Religion, Science, and Facts

1911

Science Does Not Stop With What Can Be Demonstrated

"Nothing else has to do with so many facts and so great facts as religion," says the Advance of Chicago, "and to call only those things fact which physical science considers and to ignore the facts which fall within the sphere of religious faith and action is to be blind to the most important thing of life.

"What is more absurd than to see in the wall which houses a hospital a fact and not to see a fact in the spirit which prompted and pervades the institution, or to see a fact in the chemical change produced by an experiment in a laboratory and not to see a fact in the change wrought in a community or an individual life by a revival or other spiritual influences?

"But it is said that Christian faith reaches beyond facts into the unknown. This is not disputed. There is no need to dispute it. Science does the same thing. It never yet discovered a fact great or small which did not carry it over into the unknown. Indeed, notwithstanding all the claims to the contrary, science does not confine itself to facts. 'Any one who is practically acquainted with scientific work,' says Mr. Huxley, 'is aware that those who refuse to go beyond fact rarely ever get so far as fact.'

"Indeed, science brings its followers at last to the borders of the unknown, where hope and fear quiver at the thought of the mystery beyond. But here faith takes the believer up in its arms and bids him look to the everlasting Father, who holds all things in his hands."