The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-03-31
Science and Revelation ;

Science and Revelation ;
OR THE HARMONY OF NATURAL
AND REVEALED TRUTH.
An Essay Read Before the AbbeIille
Literary Club, by W. A. Lee, In
July, 1873.
Such ia the theme upon which Ipropose TO
aspiring TO be either very original or very
profound.
Truth Is catholic and nature one"
II there be q Coo of Nature and Revelation;
q Being All.Wise, All-Merciful, and All-Pow-
erfuI from whom emanated az well this uni
II Is reasonable TO suppose that the utmost
HARMONY AND CONSISTENCY
should exist between the two-that the cor
responsiveness should be numberless, and the
discrepancies apparent rather than real. As
Stunning that
THERE IS A NATURAL GOVERNOR OF THE
UNIVERSE,
Bishop Butler in his ANALOGY" shows clear
ly the harmony between the chief doctrines
OF natural religion, and the course and con-
stitution OF nature; the doctrine of a future
state, OF O state OF probation and moral gov
here; OF rewards and punishment
In this world, which can only md their con-.
pensatlon and adjustment In the next: Al
the same time that he holds that revelation
necessary, as we'll to confirm the truths
of natural religion as to inaugurate the Medl.
atorial scheme, without which natural re.
ligion would a been powerless to save
man from the slavery OF his appetites. It Is
truth OF religion natural or revealed, Out
rather to show that ''every difficulty IN re-
Ilgion emerges first in philosophy" that every
objection which may be urged to religion
OF nature-that there are problems perVading
both which are i%nsoluble: mysteries which
derive their existence rather from the limi'
tation OF our faculties than from the Iii
The origin OF evil. the existence OF pain
and death, the ~irregularity and inequalities
which mark the natural government OF the
universe, all present
DIFFICULTIES AS FORMIDABLE
as n which have been urged against the dog
mas of Revelation, the doctrine OF tile Trini'
ty, the scheme Of the Incarnation, or the
disclosed in the pages OF Holy Writ. Shall
we discard these latter becausc we can not
comprehend them 2 for the same reason, we
shall doubt the evidence Of our senSes. and
agencies, which are all around u.s., cling at
last to q cold and cheerless scepticism. We
are finite beings placed upon O spot.
"Won from the dark INT formless Infinite"
And how can we hope to comprehend
THE PLANS OF INFINITE WISDOM.
or unravel the intricate combinations which
make up the war aad wool OF tho Divine
Administration. The origin OF evil, the free
dom ofNhe will, the accountability Of the
creature, are problems alike OF Reason and
Revelation, and whether they shall ever
be solved in the light OF reason, 1t Is cloar
thai we have now no faculties to determine
them, and that he exhibits the hight OF folly
who rejects, because he cali not comprehend.
The distinction Is cardinal In Philosophy rs
In Con mon Sense, between what is
ABOVE REASON N WHAT Is .REPuGNANT TO
There 10 nothing clearer in the philosophy
OF Sir William Hamilton, than that there are
conditions OF thought distinct from condi.
lions OF existence. These last may DO met
and satisfied, and yet existence be beyond the
range and Limitation OF thought. Ihusl IL ls
impossible to conceive OF an absolute COM
mencemsnt OF existence or OF an Infinite
nop.commencement; the infinite and the
absolute; poles OF the unconditional; yet as
contradictorieg OF each other, one or the oth'
err must be true. knowledge then Is no critic.
rion OF the truth OF existence.
