Truth-Identities of Religion and Science.

A MOST interesting question which has in all time engaged the mind of men has been practically settled within the last few years by the advance of science. In the palmy days of Arabian philosophy and still more among the schoolmen of the middle ages, an ever new subject of debate was found in the origination of life. Is life always from life, and never from anything but life? or can it be generated in any other way? They reasoned from the universality and prodigality of life, in one kind or other, everywhere present. From every spadeful of upturned earth they saw unsown plants springing up; from every cranny and crevice of wood or stone queer-looking creatures skurrying and chiveying, At home the mites came in their mouldy cheese-moths from their closely kept furs. They saw, too, how every living thing had a strange likeness and adaptability to its habitat, as if the latter had had a great deal to do with its life-form and structure. And yet upon the closest investigation nothing could be found in any way positively to bridge over the deep gulf between the animate and the inanimate. So the discussion went on right up to our own time, and it was only after the most crucial tests that the scientific world accepted the principle as absolutely demonstrated that life can only come from life, or, as it used to be put in the medieval disputations, omne vivum est vivo.

The experiments around which the final contest waged are, to a great extent, at least, intelligible to everyone. When any fluid holding organic matter in solution-such as vinegar, or tea, or milk-is exposed to the air for a few days it "turns bad, becomes thick and sour," and a scum forms on its surface. This scum and thickness are seen under the microscope to consist of vast numbers of minute organised bodies, which grow and multiply with inconceivable rapidity, and in the progress of their growth produce the other changes in the fluid. Here, then, is life, indisputable and immensely prolific; where does it all come from? Does it originate of itself in these putrescent liquids, or does it proceed from infinitesimal germs existing in the liquids or in the air of the containing vessel. If life of any form is self-generated it will surely be in such elementary forms as these. And the question thus narrowed to its lowest point has been decisively settled in the negative, for if care is taken to destroy all possible germs, both in the liquid itself and in the air with which it may be in contact, no living forms will appear. If the liquid is exposed to a heat sufficient to destroy any germ that may be present and to expel the air from the vessel, and if, further, all air is excluded, or carefully filtered before admission into the vessel through cotton-wool to free it from floating germs, it is found that the liquid may be kept for any length of time without change. Even these rudimentary forms of life can only proceed from life-forms previously existing. So that the deduction is inevitable, that there is no such thing as spontaneous generation of life. Life can only proceed from life.

It may be thought, however, that these forms of life are so very rudimentary that it cannot much matter how they originate; they are so far removed from the sphere of our life that it cannot have any very immediate significance whether they appear spontaneously or not. But

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it is obvious that if in these low types life cannot be generated from anything but life, still less can it be possible in higher types. The essential identity, also, of all life, both animal and vegetable, from the simplest to the most complex, is an obvious truth of modern science. All life is intrinsically one, however greatly it may differ in its combinations and developments. So that a fundamental principle demonstrated in these elementary types is established for the whole kingdom of life. In all its manifestations life presents certain characteristics which are essentially identical. By a liberal, and perhaps imaginative, use of the doctrine of evolution, it may be possible for a scientific man to trace an advancing series of living forms from the lowest creature to man himself; so that all of life that Prof. Tyndall thought necessary to ask for to begin the primeval world with, as the potential origin of the endless manifestations of living things since developed, was a bit of moss borne on an aerolite from some other world. But still there remains the old difficulty of the first cause of the very first bit of moss which appeared either in this or other worlds. No concurrence or adaptation of any or all the physical forces known to science can account for it. In fact, science has traced life to the farthest probability of its origin, and there finds it as great a mystery as ever. So at this point men divide into those who know and those who don't know. The latter call themselves Agnostics, the former Deists, and some of the latter, who from other evidence know more still, call themselves Christians. Of late years science has been writing a part of the first chapter of her book of Genesis, and, to the devout student, at least, appears to have traced life "in the beginning" to the very hands of the Almighty-to the creative act of His Word.

