A few weeks ago we published a report of an address by Canon Barnes before the British Association. A reader from Hangchow chow sends us the following reply appearing in the "Record" from the Rev. W. J. L. Sheppard, Ripou:—
Canon Barnes ventilated his views before the British Association. It may be of interest to mind him and others of the follo ing manifesto, drawn up at the time of the meeting of the British Association in 1865 (some years after the publication of Darwin's "Origin of Species"), and signed by 617 scientific men, many of the highest reputation "We, the undersigned students of the Natural Sciences, desire to express our sincere regret that researches into scientific truth are perverted by some in our own times into occasions for casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, "Wo conceive that it ig impossible for the Word of God as written in the Book of Nature, and God's Word written in Holy Scripture, to contradict one an-
to di other, however' much they may appear not forgetful that physical not complete, but is only in a condition of progress, ard that at present our finite reason enables us only to see as through a glass darkly, and we confidently believe that a time will come when the two records will be seen to agree in every particular, "We cannot but deplore that Natural Science should be looked upon with suspicion by' many who do not, make, a study of if, merely on account of the vised manner in which some are placing it in opposition to Holy Writ, "We believe that it is the duty of every scientific student to investigate Natare simply for the purpose of elucidating truth, and that if he finds that some of his' results appear to be in contradiction to the written Word, or, rather, to his own interpretations of it, which may be erroneous, he should not presumptuously affirm that his own conclusions must. be right and the statements of Scripture wrong, Rather leave the two side by side till it shall please God to allow us to see the manner in which they may be reconciled and, instead of insisting upon the setting differences between Science and the Scriptures, it woud be og well th upon the points in which One could almost imagine that the men who drew up this striking document, the original of which is in the Bodleian Library, had been listening to Canon Barnes's sermon! Certainly the views of the scientists of 1865 on the reliability of Holy Scripture are a remarkable contrast to those of the theologian of 1920!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.