John James Coxhead

“ The loss of those religious treasures of the past would, we feel, have caused mankind to be absolutely bankrupt and beggared. And why so? Because religious belief and thought produce in the mind a consciousness of power and enlargement of aim, a sense of spiritual rank and dignity and hope, which only real knowledge can confer. In this point of view it has, though in a far higher degree, the same effect as the knowledge of physical science. A theological teacher who is real in his aims, leaves on the mind something akin to the impression left by the revealer of physical truth. ”

“ To increase the productiveness of the earth's surface, to ensure conditions of health and physical well-being for its inhabitants, to plan gigantic works by means of which communication between its most distant points is secured, to add in a thousand ways to the comfort and prosperity of mankind, are achievements which justly ensure for science our gratitude and admiration. ”

“ Thus, if science tells us that the force of the universe is never destroyed, it simply corroborates the assertion of the theologian, that it cannot be destroyed, so long as God chooses it to exist. Motion is the consequence of life. ”

“ No doubt theologians are rather to blame in that they had exalted miracle as something more worthy of our awe and admiration than the ordinary works of God. But what miracle can be more wonderful than the existence of the world; or in what respects could our idea of the wisdom of God be more exalted than by considering the whole sum of visible things as resulting from conditions which He formed when He laid the foundations of the universe, as consequences dependent on antecedents which He determined and foreknew? ”

“ In its subjective aspect the office of religion is to reveal to the mind the knowledge of God, to arouse in the heart emotions worthy of the nature of the Supreme Being, and to subdue the character to a condition proper to a dependent being, bound to the Creator by innumerable ties of gratitude and obedience. It is the belief of the Christian that the Supreme Being has revealed Himself to mankind chiefly in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom the Holy Scriptures testify, and whom the Church worships and obeys. The end of religion is therefore the knowledge of God. ”

“ THE statement has often been made, perhaps more vaguely than is desirable, that science is the handmaid of religion. The expression seems to affirm that, in some way or another, science is expected to aid religion in her work in the world. But it does not appear to be clearly understood in what ways science may be expected to minister to religion. Rather, in this age, at any rate, religion and science have been regarded, not as friends, the one being content to keep the other in a subordinate position, but as jealous rivals and foes, like Euodias and Syntyche, before S. Paul reconciled them. ”

“ Theology changes not; but physical science advances ideas more and more akin to those of theology. The universe, as we know it to-day, is more worthy of God as He was known in the time of S. Paul. And if we admit, in any sense, the axiom, that the universe considered as an effect must have had a cause, then we contend that the effect, as we know it now, is more worthy of the Cause as He has always been known by His servants and worshippers. ”

“ No doubt there have been, and there will be to a greater and greater extent, practical applications of the mathematical and physical sciences; but the mathematician and the physicist, as such, have no practical ends immediately in view. Their aim is knowledge, the knowledge of nature in her infinite variety, in her inflexible law, in her adaptation of means to ends, whether apparent or real, in her phenomenal and causal aspects. ”

“ From the atom, and that which precedes the atom, to man, the highest organism with which we are acquainted, we might regard each step as an end which all previous conditions were intended to bring about; and each end so brought about we might regard as a condition necessary to that which was to follow. In entertaining this conception of nature, we rather enhance, than depreciate, our conceptions of the wisdom of God. ”

“ Therefore, gentlemen, as helpers in the work of the Church, be not disconcerted by any hints or innuendos to which you may be compelled to listen as to the incompatibility of science and religion. The foundations of religion are as yet unmoved by any discovery of modern times. Nay, every fresh discovery reveals more and more of power and wisdom. And if in the arrangement of nature we see elements not only indicating goodness, but also indicating severity; if there is not only life, but death ”

“ Religion is concerned with God; science is concerned with the universe; and if in the universe science recognises indications of power, infinity, wisdom, goodness, severity, she bears witness to that which religion tells us concerning the nature and character of God. ”

“ Without in any way committing ourselves to an adhesion to this doctrine, which, though in many respects shown to be probable, has not yet been proved, we may say that it confirms, rather than overthrows, what theology has asserted respecting the wisdom of God. For while it is the wisdom of a man to adapt some means to some ends, and he has most wisdom who adapts most means to the accomplishment of most good ends, we should see, supposing the doctrine to be true, all means adapted to all ends. ”

“ If religion tells us that God is eternal, science certainly aids us in grasping the idea, when it reveals that that small portion of the visible world of which we have any knowledge has endured for millions of ages.
IV. It is one of the favourite theories of that school of thought that would remove from the mind the idea of God, that matter contains in itself the properties by which vegetable and animal life have come into being. An organism, it is said, is the result of certain properties peculiar to certain kinds of matter, adapting themselves to an external environment. ”

“ But the work of science does not end here. Man has a soul as well as body; or, if that language be considered inexact, man has intellectual wants as well as physical, and his happiness cannot be considered as secured when his material necessities are satisfied, but when his mental and moral longings also have obtained the ends for which they seem to crave. ”

“ For whereas it was certainly in former times the belief that there were certain empty parts of the universe, as the space, for example, between the earth and the moon and sun and stars, now it seems all but certain that a wonderful fluid pervades the whole of stellar space, a means of communication for the influence of light in its chemical, electrical, and vital effects; that is, a vehicle of mysterious force exists not in some places only, but in all places. There is no emptiness in the world ”

“ The writer, conscious of its deficiencies, is convinced of the soundness of the method of the argument, which is to show the harmony between the leading ideas of religion and the leading ideas of science. ”

“ It will be necessary, however, first to point out that a very erroneous view has been taken of the office of science by those who have sought to be considered her best friends. Priding themselves on being considered practical, they have regarded science only as the means by which the physical conditions of men's lives may be bettered. ”

“ The physicist tells us that no light, no heat, no electricity, no motion is ever lost; because if motion be a property of bodies under certain conditions, then the light and heat and electricity, which are modes of motion, will continue so long as motive force be supplied. If a thing has once had existence, why should it cease to exist? ”

“ We cannot but admit that in this case the human race would have been something altogether different from what it is now. In all probability that increase of knowledge in physical science, which the last three centuries have witnessed, was only rendered possible by the theological knowledge which had previously been acquired. ”

“ The immense spaces between the fixed stars, their huge size, the innumerable quantity of those stars, which are revealed in ever increasing numbers by the telescope, as it is made to increase in star-defining power, point to an infinitude of the physical universe which illustrates physically what theologians have always asserted concerning the Divine nature. ”

“ Matter does not lose its energy, though the energy be transmuted over and over again; for the simple reason, that He who doubtless by some means made matter the vehicle of force, continues to matter the properties with which He originally endowed it. If gravitation be a universal property of matter, the energy which matter possesses by reason of the attractive force which we call the force of gravitation must continue to exist while the matter exists. ”

“ III. We also venture to think that the duration in time which modern physical science claims for the physical world, those vast periods which geological science predicates respecting the existence of this globe since it assumed anything like its present aspect, those still vaster æons which astronomical science asks for the formation of planetary systems from nebulous matter, are more in harmony with the theological conception of the eternity of God, than a world made just as we find it now, six thousand years ago. ”