FROMTHELIBRARYOF- 
 
 PAUL N-MILIUKOV- 
 
Digitized by the Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2007 witin funding from 
 
 IVIicros.oft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/ascentthroughchrOOgrifrich 
 
THE ASCENT THROUGH CHRIST 
 
'• The hardest and most painful task of the 
 student of to-day is to occidentalise and 
 modernise the Asiatic modes of thought which 
 have come down to us closely wedded to 
 mediaeval interpretations." 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
THE ASCENT ^ * 
 THROUGH CHRIST 
 
 A STUDY OF THE DOCTRINE 
 OF REDEMPTION IN THE 
 LIGHT OF THE THEORY 
 OF EVOLUTION jt jt 
 
 By E. 
 
 GRIFFITH-JONES,' ; B^A. 
 
 f 
 
 London ^ JAMES BOWDEN 
 
 lo, Henrietta Street 
 
 CovENT Garden, W.C. 
 
 1900 
 

 
 ,*,3 > *, , *-» >» ''^^FfRst Edition. ^arM 1899. 
 Reprinted, October 1899. 
 ,, January 1900. 
 
 «afUKOy LIBftARy 
 
^ 
 
 TO 
 
 MY FATHER, 
 
 WHO, BY PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE, FIRST TAUGHT ME TO 
 
 THINK HONESTLY, FEARLESSLY, AND REVERENTLY 
 
 ON THE MYSTERIES OF THE FAITH, 
 
 AND TO 
 
 MY WIFE, 
 
 WHOSE LOVING SYMPATHY AND CONSTANT STIMULUS 
 
 HAVE SO GREATLY HELPED ME IN 
 
 THE COMPLETION OF MY TASK, 
 
 I GRATEFULLY DEDICATE 
 
 THIS VOLUME 
 
 8*74368 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THIS work IS not a treatise in Systematic Theology, 
 nor yet an attempt to reconstruct the whole 
 contents of the Christian Faith on an Evolutionary 
 basis. It is, as the sub-title suggests, a study of 
 certain spiritual facts, which cluster round the Mystery 
 of Divine Redemption, viewed in the light of that 
 great principle of Development which has taken posses- 
 sion of the mind of to-day, and which seems destined, 
 in its broader aspects, permanently to affect human 
 thought in all its departments. These facts are, Sin 
 and its correlative theory of the Fall of Man ; the 
 Person of Christ, His atoning death and Resur- 
 rection, and the New Life in Him, which embodies 
 the highest moral and spiritual evolution of human 
 character, and which is the Christian's surest ground 
 for believing in a blessed Immortality ; together with 
 such subsidiary problems as radiate from these " focal 
 centres." This definitive statement as regards the 
 purpose of this book will enable the reader to under- 
 stand both the emphasis laid on certain parts of the 
 
 ▼ii 
 
viii Preface 
 
 subject, and the many omissions which, in a more 
 systematic treatise, would have seemed strange and 
 unjustifiable. 
 
 Some years ago, the writer, finding himself seriously 
 affected by the general unsettlement of religious thought 
 resulting from the disturbing influence of the Theory of 
 Evolution on all historic beliefs, determined to make 
 an attempt to remodel the contents of his faith in 
 accordance with such of its principles as seemed safely 
 established. He was struck at the outset with the 
 paucity of really helpful works on all but the very 
 elements of the subject. Almost all the existing works 
 on the relations between Christianity and Evolution — 
 and their number even at that time was legion — dealt 
 with prolegomenay and disappointingly stopped short 
 just as the crucial difficulties of the situation became 
 most insistent, — a disappointment all the keener in view 
 of the thorough manner in which the preliminary 
 questions were in many cases cleared up. Especially 
 was this the case with the problem of Sin, which lies 
 athwart the threshold of every system of Christian 
 doctrine. How far had the new science of human 
 origins swept away the immemorial belief in the Fall 
 of Man ? The new psychology, had it broken down 
 the last remaining wall of partition between Man and 
 Brute ? Was it any longer permissible to believe in the 
 inspiration of such " unscientific " conceptions of creation 
 as are given in the first chapter of Genesis, and of 
 such " idyllic myths " as the story of Eden in the 
 second and third chapters ? Was such a " Fall " as 
 is there described consistent, even in a metaphorical 
 
Preface ix 
 
 sense, with a frank acceptance of the doctrine of human 
 development as it is now universally held among reputable 
 anthropologists? Till such questions were cleared out 
 of the way, it seemed useless to proceed to the considera- 
 tion of doctrines depending logically on these regu- 
 lative beliefs for their validity. Here then was ample 
 room for investigation, — in truth an undiscovered 
 country to be explored ; and into it the writer plunged 
 with all the ardour of youth at escaping from the " well- 
 trimmed lawns " of the traditional faith, tempered with 
 not a little trepidation at the possibilities of a shattered 
 faith which might await him "in the tangle and the 
 storm " ahead. To say that in the event he found 
 himself emerging from the strenuous quest for a 
 rehabilitated faith close to the point from which he 
 started, but on higher ground and with an ampler and 
 clearer outlook on both faith and life, is to put into 
 a sentence the substantial message of this book. 
 
 There were certain first principles to be dealt with 
 at the outset, necessitating a careful study of the 
 philosophy of Evolution. Fortunately, there was 
 abundance of help to this end to be gained from the 
 copious literature already in existence on the bearings 
 of the theory on the general principles of religious 
 thought, and, in particular, on Man's place in the organic 
 series. The result of much reading on these preliminary 
 but essential questions is given in the Introduction, with- 
 out a study of which (especially pp .26-39, and pp. 56- 
 70) the subsequent developments of the argument may 
 appear in some directions doubtful. The next step 
 was to ascertain how far the idea of a spiritual lapse 
 
X Preface 
 
 or fall in the race was compatible with the supposed 
 unbroken upward movement of Evolution ; and here 
 the writer was greatly astonished to find that, whereas 
 most scientific thinkers altogether scouted such a possi- 
 bility, they were all the time busily engaged in accumu- 
 lating a vast array of facts in the fields of organic nature 
 which went far, even apart from the testimony of history 
 and conscience, to show the a priori reasonableness of 
 the old belief As this grew clear it seemed to the 
 writer that a thorough treatment of the subject might be 
 useful to others as well as to himself, and so by degrees 
 the First Book took its present form and proportions. 
 So far as he is aware, this is the first attempt to deal 
 with the question of the Fall per se in its critical, psycho- 
 logical, and anthropological aspects. That the difficulties 
 with which the subject teems have all been disposed 
 of, it would doubtless be too much to expect ; it is to 
 be hoped at least that some useful material towards 
 a restatement of the doctrine on a scientific basis has 
 been brought together, so that the present mischievous 
 hesitancy, manifest both in the pulpit and out of it, in 
 dealing with the problem of individual and racial sin, 
 may come to an end. 
 
 The first half of the volume is devoted to this, the 
 great initial theological problem of all ages. Recent 
 literature relating to the Incarnation and the Resurrec- 
 tion is so copious, and on the whole so satisfactory, 
 that the writer has felt free to deal with these great 
 facts with a lighter hand, only dwelling in any detail 
 on such aspects as are more directly affected by the 
 Evolutionary hypothesis. The Virgin-Birth of Jesus 
 
Preface xi 
 
 is one of these, and therefore is treated with some 
 thoroughness. In the Third Book, the problems of the 
 Future of the Race, both in this life and in that which 
 lies " behind the veil," are also carefully considered, 
 inasmuch as on these points there is much distressful 
 unsettlement of thought among even devout Christians. 
 As regards the Atonement, the law of sacrifice hcis 
 been enriched by innumerable illustrations drawn from 
 the fields of organic evolution ; and the function of Death 
 in the animal creation, as a necessary condition of the 
 emergence of life from lower to higher forms, gives a 
 prophetic forecast of the deeper and higher Mystery 
 in which the Son of God gives His life for the world. 
 There is, of course, nothing ethical in the principle of 
 " Selection by Death " which rules in the organic world ; 
 but it is a true premonition on its own plane of the 
 spiritual " Redemption by Death " whereby the higher 
 evolution of the Race has been secured to us through 
 the Vicarious Sacrifice of our Lord on the Cross. 
 
 In a work embodying so much miscellaneous reading, 
 it is very difficult to make adequate acknowledgment of 
 one's indebtedness to others. Such particular acknow- 
 ledgment as seemed possible is given in the form of 
 references in the footnotes. The writer feels, however, 
 that a special debt of gratitude is owing on his part 
 (i) to Dr. Martineau, for his masterly treatment of 
 the ultimate problems of Ethics and Natural Religion 
 in his two great works on these subjects ; (2) to Prof. 
 Le Conte, for his fresh and ever-interesting (though 
 incomplete) co-ordination of Evolution and Religious 
 Thought ; (3) to Dr. Fairbairn, for his profound and 
 
xii Preface 
 
 stimulating works " Studies in the Life of Christ " 
 and " The Place of Christ in Modern Theology " ; 
 
 (4) to Dr. Milligan, for many suggestions on the sub- 
 ject of the Resurrection, in his work on that topic ; 
 
 (5) to Canon Gore, for much help in dealing with various 
 aspects of the Incarnation ; (6) to Prof. Illingworth, for 
 the stimulus derived from his masterly work on " Per- 
 sonality, Human and Divine " ; and last, but by no 
 means least, to Prof. W. N. Clarke, of Hamilton, 
 N.Y., whose work entitled " An Outline of Christian 
 Theology" is full of fresh suggestion and spiritual 
 uplifting. My personal thanks are also due to my 
 friends Mr. Arthur Porritt, for valuable literary advice 
 in matters of detail ; Mr. Jas. A. Craig, for his generosity 
 in preparing the Index ; and the Rev. H. H. Snell, for 
 some acute criticisms regarding certain portions of the 
 argument submitted to him in manuscript. 
 
 E. GRIFFITH-JONES. 
 
 The Parsonage, 
 
 Balham, S.W. 
 
 January, 1899. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 Man*s Place in Evolution 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAP, L — Some Modern Expansions ... 3 
 
 § I. Changes of outlook brought about by the 
 
 modern intellectual movement • . • 3 
 
 1. Our view of the Physical Universe has been 
 
 vastly enlarged ..... 3 
 
 2. Our idea of Time has been transformed . . 4 
 
 3. Space and Time have been filled with a grand 
 
 perspective of Life ..... e 
 
 4. These expansions have had a profound subjec- 
 
 tive reaction on Man himself . . . y 
 
 § 11. Disturbing effects of these successive expan- 
 sions on the Religious Situation ... 8 
 
 Relations between Anthropology and Theology are 
 
 close and vital ..... n 
 
 Man's distinctive place in Creation seems threatened 
 
 by the Evolutionary Theory . . 10 
 
 § III. The need for Readjustment is thus imperative . 1 1 
 
 Two classes to whom the idea of Readjustment is 
 
 repellent . . . . . . .11 
 
 Still, in the interests of those who long to possess 
 a reasonable faith, an attempt must be made 
 to restate the old faith in the thought and 
 language of to-day . , . . -12 
 
xiv Contents 
 
 PAOB 
 
 CHAP* IL— What is Evolution? . . . • i5 
 
 Ancient and modern theories — in what sense they 
 
 differ i6 
 
 § I. Exposition and criticism of Le Conte's definition 
 
 of term "Evolution" i6 
 
 1. ^* A continuous progressive change" , • • 1 7 
 
 2. *' According to certain laws " — 
 
 a. Law of Heredity . . . .18 
 
 b. Law of Spontaneity . . . .19 
 
 c. Law of Progress of the Whole . . 20 
 
 3. " By means of resident forces*' . . •21 
 
 The term " Continuity of Nature " . .24 
 
 § II. So-called " breaks " in the Continuity of Nature 26 
 
 1. Appearance of Z.f/ir . . . . •26 
 
 2. Appearance of Sentiency . . , •28 
 
 3. Appearance of 5*//*-coMsao«sw^ss . . '32 
 These " breaks " do not imply a complete failure of 
 
 continuity . . . . ' * 33 
 
 § III. Where the Christian Evolutionist parts com- 
 pany with the Materialist .... 34 
 
 Divine Immanence and Transcendence . ^e 
 
 The need of an adequate theory of Causation . ^n 
 
 § IV. Some factors of Evolution . . . • 39 
 
 CHAP, IIL~Evolution and Man .... 43 
 
 Questions at issue 43 
 
 § I. Man is physically descended from the Brute 
 
 Creation 45 
 
 § II. Does this reduce him completely within the same 
 
 category? No 47 
 
 What the Coming of Man implied — 
 
 1. Arrest of physical development ... 50 
 
 2. Supersession of law of " Natural Selection " as 
 
 the principle of survival . . . -51 
 
 3. First appearance of Self-consciousness . . C3 
 There will never be a higher creature on earth than 
 
 M*" 55 
 
Contents xv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 III. But is not this "self-conscious" element a 
 
