PROBABLY no people as a class feel so sure of their ground as do those who apply the physical sciences to earn their daily bread. Whether this application be in the laboratory or in the factory, on the farm or on the ocean, by the learned student or by the simple artisan, with intricate apparatus or with none at all, is of no moment. Consciously or unconsciously all apply laws which have been grouped in the various physical sciences. Whether or not we understand the individual laws upon which our efforts are based is of no consequence so far as the law is concerned. We recognize, apply, and prove the universal law of cause and effect, which never varies, never fails, never favors. It is the application of this law that gives each of us confidence in his position and prompts him to challenge every new thing which seems to threaten that position in any way. As a consequence of this it seems to be characteristic of the challenger to assume that a new discovery will in some way deprive him of something, or destroy something which he believes to be true or valuable; whereas, the reverse has been the. case; the discovery has been a means of a greater or less emancipation from former limits, and has therefore made the world a better place to live in.
The standpoint of the physical sciences is clearly defined. We assume that there is no such thing as accident, no such thing as chance; nothing merely happens. Upon this assumption, which all admit, effects are observed and related until individual causes can be designated. Then we again group and regroup these causes systematically, until we have the various sciences of chemistry, physics, mechanics, etc., which, because they deal with the phenomena of what, for want of a better name, is called matter, are denominated the material or more commonly the physical sciences. And since these are intimately associated at certain points with biology, the science that deals with organic life, the assumption is often made that, having already answered so many queries, they will somehow, sometime, explain so-called physical life in all its ramifications, as well as all other phenomena not supposed to be related to life.
This position of the physical and biological sciences was for many years thought to be satisfying and impregnable; but about forty years ago attention was called to Christian Science, which, though always unostentatious, has attracted the increasing attention of thinking people. In its early history its mere name provoked mirth, because religion and science had been regarded as being opposed to each other not less than night and day, and it was asked, "How can the church with its blind faith in things that no one has proved to exist at all, and the laboratory with its inexorable demand for proof, be brought together on an amicable basis?" The mere idea seemed so absurd that believers in religion and students of the sciences applauded each other's efforts to heap ridicule upon the scio-religionists or religio-scientists.
