Year: 1879

Mans place in nature has never been
so sharply and profoundly questioned as
it has been during the past ten years.
The answer which science presumss to
give. when it presumes to give any, is
not one which pleases or in any way sat-
isles itself. ''Dust thou art and unto
dust shalt thou return" Matter and
force have manifested Themselves in
man. in form and phsnomena, and the
matter and iorm which have made man
shall at last be refunded into the COM
mon stock, to be used over and over
again, in other forms and phenomena.
There is body, but there is no such
thing as mind, independent Of body.
The dualism of constitution in which
we have believed. and which lies at the
basis of all our religion and philosophy,
is delusion. Out of all the enormous
expenditure of ingenuity, nothing is
saved. The great field of star-mist
out of which our solar system was made
has been hardened into planets, set in
motion and filed with life, to go on for
untold ages, and then to come to an end
possibly to become field of star mist
again and nothing is to be saved out of
the common fund Of matter and force
that can go on in an independent, i'm
mortal lie. Man is simply = higher
form Of animal God as a personality
does not exist. Immortality is dream.
and the Christian religion. of course. 10
q delusion.


These conclusions seem to be the best
that science can give US. Science be-
lieves what it cannot prove. There may
be personal God, who takes cogni-
zance of the personal affairs of men. but
science cannot prove 1t; therefore be-
lief in personal God is "unscientif1c."
There may be such thing as the hu-
man soul-a spirit that has life, or the
possibilities OF lite. independent of the
body; but it cannot be proved. Indeed
1t seems to be proved that all the phe-
nomena of what we Call mind are at
tributable to changes that take place
among the molecules OF the BRAN.
Therefore, belief in the human soul il
unscientific. OF course, if there Is no
human soul, there is nothing to save,
and if there be nothing to save, Christ
was, consciously or unconsciouslv an
,mpostor; and the hopes and expecla-
tions of all Christendum are in vain.
And this Is the highest conclusion to
which science seems to be able to lead
uS. Sah 0uy ehiuS oo luaklucu 10 Uc
more lame and lmpetent? We should
think that every laboratory and every
scientific school, and every library and
study of a man of science, would seem
| like a tomb.


That this attitude of prominent men
of science toward the great questions
that relate to God. immortality, the ma
ture of the human soul and the chris
tian religion. has sadly shaken the faith
of a great multitude. there is no doubt
Society is honeycombed with infidelity.
Men stagger in their pulpits with their
burden OF difficulties aud doubts. The
theological seminarles have become
shaky places, and faith has taken its
flight from an uncounted number of
so uls. leaving them in darkness and sad
ness that no words can describe. All
this is true. 1t is so true that tears may
we'll mingle in ones ink as he writes it
but. alter all. We have everything lett
that we have ever possessed. Nothing
IS proved against our faith. Science has
never proved that there Is no personal
God, no soul. no immortality, no Christ,
and these are matters that we have al
ways taken on faith. Not only this, but
they are matters which science is utterly
incompetent to handle. They are out
side OF the domain OF science. Science
can ne more touch them than it can
touch anything that It coniesses to be
"unknowsble.'- r.. G. Holland; Scrib-
ner for January.