 " by-product " of animal psychology ? No . 56 
 
 Romanes' attempt to bridge the chasm between 
 
 animal and human psychology . , '57 
 
 His doctrine of " Recepts." The fallacy underlying 
 
 it .58 
 
 1. Neither Sentiency nor Self-consciousness is the 
 
 product of material forces . . . "59 
 
 2. Nor is Self-consciousness the same fact as 
 
 Sentiency. ...... en 
 
 Self-consciousness implies — 
 
 a. Sense of contrast between past and 
 
 present impressions • • • 60 
 
 b. Sense of the objectivity of environment 60 
 
 c. Power of abstraction . . .61 
 
 3. Emergence of Moral Sense in Man. What it 
 
 does and what it docs not involve . . 62 
 
 4. The Religious Faculty another differentia of Man 65 
 
 IV. Evolution does not make the idea of a Creator 
 
 superfluous 67 , 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 Evolution and the Fall of Man 
 
 CHAP, L — Genesis and Creation — First Account 73 
 
 The age-long conflict over the interpretation of the 
 
 " Mosaic " account of Creation . . . '73 
 § I. The literal interpretation of Genesis i. finally dis- 
 credited 75 
 
 § II. But its inner spiritual message is more impressive 
 
 than ever 77 
 
 § III. This suggests the inevitable conclusion that we 
 
 have been running after a false issue . . 78 
 
 § IV. The significance of Genesis i. is religious . . 81 
 
 1. Standpoint of Writer that of a devout spectator 8 1 
 
 2. His interest in the Universe is spiritual, not 
 
 physical ....... 82 
 
xvi Contents 
 
 PAOK 
 
 3. His treatment of process of Creation is pictorial 
 
 and poetic, not literal and scientific . . ^^ 
 
 What Genesis i. gives us is thus not so much a 
 
 Creation, as a Creator .... 88 
 
 " It is not Science, but Theology " , , .90 
 
 CHAP* IL— Genesis and Creation — Second Account 92 
 
 § I. DifferenticB of the Two Accounts of Creation in 
 
 Genesis 92 
 
 § II. The Jehovist Story of the Fall .... 95 
 § III. Methods of interpretation. Is it History, 
 
 Legend, or Myth? 98 
 
 § IV. If a Myth, this need not disturb our faith in 
 
 its Divine Inspiration 102 
 
 As compared with the Ethnic Creation-m3^hs — 
 
 1. It contains certain features in common . .104 
 
 2. But it is unique in its self-consistency, vividness, 
 
 and human interest , . . . .105 
 
 3. And in its supreme spiritual elevation . . 105 
 We are here taken into the " laboratory of Inspira- 
 tion ",...... 106 
 
 § V The Jehovist narrative contains a cycle of Fall- 
 myths 108 
 
 1. The Fall of Adam. " Self-will the root of sin " . 108 
 
 2. The Fall of Cain. ** Disobedience against God 
 
 breeds hatred among men ". . . . 109 
 
 3. The Fall of Lamech. "Civilisation is not in 
 
 itself a guarantee of progress" . . .110 
 
 4. The Fall of the Angels. "Destructive influence 
 
 of unnatural relationships " . . . .ill 
 
 5. The Fall and Dispersion at Babel. "The tragedy 
 
 of intellectual pride " . . . . -112 
 
 § VI. Summary and some reflections. These succes- 
 sive lapses are meant to teach us — 
 
 1. The persistence of Sin . . . , .113 
 
 2. Its resourcefulness . . . . .11^ 
 
 3. The silver edge of the cloud. "Redemption 
 
 draweth nigh " . . , , . .114 
 
Contents xvii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAP, m— The Biblical Doctrine of Sin - - n? 
 
 § I. The Bible starts with two assumptions . • 1 1 7 
 
 1. Man is partly within the order of Nature, and 
 
 partly above it . . . . . • 1 1 8 
 
 2. His present spiritual condition is not what it 
 
 was meant to be . . . . • Il8 
 
 § II. More particularly — 
 
 1. The Divine and human personalities stand in 
 
 a striking relation and contrast . . .119 
 
 2. The Divine Will expresses itself in direct com- 
 
 mands and prohibitions . . . '119 
 
 3. Temptation finds its origin without, but its oppor- 
 
 tunity zt'/Z/im . . . . . .120 
 
 4. Sin is not an " accident of spiritual growth," but 
 
 a stumble, a/«// ..... 120 
 
 5. Its penalties are complex . . . '121 
 
 § III. Later development of doctrine of Sin in Old 
 
 Testament 122 
 
 1. Scriptural terms for Sin . . . .122 
 
 2. Summary of meanings . . . . .124 
 
 3. What the Law of Moses effected in developing 
 
 the sense of Sin . . . • -125 
 
 § IV. Christ's teaching on the nature of Sin . .127 
 
 1. He emphasised the place of motive as the root 
 
 of Sin . . . . . . -128 
 
 2. There is a super-human order of evil beings . 129 
 
 3. Divine and human aspects of Sin . . -130 
 
 4. All sins are not equally sinful . . .130 
 
 5. Christ's sacrifice for Sin is the greatest revelation 
 
 of its sinfulness , . . . •131 
 
 § V. St. Paul's doctrine of Sin 132 
 
 § VI. Summary of Biblical teaching in its relation to 
 
 the Evolutionary Theory . . . .136 
 
 CHAP. IV.— Anthropology and the Fall . . .138 
 § I. Is the Biblical account of the Fall consistent with 
 
 the results of Anthropology ? . . .138 
 
 It is at least consistent with the inner testimony of 
 Cottsoience ...... 
 
 139' 
 
xviii Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 § II. But what of the objective facts brought to light 
 
 by the New Science of Man ? . . . . 140 
 
 We must be careful to understand the real position 
 
 of the Jehovist . ..... jai 
 
 This not fundamentally inconsistent with the theory 
 
 of "Ascent" ...... 142 
 
 § III. Does the theory of Evolution empty the idea of 
 
 " evil " of its distinctive contents ? No . . 143 
 
 The word "evil" is ambiguous, doing duty for 
 notions of — 
 
 1. Physical suffermg . . . • '144 
 
 2. Moral wrongdoing . . . . •14 c 
 
 3. Spiritual transgression or sin . . •148 
 
 § IV. Is not Man an evolving and not a degraded 
 
 creature? 149 
 
 Evolution does not necessarily involve development 
 
 as regards particular races . . . •151 
 
 There is degeneration in all the organic orders . 1^2 
 
 § V. As regards Man, he may be evolving in some 
 
 directions while in others he has degenerated . 156 
 
 § VI. Further illustrations in support of this position . 161 
 
 CHAP» V» — The Relation between Death and Sin • 169 
 
 § I. Both in the Old and New Testaments Death 
 seems to be considered to be the penalty of 
 Sin 169 
 
 § II. This at least is inconsistent with the teachings of 
 
 Biology as to the function of Death . .172 
 
 § III. Re-examinationofthe Biblical doctrine of Death. 
 
 Physical and spiritual aspects of fact . .174 
 § IV. Co-ordination of spiritual and biological functions 
 
 of Death 181 
 
 Briefly, they are not antagonistic, but complementary. 
 Physical Death lends itself in two ways as a means 
 of moral punishment — 
 
Contents 
 
 XIX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 1. The natural fact may be fitted to a raortil use . 182 
 
 2. It may have a " retro-active energy as a moral 
 
 force" . . . . . . -183 
 
 How Christ redeems His people from the "bondage 
 
 of Death" 184 
 
 CHAP* VI —The Natural History of Sin 
 
 § I. Importance of study of " degenerate types " 
 
 Application of this principle as regards spiritual 
 
 nature of Man . 
 The "beginnings of Sin " . 
 
 § II. Is Sin a "conflict" between the spiritual and 
 " animal " natures of Man ? No . 
 Exposition of Pauline use of term " flesh " 
 § III. Heredity and " Original Sin " 
 § IV. Biological analogies of Sin 
 
 1. Arrested development 
 
 2. Reversion to type 
 
 3. Mimicry . 
 
 4. Parasitism 
 
 5. Disease . • 
 
 6. Perversion 
 
 7. " Embryonic reversion 
 Use of these analogies 
 
 186 
 186 
 
 187 
 188 
 
 189 
 
 190 
 
 194 
 
 201 
 
 202 
 204 
 207 
 210 
 212 
 213 
 214 
 217 
 
 CHAP. VIL— How a Fallen Race may be Redeemed 
 Summary of results thus far . . 
 § I. Is there a Principle of Self-recovery in Man ? No. 
 
 1. Historical evidence . , . , . 
 
 2. Psychological and ethical evidence . 
 
 3. Renewal can only come by infusion of fresh life. 
 
 § II. If not, how may the Creator restore a Fallen 
 
 Race? 227 
 
 1. By a new creation ? Inadmissible . , , 227 
 
 2. By moral compulsion? A contradiction in terms 228 
 
 3. But both methods, within limits, may be used as 
 
 subsidiary to a higher method . , , 220 
 
 219 
 219 
 221 
 
 223 
 
 225 
 226 
 
XX Contents 
 
 PACK 
 
 4. This higher method includes — 
 
 (a) Revelation of the true life , , 232 
 
 (b) A process of Incarnation . , •2^'? 
 
 § III. Three results achieved by the Incarnation . 235 
 
 1. Sin was "condemned in the flesh " 
 
 2. Possibilities of human nature revealed 
 
 • 235 
 
 • 235 
 
 3, Willingness and power of God to redeem , , 236 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 Evolution and the Incarnation 
 
 CHAP* L— Some Modern Difficulties . .241 
 
 § I. Difficulties arising from human conceptions of 
 
 God 241 
 
 1. Supposed unknowableness of God . . . 242 
 
 2. Is self-limitation possible to an Infinite Being? . 243 
 
 3. Is the Incarnation consistent with character of 
 
 God as revealed in Creation ? . . . 246 
 
 § II. Difficulties arising from physical science. In- 
 carnation a geo-centric idea ? . . . .251 
 
 § III. Difficulties arising from the alleged Miraculous 
 
 Birth 254 
 
 1. Historical objections . , . . -255 
 
 2. Physiological objections • . . .261 
 
 Relation of the Virgin Birth to the doctrine of the In- 
 carnation — 
 
 1. Virgin Birth helpful to belief in pre-existence of 
 
 Christ ....... 263 
 
 2. Also to faith in the sinlessness of Jesus . . 265 
 
 3. Tallies with fact that a new departure in 
 
 history was made at the Incarnation . .266 
 
 4. Throws light on union of natures in Christ . 267 
 
 CHAP. XL — The Purpose of the Incarnation . .271 
 § I. Two views held : the Evolutionary, and the 
 
 Soteriological or Redemptive . . . ,271 
 
 These are not necessarily mutually exclusive. 
 
Contents xxi 
 
 PAGB 
 
 § II. The Redemptive Process involved in the In- 
 carnation 275 
 
 Whatever its ultimate, this was at least its imme- 
 diate purpose . . . . . '275 
 Necessitated by the very character of God . -276 
 
 § III. But Redemption does not sum up the complete 
 
 purpose of God in the Appearing of Christ . 278 
 
 Man not a complete being even when saved from 
 
 Sin. " Instinct " of development . . .278 
 
 And in New Testament the New Life is treated as 
 
 the subject of Evolution .... 279 
 
 To bring Man to perfection is thus the " final end " of 
 the Incarnation. 
 
