CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

Conditions of the Inquiry.

Advantages resulting from recent advances in physical science — Advance does not unsettle the whole mass of conviction — Religion and science agree in seeking a rational basis, and both present a body of harmonized conceptions — Diversity of view is to be expected in both spheres — Needless anxiety as to alleged conflict between science and religion — The first requisite is to trace the boundaries of the two departments of thought — Description of religion, natural and revealed — Description of science, its method and sphere — Common starting ground for both — Each supplies inducement for seeking a harmony9

LECTURE II.

Experience gathered from Past Conflicts.

Value of the lessons from past failures — Discussions as to "spontaneous generation" — Range of experiments and mode of conducting them — Difficulties in excluding germinal forms, and in determining the temperature at which their destruction was ensured — Hopefulness awakened by earlier investigations — Acknowledged failure as the result of more rigid tests — Conclusions of Pasteur, Roberts, Tyndall — Close of the discussion as maintained by Bastian — Dr. Draper's "History of the Conflict between Religion and Science" — Objections to the plan of the book — Misleading representations of conflict — Alleged scriptural view of the nature of the world, incapable of vindication — The Bible not a book of science, but a revelation of the way of deliverance for sinful man43

LECTURE III.

Inorganic Elements in the Universe.

Two forms of existence to be recognized — Matter and Energy — Distinction of the two — Tait on energy — Matter — Its indestructibility and uncreatability by any process at the command of man — The atomic theory as related to the divisibility and compressibility of matter — Scientific belief, as analogous to theologic — Energy — Perpetual change in form and distribution of materials — Position, motion, and force — Transmutation or conversion of energy — Conservation of Energy — Deterioration and dissipation of energy — Heat as a form of motion — Results of scientific research are such as to support religious thought concerning the origin of the world — The changeable can not be the eternal — Science here reaches its ultimatum as to the structure of the world, and gives all the support possible to the reality of the supernatural82

LECTURE IV.

Organized Existence. Life and its Development.

The new problem — Origin of life, relation of the organized to the unorganized — Origin of species — Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection — Characteristics of life — The prominent features of Mr. Darwin's theory — Power of adaptability to environment inherent in organism — History of the steps by which the author was led to the adoption of his theory — Wallace's "Contributions" — Darwin's acknowledgment that science does not favor the belief that living creatures are produced from inorganic matter — Admission of creation of life — Favorable impression made by the theory — Common ancestry of allied species — Rejection of fixedness of species — Difficulties which beset the theory — All change does not indicate progress — Difficulty connected with the early stages of evolution — Persistence of species119

LECTURE V.

Relations of Lower and Higher Organisms.

Fertilization of flowering plants — Relation of pollen to the seed vessels — Need for transference of pollen — Means to prevent self-fertilization — Relation between animal life and vegetable — Search for honey by bees and other insects — Bearing the pollen to distant flowers — Distribution of work among insects and birds — Evidence of adaptation — Interdependence of lower and higher organisms — Ants — Their exclusion from certain flowers — Their work, perseverance, intelligence, slave-holding, extracting honey from other insects, constructing bridges162

LECTURE VI.

Higher Organisms; — Resemblances and Contrasts.

Sensibility and motor activity characteristic of animal life — Both uniformly provided for by identical arrangements of nerve system — Two distinct lines of nerve fibre combined in a nerve centre — Structure of nerve fibre — Isolation — Combination — Brain structure — White matter, and grey — Subdivisions of the organ — Complexity of brain structure according to complexity of organism — Brain in insects, fishes, reptiles, smaller quadrupeds, larger quadrupeds, monkeys, apes, man — Close resemblance of the brain of the ape to the human brain — Researches as to brain function by means of electric excitation of the organ — Fritsch and Hitzig — Ferrier — Identification of sensory and of motor centres — Silence of front and back regions — Confirmatory evidence from brain diseases204

LECTURE VII.

Man's Place in the World.

Human organism modelled on the same plan as lower organisms — Prevailing opinion opposes an attempt to refer all human activity to organism — Religious thought not directly involved — Science must include the study of human life — Science by discovery of the structure and functions of the nerve system has explained many phases of action formerly regarded as voluntary — The contrast remains between muscular action and human conduct — Acquired aptitudes — Intellectual superiority — Hæckel's suggestion of "mind cells" — Adverse evidence — Nerve cells, varied sizes, the largest found in the spinal canal, as well as in the brain — Government of human conduct — Man's application of a higher law — Benevolence, as an illustration — Contrast with struggle for existence — Man's ideal law, constituting the ought in human conduct239

LECTURE VIII.

Divine Interposition for Moral Government.

Summary of recent scientific conclusions with which religious thought is to be harmonized — Religious conceptions as to divine interposition, in their relation to fixed law — Miracle — Its place as evidence for the Messiahship of Jesus Christ — Credibility of miracles — Our Saviour's miracles — Their benevolent purpose as bearing on their evidential value — How related to the laws of nature — Incapable of explanation by these laws — They do not conflict with these laws in any intelligible sense — Meaning of the old formula, "a violation of the laws of nature" — Importance of the scientific position that violation of natural law is inconsistent with our knowledge of the government of the world — Method and result in miracle-working, as related to natural law — Explanation of the antagonism of scientific thought to the conception of miracle — Prayer — How its answer stands related to natural law — The cruder thoughts concerning the province of prayer — All law, fixed law, whether physical, intellectual, or moral — These laws a harmony — It is in recognition of this, with subordination of physical to moral, that the spirit of prayer lives — Fixed law is concerned with varying conditions, and with varying results — Interpretation of "fixed law" — Dependence of physical results on moral action — That there are two spheres is no help out of difficulty — Nothing in scientific teaching to warrant denial of the doctrine that God interposes for moral ends — Warrant for prayer rests on a divine promise, involving moral conditions — To ask evidence of its answer, irrespective of these conditions, is to seek evidence in neglect of that which is essential for the result — The answer of prayer must be in all cases more an evidence of divine righteousness than it is of divine power275

APPENDIX.

I.Relations of Science and Religion313

II.Spontaneous Generation313

III.Energy and Force314

IV.All Organized Existence is Constructed on a Common Plan314

V.Embryology316

VI.Non-advancement of Lower Orders319

VII.Protoplasm319

VIII.Number of Species of Insects320

IX.Fertilization of Flowers by Insects320

X.Ants320

XI.Likeness of the Ape's Brain to the Human Brain321

XII.The Large Sized or Multipolar Cells322

XIII.The Conception of Duty323

RELATIONS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION.