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

CONDZTZONS OF TNE ZNQUZRII: 41only as an intellectual discipline,-and thisis an important though partial view of it,-religion develops what may be described asthe intellectnal instinct, craving for knowledge,with expectation of order and harmonyeverywhere, and with prospect of amplereward for patient research. Religion, beginningwith the conception of a transcendentBeing,-seeing in finite existence a creationand a cosmos,--gives inore powerful stimulusto search for harmony of truth, than can besaid to spring from science. The latter bythe necessity of its procedure begins by contractingthought in order to concentrate, andis apt to encourage its most devoted servantsto work on isolated divisions of existence,relegating to a distant future the greater andmore puzzling task of contenlplating the harmonyof all sciences. It is, then, by pressinginto view an urge~at practical and personalneed, that religion may be said in the historyof individual life to contribute the strongestmotive power towards such intellectual effortas is concerned with the harmonizing of alltruth. This will appear in personal experienceaccording to the intellectual activity ofthe individual, under the requirenlents of his