341 Science and Christian Faith 1 proposes things that lie open before our eyes." To this hour, with all the light of modern science around us, we speak of sun, moon and stars "rising" and "setting," and nobody mis understands or affirms contradiction with science. There is no doubt another side to this, for it is just as true that in depicting natural things, the Bible, through the Spirit of reve lation that animates it, seizes things in so j ust a light-still with reference to its own purposes-that the mind is prevented from being led astray from the great truths intended to be conveyed. It will serve to illustrate these positions as to the rela tion of the Bible to science if we look at them briefly in their application to the two sciences of astronomy and geology, in regard to which conflict has often been alleged. 1 . The change from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican sys tem of astronomy-from the view which regarded the earth as the center of the universe to the modern and undoubtedly true view of the earth as moving round the sun, itself, with its planets, but one of innumerable orbs in the starry heavens of necessity created great searchings of heart among those who thought that the language of the Bible committed them to the older system. For a time there was strong opposi tion on the part of many theologians, as well as of students of science, to the new discoveries of the telescope. Galileo was imprisoned by the church. But truth prevailed, and it was soon perceived that the Bible, using the language of appearances, was no more committed to the literal moving of the sun round the earth than are our modern almanacs, which employ the same forms of speech. One would have to travel far in these days to find a Christian who feels his faith in the least affected by the discovery of the true doctrine of the solar system. He rejoices that he understands nature better, and reads his Bible without the slightest sense of con tradiction. Yet Strauss was confident that the Copernican system had given its death-blow to Christianitys; as Voltaire
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