 CHAP. Ill —The Mystery of the Cross . . .283 
 § I. The Atoning Process begins with the Incarnation 283 
 
 The Sacrifice ot the Keuosis precedes that of the 
 
 Cross ....... 284 
 
 And it is a Sacrifice which involves the whole 
 
 Godhead ....... 286 
 
 § II. The Atonement and Sin. Difficulty of forming 
 
 an adequate theory 288 
 
 Lights of Science on the mystery of Vicarious 
 Sacrifice — 
 
 1. The " Weak suffer for the benefit of the Strong." 
 
 Natural Selection ..... 200 
 
 2. The "Strong suffer for the Weak." Principle 
 
 of Parental Sacrifice ..... 292 
 
 3. The Good suffer for the Bad. Spiritual Sacrifice 204 
 
 § III. How the Revelation of a Suffering Saviour helps 
 
 to bring God and Man together . . . 296 
 
 Analysis of Consciousness of Sin. Involves sense of — 
 
 1. Guilt ....... 297 
 
 2. Alienation between God and the Soul . , 298 
 
 3. Inability to remedy the evil .... 29Q 
 
v^-' 
 
 xxii Contents 
 
 PACE 
 
 How the "Cross bridges the chasm " — 
 
 I. By throwing light on the character of God • 302 
 
 ' 2. By showing inherent greatness of Man . , 303 
 
 3. By offering of perfect Sacrifice for Sin • , 304 
 
 CHAR IV— The Ideal Man 307 
 
 § I. Jesus Christ must not be classed with great men 307 
 § II. He may be viewed as The Ideal Man • 309 
 
 § III. Can the claim be established ? . . . .312 
 
 It is at least the only claim that can be seriously 
 
 considered. Testimony of some great writers . 312 
 Christ's Humanity viewed under three paradoxes — 
 
 1. Universal yet Individual , . •314 
 
 2. Ideal yet Actual . . , , •316 
 
 3. Perfect yet Imitable . • • • "^17 
 "Whence this Unique Personality ? . . • ^18 
 
 § IV. Objection — Ought not this Ideal to be realised 
 at the end and not during the course of the 
 process of Evolution ? No . . . .319 
 Or at the beginning of it ? No .... '»20 
 
 § V. The "Embryonic" Christ in the Old Testament 322 
 
 § VI. How Christ being Divine may yet be a True 
 
 Human Example 325 
 
 The " Humiliation of Christ " as the Eternal Word 327 
 
 BOOK III 
 
 Evolution and the Resurrection 
 
 CHAP. L— The Risen Christ 337 
 
 § I. Christ's Ideal Life and Atoning Death not enough 
 to secure the Spiritual Evolution of humanity. 
 We need some means whereby these Objective 
 Facts may become Subjective Influences. This 
 attained by means of the Resurrection . -337 
 
Contents xxiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 § II. The Resurrection of Christ an objective fact, not 
 
 a mere subjective " influence "... 341 
 
 The " physical " resurrection and the " glorified " 
 
 body of Christ ...... 342 
 
 § III. This fact may, for our purpose, be viewed in 
 two aspects — 
 
 1. As the seal of the Divine satisfaction with the 
 
 Redeemer's work for the race . . . 344 
 
 2. As a type of the perfect Man in his glorified 
 
 condition ...... ^47 
 
 Advance implied in the " Resurrection State " . ^47 
 
 Evolutionary significance of this view of the Exalted 
 
 Christ ....... 249 
 
 § IV. The Resurrection and Personal Immortality 
 
 The present non-possumus attitude of scientific men on 
 
 this question . . . . . '351 
 
 Their negative attitude the result of — 
 
 1. Discovery of close concomitance of brain-processes 
 
 and mental activity . . . . '352 
 
 2. A false inference as to the causal nature of this 
 
 relation ....... ^53 
 
 3. The tightening of the vital link between the 
 
 physical man and the brute creation , . ^^4 
 
 Considerations on the other side — 
 
 1. The ethical grandeur of Man's nature . . 5C4 
 
 2. Its incompleteness. "The heir of hopes too fair 
 
 to turn out false " ..... "XKG 
 These considerations, however, merely furnish pre- 
 sumptive proofs of Immortality . . ' "^^1 
 The Resurrection of Christ will, for the Christian, 
 
 be the final anchor of faith . . . . ^"J? 
 
 CHAP, XL — The Resurrection a New Evolutionary 
 
 Departure 360 
 
 § I. The Ascension was not the last act in the Drama 
 
 of the Resurrection . . . 361 
 
 The secret of the quickening tha rox/o»ved is found 
 
 in the Descent of the Spirit . . . ^62 
 
 Henceforth the Incarnation entered on a wider 
 
 phase of activity ..... ^54 
 
xxiv Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 § II. The means whereby this was effected . . 365 
 
 1. Justification by Faith ..... 365 
 
 2. The Life of the Spirit 368 
 
 Manifested in three ways — 
 
 (a) In the perfecting of individual believers . 369 
 
 (b) In the spiritual, social organism of the 
 Church ...... 370 
 
 Marks of the true Church . . '370 
 
 (c) In the wider ministry of good in the world 37^ 
 Summary of argument on the Resurrection . '377 
 
 CHAP* IIL— The Man that Is To Be . . 379 
 
 We turn with expectancy to the vision of the Future 
 
 of Humanity in this world, and in the next . 379 
 
 § I. As regards the earthly evolution of the race, it 
 
 will be mental rather than physical . . . 380 
 
 As an animal organism Man has possibly passed 
 
 his climacteric . . . . . • 381 
 
 But mentally, he is a bundle of unrealised possi- 
 bilities ....... 384 
 
 § II. It will be social and morale rather than in- 
 dividualistic 388 
 
 Not that the individual is to be neglected in favour 
 
 of the community ..... 389 
 What Christianity has done for Man socially — 
 
 1. Development of the Family Ideal . . 393 
 
 2. Mitigation, and promised supersession, of 
 
 war 394 
 
 3. Revelation of virtue of chastity . . 30 r 
 
 4. New attitude towards the lapsed and lost . 30^ 
 
 § III. It will be pre-eminently religious and spiritual . 396 
 
 397 
 
 Christianity as the absolute religion is destined to 
 become universal ..... 
 
 § IV. But what of the vaticinations of science as 
 regards ultimate fate of the created universe ? 
 " Reversed cosmic evolution "... 400 
 
 The Christian believer need not be disquieted by 
 this vision ...... 
 
 404 
 
Contents xxv 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAR IV*-Behind the Veil 4o6 
 
 How far are we to reconsider the current solution of 
 
 the problem of Future Destiny ? . . . 406 
 
 § I. Does Death end Probation for all mankind ? . 406 
 
 Why this question is being reopened . . -407 
 
 § II. In what sense does the Bible teach the doctrine 
 
 that Death ends Probation ? .... 414 
 
 The conditions of adequate moral probation — 
 
 Some hold any moral probation, however imperfect, 
 
 adequate to give its final bent to character . 417 
 Others that not till Christ has been fully revealed 
 
 to the soul can it make the final choice . .418 
 
 Paucity of material in New Testament for solution of 
 
 this question ....... ^jg 
 
 The parable of Dives and Lazarus does not teach 
 
 the moral finality of death .... 420 
 What the Scriptures seem to imply on this question 42 1 
 But as to the question of Final Restoration of all 
 
 mankind the Bible teaching is not conclusive 423 
 Psychologically and morally, the probabilities are — 
 
 1. That death does not necessarily end all moral 
 
 probation. 
 
 2. That those who have finally and deliberately 
 
 chosen evil as their portion here, will continue 
 
 to choose it hereafter .... 
 
 With these qualifications, the eschatological horizon 
 
 is clearing ...... 
 
 423 
 425 
 
 § III. But what lies " Behind the Veil " ? Subjective 
 
 conditions of the Future Life . . 426 
 
 § IV. Objective conditions of the Future Life • , 433 
 
 CHAP^ V»— Some Final Problems . . .442 
 
 Evolution throws helpful light on three recurrent 
 
 difficulties in religious thought . . . 442 
 
 § I. Why the course of Revealed Truth has been so 
 
 limited and narrow, and slow . . . 443 
 
 c 
 
xxvi Contents 
 
 PACK 
 
 445 
 
 The old Calvinistic solution can no longer be 
 accepted . . . . . , 
 
 But this fact falls into line with all Evolutionary 
 
 processes ... ... 446 
 
 § II. What is the true relation of Christianity to the 
 
 great Ethnic Religions ? .... 448 
 
 These are not the result of fraud, but a genuine 
 
 outgrowth of spiritual life . . -448 
 
 God has never been far from mankind. But the 
 historical conditions for a complete revelation 
 have only been found once. Christianity the 
 " Survival of the Fittest among religions " . ^^g 
 
 Whether the ethnic faiths are disjecta membra of a 
 primitive revelation, or sporadic efforts after 
 God, they are a valuable preparation for 
 Christianity . . -451 
 
 § III. But what of Missionary effort? Is it "scien- 
 tifically " permissible to evangelise those ( i ) who 
 have historic faiths of their own, and (2) are 
 therefore unprepared for a faith so alien and 
 so high from their own, as Christianity must 
 be ? Three reasons in justification of the work 
 of the Missionary. Conclusion . . . 453 
 
Introduction: Man^s 
 Place in Evolution 
 
"A subtle chain of countless rings 
 The next unto the farthest brings; 
 The eye reads omens where it goes. 
 And speaks all languages the rose; 
 And striving to be man, the worm 
 Mounts through all the spires of form. * 
 
 Emerson. 
 
Man is neither tlu master nor the slave of 
 Nature ; he is its interpreter and living 
 word. Man consummates the universe, 
 and gives a voice to the mute creation^ 
 Ed. Quinet. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 MAN'S PLACE IN EVOLUTION 
 
 Chapter L — Some Modern Expansiqn^ , . 
 
 New Conceptions of the Universe as to Space, Time,* 'and Origin- 
 Subjective Influence of the New Ideas — Faith in the,' t.'hristi4n Po^Ki«n. 
 disturbed — Readjustment necessary — The Nemesis of 'Ipsi/ic^ritj,. • ; ' '. . .' 
 
 I 
 
 THE great intellectual movement of modern times 
 has resulted, among other issues, in three serious 
 modifications of Man's conception of the Universe, 
 and of himself 
 
 I. In the first place, it has vastly enlarged his con- 
 ception of Space. The Copernican Astronomy, the 
 invention of the telescope and spectroscope, and the 
 application of the higher mathematics to the problems 
 of the stars, have so enriched our outlook of the 
 physical heavens, that all Man's previous ideas of the 
 limits of the Universe have melted away, and he finds 
 himself positively unable to realise its vastness. It 
 would not be too much to say that the vision of the 
 starry heavens at which the psalmist gazed with such 
 rapture long ago — " thick inlaid with patins of bright 
 gold" — is to the immeasurable ranges of space that 
 have since been opened to our view but as an ante- 
 chamber to a palace. The stars he saw were only a 
 handful of diamonds in comparison with the untold 
 
 3 
 
4 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 worlds of light that flash on our startled eyes when our 
 vision is enlarged by the telescope. Not only has the 
 old conception of a solid sky studded with brilliants 
 given place to the vision of a liquid expanse absolutely 
 trackless and immeasurable, but the stars themselves 
 have unfolded their secret majesty, and instead of 
 proving to be tiny balls of light, have been resolved into 
 galaxies of ordered worlds, in the midst of which our 
 immense solar system is lost like a dewdrop on a land- 
 scape. Every step forward in astronomical science has 
 ipc^e.ase(J'this sense of amplitude, till the human imagina- 
 jtrc«i i ii' iqijite powerless to take it in. If we think we 
 ,hav<8. niastered the idea, it is only because we have 
 'practicablly- ceased to think of it. Beyond the utmost 
 reach of our imaginative grasp this vista of the physical 
 universe stretches out on all hands ; and when we have 
 allowed our minds to fly out along the pathways of light 
 opened to our inspection every starry night till we can 
 do no more, we are oppressed by the thought that 
 even then we have scarcely begun to realise the scope of 
 the stupendous vision. This enlargement of the old 
 parochial astronomy into the splendid outlook of the 
 present day, while it is really a triumph of human 
 intellect, has had a serious effect on religious thought, 
 and, by emphasising the limitations of our earthly 
 habitation, has brought home to the human soul a 
 crushing sense of its insignificance and mortality. 
 