There are mysteries In the Bible. as We nave
said, az
THERE ARE MYSTERIES IN NATURE,
h,t nothing repugnant to the course and
Constitution OF nature; marvellous cores
nomdences. which show that they must both
have originated from the same wise nnd
benefcent Creator. who alike In nature and
Revelation has s9 ,Ss ars 70 o To n%%b xsns great
We do not propose TO dwell upon these
co~rrcspondences. but rnther to notice some
OF the apparent discrepancies which exist DE-
tween Revelation and
THE TRUTHS OF GEOLOGY, ASTRONOMY N
E~THNoLoGY,
arising not from any coutrariety OF statement
in the Sacred Record, hut from al Imperfect
Interpretation Of Its meaning. Thus when
Calico. announced his adherence to the
Corpernican system Of the revolution OF the
earth and other planets, around the sun
Papal Rome and the whole Christian worlo
were In arms with all tho thunders OF eccic'
s~iastical censure, to defend the truth olScrip-
ture and punish the hereto. But they fought
u Windmill OF their own creation, and wuged
q conflict with O doctrine, which the Bible
neither taughtnor g~ainsayed. n scriptures
wero not designed 10 teach
H FORMULAS OF SCIENCE
or the dogmas of philosophy, but they adopt
LnOSe DODulkE ullSh
deal With the phenomena Of actual life and
make IN its daily speech. The Ptolenhic
system has been discarded, but though we
know, that the sun stands still, and that tht
earth moves. yet tho language OF philosophy
and common life deals with the visible and
the apparent, and IL the same as that OF the
Sacred historian. ..ao
gree, was given to the religious world. whcn
The early discoveries Of Geology showed thil
his earth (Which before tho days or CuViel
was Thought to be only SIX thousand years
dbl was ono OF remote antiquity, consisting
OF stratif1ed rocks, the slow Deposition OF
superinsI Incumbent " sbs i re@a{ns of OF SegetaSit
and animal life existing long before the 40
vent OF man. But
NO ENLIGHTENED THINKER
now c%ontroverts the cardinal truths OF Geolo'
gy, or suppOses that he has any warrant ~
Scripture for holding that Its origin Was on.S
coeval with man, or that IT DID not pass
through all the changes which Geologs
shows have been written BY the Creator upon
the everlasting rocks. Even more surely
than the common observer can determine
the successive years OF growth IN Inc plnht
by counting the concentr,c rings, OF vi,
natural progress of animal life In the process
OF dentltIon, the GeOlogist can measure tnt
slow progress OF growth In the earths crust
the successive deposits through count,es
years, OF strata on strata through tne fa,eo
ZOlG. SGCOIQdTS hlo VIZ
bringing to light the remains OF varlou'
forms OF extinct life, until at last, we hay
the earth AZ II now Is; still the sport Oh tli,
elements, and still going through the slo'
r The co~rrespondcnces bctween Geology ant
Revelation givea
STRONG SUPPORT TO THE SCRIPTURE
MENT.
Among these Is their agreement In the fac
That the earth has been submerged, ina
theological changes have been owing 10 In
acency OF water and heat. that these change
have been gradual, that man was the lates
creation, that all existing species OF plant
the final catastrophe Of all things VIII "
brought about by fire. The fnct that the re
mains or man have been absent from IN
tInt contribution TO the truth OF that Scrip
ture record which represents his creation, a
the browning work OF the days.
The supposed discrepancy betWeen IN
teachings or Geology and Revelntion, relat
list, to the age of the world, and "a. 10 70
period when death was introduced into III
world. "
THE FAC OF GEOLOGY
In relation to the age OF the world. arc en-
tirely inconsistent with the common inter
probation OF the Mosaic account, which Inn
Its the time OF creation 70 SIX ordinary Gay.
years. Some theologians would bridge owe
the difficulty, by maintalng contrary to al
the analogies OF nature, that the variou
strata with their foasiliferous remains, wer'
brought into existence at once by the nat Q
Almighty power. Others would attriDut
the formation OF these works TO the action o
Noah's nood. despite the evident fact tina
they were the deposit Of still waters, ant
contain no remains Of existing species, ant
besides present strata from seven TO tel
m,Jes In thickness. which could not hav'
been formed in the short period Of the flood
Others have held that these fossiliferou
strata were deposited In the interval OF six
teen hundred years, which INTERVIEWED be