The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-05-13

Alas, since time itself began,
That fable hath but fooled the hour;
Each age that ripens power in man,
But subj oots man to power.
Yet every day in seven, at least,
One bright republic shall be known
Mans world awhile hath surely ceased.
When God proclaims His own.
Six davs may rank divide the poor,
Dives, from thy banquet hall,
The seventh the Father opens his door,
And holds his feast for all
The influence OF Christianity Upon
Scientific Discovery and National
Wealth.
The grand revolution in European
thought which resulted in giving to
the world purified religion and an
unveiled universe at the same time,
must have had its origin in the same
great moral cause. To two great
men it was indeed given to inaugu-
rate the revolution, but they were
both evidently awakened to the ne
cessity and Importance of the great
revolution in thought and principle,
upon which they entered by the same
mysterious all-pervading influence.
Luther was doubtless the prophet
sent to awaken, purify and elevate
the church; while Bacon was com
missioned of God to unfold to the
world the true philosophy of investi-
cation. But both of these great
minds were only the exponents of
that intellectual maturity and energy
to which God had conducted the
European mind, under the quicken
ing and enlightening influence of his
word Wickife had already ap-
peared as the moving star of the re-
formation heralding the approach of
brighter day for the church, and
Roger Bacon had arisen, as the
pioneer of experimental science, and
was both promise and a prophecy of
that great light, that was soon to flood
with its glory the whole field of scien-
tific discovery.
The juxtaposition in time and
place of the great minds that have
done so much to give direction to
human thought in both theology and
science, will show us how that light
was disseminated which now shines
upon us in MONDAY effulgence, from
an opened Bible and an unveiled uni
verse.
Copernicus appeared in 1873, and
gave publicity to his astronomical
conclusions in 1913. Luther was
born in 1343, and published his letter
in 1917. kepler lived between 1871
and 1880. Galileo from 1864 to
1912: and Bacon's great work appear
ed in 1920 81. Thus we find co-ex-
listing in about one century, the great
leaders in the mighty two-fold move
ment of modern mind. Some of them
breathed the same air, and looked
upon the same skies. Not a genera
ton intervenes between the first and
the last.
These facts indicate very clearly the
influence of the Christian religion as
the central fountain from which these
two grand streams of thought gush-
ed up and rolled forth to benefit and
bless society with their pure and
healthful waters. We see here almost
the actual birth, as well as the un-
paralleled growth of modern science,
in the quickening influence of the
word of God upon European mind.
The influence of the Christian reli-
gion upon the rise and progress of
modern science is also evident from
the fact that the branch of the hu-
man family, whose whole character
has been most thoroughly permeated
10y the teaching and spirit of the
Bible, has been in advance of every
other people in the successful deve-
lopment of every department Of ply
sical science.
In physiology, the two greatest dis
coveries ever made were by English
philosophers. Harvey detected the
circulation of the blood, and Sir
Charles Bell distinguished between
the nerves Of sensation and those of
motion. Sydenham laid the founda-
tion of medical science, and John
Hunter that OF comparative anatomy,
while Jenner invoked the wonderful
secret of vaccination.
In chemistry, also, the English
have led. DIR. Black, of Edinburgh,
discovered carbonic acid gas, and
first announced the doctrine of latent
heat. Dalton first explained the won
derfully adjusted law of chemical
equivalents
Priestly discovered oxygen gas;
Watts and Cavendish ascertained the
composition of water; Davy founded
II.