New-York tribune., 1872-02-12
THE GOD OF SCIENCE.
THE HORTICULTURAL HALL SERIES

THE HORTICULTURAL HALL SERIES.
Mr.. +. L. ABBOT BEFORE THE FREE RELIGION
ISTs-wIAT GOD SCIENCE INTRODUCES TO
OUR WORsIIP-THE MIND WHICH Is IN ALL,
AND WORKS THROUGH ALL-IF NOT PERSON,
THEN MORE THAN PERSON.
IFROM REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNBl
BoSTON, Feb. 11.-The Athenians, long ago,
set up an altar to the Unknown God" and found
doubt not much satisfaction in wOrshpng him as In
burning incense TO AphrOdte. or making offerings to
Herakes. To most OF us 1.-The God OF Science" OF
whom Mr. Francis .E. Abbot of tho "Index" has this
afternoon been discOursng at Horticultural Hail. is, like
that deity of old the Unknown. But Mr.. Abbot is by
right OF fitness his prophet and has explained him to
his audience Of to-day as earnestly as Paul declared TO
the Athenans the God whom they ignOrantly wor-
SHIPPED
In discourse delivered last year by Mr. Abbot this
same course, he maintained that the problems OF God
and Immortality had received no accepted solution by
the method Of ntuon and that they still awaited one
by method of science To-day he has made his con-
trbuti0n toward answering the question: what does
Science teach about God a. Your first thought may be
that Science has God that it has any such God as
il ordinarily described in Christian pulps. Very differ
ent s the scientific conception Scientific men, it s true.
are usually somewhat shy OF tie word God. and incline
TO turn il To the Church, ecclesiastical property
In speaking therefore, of the God Of Science something
Is meant quite distinct from the God OF scientific men,
Each Of these must speak or keep silence for himself
The present purpose II 10 draw fOrth from tne great
treasury OF scientific truth few gold coins; to show
that Science itself has already made discoveries which
possess an unadmtted religious value. and TO point out
that its present tendencies in the direction, not OF
Atheism but of an enlightened Theism
Perhaps the first great result Of the scientific method
applied the idea OF God is 10 do away with the old
time honored distinction between the natural and the
supernatural-or nature and supernature. Matter
held to be much lower than and distinct from
spirit that saints ashamed 10 have bodies Nature
held TO be matter, and of course to he undivne
We heard of Inert" matter, dead" matter; but now
science taught consider the properties of mat
ter many manifestations of force ana we can no
longer think of il inert" dead" The tendency
wholly I'm the direction OF that conception OF
Nature which Identifies it with all that il real md
God is real He longer he regarded as a reality
outside OF Nature. The best thought of to-day regards
Nature a. mind as the A. There can, therefore, be
nothing outside OF IT, any more than there can be some
thing outside Of infinite space. To insist that God is
supernatural TO doom the idea OF Divine Being TO slow
but inevitable extinction. The abolition OF the old dis
nction between Nature ana Supernature is the first step
in the advance of mankind from the theological TO the
scientific idea of God II is a step from lower TO higher
thought, advance from superstition to educated faith
The present age las witnessed the establishment of
two great principles in scientific investigation: the
the persistence OF force the other the theory of evOlu
ton The first that whenever force disappears
III ono FORM reappearance must be- looked for in
other form; and that matter what changes take
place IN the universe their must bc sought within
nature. and outside OF it, Nature is unit. Various
may be its manifestations, there Is but power in
Naturc uncrcatahle and ndestructble, Omnipresent,
dnfnite, and eternal. Incapable of augmentation or
diminutOn, appearing and disappearing ana reappear
IAing il il the in the many the permanent in the
transient Thus the old dream OF creation Is metam0r
pbOsed into The modern discovery evolution Sociology
history ethics, philosophy religion all illustrate the
great law of evouon as treated by all the best
and latest wrters; hut the origin OF species the
stronghold OF supernaturaism until Darwin and Wallace
had scientifically formulated the law OF
This theory accounting for much that mad hitherto
been maccOuntabe, helps us, nothing else could, to
realize Alexander Won Humboldt s grand conception OF
/ Nature living whole Elm hbendigeS CAME" To
|ihrmg human society and the human soul into unity with
this great whole of which they parts is the religion
OF science.
Science is gradually passing fIom the polythtistic
the monothestic stage The main thesis OF mat 'riasm
If that all phenomena whatever the result Of the
properties Of matter" This reference of all eyens.n
nature to these eternal and Interchangeable properties Of
matter might well be called scientific polyheism, split
ting up primal being into multitude OF Independent
though uninelligent powers and atrbuting to their
blind hap hazard cOnjuncti0ns collisions the produc-
ton of the universe is. IL s less interesting and
less p0eca than the old Greek polytheism, which con
ceved the world to be ruled by group OF semilntel'
gent powers. This materiaistic conception rendered
Impossible true notion OF unity
OF Humbodts Living Whole out Of this bewildering,
confusion of independent, unrelated and dultmate prop
critics Of matter, door of escape as.openedfby the'
discovery the persistence OF force The properties OF
matter become modes Of motion, ,or expressions or
mind all force il resolved into force Thus has
modern science laid foundation for natural idea OF
God, who works in all things and through alithngs.
Henceforth the study Of Nature-n its entirety Is the
verabe searching OF the Scriptures IL Ia not out OF
harmony with scientific method to attribute the exlstant
result OF all the progress nature 10 the only cause that
will really explain 1.-THE present activity OF mnd
How the force OF the universe should have preserved
the pathway of evolution through the lapse OF millions
OF ages leaving everywhere traces so visible to the intel
igence OF to-day unless the whole process had been
dominated by Intelligence itself IL passes our ingenuity
even to conjecture. To say that IL must have been a. IL
has been evade not the question. Our very
ability 10 search laws proves the lawnaker Nature
Is Ineligible because IL is itself intelligence
DO your thoughts question whether the God OF Science
ia 10 be regarded as Person otherwise The difficulty
In answering ia OF language. With Mr. Abbots own
idea OF person he would 1t airmatively To him
1t comes naturally SAY Thou" when he thinks OF the
Infinite mind which moves oil worlds. III not person.
then only not person more than
person 10 finite word Infinite Mind and finite mind
IL distinction not To he lost sght or scence IL eaI
ing 70 recognize universal Intelligence I'D nature, anu
working through It, OF which the most resplendent SOUS
OF men are but tiny sparks Ihe All is eonseous % % %
All the part is conscious the part and between the
two exists the most real Of all relations. L. c.h
A. Il. e ..,fxn