RELIGIOUS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 946, 18 April 1890, Page 6

RELIGIOUS.

SCIENTIFIC THEOLOGY AND LIBERAL RELIGION. What stands out as tha one great, established, and irreversible result ef the nineteenth century in the sphere of religions thought is that natnre means the all of being, and that the only road to knowledge of nature is the scientific method. Agnosticism declsres that it is impossible ‘to climb through nature up to nature’s God ’ —that nature is knowable and known, while God is both unknown and unknowable. But scientific theology declares that it is impossible to know nature in any degree without knowing God precisely in the same degree. Huxley himself frankly avows that ‘ agnosticism simply says : that we know nothing of what may he beyond j phenomena.’:' Upon.’ tbfit principle alone, be ; it strofig oy be ft week, rests the agnostic I contention that nothing can be known by man, whether in the present or in the future, respecting God, freedom, or immortality. Scientific theology’pricks that principle by establishing, first of all, a sound Scientific theory of universale.' To-day, the great con* | flict of the ages is Can we, or can we not, know anything in'itself, that is, not mersly ; as it seemS, but as it is ? ’ If we cannot, eqlqnc.a. is as false as theology ; if ia j itself theology. To v.nfi dr the other of these, : absQlfitq errbr' or absolute ignorauos, the 5 agnosfic* principle reduces all' human knowledge, turning' science itself into absolute nescience. It is time to tell the truth about the agnostio philosophy which betreys science and theology alike. The living issup whiq.fi 1 confronts all who have at heart real, sey- : vice of mankind is botweefi. and j scientific tfieology ; anslt must b.e settled 1p J world of thought. Rut into, the fewest ; words, the issue ip, Scientific theolqgy, or p.o ' theology at all.“Unitjariap Review (Up. AQ j Tfie Bpitia.fi aud Foreign RifilQ Society haa durtug the' jears •***„ exißtence issued from Its Loud- nonse alone 29,000,000 eompl**-- Bibles, nearly 32,000,000 New testaments, and 11,845,000 portions of the Bible. This makes a total of 72,500,000 books issued from the London headquarters. The Rev. J. O. Peck, one of the Missionary Secretaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church, fancies that his early relations to the church were unique, for he preached before he was a member of the church, he was never a probationer, and he was made a

local preacher without examination of question.

The electric light has found a curious use in Russia, viz., for illuminating saintly images in cathedrals. Thus a magnificent fig Dre of the Madonna, just placed in the Alex* auderNewsky Monastery, loaded withpreeion metals and gems of immense value, stands g itteringly ir the focus of an eleotric beam, which is also the case with the ‘Kasan* Madonna in St. Petersburg. From near atid afar thousands make pilgrimages to theßO shines. It has been decided to illuminate the ancient monastery of St. Ursula at Olmutz, the first instance on record of its use exclusively in a monastery.