The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

INORGANIC ELEMENTS. 107and a continual succession of changes, on accountof the interaction of these two. Differentforms of matter stand in different relations;and these relations are being constantlyinterchanged by the transmutation of energy.Thus taking the world as presented to us, ithas a constitution which requires for its explanationthat we go beyond every thing tobe found within itself. The matter in the universecan not account for the energy; nor canthe energy account for the mat'ter; and therelations between the two must find explanationin something higher than both. Whattheir source may be, science is incapable oftelling; it can not contribute towards satisfyingthe requirements of the law of causalityin view of the mutual relations of matter andenergy which it has itself revealed. Butequally by what it has revealed, and by acknowledgmentof its inability to transcend thelimits of its own discoveries, does it presentharmony with religious thought in the formand measure in which it is possible that suchharmony could be manifested. Discoveringthe objective existence of matter and energy,and the laws in accordance with which the latteracts upon the former, it presents an un-