in each instance, reach such a haven of repose? Whence in him
this harmony between the philosopher and the Christian?
Let us again allow Dr. Chalmers to speak for himself:--
"It is of importance here to remark that the enlargement of our
knowledge in all the natural sciences, so far from adding to
our presumption, should only give a profounder sense of our
natural incapacity and ignorance in reference to the science of
theology. It is just as if in studying the policy of some
earthly monarch we had made the before unknown discovery of
other empires and distant territories whereof we knew nothing
but the existence and the name. This might complicate the study
without making the object of it at all more comprehensible, and
so of every new wonder which philosophy might lay open to the
gaze of inquirers.
{119}
It might give us a larger perspective of the creation than
before, yet, in _fact_, cast a deeper shade of obscurity
over the counsels and ways of the Creator. We might at once
obtain a deeper insight into the secrets of the workmanship,
and yet feel, and legitimately feel, to be still more deeply
out of reach, the secret purposes of Him who worketh all in
all. Every discovery of an addition to the greatness of his
works may bring with it an addition to the unsearchableness of
his ways. ....
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