Now there are many points of the closest correspondence of actual identity, as far as they go-between the teachings of science and the teachings of religion concerning the life of which they respectively treat. But it is objected that it is impossible to carry the conclusions of science into the world of religion because the two provinces are so entirely distinct. It is alleged that the "life" of the one is not at all the "life" of the other, and at most there can only be a close analogy between them which will not bear being forced into an actual identity. But even granting this, it is not sought, in these papers, strictly speaking, to prove anything in the religious world from any correspondence, however exact, with the world of science, but only to throw a more natural and every-day light upon the former, and make it more real, and perhaps bring it closer to us, by showing how in certain points it is like the latter. In his "Natural Law in the Spiritual World," Mr. Drummond has recently gone over this ground with much fulness and ability, and readers will there find this question discussed in a most interesting and instructive manner.

Of all things hard to define perhaps life is the hardest. Philosophers and men who have made biological studies their own have often tried, and as often failed. Many definitions have been proposed, but the author of each has generally been the first to confess its inadequacy. But if it is hard to say what life is, it is easy enough to say what it is not. The line of demarcation between animate and inanimate matter is broad and clear, and, as a rule, apparent to the most ordinary

observation. Even in microscopic forms consisting of a single cell the presence of life is unmistakeable. It is clearly something which is absolutely and entirely distinct from anything that can be seen in the inorganic world. Great as is the difference between the lowest and the highest forms of life, between the lowly lichen and the majestic tree, or between the tiny insect and imperial man, it cannot be said to be so great as that between the humblest form of life and the most beautiful and remarkable specimen of inorganic matter. For the former all have in common the most notable phenomenon in the world-Life. In the most elementary classes it is impossible to say whether they belong to the animal or vegetable kingdom, so they have been placed by themselves in a Regnum Protisticum. But no such difficulty has arisen on the borders of the organic and the inorganic; they are utterly and eternally distinct.

Now just as strongly as science asserts the distinction between the animate and the inanimate does the Bible speak concerning the life of which it tells. It proclaims a life out of which there is, in its sense, no life. In its words all men are alive or dead unto God. To receive its teaching is to pass from death unto life. Quite as distinct as is life in the natural world from everything devoid of life, is the spiritual life of our religion from the best moral and intellectual state of mankind. It is something beside, and more than, humanity at its best. And just as to the inorganic world life is a new and unknown phenomenon, so to the moral and philosophical world is the spiritual life of the gospel. "Ye must be born again," is the declaration of the Author of our salvation to one who was familiar with and obedient to the best moral and religious knowledge out of this life. And it must be because this new birth is the beginning of a new life, which introduces him into a new world of which before he had no knowledge. It may be difficult to give any definition of this life, and say exactly what it is, but it is quite easy to say what it is not; not morality, or ethics, or sentiment, or good nature, or any or all the graces and virtues of humanity. Just as in the inorganic world a crystal may be a very marvel of beauty and purity, in every way perfect but without life, so the most perfect moral goodness may exist without this higher and spiritual life. It follows also that it is only those who have been thus "born again" that can apprehend the things of this new life. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."

What life is will be the subject of the next paper, but there can be no doubt as to what the life of the Scriptures is. Nothing can be more explicit than our Saviour's declaration, "I am the resurrection and the life,' ," "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It is His divine presence abiding, dwelling in us. And what can be more clear in the apposition of the positive and negative of the same statement-" He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life." What other sentence of little four-lettered words of a nursery primer ever bore such a weight of meaning so sublime in its simplicity, so majestic in the positiveness, and in the present possession of that quadrupled "hath"? Thus also we see how impossible it is that this life can be self-generated. It can only come from like life, that is Jesus Christ; it must always be the direct comnunication of Christ Himself to the

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soul. He is "the life of the world," and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel; and faith is the receptive attitude of man by which this communication is made. "As many as received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God." So that the transmission of this life must be in all cases a personal act; it must be the gift of Christ to each heart individually. So, too, we see something of the meaning of that "hard saying" of our Saviour, "Except ye eat of the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life."

There are many other points of identity between the life of science and the life of our religion which give much force and clearness to things most surely believed among us. This one life given to each believer makes the church very literally one body, of which Jesus Christ is the Head. It establishes between each member a living bond of union, making them all one in Him. As in our Saviour's prayer, "I in them, and thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one." It gives us some faint insight into that most wondrous of all mysteries, how even 66 now are we the sons of God," "partakers of the divine nature," "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." And it is an indubitable assurance to us of eternal life. Since this vital principle within us is Christ, it cannot die-it must be eternal; as He Himself has said, "Because I live, ye shall live also"-"Your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye appear also with Him in Glory"-" Christ in you, the hope of glory." H. BAPTIST CROFTS.

