Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1872-12-03
THANKSGIVING SERMON.
BY REV. W. GRAHAM.
"Righteousness Exalteth a Nation"
.


No one can have followed the course Of
such discussions which recently have taken
place between tLeologians on the one side,
and scientific men on the other, without re-
GREETING that so many of the leading think
ers in scientific circles should apparently
have taken up position more or less OPEN
" antagonstic to dogmatic Christian faith.
I say apparently" because the supposed
antagonism between Science and Christian
ity Is generally an antagonism between
statements Of supposed scientific facts and
confessediy ia lible interpretations Of the
Bible. Science and Christianity cannot be
divorced without mutual injury. The
sphere of physical science in human pro-
gress is utterly distinct from that occupied
by religion, and these two great powers of
human thought ought never TO clash With
one another. As yet, not merely is it i'm
proper 10 allow them to do so, but it Is ex-
iremely unptilosophical. When science,
passing beyond It's own limits, assumes to
take the place Of theology, it is Invading q
province of thought to which il has no
claim. Science has its proper domain, and
there are certain limits beyond which it
cannot 90. Science can only deal with phe-
nomena and the material. II cannot go into
opposed to human science; ii is shove and
beyond it. With reference TO alleged con-
tradiciiOns between science and Christian
ity, we must not be too
hasty in proneuncing decision In all the
cases brought before Us. In the first
place, the revolutions of scientific opinion
have been too numerous and decided to
warrant the application Of scientific theo-
RES to The Interpretation of revelation, until
their correctness has been indisputsbly e.
tablished. Theories are ALWAYS to be care
fully distinguished from established facts.
The former are to be received with much
more hesitation than the latter. For ex-
ample, we may cOncede the existence Of
the facts and their relations adduced in
Darwin's work on the "Origin Of Species"
and vet. in perfect accordance with the
scientific spirit, deny that the Oar =inian
law has as vet been established. At present,
auihropOlogic2l theories can scarcely be
said to be supported by reference to facts
the supporting facts are just what the theo-
ries want. Even if a theory seems TO ex-
plgin the known facts, il can only be &C
cepted Professionally. 1t may not give the
true cause after all. 1t needs long verifca-
ton. II is liable to be overthrown al any
time by fresh facts. Be not in haste. HUI
mlty is no less virtue In the students OF
ngNire than in the interpreters Of the Word
Cf God. Candid inquiry, living faith,
and above all, as the wise Bishop Of Ely
Gays, patience is the proper temper for an
aee like ours, which is in many ways
transition time. The discoveries OF Calico
seemed more alarming to his time than any
in geology or sutbropology TO Us. We
see no difficulty in bis discoveries now"
Il will serve TO show how little need
there "a OF antagonism between Christiani-
ty and science, to remember that the nat
ursl sciences and Biblical criticism are each
progressive. The iUductive method is con-
stSutIy disclosing Lew facts, and leading to
new conclusions founded on these facLs. Ii
you take the history of science during the
last two hundred years, you will ind that
IL has been continually changing, that
scarcely ten years have elapsed without some
extraordinary change in any science which
las been prominently brought under the
notice Of scientific men. The law, then OF
scientific progress is constant modification;
freSh facts are discovered, new. theories
started, old theories revived, existing theo
RES altered, recast, newly shaped. And no
sooner is q new theory started, than It is
Immediately compared with what the Bible
says, or. is supposed to say; but in this
comparison not only must we remember
that it is not the object of the Bible to
teach science, nor 10 give US any scientific
knowledge in a scientific way, but also that
The comparison must be made, not with
the floating theories of the hour, but only
with established truths.
The Importance of the issues involved in
the present relations Of science 10 christi
snity is, think, often overrated: The con-
slant interrogation Of nature viii elicit no
replies which we need to fear. One thing Is
cleaI; no possible scientific discoveries can
shake any essential christian truth. Again
we nay, for any thing We know, establish
the divine origin Of the race, or Darwin
The Transformation OF species, or Hux ey
discover the fleeing protoplasm, which has
so often eluded his grasp. Can we suppose
for moment that any truth of our relig-
ious faith would thereby be compromised?
No, verify. 1t is true that the dogmas OF
the church are not binding on us, in the
sense that we accept blindly what il has de-
creed. The divinity of Christ did not be-
come a truth by a vote OF majority Of
bishops in the synod OF Nicea. AstrOmo-
mical science does not create the stars, or
ordain their circuits it only registers them.
And as the authority OF The cnuIch does
not make truth, 50 we cannot rest on its
authority for our final conviction; but only
when we have received it into our minds,
and Welded willing assent, is it truth at all
The great principle Of positive faith in posi-
tive and ascertained truth stands just where
il has stood since the world began.
Christian doctrines do not change nor move,
but stand in awful stiffness, like Alpine
mountains and the landscape, visible from
all points of Christian experience and hui
man life. human creeds, it lie true, have
been revised, remedelled, aud changed from
age TO age. These are in their nature i'm
perfect. The forms of theology, the ctitl-
cism Of scripture, tbs results Of sacred
Learnt are always enlarged by ripper
schoi&! snip. But this in no way destroys
their jdst authority. We set up no idol of
a perfect Nlcene age; we recognize mingled
errors in the eXegesis of q Jerome, in the
tLeolugs of a Basil, or an Augustine: but
we accept the great creed of Nice, as far as
The voice of the whole Church on the CEN
tIsl truth Of the Incarnation; and In like