The credentials of science the warrant of faith

Preface To Second Edition

THE subject of this volume was first developed by the author as a course of lectures at the invitation of the Union Theological Seminary of New York City, and the lectures were delivered in the Adams Chapel of the Seminary during the early spring of 1887, the course oif eight lectures closing on Easter Eve. The course was given on a foundation established by Mr. Zebulon Stiles Ely to support a lectureship on the Evidences of Christianity. The material was subsequently considerably amplified, and delivered as a course of twelve lectures before the Lowell Institute of Boston, closing on Christmas Eve of the same year. The lectures have been printed as thus extended, although in some cases the limitations of a lecture hour compelled a division of subjects, which are here united under the same heading, thus reducing the number of chapters in the book to ten.

The motive of the work is indicated by the title, the chief argument being that the popular objections to Christian beliefs might be urged with equal force against each of the predominant systems of

Vlll PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.

science of the present day, and are the necessary result of the limitations of our human knowledge ; that so far from proving the inconsequence of our religious beliefs, the oppositions so greatly magnified plainly point to a condition in which the limitations that now narrow our vision will be removed. In following out this argument the author has discussed the basis of scientific systems ; the modes of thought distinguished as induction and deduction, by which general principles have been apprehended and their scope constantly widened ; the significance of the so-called laws of Nature ; the validity of the prevailing theories or systems of science ; and the predominant principles of scientific thought.

By the terms of the appointment to the Ely Lectureship the copyright of this book was vested in the Union Theological Seminary, and the first edition was published by Robert Carter and Brothers, under the auspices of the Seminary; but after that firm retired from business, the directors of the Seminary, by vote at a meeting held on November lo, 1891, transferred the copyright to the author, who has carefully revised the work for a new edition. No important changes have been made in the form of the argument or in the mode of presentation, but the text has been revised, and misprints, as far as discovered, corrected.

Cambridge, April 22, i8gj.

Contents

Lecture Page

I. The Argument of Natural Theology . . i

II. Preparing the Way 29