New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-04-11
The God Of Scientific Men.

If We will look at things, and not merely
at words, we shall soon see that the scien
titic man has a theology and God, a mos
impressive theology, a most awful and glo
riOus God. l say that man believes in 8
God who feels himself in the presence of q
power apart from and UNNECESSARILY above
his own, power in the contemplation Of
which he is absorbed, in the knowledge OF
which he finds safety and happiness. And
such now is nature to the scientific man.
do not now say that it is good or satisfying
to worship such a God, but l say tina,
no class Of men since the world began
have ever more truly believed in a
God, or more ardently. or with more con.
viction, worshipped Him. Comparing their
! religion in its fresh youth to the present
confused forms of Christianity, think a
| bystander would say that though Chris
| tianity had in it something far higher and
deeper and more ennobling, yet the average
scientific man wOrships just at present a
more awful and, as it were greater Deity
than the average Christian. In so many
Christians the idea of God has been de-
graded by childish and little minded teach
ing; the eternal, and the infinite and the all
embracing has been represented as the head
OF thesclerlcal interest, as sort of clergy
man, as a sort of schOolmaster, as sort
of philanthOrpist. But the scientific man
knows Him to be eternal; in astronomy, in
geology, he becomes familiar with the
countless milleniums of his lifetime. The
realize Gods infinity. In the fixed stars he
traces Him, distance inexpressible by
numbers that have name" Meanwhile, to
the theologian, infnity and eternity are
very much of empty words when applied
to the object of his worship. He does not
realize them in actual facts and definite
computations. But it is not merely because
he realizes stupendous power that
l call the scientific man theist. A true
theist ought to recognize his Deity
as giving HIM the law to which his
life ought to be CONFIRMED. Now here it is
that the resemblance of modern science to
theology comes out most manifestly. There
is no stronger conviction in this age than
the conviction of the scientific man, that
all happiness depends upon the knowl-
edge OF the laws of nature, and the care
full adaptations of human life to them
Of this l have spoken before. Luther and
tradition that had obscured true word
of God in the Scriptures than the mo-
dern man of science is of the metaphysics
and conventional philosophy that have
beguiled men away from nature and her
laws. They want to remodel all education,
all preaching, SO that the laws Of nature
may become known to every man, and that
CNCIy OAC Ahoy NO Ill q COAulllVA " Iuu lis
happiness in obeying them. They chate at
the notion Of men studying anything else.
They behave toward those who do not know
nature with the same sort of impatient inso- |
lence with which Christian behaves toward |
the worshipers of the Emperor or Moham- |
medan toward idOlaters. As 1 sympathize |!
very partially with the Mohammedan,
and not quite perfectly with the |
early Christian, so l find the modern |
c0ia md far 10,
but l recognize that it is zeal of the |
same kind as theirs-that is. that, like |
theirs, it is theological. An infinite power
will inspire awe and an anxious desire to
obey its laws on the part of those who feel
dependent on it. But such
awe and tear, it may be said, do not consti-
tute worship; worship implies admiration
and something which may be called love.
Now it Is true that the scientific man can
mind may feel for the God of Christians.
The highest love is inspired by love
Or by justice and goodness, and of
these qualities science as yet dis
Germs little or nothing in nature.
But a very genuine love, though of
ower kind is felt by the contemplated of
nature. Nature, if not morally good. is
infinitely interesting, infinitely beautiful.
He who studies it has continually the
/
'erning any living laws; regularities glim-
ner through an appearance of confusion;
snalogies between phenomena of different
,rder suggest themselves and set the i'm
lgination in motion; the mind is haunted
With a sense Of the vast unity not yet discov
able or namable. There is food for con-
emplation which never runs short: You are
,azing at an object which is always growing
learer, and yet always, in the very act of
rowing clearer presenting new mysteries.
Ind this arresting and absorbing spectacle,
o fascinating by its variety. is at
he same time overwhelming by its great
ess, SO that those who have devoted their
ives to the contemplation scarcely ever
all to testify to the endless delight it gives
hem, and also to the overpowering awe
nth which from time to time it surprises
hem. There is one more feeling which
'orshiper should have for his deity
ense of personal connection, and, as it
ERE, relationship. The last verse of
ymn Of praise is very appropriately this,