Thy law," is the experience not only of the Psalmist, but of millions of God's children ever since. Wrapped in our own gratification, having no wants nor longings, our spirits would never have risen above the clods and mire of the earth; our hearts would never have longed for a peace and rest which the world cannot give. For the best discipline of our souls, pain is a necessity. Our relation to God, our conscious leaning upon Him, and our resignation to His wise appointments would lose their spiritual value if it were henceforth excluded.

One of the rewards of suffering is the acquisition of power to light the way of other sufferers. It is worth the price of pain to receive the power to be a true helper to those who are in trouble. To be enabled to bind up the broken-hearted is the most divine of all endowments. The best and holiest examples of piety have been tried and finished in the crucible of suffering.

VI.

CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE.

BY REV. SAMUEL Z. BEAM, d.d.

There is nothing in science which is contradictory to Christianity and nothing in Christianity that is contradictory to science.

Rightly understood they are mutually helpful because harmonious in their conclusions. Whenever theologians and scientists recognize the truth of these propositions, the harmony between nature and revelation will assert itself, and the antagonisms hitherto apparently existing will disappear. There never has been any substantial reason for the existence of a conflict between the adherents of science and the defenders of religion. Whatever antagonism has manifested itself in the past was subjective and not objective. The belligerents have unhappily transferred their subjective ideas and feelings to the objective realities of spiritual and material things. In their shortsightedness and misapprehension of the truths revealed in nature and in grace, they have seen them in distorted forms; and, accordingly, in many instances, they have spoken or written unadvisedly, and wrought mischief and injury to the cause they sought to defend. Hence the raging and bitter controversies, which, in the past, have brought discredit both to science and to religion. And while Christianity and science have continued to advance with rapid strides for the last century, there are strong reasons for the belief that an exercise of charity and moderation, among their advocates, would have contributed largely to a better understanding, and their mutual and harmonious influence for good would have been increased many fold. fold. But poor human nature sometimes seems to value its ignorance, ambition and

pride more highly than the truth itself. We seem to study nature, on the one hand, and the Bible on the other, not so much, apparently, to apprehend the truth, as to prove a preconceived theory; and prejudice runs away with reason. Anything, therefore, that contradicts our theory is repudiated and brushed aside, as of no value, or as positively evil. It is unpleasant, if not exasperatingly repugnant, to our pride of learning or to our feelings of devotion, when a cherished opinion or article of faith is rudely overturned. And it is especially distasteful if the truth was discovered and promulgated first in the ranks of the " opposition." Accordingly the study of the Bible and the study of the book of nature, alike, result in sustaining prejudice and misconception.

It is easy to fall into error and hard to get out of it. But much may be learned from others, whose standpoint is different from our own; and the humility of wisdom will help us to accept the truth from any source.

Theologians and scientists, of course, occupy different fields of observation, and each ought to be willing to give and take anything helpful to the interests of both. In this way both interests may be promoted. The theologian has God and eternity, man and his destiny, for the subjects of study chiefly, but may learn much from a contemplation of nature and its laws. But he is largely dependent on divine authority for his knowledge. He must, therefore, look to divine revelation as the source of his authority on these momentous themes. He must, indeed, exercise his intellectual faculties and accord to them their rightful place and authority, otherwise his knowledge would be extremely limited, if not entirely nil. The Holy Scriptures, as he believes, contain the written record of God's revelation, and demand his acceptance of what they teach as being divinely inspired, and, therefore, worthy of his confidence and faith. A right understanding of their teaching depends on the guidance of the Holy Spirit by whom they claim to be inspired. Thus, the prophets appeal for their authority to a " Thus saith the Lord"; and the apostles claim

them to be inspired of God. St. Paul declares that " no man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit." Accordingly, a mere intellectual apprehension of their teaching is inadequate to a saving knowledge of the truth. It must be supplemented by faith, which proceeds from the Holy Spirit, or it is simply rationalism.

The mystery of Godliness, revealed in Jesus Christ, could never have been discovered by any process of human reasoning, nor can it be accepted in its saving power, save by the exercise of faith. The Spirit takes of the things of Christ and shows them unto us, and so guides us into all truth.

This appears to be the stumbling block of the scientist, who refuses to believe anything which he cannot verify with his crucible and microscope.

The theologian believes further that the church is a divine institution, inspired also by the Holy Spirit, and is entitled to some authority in the interpretation of the Scriptures. As Christ's witness and representative among men, she is clothed with authority to preach, administer the sacraments, and exercise discipline. From the written word she formulates her creed for the preservation of unity of faith among the children of God. To the theologian there appears to be a necessity for creed and confession, in order that those professing and calling themselves Christians may be bound together by a common faith, and participate in a common salvation. This appears to have been fully demonstrated in the onward progress of her history, during which she has found it necessary to defend the truth against heresy and schism, which arose in innumerable forms to mar her beauty and at times to threaten her exis

tence.

He believes, again, that in her history and conflicts, Christ's presence has been revealed to save her from destruction, and to enable her to resist her enemies so successfully that the gates of Hades could not prevail against her. Against persecution and ridicule, and literary antagonism she has maintained the faith once delivered to the saints, and no earthly

or diabolical power has been able to hinder her onward progress in history and her civilizing influence as the bearer of salvation to a lost world. And, accordingly, amid the vicissitudes and crises of history the church has always stood forth with her Creed and Confession as "the pillar and ground of the truth," and she still survives as its great conservator, amid the vagaries and fancies of a free-thinking and free-living age.

The modern outcry against creeds and confessions is no more than the expression of a morbid subjectivism, and the demand for freedom of thought, so strenuously insisted on, is often a plea for personal licentiousness, over against authority of all kinds, and, in the hands of infidel thinkers, is made an anarchical cudgel with which to slay the truth. Hence the Church in self-defense must have her Creed and Confession, even as the scientist must have his theory and hypothesis, for a working basis.

Again, the theologian, true to his spiritual instinct, must maintain the integrity and authority of the Bible against all gainsayers. For when its integrity is destroyed and its authority taken away, his foundation becomes insecure and liable to be swept away by any storm of opposition that may arise against it. Any system of investigation, therefore, which tends toward the weakening of faith in the Holy Scriptures as a divine revelation, becomes a playing into the hands of its enemies. And though some may say, for the quieting of his fears, "You have the living Christ," he still realizes that his knowledge of Christ, after all, as a historical person is wholly derived from the Bible. And he cannot forget or ignore his dependence on the Holy Spirit as a guide in its interpretation, since no one can understand the mind of the Spirit unless guided by His inspiration. He is bound, also, by his loyalty to Christ to maintain the integrity of the Church, as the body of Christ, and to guard the purity of her creed against all antagonists. Feeling this responsibility, he