I think that men of science as well as other men need to learn from Christ, and I think that Christians whose minds are scientific are bound to study science that their view of the glory of God may be as extensive as their being is capable of.
James Clerk Maxwell, from a rough draft of a letter politely refusing an invitation to join the Victoria Institute (1875)
James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79) was the founder of the electromagnetic theory of light and pioneer in thermodynamics. Of him Einstein said:
The special theory of relativity owes its origins to Maxwell’s equations of the electromagnetic field…The work of James Clerk Maxwell changed the world forever.
Maxwell quotes:
I believe, with the Westminster Divines and their predecessors ad Infinitum that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him for ever.
I have the capacity of being more wicked than any example that man could set me, and that if I escape, it is only by God’s grace helping me to get rid of myself, partially in science, more completely in society, — but not perfectly except by committing myself to God as the instrument of His will, not doubtfully, but in the certain hope that that Will will be plain enough at the proper time. Nevertheless, you see things from the outside directly, and I only by reflexion, so I hope that you will not tell me you have little fault to find with me, without finding that little and communicating it.
Letter to Rev. C. B. Tayler ( 8 July 1853) in Ch. 6 : Undergraduate Life At Cambridge October 1850 to January 1854 — ÆT. 19-22, p. 189 The Life of James Clerk Maxwell (1882)