the same time, they have the impression that such is his mental culture and power of investigation, that he would not receive for truth that which was false, and the confidence that he would not wilfully utter that which was untrue. If a pastor is really a learned man, and no pedant, and his people are convinced that such is the case, they may be charmed with the zeal or eloquence of an Apollos, but the pastor's words carry with them the weight of a Paul. This accounts for the amazing influence which a pastor may exert among his flock. Him they know, him they trust, and his voice they will hear; but a stranger they will not follow. The study of the natural sciences is peculiarly adapted to give a pastor an influence over a particular class of men. We mean those of a practical turn of mind, who often find in the ministry those learned in book knowledge, but destitute of what is termed common sense. Let the pastor, from his scientific acquaintance with chemistry, be able to show a common farmer, that a kernel of wheat is composed of certain substances, and be able to indicate to him the kind of stimuli which should be applied to land to make it produce wheat; or let him, from his acquaintance with the various soils, be able to indicate why the same substance applied to one piece of land makes it bud and blossom as the rose, and causes another to be barren and unfruitful, and he confers not only a temporal benefit but a moral one, because when that individual perceives the truth of his assertions respecting the objects of nature, a foundation has been laid for his receiving with confidence what he may utter respecting spiritual objects. A few facts of this kind, mentioned by a pastor, will attract the attention of the husbandman, and tend to allay his prejudice against the ministry. The knowledge thus imparted makes him a listener, and sharpens his appetite for more knowledge; and when the truths of the gospel are proclaimed by this minister to that man, his words come home with great power. The same is true of the mechanic, and in short of every class of practical minds. It is especially true of men of science. They sometimes sit under the ministry of one who is ignorant of all kinds of science; and while they question not his piety, nor the greatness of his spiritual attainments, his preaching does not reach them. It exerts no more influence than though it had never been uttered. Such ministers often mourn over the fact that men of science are not more frequently converted. They are not able to discover any skepticism (in the usual acceptation of that term), and yet the hearer comes and goes on the sabbath with his heart untouched. Pastors often cry, "Lord, who hath 1849.] 465 Relation of Science to the Usefulness of the Minister. believed thy report?" and for consolation fall back on the Scripture assertion that "not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called." We are not disposed at all to question the divine sovereignty in the conversion of mankind; but we must be allowed to demur against ascribing the impenitence of scientific men to this cause alone. While "God foreordains whatsoever comes to pass," he accomplishes his purposes by means, means adapted to produce the ends designed; and one reason why scientific men have not been more frequently numbered among the converts to the Christian faith, is to be found in the fact that they have not given heed to the gospel because its ministers have not been such that they would listen to their teachings. From their ignorance of scientific pursuits, the clergy have not furnished an appropriate instrumentality for reaching such minds. Not that we suppose that men can be converted by science; but those scientifically inclined must hear the gospel from those whose scientific attainments are such that they will give credence to their words from the pulpit. Ministers of Jesus ought not to be so indolent as to fail to acquire that knowledge which will enable them to reach the minds of learned men, and then ascribe the fact of the continuance of such men in unbelief to a decree formed in the far-back ages of eternity. The truth is, effects must have causes, means must be adapted to ends; and until a befitting instrumentality shall arise in the form of a ministry interested in the natural sciences and ready to regard them as the handmaid of religion, are we to indulge in a well grounded expectation that many men of science will be converted. Certain it is, that scientific men must be made to respect the ministry, else they will not be apt to be attracted by their preaching. When the minister is a shining light in earthly knowledge as well as in religion, he may draw the votaries of science towards him by a sympathy which will prepare them to receive religious truth from his lips. Thus far we have spoken only of scientific men who professedly regard the Bible as God's word; but there are, alas! too many who have their doubts respecting this revelation because of the supposed collisions between it and the book of nature. Must they be permitted to wage an unholy warfare against the Bible, and virtually charge God with inconsistency, and say that he has given us two revelations so discordant that they cannot both be received by us as true? The minister versed in science, has it in his power to take such a man on his own ground, and show that the works of God indicate design, and that this proves the existence of a Designer, and so on up to 1 Vid. 1 Cor. 1: 26. the First Cause. Any man well versed in geology (a science which, more than almost any other, has been supposed to favor infidelity), can, from the rocks of the earth, and especially from their palaeontological remains, prove conclusively the existence and perfections of God, and can show that the supposed discrepancies between this science and the Bible are such as can be removed without doing violence either to revelation or to the leading principles and facts of this science. True, it requires thought and investigation, but it can be done; and when it is done in such a manner as to do no violence to the scientific views of men of learning, the tendency is much more happy than when they are called to lay aside their science because it is declared to be inconsistent with piety. Many a theologian, by attempting to reconcile science and revelation, while he lacked the requisite scientific knowledge, has made himself a by-word and a laughingstock among infidels, and has injured the cause whose interests he intended to subserve. The true way to meet a scientific objector is not by proscription and denunciation, but by admitting the truth of his science, if it is true, and showing him that between his science and the Bible there are no discrepancies such as should shake his confidence in this book as a revelation from God. It is easy enough to show him