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About Hesperian student / (Lincoln [Neb.]) 1872-1885 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1878)
m&: 7 " ... m 457 CUl.TUUK AND LIFE. VOL. VII, .Vv beautiful alone. Ills natural for man to magnify tlic importance of his own voca tion and to place too low an estimate on others. The man of science seeks for facts in the material world. To him noth ing is a fact but that which rests on pal pablo, tangible proof. When fully imbued with this spirit it is not strange that he should deny the existence of all things save matter. On the other hand the ativo. cate of religion cultivates the emotions To him nothing is so real as the unreal. Fully imbued with this spirit of the emo tional, he cannot appreciate the facts of science, and when he disregards science, we are not surprised to hear him say that spirit alone is the only real existence. Now a true religion and science can no more war against each other thai' can the emotions and the intellect of which they are but the. manifestations. Civilization without science would be as void as man. kind without intellect, and it is as impos sible to destroy all religion as it is to blot out the emotional side of human natuie But both the man of science and the advo cate of religion must yet learn that per. feet ion comes, not from the development of the highest faculties alone, whether these be the intellectual or the emotional, but from the symmetrical development of all the powers of man; or that knowledge of the best that has been thought and said and done by mankind in all depaitments which we have called culture. Let us inquire how these two extremes, the scientific and the emotional, are mod ifying the motives and shaping 'lie desti. nics of men. And here let me say that in pure science I am willing to follow the foremost. If it shall be found that the universe has been evolved from chaos by natural laws, even if it shall be found thai the potentiality of life is a property of matter, it will only give us a nobler conception of that which we call deity It will only change our God of spejal Creation, a Giver of laws whose results are Creation a conception far more woithy of our praise and adoration. But when we read the scientific literature of to-day we arc astonished at the rapid progress of fatalism under the leadership of our advanced scientists. This is perhaps a natural result of their habits of thought but it is nevertheless a fatal error. In the realm of science we how in humility before these master intellects, but no one, whose heart has not ceased to beat in uni son with humanity, can see without regret the advance of their views of life. There is no creed so black, no philosphy so cheerless as that which would draw the dark pall of fate over man-kind. What hope, what aspiration is left if, asTyndall says, " Man is a mere machine with no power to act except as he is acted upon." Then is the life-boat already in the rapids of a Niagara. Then are we surrounded on every hand by woe and misery and yet unable to do aught to better the condition of man-kind. Through such a philosphy there can be seen no bright future for the race. When such views of life prevail all progress stops. From such a life sui. cidc would ho a happy relief to the strong, est hearts. So while we owe much of our material prosperity to modem science we cannot permit it to destroy all motive, all aspiration after human perfection. While we honor the scientists for what they have done for humanity by unfolding the material world, wc cannot sutler their speculations to destroy that universal consciousness of responsibility. But what on the other hand is religior. doing for the inner life of man-kind to-day ? True, it has a standard of perfection more or less exhalted according to the worshiper; but the standard can be raised only by means ol culture, for as Emerson truly says, "Religion cannot rise above the votary." The advocate of religion, true to his ideal, has contended that perfection consists in the development of the emo tional and has disregarded aii other facul ties. So religion cultivating only the emo tional has lost control over the rational faculties of man. It has now become a mere coinmon-placc to say that the Church ,ASfPjiffiPs '-n.'Sf