 2. The second great discovery that has modified our 
 conception of the Universe is its no less significant 
 expansion in point of duration. A century ago the 
 lines of research, historical and geological, converged 
 to a point just six thousand years distant, and there 
 terminated. "In the beginning God created the heaven 
 and the earth," "and all the host of them," and that 
 beginning was so recent as to be spanned by the lives 
 
Chap. I Some Modem Expansions 5 
 
 of some two hundred generations of men. Through 
 the necessities of a crudely literal theory of inspiration, 
 it had been taken for granted that the Bible not only 
 sanctioned but enforced such an inference. And so 
 when Science began to study the rocks as intelligently 
 as the stars, and by slow and convincing degrees proved 
 that this calculation was ludicrously inadequate to the 
 conditions of the case, another rude shock was given to 
 the faith of multitudes, extremists being divided into 
 two irreconcilable camps, the one bent on the defence 
 of Scripture as an authentic record of thej ge;nesi9, of 
 things, the other equally bent on asserting the' n^cksh^ 
 free inquiry, and the competency of scientific ^es<tcit<^)i' \ 
 
 alone to deal with such problems. ''' ' * ' '*' 
 
 3. During the last half-century another crucial 
 departure has been made by scientific thought, no less 
 revolutionary as regards old-fashioned notions of the 
 Universe. This revolution is in a manner a co-ordina- 
 tion of the other two, and was quite impossible till these 
 had been accomplished. Given unlimited space and 
 boundless time, a free platform was provided for a third 
 inquiry. After where, and when, comes how. And 
 thus, by slow degrees, with infinite pains and labours 
 abundant on the part of a host of earnest and fearless 
 thinkers, this huge and apparently confused round of 
 things has been arranged in some kind of perspective. 
 The vast courses of time, and the trackless fields of 
 space, are no longer lost in a confused sense of mere 
 magnitude and duration, in which there is no clear 
 vision, no notion of far or near, no intelligible impres- 
 sion of order and sequence. Just as the vision of 
 the starry heavens as a solid concave — in which sun 
 and moon and planets, and the host of fixed stars, were 
 (like the figures in a Chinese picture) all equally distant 
 — has given place to a splendid perspective in space, so 
 
6 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 the vision of the countless centuries of time has now 
 been peopled with a splendid perspective of life. Some 
 idea is given why time has been so long, as well as why- 
 space is so vast. The latter only extends the range of 
 the ordered Universe, for nowhere is there a hint within 
 the farthest limits of telescopic vision of any region 
 " where the sentinels of order do not stand," and the 
 spectrum reveals the same chemistry at work in the 
 uttermost stars as on the earth on which we live. In 
 the same manner time only gives the eternal Spirit an 
 ;'- a'pi^plcT; opportunity in which to perfect His creative 
 processed,'* -and to lead His ever-developing creatures 
 i/i "II 'dioxyit "lh6 ringing grooves of change" to a fairer goal 
 at lastV "Nothing has ever opened to the mind of Man 
 a more moving vision of the resources of the Eternal 
 from whom all things and beings proceed, than this 
 that has been revealed by the Evolutionary Theory. It 
 brings Him before us no longer as resting in inglorious 
 ease from the work of creation, but as ever drawing 
 upon infinite stores of wisdom and power in the develop- 
 ment of the possibilities of life as they climb up the 
 hierarchies of existence. Setting aside the fact that 
 some of the foremost advocates of the case for Evolution 
 have based their scientific exposition on a philosophical 
 theory of the unknowableness of God which is by no 
 means essential to the validity of their scientific con- 
 clusions, we may safely say that nothing has so enriched 
 our conception of the methods of God as this widening 
 outlook on His creative methods, when viewed from a 
 theistic standpoint. It brings us face to face for the 
 first time in the history of thought with what has been 
 aptly called the "dramatic complexity of Nature,"^ 
 and transforms what formerly could only be viewed 
 as a vast agglomeration of more or less unrelated 
 ^ Sec Patrick Geddes' "Chapters in Modern Botany,'' p. 140. 
 
Chap. 1 Some Modern Expansions 1 
 
 "specimens," to be analysed in isolation, or at best 
 grouped according to external principles, into a 
 wonderful series of correlated facts that have infinite 
 cross-relations as well, so that " what seemed a unit 
 becomes a link, and what seemed a chain is but a thread 
 in the labyrinthine web of Nature." Out of the 
 impressive background of this physical drama there 
 has of late years been emerging a still grander vision. 
 Slowly the old idea has been recovered that there are 
 influences at work higher than the dead forces of 
 Nature ; that the enormous activity of Nature has an 
 ultimate purpose ; that the climax of thei .dcHm;^ is 
 moral and spiritual ; and that what had- seemed to be 
 but a confused clash of incident and adv^n,t\ir^^ i^ reiilly» 
 a great cosmic preparation for the emergence and 
 perfecting of character as the goal and consummation 
 of all; things. 
 
 4. Great as has been the revolution brought about 
 by these successive expansions of thought in Man's 
 outlook on the Universe, their subjective reaction on 
 himself has been scarcely less revolutionary. Just as 
 men whose income has been suddenly and rapidly 
 increased find their wants increasing in corresponding 
 ratio, till what they have been accustomed to consider 
 wealth takes on the aspect of comparative poverty, so 
 the sudden enrichment of the intellectual world has 
 created a restless discontent with the narrow con- 
 ceptions of a century ago. Corresponding with these 
 illimitable ranges of space, these majestic aeons of time, 
 these splendid orders and processions of life, old- 
 established ideas of the Universe have shrunk to 
 parochial proportions, and the human mind demands 
 a system of thought that shall be cosmic in its sweep. 
 Whether the facts dealt with be physical, or ethical, 
 or spiritual, there is a passionate cry for generalisations 
 
8 The Ascent through Christ Introd 
 
 that shall more truly represent the amplitude and 
 momentum with which they crowd on the imagination. 
 The old moulds of thought are too cramped for the 
 fresh ideas ; the new wine demands new bottles. The 
 peril indeed is that the intellect should be touched 
 by that " vaulting ambition that o'erleaps itself," and 
 succumb to the temptation to frame hasty categories 
 which succeed in satisfying the intellect for the time only 
 by ignoring essential facts, especially the facts which 
 belong to the spiritual order. How true this is may 
 be seen in the speedy manner in which certain portions 
 of Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy are being superseded. 
 ^, The very wealth of ideas which has burst upon us calls 
 J* for a re-ve.'ent care in their assimilation, ere we can hope 
 for an adequate treatment in their explanation. Excess 
 of light becomes darkness till the vision has adapted 
 itself to its radiance ; and in the morning-glow of the 
 new Aufkldrung it is well to shade our eyes, that we 
 may see the true perspective of this vaster Cosmos that 
 has so rapidly burst on our view. There never was a 
 time indeed in the history of thought when there was 
 more need for a sane and balanced judgment, and a 
 calm and cautious temper. 
 
 II 
 
 It cannot, however, be denied that, with a sure prospect 
 of ultimate gain to human thought all along the line, 
 the theory of Evolution, as well as the two other 
 expansions of thought that have been touched upon, 
 have had a tendency to disturb the balance of men's 
 religious ideas in several directions. Postponing one 
 or two of these for subsequent treatment, it would be 
 well to deal here with the bearings of that theory on 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Expansions 9 
 
 Man's conception of himself as based on the Christian 
 Revelation. 
 
 The close interdependence of Anthropological and 
 Theological questions has been often pointed out. The 
 old crude idea that religion and scientific thought have 
 no point of contact, and therefore no line of possible 
 conflict, breaks down utterly when the science in question 
 is that which deals with Man's conception of himself. 
 For what he thinks of himself will in the end control 
 and condition his thoughts of everything in heaven 
 as well as on earth. " A meagre anthropology has for 
 its counterpart a meagre theology."^ If we conceive 
 of ourselves as the mere outcome of mechanical forces, 
 if we give up the immemorial faith that there is in us 
 a spark of Divine supernatural life, if we make up our 
 minds that the elements of human personality are merely 
 joined loosely together in a nexus that death must 
 inevitably dissolve, it will sound the death-knell of 
 belief in a Higher Being, and emasculate our religion 
 of all objective meaning. Thought cannot rise higher 
 than its source, and if our thought of ourselves is 
 essentially mundane, the wings of our faith will never 
 rise into the spacious realm of the Absolute, nor can 
 it find its resting-place in God. It is therefore not too 
 much to say that the whole future of theology depends 
 on the adequacy of our anthropology. Our doctrine of 
 Man will in the last resort mould our doctrine of God, 
 and settle for us whether the Universe is to be for us 
 a soulless cavern, or a temple in which we commune 
 with our Father who is in heaven. 
 
 Now there is one direction in which Evolutionary 
 
 Science seems to have perilously shaken the older 
 
 anthropology, and with it some pivotal ideas in religion. 
 
 It seems for the time to have dethroned Man as a being 
 
 * Principal TuUoch on " The Christian Doctrine of Sin," pp. 2, 3. 
 
lo The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 distinct from, and essentially higher in nature than, the 
 brute creation around him. It seems to have shattered 
 once and for all the validity of the Biblical story of his 
 creation, his primal innocence, his Fall into a state of 
 sin. In so doing the meaning of sin and depravity 
 has been imperilled, by making them mere incidents in 
 an upward march, instead of a lapse into an unnatural 
 and deplorable condition of evil, out of which Man 
 is powerless to rise without an accession of strength 
 and redeeming grace from on high. It seems to have 
 disturbed our faith in the story of Redemption unfolded 
 with such slow and painful detail in the Old Testament, 
 which blossoms into such matchless beauty in the New, 
 by rendering the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resur- 
 rection of Jesus Christ unintelligible and meaningless, 
 because they involve a perplexing break in the order 
 of life and history. It is with these aspects of 
 Evolutionary Thought that we propose to deal in the 
 present work. It appeals specially to those whose faith 
 is disturbed in what may be called the focal doctrines 
 of the Christian Faith, but who are still anxious above 
 all things to regain that faith, if it be possible to do so 
 without sacrificing the integrity of their thought. That 
 this disturbance is a real and widespread fact even 
 among devout and earnest minds is unquestionable, 
 and its effects have penetrated far beyond the limits of 
 the educated and thinking classes — ^just as the ground- 
 swell on the ocean affects regions widely removed from 
 the storm-centre. To restore spiritual confidence by 
 readjusting the old faith to the new materials of know- 
 ledge, and to show that the present unrest "signifieth 
 the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things 
 that have been made, that those things which are not 
 shaken may remain," ^ is a process imperatively called 
 * Heb. xii. 27. 
 
Chap. 1 Some Modern Expansions 1 1 
 
 for by the exigencies of the situation. To this task 
 we desire humbly to devote ourselves, being deeply 
 persuaded that by facing it courageously and carrying 
 it through to the end, it is possible to arrive once more 
 at a real harmony between faith and reason, 
 
 " That mind and soul, according well, 
 May make one music as before, 
 But vaster." 
 
 Ill 
 
 There is one other preliminary thought we would 
 touch upon before facing the actual problem before us. 
 The process of readjustment in which we shall be 
 engaged is looked at askance by two classes of people. 
 There are those on the one side who have parted 
 finally with the traditional faith of Christendom, who 
 consider readjustment meaningless, since to their view 
 it involves an alternative between a thoroughly dis- 
 credited superstition on the one side and an irrefutable 
 and unbending dictum of non possumus on the other. 
 For them this book will have little interest ; and it may 
 as well be frankly stated at the beginning that it is not 
 meant for them, since it deals with the problem from 
 a standpoint which they are bound to question. On 
 the other side there are those who hold it to be a kind 
 of treason to a faith which they hold with unquestioning 
 confidence to attempt to readjust it to the mere opinions 
 of scientists who change their theories every year, and 
 whose present views of Evolution may be refuted out 
 of their own mouths to-morrow. The writer can ask 
 nothing better from these than that they too should 
 " pass by on the other side," for these chapters are not 
 for them. He can only say that in his opinion there is 
 ample room for the acceptance of the broad doctrine of 
 
12 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 Evolution without in any way pledging ourselves to 
 questionable results in matters of detail. It is clear to 
 all who have gone deeply into the matter that the theory 
 in its essentials has come to stay, though it will in the 
 necessities of the case be subject to constant correction 
 in regard to its subordinate aspects ; equally clear is it 
 that so all-embracing a generalisation must inevitably 
 in the end affect every department of thought. As 
 this belief is now shared implicitly if not openly 
 by thousands of earnest and devoutly religious minds, 
 who are deeply affected by the confident assertions of 
 unbelieving evolutionists that Christianity has become 
 an impossible creed, and who at the same time are 
 fervently persuaded that that creed is in its fundamental 
 doctrines true, it is in their interests to examine these 
 doctrines in the light of the categories of the Evolu- 
 tionary Philosophy. To deny the right of these 
 thousands to the help they need, by bringing together 
 the discordant elements of a faith that is in jeopardy, 
 is to take up a position inconsistent with charity and 
 Christian brotherhood, and to put a stumbling-block in 
 the way of many an earnest seeker for the truth as it 
 is in Jesus. 
 
 For the passion for the unification of knowledge, and 
 the harmonising of truth with itself in all its depart- 
 ments, is not confined to the scientific thinker. It is 
 an attribute of every man and woman of serious mind. 
 We are compelled to have some working theory of 
 the Universe, in accordance with which we carry on 
 our mental processes, and refer the facts of experience 
 to their supposed laws. Even when for any reason we 
 decline to enter into the ultimate problems of mind 
 and thought, and to carry them so far as we can to 
 their solution, we unconsciously act on the basis of 
 some implicit theory of the nature of Man, the World, 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Expansions 13 
 
 and God. Those who decline to reopen the great 
 questions that meet them on all hands, and profess to 
 leave their solution to such as have time and skill to 
 deal with them, are not exempt from this necessity. 
 For this attitude generally means that they prefer not 
 to exchange an old point of view for a new one, or 
 to enter upon an inquiry for which they feel no special 
 competence, and which may lead to results fatal to their 
 peace of mind. When this is done without any con- 
 scious sense of dislocation between theory and fact, no 
 great harm ensues ; so long as the moral sense is not 
 pained by a feeling of unreality and inward schism, 
 imperfect theories serve the practical needs of the spiritual 
 life with tolerable efficiency ; the mind may be cramped 
 by having to live in a hut instead of a palace, but the 
 soul can still make its escape to some quiet place 
 where it may breathe its native air and worship under 
 its own ample sky. 
 
