. Even among the
comparatively few who in previous centuries professedly rejected
Christianity, there can be no doubt that their intellectual conceptions
were largely determined by it: for Christianity being then the only
court of appeal with reference to all these conceptions, even the few
minds which were professedly without its jurisdiction could scarcely
escape its indirect influence through the minds of others. But as side
by side with the venerable institution a new court of appeal was
gradually formed, we cannot wonder that it should have come to be
regarded in the light of a rival to the old--more especially as the
searching methods of its inquiry and the certain character of its
judgements were much more in consonance with the requirements of an age
disposed to scepticism. And this spirit of rivalry is still further
fostered by the fact that Science has unquestionably exerted upon
Religion what Mr. Fiske terms a 'purifying influence.' That is to say,
not only are the scientific methods of inquiry after truth more
congenial to sceptical minds than are the religious methods (which may
broadly be defined as accepting truth on authority), but the results of
the former have more than once directly contradicted those of the
latter: science has in several cases incontestably demonstrated that
religious teaching has been wrong as to matters of fact. Further still,
the great advance of natural knowledge which has characterized the
present century, has caused our ideas upon many subjects connected with
philosophy to undergo a complete metamorphosis. A well-educated man of
the present day is absolutely precluded from regarding some of the
Christian dogmas from the same intellectual standpoint as his
forefathers, even though he may still continue to accept them in some
other sense. In short, our whole key of thinking or tone of thought
having been in certain respects changed, we can no longer anticipate
that in these respects it should continue to harmonize with the
unalterable system of theology.

Such I conceive to be the ways in which Science has exerted her
influence upon Religion, and it is needless to dwell upon the potency of
their united effect. No one can read even a newspaper without perceiving
how great this effect has been. On the one hand, sceptics are
triumphantly confident that the light of dawning knowledge has begun
finally to dispel the darkness of superstition, while religious persons,
on the other hand