them praise the name of the Lord; for he spake the word and they
were made, he commanded, and they were created."
This I shall say, but little more than this, on the religious effect
of the study of natural history. I do not wish to preach a sermon
to you. I can trust God's world to bear better witness than I can,
of the Loving Father who made it. I thank him from my own
experience for the testimony of His Creation, only next to the
testimony of His Bible. I have watched scientific discoveries which
were supposed in my boyhood to be contrary to revelation, found out
one by one to confirm and explain revelation, as crude and hasty
theories were corrected by more abundant facts, and men saw more
clearly what both the Bible and Nature really did say; and I can
trust that the same process will go on for ever, and that God's
earth and God's word will never contradict each other. I have found
the average of scientific men, not less, but more, godly and
righteous men than the average of their neighbours; and I can trust
that this will be more and more the case as science deepens and
widens. And therefore I can trust that every patient, truthful, and
healthful mind will, the more it contemplates the works of God, re-
echo St. Paul's great declaration that the Invisible things of God
are clearly seen from the foundation of the world, being understood
by the things which are made, even His eternal power and Godhead.
And so trusting, I pass on to a lower view of the subject, and yet
not an unnecessary one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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