 But when once the intellect is aware of a dividing- 
 line between its affirmations and the faith on which the 
 heart stays and feeds itself, it is at the peril of the soul 
 that the call to deal truthfully with the problems that 
 arise is stifled or neglected.^ Unreality in matters intel- 
 lectual speedily brings spiritual impotence in its train ; 
 the Nemesis of insincerity is a " creeping paralysis " of 
 doubt. It is in vain that we endeavour to retain a 
 
 * The following passage from Theodore Munger's "Appeal to 
 Life " puts this point in an effective manner : — 
 
 " There is a great deal of incipient infidelity that might be cured 
 if it were properly dealt with. The limitations that make Theology 
 an isolated science, and the common assertion that religion and 
 science have nothing to do with each other, are the actual sources 
 of this infidelity. We know ourselves too well to assent to the 
 claim that we are compartment-beings, thought-tight, and can shut 
 religion up in one part, and philosophy in another, and science in 
 still another. When a truth enters into man it has the range of 
 his whole nature, and makes its appeal to every faculty ; if shut 
 within the heart it will mount to the brain, or if held there it will 
 
14 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 religious faith that is in felt discord with the facts of 
 life. Faith and reason may in a sense occupy different 
 spheres, but they intermingle in practical experience in 
 the most intricate way ; nor can they long exist out of 
 relation to each other. Therefore there arises periodic 
 need for such an attempt as is made in this book. 
 
 steal down to the heart. Man is the completest unit in nature. 
 The divisions set up between mind and will and sensibility are 
 like the great circles which astronomy puts in the heavens — 
 imaginary, and for convenience only ; if insisted on as real, they 
 might check the planets in their orbits" (pp. 285, 286). 
 
INTRODUCTION : MAN'S 
 PLACE IN EVOLUTION 
 
 ' It does not seem unwarranted or pre- 
 sumptuous to say, that as in Man the 
 immanent intelligence transcends un- 
 speakably the organism, so in Nature 
 itself, the Immanent Intelligence, ever 
 looking out upon us, giving us deeper 
 insight into the meaning of the past 
 ages, is also Transcendent, ever leading 
 rational creatures into enlarged expecta- 
 tions." 
 
 Calderwood. 
 
 Chapter IL— What is Evolution? 
 
 Old and New Ideas of Evolution — Le Conte's Definition — " Resident 
 Forces"— The Continuity of Natural Law— Three " Breaks "—Where 
 Christian Evolutionism and Materialistic Science part company — Factors 
 of Evolution. 
 
 BACON tells us that Truth is more readily derived 
 from error than from confusion. If so, there is 
 no greater hindrance to the attainment of truth than 
 the confusion that arises from a loose use of terms ; 
 and the first duty of those who would attain clear ideas 
 is to define their terms carefully in starting, and then 
 endeavour to be consistent in their use of them. 
 
 There are few terms so frequently on the lips of 
 thoughtful men nowadays as this of Evolution, And 
 yet it is by no means easy to define it ; it is often 
 loosely and inaccurately applied ; and it bears so many 
 significations in the mouths of different schools of 
 thinkers, that it is hard to reduce it to its "lowest 
 common denominator," This is partly because, in its 
 scientific use, it is an old term adapted to new service, 
 and, as often happens with such words, the old con- 
 notations often creep unawares into the new applications, 
 to the great detriment and confusion of thought. 
 
 In its more general signification Evolution is by no 
 
 15 
 
1 6 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 means a modern term. It is as old as philosophy 
 itself, or at least as the early Greek physicists, such 
 as Thales, Anaximenes, and (more definitely) Heraclitus, 
 who distinctly taught the reality and progressiveness 
 of motion, change, and generation. In one form or 
 another the idea of Evolution has emerged in almost 
 all the philosophical systems of subsequent ages. The 
 great difference between the ancient and the modern 
 theory is one of distinctness and method rather than 
 of essence. In the ancient systems of thought the 
 idea of Evolution was but crudely presented, without 
 any adequate sense of its nature and limitations ; the 
 method was purely a priori \ old-world philosophers 
 argued mainly from principles to facts. The modern 
 view, on the other hand, is based upon a clearer notion 
 of the limits within which the conception must be 
 restrained, and it has the incalculable advantage of 
 being led to its conclusions along inductive lines of 
 proof, Le. it is a posteriori in its argument, and proceeds 
 from facts to principles. Further, the great advances 
 made in all the sciences, contributing as they have 
 done on all hands to the general theory of Evolution, — 
 which embraces them all, — has enabled its advocates to 
 collect an immense amount of evidence of its truth, 
 drawn from widely severed fields of research, and 
 pressing with irresistible force towards one great 
 conclusion.^ 
 
 1 
 
 What then are we to understand by Evolution ? 
 
 Prof Le Conte, in his suggestive work on " Evolution 
 
 * For a clear and masterly account of the theory of Evolution 
 from a historical point of view, see Huxley's article in the Encyclo- 
 paedia Britannica, 9th Ed., s.v. 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution? 17 
 
 and Religious Thought," defines it as involving three 
 root-principles.^ 
 
 I. " It is a continuous progressive change." 
 This kind of change is described by Spencer as a 
 movement from the simple to the complex, from the 
 homogeneous to the heterogeneous. The underlying 
 idea is that the Universe, as we know it, is the result 
 of a becoming, the higher and more complex forms of 
 life following on and emerging out of the lower and 
 more simple forms. So far, it is opposed to that idea 
 of the Universe which regards it as having always been 
 in its present condition from the beginning, or as the 
 theatre of changes which have no particular and 
 ascertainable relations to one another, or as teaching 
 that the various types of living creatures have existed 
 as they are at present from the time when God rested 
 from His work and " saw that it was very good." It 
 is also opposed to such an idea of it as would permit 
 of spasmodic interferences with the genetic order of 
 life, a superimposing on the races already existing other 
 and higher races by sudden creative fiat. In other 
 words, it precludes all notion of wirelated breaks and 
 leaps in the ascending series of life, affirming that 
 each new member in the series (speaking of species as 
 well as individuals) is derived genetically from that 
 immediately preceding it in the organic scale. 
 
 But even at the threshold of this definition we are 
 met by the fact that serious doubt is beginning to be 
 felt as to how far the word " continuous " may fairly 
 be applied to the steps along which organic Evolution 
 moves. It has, for instance, been taken for granted, 
 without any adequate proof, that Variation (of which 
 more presently) is indefinite, fortuitous, and "con- 
 
 * " Evolution in Relation to Religious Thought," 2nd Ed. (Chapman 
 & Hall), p. 8. 
 
 2 
 
1 8 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 tinuous " in the strictest sense ; that species have arisen 
 by steps so gradual as to be insensible ; and that no 
 teleological factor is to be recognised among the verae 
 causae of Evolution. No real proof of these positions 
 has been attempted by Darwin or his successors ; 
 they have been taken for granted, a priori. Darwin 
 allowed no room for the study of the origin of variations. 
 As a methodological device this was quite justifiable ; 
 every inquiry must begin somewhere, and Darwin 
 chose to begin here. But a prior question is equally 
 justifiable : are these assumptions true ? A school of 
 thinkers is now rising who not only doubt them, but 
 meet one or all with a flat denial. Variation is not 
 indefinite : it is at least hedged in by certain limita- 
 tions — e.g. the nature of the substances that go to 
 make up organic forms, the exterior laws of Nature 
 such as gravitation, high and low temperatures, food 
 supply, etc. ; all of which go to determine " both what 
 sort of variations can occur, and in what directions 
 organisms can vary."^ Now if Variation is not in- 
 definite, it logically follows that it is not fortuitous, 
 neither is it necessarily in the strict sense " continuous." 
 And if Variation is not " continuous," this is a fact 
 of immense significance in the study of Evolution, 
 disposing as it does of the supposed necessity of finding 
 missing links. 
 
 2. " Evolution is a continuous progressive change 
 according to certain laws" of which the chief are the 
 following : — 
 
 {a) The law of Heredity, according to which off- 
 spring tends to reproduce the essential characters, 
 
 1 Prof. F. C. S. Schiller on " Darwinism and Design " in Con- 
 tempormy Review for June 1897, p. 872. The whole article is 
 very suggestive and damaging to the assumptions of the purely 
 mechanical school of Evolution. 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution? 19 
 
 generic and specific, of its parents. This tendency is 
 somewhat analogous to the first law of motion, accord- 
 ing to which a body, once started in any direction, 
 continues to move in that direction until retarded by 
 outside forces. The vital energy stored up in the 
 reproductive cells of living creatures tends to repeat 
 their type from one generation to another. Our Lord 
 gives the popular statement of this law in the words, 
 " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? " 
 Like produces like. Were this not so there would 
 be no order in the organic world; to all intents and 
 purposes it would be a world of chance, of monstrosities, 
 of hopeless and irredeemable confusion. As things are, 
 we know that the offspring of all living creatures will, 
 broadly speaking, resemble those from whom they have 
 descended, and we may safely build our conclusions 
 on this basis. The question of how this law works 
 is not by any means so certain as the fact of its 
 universal operation. There is no point on which 
 scientists are so divided at the present moment as 
 the laws of heredity ; but they are all clear on the 
 question of fact. 
 
 (J?) The law of Differentiation or Spontaneity, This 
 means that allied types as well as individuals tend, 
 to some extent, to differ among themselves, while 
 adhering in essential features to their distinctive genera 
 and species. Thus while the offspring of the same 
 parents are always sufficiently alike to be easily recog- 
 nised as belonging to the same race, and generally tc 
 the same family, a more careful examination will prove 
 that each individual possesses minute differences whereby 
 it may be distinguished from all others. This intro- 
 duces an important element of change into the vital 
 series, for it is found that this law of spontaneity is 
 curiously interwoven in its effects (though in a more or 
 
16 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 less unstable manner) with the law of heredity. In 
 the vast majority of cases any outstanding individual 
 peculiarity is swamped by the more powerful action 
 of heredity, and so dies out with the individual in 
 which it is first manifested. Occasionally, however, the 
 tendency to vary repeats itself in the offspring, and 
 henceforth takes its place along with the accumulated 
 forces of heredity to form a more or less important new 
 departure. Thus, if the first-mentioned law is the 
 guarantee of order in the organic world, the second is 
 the guarantee of progress ; for without it we should be 
 in a world in which each generation was a monotonous 
 replica of those that preceded it, and the opening drama 
 of life would lead to no climax. As things are, we are 
 in a Universe in which there is not only constant 
 change, but perpetual growth and development. The 
 question whether, by the persistence of striking 
 individual differences, or the slow accumulation of such 
 as are minor and unimportant continued through 
 successive generations, the line separating distinct 
 species is ever crossed, so bringing the orders of life 
 into a genetic series, is that on which the new school 
 of biologists, who affirm the mutability of species, parts 
 from the old, who affirmed that species were all 
 immutable. There are few if any reputable students 
 of organic life who do not now hold firmly to the new 
 view ; and it has been confidently affirmed that it is 
 as hopeless to expect the older view to be reinstated, 
 as to look for the substitution of the Ptolemaic for the 
 Copernican Astronomy. 
 
 (r) This brings us to the next law of Evolution. 
 Through the accumulation and persistence from one 
 generation to another of individual and specific 
 variations which tend to the perfecting of the forms 
 of life, so that they are in ampler and more delicate 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution? 21 
 
 harmony with their environment, a general law of 
 progress comes into sight. It is called the law of 
 progress of the whole, because it is not found that all 
 the differences that appear in the individual tend 
 necessarily to progress. Some do, and some do not. 
 Certain of those that do tend in this direction are 
 reproduced and preserved, so that in the long run a 
 general development takes place in the broad march ot 
 life down the generations. Taking the illustration of 
 a tree, Le Conte says : " It branches and rebranches 
 continually by the law of differentiation — some branches 
 going upward to a higher plane (progress) ; some 
 pushing horizontally, neither rising nor falling, but only 
 going farther away from the generalised origin (special- 
 isation) ; some going downward (degeneration), any- 
 where, everywhere, for an unoccupied place in the 
 economy of Nature ; but the whole tree grows ever 
 higher in its higher parts, grander in its proportions, 
 and more complexly diversified in its structure." ^ 
 
 3. "Evolution is a continuous progressive change, 
 according to certain laws, by means of resident forces" 
 
 It is here that we must show the greatest care in 
 endeavouring to avoid confusion of thought, and con- 
 sequent fallacies in our reasoning ; for there are many 
 thinkers, who have no manner of objection to the theory 
 of Evolution so far as this exposition has gone, who 
 rightly start off here into an attitude of uncompromis- 
 ing hostility. If, indeed, the phrase " resident forces " 
 means what it is sometimes made to mean, we are left 
 in the grip of an arid Materialism for our creed and 
 consigned to a godless Universe for our home. 
 
