THE ONE THING NEEDFUL IN SCIENCE STUDY.
By E. J. Driver
E. J. DRIVER.
(Fresno, Cal.) Some time ago it was my fortune to meet a young college man of my own age. We were both out on a pleasure trip, and as he was a student from the scientific department of a large Biblical school, I counted on a very enjoyable vacation. He had studied astronomy, botany, chemistry, nature study, and physics, he said, as well as other branches of science in his course. At first he seemed inclined to let me know that he was “up” on science. Many of the flowers we passed were named familiarly as Boykinia occidentalis, Grindelia cuneifolia, and the like, showing a good verbal memory. We came to a plant of the common Nightshade, filled with black berries. “That is a species of Solanum nigrum,” said my friend: “it contains a violent narcotic poison, and in some countries is used in mild doses to produce sleep.” Pleased with his knowledge of the Nightshade and its properties, I thought to ask a few questions along Biblical lines, as my friend was preparing for ministerial work. What lesson would he draw from such plants as the Nightshade, I queried? “Lesson? why, a botany lesson, of course!” he answered. “No, I mean what Biblical lesson is there in it for you?” Well, really he couldn’t think of any just then. So we spoke of other things, and I found that, while he knew much of so-called science, it meant very little to him as a Christian. I was with the young man almost two weeks, and only a few times during our trip did he really connect his nature study with spiritual thoughts. This would not have surprised me much, perhaps, had his aim been other than the ministry, or had his mind been a common one. But as it was, I could hardly understand why he saw so little in nature, till one day he said, “I know you are disappointed in my science. But the fact is, I never learned to really see nature for myself. I can get the lessons in the books all right, but somehow I cannot connect science and religion. At college the professor told us to make that our aim, but he did not tell us how, and besides kept us busy classifying, working problems, and memorizing names. And the textbooks were merely the common scientific ones of the day, though I suppose I ought to make exception of the book on nature studies, but that was largely theory or extracts from other books. So you see I am rather a failure yet, so far as ‘religious nature-study’ goes.” And he is not the only one. Take the majority of those who finish college or school with a science training, and you find it practically useless to them. I am speaking now of Christians, of course. What shall we say of such science study? We shall say that it is not only prevalent in the institutions of the world, but is common also in the schools of God, and a blot on their systems of education. Christ brought nature and life into all His teaching. As a child, it is said of Him, “Apart from the unholy ways of the world, He gathered stores of scientific knowledge from nature. He studied the life of plants and animals, and the life of men. . . . Continually He was seeking to draw from things seen illustrations by which to present the living oracles of God.” Every student of science should work from the same standpoint, with the same aim. One great difficulty is the lack of right aim,—not in the student, text-book, teacher, system, or school alone, but in all; for all work together. And when all fully realize the true object of science study, the scientific course will be precious in our schools. We were put into the world to learn the truth and tell it. We were not to learn all the truth, but to learn and teach that truth that can reach and save men. Science is a part of that truth. Our science study should fit us to see in all nature the wise and potent hand of God, and in the fabric of His work to see love and goodness woven in. When we have learned to see these things and to tell them, we, too, can follow Christ’s plan of teaching. He saw that there was one great thing needful for men. He saw that it was needful for them to behold the attributes of God; that by beholding they might become changed. “All nature is speaking,” He said to himself, “and if I can teach man to hear her voice, she will tell him always of the Father’s wisdom and love, and day by day lead him upward in faith and trust.” What we need, then, is to learn to see valuable lessons in our science, so that it will become a living, speaking thing to us. A little knowledge of this kind will serve us better than all the great volumes of information commonly taught, in reaching the hearts of men. That was God’s design for our schools, that we might learn to use nature’s lessons in connection with His word. I have said that one great difficulty with the students and teachers of science is that they do not keep the object of their work clearly and constantly before them. But there is another cause of failure coeval with this. When the facts are learned, there is often a failure in learning how those facts should be used. Visit any industrial school in the country, and you will find that the students are taught to use the tools that are given them. Without instruction, they could probably use some of them crudely, but not as the skilled workman “that needeth not to be ashamed.” Likewise facts of science are tools for the Christian work, as much as the hammer and saw are tools for the industrial work. But who is teaching us how to use them? We try in vain to saw with the hammer, or pound with the saw; and becoming discouraged617give up the attempt to use our unwieldy stock of chemistry, botany, or whatever it may be, and it passes from us into oblivion. God’s schools, in the days of the prophets, taught not only the truth, but the right truth, and the right way to use truth. Let us hope, then, that the coming teacher and text-book will lay aside the unimportant, and teach our young men and women how to use those beautiful cases of drawing instruments, the sciences, for drawing men and women to Christ.