that the difficulties of revelation are no greater than those of nature, and that he has no reason to reject the Bible because of these difficulties any more than the book of nature. When a pastor has it thus in his power to silence if not to convince an objector, and to do this by only taking pains to acquire 'the requisite knowledge, he must feel that these sciences have a strong claim upon him. Knowledge of this kind is power in another way. It furnishes the pastor with topics for preaching, and with illustrations of truth. Some would fain have us believe that a minister must know nothing but Christ and him crucified, and must preach nothing but this one doctrine. But, it seems to us, that such have never taken into consideration the fact, that he who has familiarized himself with the structure of the earth, and has opened the grave of some animal of a genus or species now extinct, or he who has so studied the heavens that he can call the stars by name, and can trace, as in lines of light, their brilliant pathway through the heavens, or he who has made himself acquainted with the elements of the various chemical compounds by which he is everywhere surrounded, are doing something to manifest the glory of that Jesus by whom and for whom all things were created, and who is Head over all things, heavens, earth, air, and sea, to the church, to those who, by the washing of regeneration, have become or are to become the heirs of God. They cannot have considered 1849.] Effects on the Mind. 467 that this knowledge of Jesus, which is gained from his works, can be used as an argument for his deity; else they would not esteem the relations of natural science to religion as too remote and too gossamer-like to be unworthy their consideration. When can the pastor so powerfully paint the condescension of the adorable Mediator in his incarnation and death to save guilty man, as when he has expatiated on the greatness of his works, and placed him on the throne as the acting divinity of the universe? And when can he so clearly do this, as when he has been in close and scientific communion with nature, and has gone from this study to his closet and knelt under the cross and remained there till his eye took in at one glance the Creator and the Crucified, and they become so blended that they produce but one image on his mind. Here, had we time, we might proceed to show the relations of the book of God's works to the Redeemer of the world. That the world was created and is preserved for the purpose of promoting the interests of the great work which Christ has undertaken to accomplish, and thus is designed to manifest His glory, can be doubted by no one at all conversant with the Bible. Who is to study and to develop these relations, if not the pastor? And that the pastor may do this successfully, he needs to make scientific attainments an object of pursuit. 2. The study of the natural sciences is well adapted to secure for the pastor a well balanced mind. Mind, to be healthy, must have relaxation; and this it attains, not by inanity, but by directing its energies towards some other pursuit. The light, gay, trifling world take their relaxation in the giddy maze of the dance, or in the unmeaning frivolities of social gatherings. From such places, the pastor's good sense as well as his piety exclude him. If a man of principle and worthy to stand in the sacred desk, he will not fill his mind constantly with fiction, whose influence may destroy its tone, and unfit him for his severer duties. Yet his mind must be relaxed, or its elasticity will depart beyond recovery. Where can he find a relaxation better adapted to promote his physical vigor and intellectual scope (and one, withal, which will not blunt his moral feelings and deaden his spirituality), than in communing with nature. Let him stroll away from the busy haunts of man and cull a flower and study it, and he will have amusement and relaxation, and will come back to the severer duties of his office with his mind refreshed and invigorated, and thus ready to grapple with new difficulties. Or let him take his hammer and break a rock, and open the tomb of some of those ancient animals whose sepulchres are with us unto this day, and question those organic remains respecting their laws of life and their relationships to existing genera and species, and he will find relaxation and, at the same time, gain mental power. Each day he may learn some new fact, and find some new indication of the handiwork of Jesus Christ in creation, and some new link by which this world is bound to the throne of its Maker. All the while he is doing this, he is becoming stronger, and is fitting himself, by his relaxation, to take hold with new energy in preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified. He is thus prepared to adopt liberal views; and by not being exclusively devoted to one subject, his mind does not become so distorted that he can see truth only in one direction. He is prevented from becoming a man of one idea, and also from proscribing all those whose views do not, in all respects, harmonize with his own. He ceases to be suspicious of every new advance in knowledge; but uses all the discoveries of science as his efficient aids, and makes them minister to the advancement of his own chosen pursuit. It certainly is a great point gained, when a minister of Jesus Christ can so arrange his seasons of relaxation, and can devote them to such pursuits as shall promote his advancement in knowledge, and thus increase his efficiency as an ambassador from heaven. His great work is to make known the truths of the gospel, and he may strengthen himself to do this by employing his hours of leisure in the pursuit of knowledge which may be made subservient to this grand aim. It may be said that "this is out of the line of his profession," and hence should be avoided; but we ask whether it is any more so than those relaxations to which clergymen ordinarily resort? 3. We cannot close this discussion, without adverting to one other point, viz. the mental discipline which the study of these sciences affords. The grand reason why the sciences have made such rapid advances, is because scientific men have made diligent search after facts. Theories were discarded, and students in astronomy, philosophy, geology, mineralogy and chemistry began to investigate nature with a view to know what were the facts. The old system of astronomy has given way before the light of facts, and its theories have become matters of history. The old chemical theory of the four elements has also passed away, and has been forgotten except by him who deems the history of chemistry a topic to be glanced at in an introductory lecture. At the present day, nothing in philosophy, nor chemistry, nor any other science, is considered true which facts will not warrant. The facts are |
