understood, and the Bible was rejected. Thus it has come to pass
that many of our scientific men, if not professed unbelievers,
have yet learnt to look upon the Bible with suspicion and
distrust. To some of them, as is evident from their writings,
their position is a matter of profound sorrow.

There have, indeed, been many noble exceptions to this state of
things. Many men whose pre-eminence in scientific knowledge and
research is admitted by all, have yet clung in childlike trust to
the Bible. They have recognized its authority, they have been
satisfied that God's Word could not be in opposition to His Work,
and they have been content to wait in unquestioning faith for the
day when all that now seems dark and perplexing shall be made
clear. But there have also been very many with whom this has not
been the case, and their unbelief has not affected themselves
alone. The knowledge of it has had a deadly effect upon thousands
who were utterly incompetent to form any judgment on either
theological or scientific subjects, but who gladly welcomed
anything which would help to justify them to their own consciences
in their refusal to submit themselves to a law which, in their
ignorance, they deemed to be harsh and intolerable. There has also
been another class of sufferers. Many persons who loved the Bible,
but whose education, and, consequently, whose powers of judgment
in the matter were very limited, have received very great injury
from the doubt which has been thrown on its authority. Unable of
themselves to form a judgment on the subject, they could not be
unmoved by the opinion expressed by those whom they regarded as
better informed than themselves. Hence their faith has received a
shock always painful and dangerous, often perhaps fatal.