The present relations of science to religion : a sermon preached on Act Sunday, July 1, 1860, before the University of Oxford, during the meeting of the British Association / by Frederick Temple.

  • Frederick Temple
Date:
1860
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The present relations of science to religion : a sermon preached on Act Sunday, July 1, 1860, before the University of Oxford, during the meeting of the British Association / by Frederick Temple. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tive, assuredly there can be no mistake regarding the spirit of the author. The more the Bible is studied, and the more nature is studied, the deeper will be found the harmony between them in character, the more assured the certainty that whoever inspired the one also made the other. And most assured will that certainty be in the mind of him who studies the Bible as it was meant to be studied, not as an interesting historical record, but as the guide of life, the revela- tion of spiritual truth, the awakener and the kindler of religious inspiration. But when we have reached this point, when we have made science help us into religion, have we indeed reached, according to the Preacher, the conclusion of the whole matter ? No, indeed. Eeligious speculations, though the highest of all speculations, are yet but spe- culations ; and if we rest in them we shall certainly be compelled to pronounce them also vanity and vexation of spirit. When we fight the battle with besetting sins; when we have to resist some terrible attack from sensu- ality, from ambition, from vanity, from pride; in the great crises of our life, when we stand where several ways meet, and our better nature is at war with our lower, and we seem to say, What shall I do to inherit eternal life ? and a still small voice seems to answer, Sell what thou hast and give unto the poor, and come, follow Me; on the bed of sickness and of death, when this world seems to fade out of sight; in the day of sharp trouble, of anxiety, of wounded affection, of hopeless misery,—then we need something more than religious speculations even of the loftiest kind; then we are not contented to hear of the moral law or of the nature of God; we want God Himself, and with- out the living God we feel that we cannot stand. Then it is that the student of science knows that the
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