CHAPTER IV THE SCIENCE OF CONVERSION BY REV. H . M. SYDENSTRICKER, PH . D., WEST POINT, MISSISSIPPI 1. THE CASE STATED
The penetration of scientific investigation into the erst while unknown regions of things is one of the wonders of the age. All departments of creation are yielding up their secrets to the searching eye of science. The causes of things are being sought after, not only in the natural world, but in all realms as well, so that things may be brought more certainly and directly under the human will. The unseen operations by which powerful results are produced are forced to yield and tell their secrets. New powers are discovered in all realms of investigation and subdued as never before to the service of man. Practically everything is reduced to science, and men are learning the how and the wherefore of things physical, mental and spiritual. The better these things are understood, the more completely are we the masters of the world for whose subjection man was com missioned. Now our inquiry is whether the conversion of the human soul the divinely wrought new birth—lies within the range of scientific investigation. Can the operations of the Divine forces and the divinely appointed means for the conversion of a soul be made to yield to scientific research, so that we can produce results with the same degree of certainty as does the chemist in his laboratory? Do the laws of cause and effect operate in the spiritual realm as in the natural world, and can we apply spiritual means and causes with the same degree of certainty as in physical things? Can we get out of the realm 49
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