Rev. Alfred Momerie, D. D., of London, preached in Appleton Chapel last night from a text taken from the nineteenth chapter of Matthew, "What God hath joined together let no man put asunder." He said: The idea that science and religion, or science and theology are incompatible is very common, but is wholly untrue. Science is systematized and classified knowledge. Theology is certainly included in this definition, and so cannot be opposed to science in general. But what is usually meant by science used in contrast to theology is natural science or physics. But really there is nothing inconsistent between physics and theology. Both, in fact, are seeking the same end, namely, the interpretation of the thought of the ruling power of the universe. It is sure that the universe is guided by thought, that is by reasonable laws, for if the world were only a mass of atoms without any controlling power there would be nothing stable or certain about it. So the physicist tries to understand God's thoughts as shown in the laws of matter, and the theologist tries to understand them in his spiritual laws. Religion is not by any means the same thing as theology. The one is the science of the study of God's nature, while the other is the art of obeying His laws and doing His work. A theologian is not necessarily religious, any more than a physiologist must necessarilly have a fine physique.

There are two kinds of theology, a stagnant theology, which claims that we know all about God that we ever can know, and which is unwilling to bring modern science to bear; second, a progressive theology which always is striving for the truth and which tries to bring theology to as reasonable and scientific a position as is possible. The first kind was the theology of the middle ages and it is but natural that this should always be at war with natural science. This struggle between science and the stagnant theologist has left an impression which gives to modern scientists a prejudice against theology, which is just as reasonable as the old theologian's prejudice against physics.

One more thing may explain the prejudice of some scientists against religion, that is, that they do not usually know enough about it to speak reasonably on the matter. Specialists are inevitably narrow and a physicist is no more capable of discussing metaphysics than a senior wrangler is of curing a sick man.