By Rev. A. W. Pitzer, D.D., LL. D., Salem, Virgina.
“There is a growing impression among eminent private thinkers that Christianity is losing its hold upon men, and that the Church is a waning power; that the religious world is drifting from its moorings, and faith is becoming a tradition of the past.”
The above quotation is from an editorial in the most popular newspaper published at the Capital of the United States.
If the faith of the Church is to stand in the wisdom of men, then it will be the sport of every wind of doctrine, and be driven hither and thither, according to the course of the popular tide; and if the Church has no better anchor than the wisdom of this world, then, indeed, will it drift from all its moorings, and be tossed continually upon the seas of ceaseless speculation. But if faith is to stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God, in the sure Word of Truth that liveth and abideth forever, then, like its Divine Author, it is and will be the same yesterday, today, and forever. If faith be founded upon the Word of Eternal Truth, then the Church has an anchor sure and steadfast, entering into that within the veil.
One prophecy of Daniel is fulfilled: “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased”. The world has never witnessed a period of such incessant and intense mental activity. Nature, in all her vast domains, in her atoms and her masses, has been searched with keenest scrutiny, and compelled to give up her wondrous secrets. The microscope reveals worlds of order and beauty unseen by the unassisted eye; while the telescope sweeps the silent skies, and stars by the thousands and tens of thousands are discovered, and numbered, and catalogued. The electric spark sends thought, in printed words, with lightning speed around the globe. The microphone magnifies sound until the spider’s walk across a window echoes as the tread of an armed man. The phonograph receives upon its shining metallic disc the words and tones of the living speaker, and is able to reproduce them after a thousand years. All tongues, and tribes, and nations are brought into daily and direct intercourse and fellowship. Time and space are no longer barriers between men, races, and empires. Even the Dark Continent, unexplored equatorial Africa, has been penetrated by the heroic and dauntless Stanley, from Zanzibar to Bomma; and the cannibal tribes of the Upper Livingstone are no longer unknown to the civilized world. And still men run to and fro, restless and dissatisfied, crying for more light and more knowledge.
NO REAL CONFLICT BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY AND SCIENCE
The Christian does not look with dismay upon these researches into Nature, these discoveries of Science; on the contrary, he hails with joy each new discovery as affording additional evidence of the wisdom, power, and goodness of God. Full well does he know that the facts written on the rock leaves beneath, the star depths above, and the pages of Inspiration, when properly understood and interpreted, will be found to be in exact and perfect accord, showing forth the glory of the Infinite Writer of them all. There is no controversy between the man of faith and the man of wisdom, provided each one acts in his proper sphere. There is not, and never has been, any real conflict between Religion and Science. There may be conflicts between interpretations of Scripture and interpretations of the facts of Nature; but what God has written in His Word never conflicts with what God has written in His creation.
The scientific skepticism of this day ought to remember how much Science owes to Christian men - to men who believed in a personal God; who believed in His written Word, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Redeemer. What shall be said of the “pious Christian, Copernicus, consecrating his life to God, to Man, to Science; who pioneered his way into the unknown universe, as the great Columbus of the heavens? What of Christian Galileo, who, while teaching the facts of Science, also believed the truths of Scripture?” What of the leaders in all departments of human progress, immortal names familiar as household words - what of Bacon, and Kepler, and Newton, and Herschel, and Hugh Miller? Or, later still, what of Chalmers, McCosh, Morse, Dawson, Southall, Cabell, LeConte, Henry, and hosts of others who lead the vanguard of the army of investigation and discovery in all the vast domain of human knowledge? The man of faith may point to these intellectual giants, and claim them as the humble disciples of the lowly Nazarene - as firm believers in the written Word of God. They led the onward march of human thought, but bowed in devout adoration before a personal God. How dense a darkness would envelop the race were all the light kindled by Christian men banished from the horizon of human knowledge.