The senior editor of this Magazine thinks it right to say that he is not quite sure of the position taken by his esteemed contributor in the latter part of this most interesting paper. When a human soul believes on Christ, and thus becomes a partaker of life, is anything more experienced than the following?-(1) A reversal of the sentence of condemnation. The broken law no longer demands the penalty of death. (2) The higher powers of the soul are stimulated and invigorated, so that sin, the destructive element, is overcome and cast out. Restored to a healthy state, the soul, in fellowship with Christ, according to the divine intention, lives on for ever in a state of blessed activity. But we reserve our judgment until the appearance of the next paper, and meanwhile commend the subject to the attention of our more thoughtful readers. W. R. S.

THE "TEACHING OF THE APOSTLES." THE manuscript bearing this title, which has been recently published by Philotheos Bryennios, Metropolitan of Nicomedia, and which has created no small stir in religious circles, is supposed to be as ancient as the second Christian century. It contains sixteen chapters. Paragraphs would be a better term, they are so brief. The seventh chapter relates to Baptism, and Archdeacon Farrar's translation of it reads thus:-" But as regards baptism, baptize as follows. Having taught all that goes before, baptize into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit in living (i.e. running) water. But if thou hast not running water, baptize in other water; and if thou canst not in cold, then in hot. If thou hast neither (in sufficiency for immersion), pour the water thrice on the head in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Before baptism let the baptizer and the candidate fast, and any others who can; and thou shalt bid the candidate to fast one or two days previously." To us such a manuscript is of no authority whatever. Nevertheless it is of interest to note (the age of the manuscript being granted) that the writer of a Christian treatise seventeen centuries ago knew nothing of infant baptism, but regarded duly instructed persons as the proper candidates, and immersion as the proper mode. J. FLETCHER.

Sunday Morning Talks with Boys and Girls.

SHUT THIS GATE.

OW that summer time has come, when many boys and girls will be off for pic-nics, holidays, and country rambles, I am anxious to post up as a kind of public notice-" Shut this gate."

Every boy and every girl ought to attend very carefully to all such requests, otherwise some evil thing may happen. For instance, if the injunction to which I refer were painted on a gate leading to a railway crossing, nobody knows what harm would come if you neglected to obey it. Some animal or some child might wander on to the line, and be cut to pieces by a passing train, and that would be a dreadful thing. In the fields, sheep might stray through an open gate, and the shepherd or the owner would very likely have a good deal of trouble before getting them back into their own meadow. Or cattle might get into a field not intended for them, and do great damage to certain crops. The following story will illustrate this. I will call it

TELLING THE TRUTH, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

"WHEN I was a boy we lived on a farm in Ohio. The little grist-mill was ten miles away. Sometimes when I took the corn to be ground, I had to wait till next day for my turn. On one occasion when I arrived, I found the North Branch and Rocky Fork folks there ahead of me, and I knew there was no hope of getting home that day; but I was not at all sorry, for my basket was well filled with provisions, and Mr. Saunders always opened his barn for us to sleep in, so it was no unpleasant time we had while waiting for our grist.

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'Well, boys, it is time for us fellers to go to roost,' said Jim Finley, one of the greatest roughs on the Rocky Fork, as he threw down his pack of cards and began to undress. We all followed his example, although it was not much undressing we did to sleep on the haymow; but we were so busy with our own affairs that we did not notice Charley Allen until Jim exclaimed:

"Heydey! We've got a parson here, we hev.'

"Charley Allen, a new lad, was kneeling by the oat-bin, praying. Jim Finley's jest met with no response. The silence was only broken by the drowsy cattle below, and the twittering swallows overhead. More than one rough man wiped a tear from his eyes as he went silently to his bed on the hay. I had always been in the habit of praying at home, but I never thought of such a thing at Saunders' mill. As I laid awake that night in the old barn, thinking of Charley Allen's courage, and what an effect it had upon the men, I firmly resolved that in the future I would do right. I little thought how soon my courage would be tested.