 These "resident forces" include not only the vital 
 energies within the organism, but also the cherishing 
 energies of the environment without it. Not even an 
 > "Evolution and Religious Thpught," p. 14. 
 
22 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 egg, whose development is supposed to be perfectly 
 typical of the process of Evolution in the Universe/ 
 quickens without the stimulus of heat from outside itself 
 It is clear, therefore, that all turns on the conception 
 we form of the term " resident forces." Are they to 
 be regarded as purely mechanical ? If so, we decline 
 to believe that they can be sufficient for the production 
 of conscious and intelligent beings like ourselves ; other- 
 wise, Man is a greater mystery to himself than ever he 
 was in days of old. 
 
 If, however, the term be enlarged so as to include 
 the idea of God, without identifying Him with the 
 physical order in and through which Evolution takes 
 place, then no religious believer can object to the term 
 " Evolution by means of resident forces " ; if, on the 
 other hand, God is identified with and limited by Nature, 
 and the spiritual is viewed as conditioned by the 
 physical, we are driven to a theory that is destructive 
 of true Theism, and indeed of all Religion worthy of 
 the name. And that some of the foremost advocates 
 of Evolution do hold and teach such a doctrine, or one 
 that is indistinguishable from it in its practical results, 
 is undeniable. Mr. Herbert Spencer, it is true, is most 
 emphatic in positing a Primal Mystery which lies behind 
 phenomena, but as he teaches us that we do not come 
 into intelligible relations with this Unknowable Some- 
 thing except through the objective phenomena of the 
 Universe, the practical distinction between this theory 
 and Pantheism is not easy to realise. Such a doctrine 
 in effect denies the elements that make Religion a reality 
 and a solace, without giving anything in return for 
 what it takes away. The religious thinker affirms the 
 possibility of correspondence between Man and his 
 Maker; Mr. Spencer denies this, and says that such 
 ? " Evolution and Religious Thought," p, i, 
 
Chap. 11 What is Evolution ? 23 
 
 a notion is a pure illusion, derived from primeval dreams 
 and a savage belief in ghosts. The religious thinker 
 finds it necessary to posit the existence of an Eternal 
 Reason and Will in order to be able to understand the 
 facts of the visible Universe ; Mr. Spencer, in effect if not 
 in so many terms, tells us bluntly, and without any 
 qualification, " Give me matter and a little motion, and 
 I will construct the Universe for you " — i.e. through the 
 action of unreasoning forces. The religious thinker, 
 believing in the existence of a foreordaining Mind as 
 well as an omnipotent Power, finds no contradiction 
 in the ideas of Special Revelation, Incarnation, and 
 Miracles ; Mr. Spencer considers these " unthinkable," 
 and is bound by the exigencies of his theory to account 
 for all alleged miracles on " naturalistic " grounds. And 
 so we might go on to show how on this one point the 
 whole controversy between the religious and non-religious 
 Evolutionist turns. 
 
 In fact the term " resident forces " must be understood 
 as including, or at least as compatible with the exist- 
 ence of a Higher Power, which is in intimate relation 
 with the Universe, but in no sense of the word identical 
 with the totality of physical and mental phenomena. 
 As a writer in the Spectator (for June 19, 1886, p. 820) 
 aptly put it : " It is well to recognise this fundamental 
 difference, — the Old Faith can live with anything which 
 does not identify God with the World. It can afford 
 to look with kindly interest on all attempts to make 
 the growth of things more intelligible. It is not con- 
 cerned how much time is taken in the process, nor how 
 slowly the changes may have been effected. But it 
 cannot live with anything which will not permit us to 
 hold that the Creator has a life apart from the creation, 
 that cannot allow that He may enter into new relations 
 with His creatures, and th^t Hq can be known by 
 
H The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 them. ... It can live with Evolution, but not with the 
 Evolution of Mr. Spencer, nor is it necessary that it 
 should." 
 
 It is some relief to find that Evolutionists almost 
 equally distinguished with Mr. Spencer, and as far 
 removed from a " blind " attachment to the traditional 
 faith, freely concede that Evolution does not touch the 
 question of Theism, which, as they rightly affirm, lies 
 beyond the province of the strict scientist. Mr. Huxley 
 in the E^icyclopaedia Britannica says : " Evolution has no 
 more to do with Theism than the first book of Euclid 
 has. . . . The evolution of a chicken from a micro- 
 scopic cellular germ undoubtedly goes on every day. 
 Therefore, to borrow an argument from Butler, this 
 must be consistent with the attributes of Deity, if 
 such a Being exists ; and, if so, the evolution of the 
 Universe, which is neither more nor less explicable than 
 that of the chicken, must also be consistent with those 
 attributes."^ All that the Evolutionist desires and 
 must have conceded to him is the fact that " the forces 
 or causes of Evolution are natural \ that they reside in 
 the thing developing and in the reacting environment " ; 
 and as to the word " resident," all he means is that 
 "these forces are resident in the same sense as all 
 natural forces are resident."^ 
 
 The " Continuity of Nature " is another ambiguous 
 term the meaning of which it is needful to safeguard. 
 By some writers it is taken to imply not only an un- 
 broken sequence in the physical and mental worlds, but 
 that the physical contains within itself all the ante- 
 cedents of the mental, which is a very different thing. 
 On the other hand, some of the most thoroughgoing 
 Evolutionists, such as Alfred Russel Wallace, distinctly 
 
 ^ Article "Evolution." 
 
 » Le Conte, " Evolution and Jleli^ous Thought," p. 25, 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution > 25 
 
 repudiate this latter notion, and affirm that, e.g-.y 
 " because Man's physical structure has been developed 
 from an animal form, it does not necessarily follow that 
 his mental nature, even though developed pari passu 
 with it, has been developed by the same causes only." 
 That is to say, it is compatible with the Evolutionist 
 Theory to believe that alongside with an unbroken 
 chain of physical causes there may be at times an influx 
 of other causes of another kind, which enter into and 
 thenceforth combine with the physical for the pro- 
 duction of complex results for which physical forces 
 alone would not be sufficient. These higher causes, 
 of course, must come from the environment, in which 
 they have been so far quiescent, or acting in an inde- 
 pendent and distinct series, and in a manner possibly 
 beyond our observation. The moment comes when, 
 like two streams joining to form one larger current, 
 a physical and a mental series are united in a most 
 subtle and inexplicable way. In such a case it is only 
 a superficial observer who would affirm, either that the 
 resultant current is causally to be deduced from one 
 of the series, especially the higher from the lower, 
 or that there has been a breach of continuity in the 
 process before and after the union took place. As a 
 matter of fact, there would be no lack whatever of 
 continuity, but only an intermingling of causes and 
 effects on one and the same plane which previously 
 had been moving on different planes. Each series 
 would still follow out its own destiny, though henceforth 
 it would also act and be reacted upon by the other, 
 the moment of union being a point of departure for a 
 process in which the several factors co-ordinate in the 
 production of a third line of development. In this 
 each factor would have its own share of work to do, 
 * " Pajrwinism," p. 463. 
 
26 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 but it would not be alone sufficient to account for the 
 entire result. The sum of consequents in any causal 
 series can be accounted for only when the sum of their 
 antecedents has been enumerated ; and these ante- 
 cedents can only be understood in the light of their 
 consequents. 
 
 II 
 
 If we bear in mind what has just been said, a flood 
 of light is poured on the so-called " breaks " of con- 
 tinuity in the natural order. There are at least three 
 such " breaks," whose existence no one denies, but 
 whose significance many physicists are constantly 
 attempting to minimise, because they go on the assump- 
 tion that we must resolve all mental consequents into 
 material antecedents. Let us first ascertain what these 
 "breaks" are, and then show how they are to be 
 regarded from the standpoint of theistic Evolution. 
 
 I. The first of these occurred with the appearance 
 of life on our planet. This has long been a favourite 
 battle-ground between religious and scientific thinkers. 
 The former have found distinct evidence of the personal 
 agency of God in the first dawn of vital processes ; 
 some of the latter have attempted to account for these 
 processes by " spontaneous generation," while others, 
 though clinging to the theory omne vivuni e vtvOy have 
 declined to think of life as a distinct emanation of 
 Divine power. As a matter of fact, the theory of 
 Biogenesis (so far as the evidence goes) unquestionably 
 holds the field at the present moment. Science can 
 give no account of the phenomenon of life. She can 
 chemically analyse its simplest forms into their physical 
 elements, and express the result in a formula ; but 
 experimentally no one has ever detected even the 
 faintest approach to " spontaneous generation " in Nature. 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution ? 27 
 
 This fact, it is true, cannot be said to settle the question 
 finally in favour of the doctrine of Biogenesis. For, 
 as Le Conte says, " the conditions necessary for so 
 extraordinary a change could hardly be expected to 
 occur but once in the history of the earth. Therefore, 
 the impossibility of the derivation of live from non-life 
 now, is no more an argument against such a derivation 
 once, than is the hopelessness of a worm becoming a 
 vertebrate now, an argument against the derivative 
 origin of vertebrates." ^ It is perfectly consistent there- 
 fore on general grounds to hold the theory of Abiogenesis, 
 even though no particle of experimental evidence were 
 ever advanced of the fact of " spontaneous generation." 
 Neither theory invalidates the facts that life is a unique 
 phenomenon, absolutely distinct from non-vital pheno- 
 mena,^ and that it had its historical beginning at some 
 point of time far subsequent to the emergence of the 
 physical order. A moment came in the relations of 
 certain chemical compounds with their environment 
 when non-vital matter was transformed into matter 
 endowed with the marvellous quality of life. Whether 
 this came about through a direct act on the part of 
 the creative Spirit, without the mediation of secondary 
 causes, or by virtue of such mediation, makes no differ- 
 ence to the Divine character of the event, except to 
 
 ^ " Evolution and Religious Thought," pp. 15, 16. 
 
 ' The following passage represents the latest position of the 
 biologist on this point: — 
 
 *• When all these admissions are made, and when the conserving 
 action of natural selection is in the fullest degree recognised, we 
 cannot close our eyes to two facts : first, that we are utterly ignorant 
 of the manner in which the idioplasm of the germ-cell can so 
 respond to the play of physical forces upon it as to call forth an 
 adaptive variation ; and second, that the study of the cell has on 
 the whole seemed to widen rather than to narrow the enormous 
 gap that separates even the lowest forms of life from the inorganic 
 world" (Wilson, "The Cell in Pevelopment and Inheritance," 
 p. 330)- 
 
28 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 those who believe that nothing can be Divine which is 
 wrought through secondary means — a relic of the Deistic 
 position, to state which is hopelessly to discredit it. 
 
 2. Another so-called " break " took place when the 
 organic became the sentient. This change, which is 
 confused by Mr. Wallace with the third and far the 
 most important and incomprehensible of all,^ took 
 place with the first faint beginnings of sensation, or 
 organic feeling. Since some of the earliest forms of 
 life still survive, it is possible in a sense to observe this 
 process experimentally, and to note how it grows from 
 little to more as we pass upward along the ascending 
 scale of life. There are organisms on the border- 
 land between the conscious and the unconscious ; we 
 can hardly tell whether some of them are animals or 
 plants : some plants, indeed, seem to possess a certain 
 dull sense of feeling ; and some animals are so lethargic 
 that it is scarcely possible to detect the faintest sign of 
 conscious response to stimulus. The physical condition 
 of a capacity for sensation is the possession of a nervous 
 system. As it is impossible with our imperfect organs 
 of observation, even when reinforced by the finest 
 instruments, to tell exactly where the first rudiments of 
 a nervous system lie rooted in Nature, we cannot put 
 our fingers on the exact spot in the organic world where 
 Mind becomes first organically associated with Matter. 
 But we do know that that spot is the point of departure 
 for one of the most astonishing developments in the 
 Universe, and we know that no mere changes in the dis- 
 position and elaboration of organic matter will account 
 for the change. The two streams of mental and organic 
 life coalesce somewhere, and begin that marvellous twin- 
 ship which ends only at death ; but it is certain that 
 
 "Darwinism," p. 475, where sentiencyand self-consciousness are 
 treated ^s though they were indistinguishable. 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution ? 29 
 
 neither is the cause of the other. They join, they react 
 on each other profoundly, and they finally separate again : 
 this we know takes place in the history of each living 
 creature ; but we can no more affirm that organised 
 matter as such contains the potentiality of mental 
 life when we see the two thus associated because it 
 appears antecedently in the order of time, than we can 
 affirm that the individual mind or " soul " — as Plato 
 taught — *^ makes ^^ the organism in which for the brief 
 period of its earthly existence it is enshrined. There is 
 no union in Nature more intimate and complete than 
 this between sentient beings and their physical organism, 
 and no union that has been more gradually con- 
 summated ; but mind and matter are as distinct as ever, 
 nor has any thinker, in attempting to express one in 
 terms of the other, done more than confuse incompatible 
 issues and cloud an impossible process in a mist of 
 words. 
 
