LETTERS TO A YOUNG MAN by L. P.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Aug 8, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 31.

LETTERS TO A YOUNG MAN

By L. P.

BY A YOUNG MAN

VII. Science and the Bible—How Shall You Relate Yourself to Each?

MY DEAR ROBERT,—

I have chosen for to-day's letter a subject that fairly bristles with difficulties, so much so that I can hardly hope to treat it at all frankly without rendering myself misunderstood. But I will at least make the attempt; and if I fail this time, perhaps I may set myself right in some future letter. In taking up, then, the subject of science and the Bible, let me first say that I mean by science what men have discovered, or think they have discovered, concerning the outward, visible world in its various manifestations, more especially what they have been pleased to denominate natural laws, and the immediate facts growing out of the same. It is hardly necessary to add that by the Bible I mean the inspired Word of God, the book in which He has been pleased to reveal Himself to us by means of human language.

It is sometimes said offhand that science and the Bible must agree; but this would not necessarily be so unless men's knowledge of the outward, visible world were allowed to be complete and infallible, and likewise their interpretation of the Bible. This much we can say, however,—that, regarded absolutely, God's works and God's Word do and must agree; and the nearer perfect our knowledge of both, and of the peculiar field occupied by each, the more manifest this will become.

This harmony between the revelation of God in nature and the revelation in the form of literature, was believed to exist in Old Testament times, and also by the early Christian church. The same belief was prevalent during the Middle Ages, and the Reformers of the sixteenth century took no exception to it; indeed, they rather affirmed it on the whole, tho not always in the same terms. Only in the last century has the idea become prevalent that science and revelation are necessarily antagonistic. What are the causes of this radical change of views?

The causes are various, and they grow out of the general situation. In the first place, science has made immense strides in the last century. Especially large have been the stores of knowledge gained by laboratory methods of investigation. So remarkable and far-reaching have been the results in the biological sciences, that men view with wonder and admiration what has been done, and think that the deeper mysteries of creation, if not explained by what is now known of biology, yet may in time be so explained. The progress in the sciences has had to do with the material side of life; so also the great mechanical inventions of the age; and these together have tended to draw men's minds away from the spiritual. It has been eminently a scientific age. The men who have stood in the van of progress have been making scientific discoveries; and the men entrusted with spiritual truth, instead of emulating in their own field of activity the zeal of their brethren, have rather stood and looked on and admired. Some, on the other hand, have been inclined to regard with jealousy the prestige of the men who have delved deep into the mysteries of nature, and have attacked them, oftentimes in a narrow, querulous spirit.

It seems to have been overlooked by many persons engaged in this controversy, that the Bible and the book of nature have each a large and legitimate field of operation, and rightly viewed, one does not overlap the other. Science, speaking broadly, has to do with what is outward, temporal, and visible to the natural eye. The Bible, on the other hand, makes its chief appeal to the soul; it touches hidden mysteries; it reaches beyond the confines of time and space; it deals with the eternal.

Yet, while the two do not overlap, in many ways the one supplements the other. Thoughtful study of the Bible at once shows it to have this supplementary character as regards science. It lays down no large scientific principles in the strict language of science, but rather uses the things of nature as illustrations of spiritual truths, and with the obvious purpose that man, as he sees these objects of the outer world, may be reminded of the eternal truths of which they may be regarded as types and reminders. Thus we have the words of our Saviour: "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to-day in the field, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith?" Likewise also the discoveries of science tend to enlarge and deepen our impressions of God. To take one instance, how have the discoveries of astronomers enlarged the meaning of those beautiful words of the psalmist: "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?"

But men are not satisfied with letting God's two books supplement and explain each other. The scientist would explore every field by laboratory methods, he would penetrate into the very presence of Deity, and impose upon the Creator of the universe a mechanical obedience to what he is pleased to call natural laws, more blind and unreasoning than he would subscribe to himself. The clergyman, on the other hand, is exceedingly likely to impose his view of the teachings of the Bible upon the scientist, and in so doing unnecessarily to interfere with the latter's legitimate researches into natural phenomena.

An illustration will help to make the matter clear. When Columbus sought men and means with which to demonstrate his belief in a round earth, he was strongly opposed by various members of the clergy of that day on the ground that the Bible plainly upheld the generally adopted view of a flat earth. When the facts emerged, the clergy found that it was not the Bible that was at fault, but man's too literal interpretation of the Bible, and their ignorance of poetic diction.

To be sure, the situation is more complicated to-day; for scientists, unfortunately, do not confine themselves, as Columbus did, to what would seem to be their legitimate field, but they have in many cases made a frontal attack on the whole Christian faith, arguing in general that the things that are not susceptible of laboratory demonstration are not to be believed by right-minded persons, and that the book of nature is the only book that gives a reliable knowledge of God, either in the physical or the spiritual realm. It is this attack on the main principles of Christianity that we Christians must meet, and that with vigor and decision. Here there is absolutely no room for compromise. It is our duty to insist upon the reality and overwhelming importance of spiritual truth, and to assert the pre-eminence of the spiritual faculties, which chiefly separate man from the beasts. We may rightly insist that human science is confined to comparatively narrow limits, and can not in any wise supply the place of the Bible, which deals with the hidden things of the Spirit, which feeds man's higher nature, and reveals to him God, and heaven, and immortality.

Sometimes Christians make the mistake of thinking it a sin for the scientist to push his researches as far as possible in the realm of nature; as if knowledge itself were essentially sinful, and ignorance something God is particularly well pleased with. This is of course a mistake. On the other hand the scientist is on dangerous ground when he applies himself so exclusively to his special field of inquiry as to crowd out the time that should be given to the cultivation of the spiritual faculties. He thus becomes a spiritual cripple, one who is blind and can not see afar off by the eye of faith. Darwin, a man of many noble qualities, and far more humble and teachable than some of his avowed disciples of to-day, expressed late in life sincere regret that he had given himself so exclusively to his scientific studies, and had not kept in touch with other and more spiritual aspects of life.

Some men, of whom Gaussen, the Genevan professor, was perhaps the most prominent, have undertaken to prove that the Bible has anticipated modern science in many important discoveries, and is completely in harmony with all its findings. I do not care at this point to go into that matter, but would only put the question which naturally arises: If that be true of the science of to-day, what about the science of to-morrow,

which may in some important particulars be contradictory to the science teaching of to-day? Science is a shifting thing, as every one knows; but the Bible, which unfolds spiritual truths, has to do with that which is permanent and enduring.

But I must bring this letter to a close. I have touched on most of the things you asked me about, but on some of them very lightly. The subject is one that lends itself better to a quiet talk than to a letter. In general, if I were trying to sum up the matter, I should advise you to keep your mind open for all the scientific facts that come your way, but be chary of adopting wholesale the theories, which are often found to rest on a very slight foundation of fact. Study the Bible, moreover, as the Word of God to your soul, the lamp to your feet, the light to your path, and make its principles a part of your every-day life. Do this, and you will derive the full benefit from both, without doing violence either to your intellectual convictions or to your spiritual life.

I am, as ever, sincerely yours, L. P.