 Let us pursue this matter a little further. The 
 correlation of mind and brain is such that consciousness 
 in the ordinary sense only seems to accompany the 
 higher brain-functions. It takes place only when the 
 nerve-currents pass through the upper arches of 
 the brain — that portion called the cerebrum. The 
 cerebellum, the medulla oblongata^ and the spinal cord 
 carry on the instinctive and automatic functions of 
 the body without any accompanying consciousness. 
 But when purposive actions are performed, when effort 
 is put forth with a view to an unwonted or progressive 
 movement, the nerve-currents take a wider sweep, the 
 higher cells and filaments of the brain are brought into 
 play, and consciousness takes place. When such efforts 
 and actions have been gone through a sufficient number 
 of times, these higher cells again become quiescent, and 
 habitual movements lapse into the care of the lower 
 
30 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 cells whose workings are unaccompanied by any 
 conscious sensation or feeling, though, by another 
 effort, it is almost always possible to recover these 
 sensations. Thus " consciousness and unconsciousness 
 wait on each other, neither capable of working alone, 
 but both together constituting the unit of progressive 
 life." ^ This looks as though conscious feeling were an 
 attribute of a certain kind of highly organised cerebral 
 matter. So closely does the action of the cerebrum 
 co-ordinate with this mental fact that it is impossible 
 to dissociate them. For this reason it is often stated, 
 and oftener still is it implied, that mental action in 
 animals and man is a '^ function " of the higher brain. 
 And yet the passage from the one fact to the other is 
 absolutely unthinkable. Motion, whether in the brain 
 or elsewhere, " can only produce motion, or transform 
 itself into potential energy. Potential energy can only 
 produce motion, maintain statical equilibrium, push, 
 or pull. The sum-total of energy remains constantly 
 the same. More or less than is determined by this law 
 cannot happen in the material Universe ; the material 
 cause expends itself entirely in mechanical operations. 
 Thus the intellectual occurrences which accompany the 
 material occurrences in the brain are without an ade- 
 quate cause as contemplated by our understanding. 
 They stand outside the law of causality, and therefore 
 are as incomprehensible as a mobile perpetuum would be." ^ 
 So writes the eminent physicist Du Bois-Reymond in 
 dealing with this fact, and he sums up his position by 
 
 » " Our Heredity from God," by E. P. Powell, 4th Edition (New 
 York: D. Appleton & Co., 1895). 
 
 • "Ueber die Grenzen des Naturerkennens," s. 36 (quoted in 
 " Natural Theology and Modern Thought," by J. H. Kennedy, B.D., 
 p. 49). Here is another striking statement of the same fact : " We 
 do not need to picture to ourselves Watt thinking out his parallelo- 
 gram, or Shakespeare, Raphael, and Mozart occupied with the most 
 wonderful of their creations, in order to have an instance of an 
 
Chap.ll What is Evolution ? 31 
 
 warning his readers against confounding the proposition 
 " consciousness is bound up with material conditions " 
 with the totally distinct proposition " consciousness can 
 be mechanically explained." 
 
 Mr. John Fiske, the well-known American philosopher, 
 is equally explicit on this point. He writes : " The 
 primal origin of consciousness " (by this meaning that 
 form of it which is common to man and the brute, i.e. 
 sentiency) " is hidden in the depth of a bygone eternity. 
 That it cannot possibly be the product of any cunning 
 arrangement of material particles is demonstrated beyond 
 peradventure by what we know of the correlation of 
 physical forces. The Platonic view of the soul, as a 
 spiritual substance, an effluence from the Godhead, 
 which under certain circumstances becomes incarnated 
 in perishable forms of matter, is doubtless the view 
 most consonant with the present state of our knowledge. 
 Yet while we know not the primal origin of the soul, 
 we have learnt something of the conditions under which 
 it becomes incarnate in material forms." ^ In other 
 words from the same author : " Of the origin of mind 
 we can give no account, but only a historical one. We 
 can say when {i.e. in connection with what material 
 circumstances) mind came upon the scene of Evolution ; 
 but we can neither say whence^ nor how^ nor why^ ^ 
 Or again : " The assertion of the Evolutionist includes 
 no hypothesis whatever as to the ultimate origin of 
 consciousness ; least of all that consciousness was 
 
 intellectual process which is incapable of being explained by means 
 of its material conditions. . . . With the first feeling of pleasure or 
 pain which some creature of the simplest organisation experienced 
 at the commencement of animal life on earth, or with the first 
 perception of a quality, that impassable gulf is fixed, which has 
 now become doubly incomprehensible " {ibid.^ p. 28 : see Kennedy, 
 p. 48). 
 
 ^ "Man's Destiny," etc., pp. 42, 43. 
 
 ' *' Darwinism," etc., p. 69. 
 
3^ The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 evolved from matter. It is not only inconceivable 
 /low mind should have been produced from matter, but 
 it is inconceivable ^/lai it should have been produced 
 from matter." ^ And even with regard to the suggestion 
 which has been thrown out as a compromise in place 
 of a purely material explanation of the facts of mind, 
 "that matter possessed already the attributes of mind 
 in embryo," Mr. Fiske replies that " it is an alternative 
 which it is difficult to invest with any meaning." The 
 circuit of continuity in the physical accompaniments 
 of thought is absolutely complete without reference 
 to the consciousness that accompanies (but is not for 
 that reason " caused by ") certain " nerve-undulations " 
 under appropriate conditions. Nowhere is there the 
 slightest approach to such a process as a transmutation 
 of motion into feeling or of feeling into motion. 
 
 3. The third and crowning " break " takes place when 
 the "sentient" becomes the "self-conscious." This is 
 the dividing-line between human and animal mental 
 life, and marks a gap as " unthinkable " as the passage 
 from matter to mind, and vice versa. We shall deal 
 with this matter when we come to the specific contents 
 of human personality a little later on. 
 
 Now these " breaks " are none the less significant 
 because their coming has been so quiet and imperceptible. 
 It is not only the " kingdom of heaven " that cometh 
 " without observation " ; it is the characteristic of every 
 new order or kingdom that it should come in the same 
 way. When a fresh factor takes its place in the 
 developing order of life, or is evolved out of a previously 
 implicit condition, it is not manifested by any rush of 
 power that disturbs the balance of those already in 
 activity, but comes in a leavenlike manner, being 
 generally so stealthy in its operation that for some 
 ' " Darwinism," etc., p. 68. 
 
Chap. 11 What is Evolutibn ? 33 
 
 time it scarcely betrays its presence at all. In this 
 indeed there is a serious danger to exact thought ; for 
 those who are anxious to show that matter contains 
 the potentialities of all, even the highest, forms of 
 mental activity take advantage of the subtle way in 
 which any new departure occurs, and resolve its faint 
 manifestations into the action of its physical " ante- 
 cedents " in a manner that would at once strike us with 
 absurdity if it appeared in its fulness suddenly and 
 without gradation. But if a difference in kind appears 
 at all, it matters not whether it is quantitatively large 
 or not, — it is none the less a qualitative difference, and 
 cannot be resolved, in germ any more than in fulness, 
 into that which is essentially other than itself.* 
 
 There can be no controversy as to the reality of 
 these " new departures " in Nature. They are facts 
 
 * In spite of the demonstrable character of this distinction, much 
 confusion of thought arises from its neglect. Even so clear-headed 
 a thinker as Mr. Fiske, while allowing that the difference between 
 Man and the brute creation is so great that no mere natural 
 selection of psychical quahties can account for it, says "that 
 difference is unquestionably one of kind, but in saying this we must 
 guard against misunderstanding. Not only in the world of organic 
 life, but through the known Universe, the doctrine of Evolution 
 regards differences in kind as due to the gradual accumulation of 
 differences in degree. To cite a very simple case, what can be more 
 striking than the difference between a nebula, a sun, a planet like 
 the earth, and a planet like the moon ? Yet these things are simply 
 examples of cosmical matter at various stages of cooling " (" Man's 
 Destiny," etc., pp. 34, 35). The difference between the four forms of 
 matter mentioned above is in no real sense a difference in kind 2iS the 
 word applies to the problem which is here being illustrated. A sun, a 
 planet, a moon, are only more or less developed forms of the primal 
 star-mist of which the nebula is the best existing instance : ou this 
 point there is absolutely no controversy. Consequently the illustra- 
 tion does not in the slightest degree serve to show how it is possible 
 for an accumulation of differences in degree to become at last 
 differences in kind; indeed it rather serves to show how marvel- 
 lously wide differences in degree can be, without producing the 
 faintest tendency to bridge over the chasm between degree and kind, 
 when these words are used to denote such differences as exist 
 between matter and mind, physical and spiritual, dead and living 
 matter, sentient and self-conscious beings. 
 
34 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 that cannot be resolved into one another, nor expressed 
 in terms of one another. Closely interwoven as they 
 are in their processes, they are yet absolutely distinct 
 in their essence. In what sense may we then speak 
 of the " continuity of Nature " ? Not, certainly, by 
 attempting to reduce the higher of these orders of 
 fact into the lower ; but by positing a deeper and more 
 ultimate Unity out of which both orders spring. This 
 Unity must be conceived of not as a bald and formless 
 entity, but as unimaginably rich and potent ; not as 
 limited by the categories and antinomies of human 
 thought, nor yet as altogether above our apprehension, 
 but as Someone with whom we come into real relations 
 through the phenomena of the Universe, while at the 
 same time He outsoars our highest conception and 
 ideal of Him. When once we have been emancipated 
 from the trammels of the theory that the continuity of 
 Nature must be sought for in the totality of physical 
 and mental phenomena, viewed either in serial or 
 correlated order, and come to the acknowledgment of 
 this deep and inmost unity of Nature in God, we shall 
 escape from the conundrums of the Agnostic and the 
 self-contradictions of the Materialist. And we shall find 
 it possible to give the heartiest acceptance to the con- 
 clusions of science, while finding an ever larger scope 
 for the faculties of faith and trust and reverence. 
 Nature no longer is a "charnel-house and a grave, but 
 Godlike and my Father's." 
 
 HI 
 
 The real question at issue, therefore, between Christian 
 and non-Christian Evolutionists concerns not merely 
 our conception of Nature, but also, in a very radical 
 way, our conception of God, and of His relation 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution? 35 
 
 to the Universe. It is no part of our purpose here to 
 prove the existence of the Universal Mind and Will ; 
 to establish the competency of our faculties to know 
 Him with a real knowledge so far as it goes, however 
 imperfect it may be ; or to demonstrate His exact 
 relations to the operative causes at work in the 
 Universe. For the solution of these questions there is 
 an abundance of able and convincing treatises. But 
 it is necessary to point out that these questions must 
 be fairly faced and settled before we can thread the 
 mazes of subsequent problems. We must be content 
 here to state that the theologic attitude most likely to 
 bear fruit is one that combines the Transcendental with 
 the Immanent conceptions of God. This is un- 
 questionably both the Old Testament and the New 
 Testament view, and it is becoming growingly clear 
 that no other view can meet the conditions of present- 
 day thought. God is immanent, but is not limited by 
 Nature ; He is transcendent, but is not separated from 
 all or any natural processes. He works by means, but 
 He is not the slave of the means by which He works. 
 Even though it be proved that there is no flaw or break 
 in the line of causation that runs through Nature, that 
 would not banish God from the Universe in which He 
 energises ; it would only show the reasonableness and 
 self-consistency of His methods. Miracles, on this 
 view, are not unrelated or arbitrary occurrences ; they 
 are extraordinary events in which the physical is 
 specially reinforced or controlled by the spiritual ; 
 and so far from spelling " monster," as Emerson ^ once 
 put it, they simply bear witness to some otherwise 
 unknown or unrecognised aspect of the Divine char- 
 acter : they are God " immanent " shedding a more 
 clear and illuminating light on God "transcendent." To 
 * In his "Divinity Address." 
 
3^ The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 attain to this view of God is to be freed from the 
 extravagances of both Deism and of Pantheism, while 
 retaining all that is precious in both. We are emanci- 
 pated on the one hand from that debasing conception 
 of the Divine Being which hermetically seals Him within 
 the tomb of the physical order ; and on the other hand 
 we escape from the bald and paralysing conception of 
 the world as a dead and soulless machine, set going by 
 the great Artificer at the beginning, and only interfered 
 with since at periods of great cataclysm and catastrophe. 
 The ordinary processes of Nature bear witness to the 
 Divine glory and faithfulness, for they are all the 
 working of His will — all, that is, except sin and its 
 consequences. And those extraordinary events of 
 history that are called miraculous are but the evidences 
 of His special interest in, and love for, the human race, 
 which is the crown and apex of Nature's progressive 
 strivings hitherto, and the starting-point of still higher 
 developments, rising from the physical into the spiritual, 
 and out of Time into Eternity. " God in all " and 
 " God over all " are the two aspects of His activity 
 which, when wedded into a single rich and pregnant 
 conception of His relation to the Universe and to Man, 
 enable us to look at Nature with holiest reverence as 
 the " garment we see Him by " ; at the Environment 
 of Nature — the spiritual world — as the source of her 
 order and beauty ; and at Man as the child of God as 
 well as the creature of the dust and the day. Whether 
 we look beneath us, or around us, or above us, therefore, 
 we are inspired by the Christian conception of God to 
 a nobler, truer, more adequate attitude towards all 
 things, and are fitted thereby to live a worthier life here 
 and to prepare for a grander destiny hereafter.^ 
 
 * " If Pantheism affirms the absolute immanence of God in the 
 world, and Deism His absolute transcendence over it, Christianity 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution ? 37 
 
 It is, in a word, through a more adequate doctrine 
 of Causation that we are to escape the pitfall into which 
 the earliest Evolutionists fell, and out of which their 
 successors are just escaping. By denying or ignoring 
 Metaphysics, they were forced to commit the radical 
 sin of the physicist — that of endeavouring to account 
 for the higher in terms of the lower — and to express 
 the functions of life and consciousness, and even of 
 self-consciousness, in the language of matter and force. 
 In a passionate craving for a unity that shall compre- 
 hend all phenomena in one vast category, and that a 
 category of physics, they were led by the assumption 
 that matter contains all the potencies of the universe 
 into an attempt to translate the higher manifestations 
 of the Divine activity into the terms of materialistic 
 science. In so doing, they banished God from their 
 thoughts, though not out of His creation. They ex- 
 amined the machine, and because every part holds 
 together firmly, and its work is done without flaw or 
 friction, they denied that it ever had a designer ; they 
 
 unites the two sides of the truth in a higher concept, maintaining 
 at the same time the Divine immanence and the Divine trans- 
 cendence" (Prof. James Orr, "The Christian View of God and 
 of the World," p. 14). Prof. Flint, in " Antitheistic Theories," 
 after describing how Deism " not only distinguishes God from 
 the world, but separates and excludes Him from the world," and 
 how Pantheism reduces God to an "abstract conception of power 
 without efficiency," and Nature to a " shadow which is cast by 
 no reality," goes on to say : " Theism takes an intermediate view. 
 It maintains with Deism that God is a personal Being, who created 
 the world freely and intelligently, and is above it and independent 
 of it ; but it maintains also with Pantheism that He is everywhere 
 present and active in the world, * upholding all things by the word 
 of His power,' and so inspiring and working in them, that in Him 
 they ' live and move and have their being.' It contradicts Deism 
 in so far as that system represents the Universe as independent 
 of God, and Pantheism in so far as it represents God as dependent 
 on the Universe. It excludes what is erroneous and retains what 
 is correct in both Deism and Pantheism. It is thus at onee the 
 pure truth and the whole truth " (pp. 339, 340). 
 
38 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 went into ecstasies over the picture, and because the 
 pigments melt into each other with exquisite grace, 
 and the Artist is invisible, they denied that He 
 exists ; they took to pieces the mechanism of life and 
 thought, and because they could weigh and measure 
 what was left, they triumphantly claimed to have ac- 
 counted for what had vanished as well as for what 
 remained. As a matter of fact, they accounted for 
 nothing ; and when they had reduced life, thought, and 
 spirit into the movements of the cells that accompany 
 their activities, and expressed all in a chemical formula, 
 that formula still contained all the mystery which they 
 claimed to have eradicated from the universe. The 
 higher can never be accounted for in terms of the lower. 
 We must begin at the other end. The constituent 
 elements of a group of causes can only be recognised 
 in view of their total effects ; if indeed the cause 
 accounts for the effect, it is the effect alone that can 
 explain and render intelligible the cause. And for this, 
 if for no other reason, we must postulate spirit before 
 matter, God before the universe, ere we can hope to 
 escape the confusion and self-contradictoriness of much 
 that goes by the name of " modern science." The 
 endeavour to reverse the process has been none the 
 less successful because some of the most gigantic minds 
 have been engaged in it : it has only proved the futility 
 of the method in a more impressive manner. Every 
 Tower of Babel must end in a confusion of tongues ; 
 and the muddle of ideas as welt as speech, resulting 
 from the inversion of the true method of explaining 
 Nature, which has been the bane of the last half-century, 
 has been due to the fruitless effort to build a system of 
 science that shall account for spirit, out of materials 
 that will not even account for matter. Truly "the 
 earnest expectation of the creation waiteth" still "for 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution? 39 
 
 the revealing of the sons of God " ; nor will the final 
 explanation of the universe be attained till it is viewed 
 from above, from the heights of God, and not from 
 beneath, from the plains of Shinar. We still look, with 
 Emerson, for " the new Teacher, that shall follow so far 
 those shining laws, that he shall see them come full 
 circle ; shall see their rounding, complete grace ; shall 
 see the world to be the mirror of the soul ; shall see 
 the identity of the law of gravitation with purity of 
 heart ; and shall show that the Ought, that Duty, is one 
 with Science, with Beauty, and with Joy."^ Till that 
 Teacher comes we must struggle with the problem as 
 we may, endeavouring at least to avoid the root-fallacy 
 of burrowing " in the dust " for what can only be found 
 " beyond the stars." 
 
 IV 
 
 Evolution then " is a continuous progressive change, 
 according to certain laws, by means of resident forces." 
 We have carefully discussed and safeguarded the 
 use of all but one of these terms, and shown in what 
 sense the definition so far may be accepted by theistic 
 thinkers. But we have not dealt with the significance 
 of the word " forces " as included in the above definition. 
 Evolution as a fact is one thing — we may look at this 
 as the accepted working theory of the "becoming" of 
 the Universe in time and space ; Evolution as a process 
 determined by secondary causes is another, and it is 
 this aspect of it which is the real ground of debate. 
 What are the forces by which Evolution is determined 
 and swayed and effected ? This is a vast and troubled 
 question, into which it is not our purpose to enter fully 
 at present ; but a few words on the main lines of the 
 ever-renewed controversy are necessary for a proper 
 Conclusion of " Pivinity Address," 
 
40 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 treatment of the bearings of Evolution on religious 
 thought, and vice versa. 
 
 Early in the present century Lamarck brought out 
 a theory which, if true, would account for much of the 
 method of Nature in securing the development of species. 
 He said that not only were " congenital " peculiarities in 
 animals and Man inherited, but also such peculiarities 
 as were "acquired." Much-used organs not only 
 became more efficient in their performance of function 
 during the lifetime of the individual, but the increased 
 efficiency was transmitted to posterity, so that in a 
 literal sense creatures rose " on stepping-stones of their 
 dead selves" {i.e. ancestors) "to higher things." This 
 theory was believed for many years to cover most of the 
 facts, and even now there are prominent scientists who 
 accept it, notably Mr. Herbert Spencer, who depends to 
 a large extent on it for his special hypothesis of develop- 
 ment. But with enlarging acquaintance with the facts 
 of Nature, grave doubt was entertained of its efficiency 
 to account for the widespread and continuous advance 
 of the animated creation in complexity and variety of 
 organism ; and in these latter days it is stoutly main- 
 tained by eminent scientists that no acquired character- 
 istics whatsoever are transmitted to posterity, chiefest 
 among whom are Wallace, who says that this factor is 
 needless to account for all the facts, and Weismann, who 
 claims to prove that as a matter of fact it is impossible, 
 or at any rate not true. But it is to Darwin that the 
 credit chiefly belongs of developing an altogether new 
 line of theory, upheld with an astonishing array of 
 cogent and convincing proofs ; and it was he who 
 invented the term " Natural Selection " to denote this 
 theory. Briefly it may be put thus. 
 
 The astonishing fertility of species has been noted 
 for many years, as well as the contrary fact that in 
 
Chap. II What is Evolution ? 41 
 
 spite of this fertility the total numbers of living creatures 
 have not increased in anything like the same ratio. 
 As a matter of fact, and as a consequence of this 
 fertility, in each species many more individuals are 
 born in every generation than can possibly survive, 
 and, accordingly, there is a " struggle for existence." In 
 this struggle for existence it is a logical deduction that 
 the " fittest " must survive. And so there comes about 
 a certain process of " selection " on the part of Nature, 
 those individuals that are most in harmony with their 
 environment ousting the others, and remaining behind 
 to transmit their favourable peculiarities to their de- 
 scendants, while the weaker and least fitted to live die 
 off, or beget descendants that are soon pushed off the 
 plane of existence. Given plenty of time, there is thus 
 nothing to bar the result which we see as an observable 
 fact in the world — that slowly and gradually there should 
 be an advance in the complexity and efficiency for all pur- 
 poses of life of the individuals and the species that survive. 
 These are the essential points of the theory of 
 " Natural Selection." A matter that is being discussed 
 just now with a great deal of learning and acumen 
 is the exact significance to be accorded to this factor 
 in accounting for the origin, or rather the survivaly ^ of 
 species. It is certain that under any circumstances 
 Natural Selection can properly account only for their 
 survival. For it is but a name, in the last resort, for 
 the sum-total of Nature's destructive forces — those that 
 are inimical to the survival of organisms. It is a selection 
 
 ^ It is confessed by Prof. Romanes, in a quotation from one of 
 his writings given in Aubrey Moore's " Science and the Faith " 
 (p. 64), that Natural Selection is not a theory of the origin of 
 species. Cf. " Post-Darwinian Questions," p. 275 : " The theory 
 of Natural Selection is not, accurately speaking, a theory of the 
 origin of species : it is a theory of the origin and accumulation of 
 adaptations." See {ilso p. 287. 
 
42 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 by death. Being thus a fact altogether outside organism, 
 it is impossible that it should give any explanation of 
 the interior facts of organism. The great and vital 
 question why organisms vary is left untouched by it. 
 It is astonishing that even the foremost scientists should 
 thus far have given so perfunctory and shallow an 
 attention to this matter. Darwin took for granted that 
 the variations which furnish the material for the action 
 of Natural Selection are not only " spontaneous " (a very 
 ambiguous term), but that they are aimless and in all 
 possible directions. In this he has been followed by 
 Weismann and others. But we have already seen that 
 this assumption is, at least in certain directions, not 
 true. The subject is only just beginning to be studied, 
 and it is the confession of one of the pioneers in its 
 solution that " the advance towards a knowledge of 
 the steps by which Evolution proceeds has been almost 
 nothing." ^ The religious significance of this fact lies 
 in the opening it affords for what may in the end 
 develop into a new doctrine of teleology from the 
 standpoint of pure science. That doctrine in its broader 
 aspects is already safe, though not in the specialised 
 form advocated long ago by Paley. The "dramatic 
 tendency " which is so evident in its grand and massive 
 sweep right through the kingdoms of organic life is 
 but another name for the realisation of a Divine and 
 all-comprehending purpose. It may be that this 
 purpose in another form will presently be recognised 
 as controlling the minutest variation of individual 
 creatures. It is at any rate clear that the reign of 
 the doctrine of absolutely fortuitous variation is over, 
 and that its death-blow has been dealt quite as much by 
 the friendly hand of science as by the supposedly hostile 
 sword of the theologian. 
 
 1 W, Bateson, " Materials for the Study of Variation," p. 7. 
 
INTRODUCTION: MAN'S 
 
 PLACE IN EVOLUTION 
 
 * I Mm the TAdpeh of an ArchangeV 
 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 Chapter IIL — Evolution and Man 
 
 Significance of Advent of Man — His Physical Origin— Though of the 
 Brutes, yet not a Brute — Arrest of Physical Evolution — " Natural Selec- 
 tion " superseded — Man's Social and Ethical Nature — Self-consciousness 
 — Religious Instinct — Evolution and Creation. 
 
 WHAT then has Evolution to say as to the 
 significance of Man's arrival on the scene ? Does 
 it in any way interfere with the time-honoured claim 
 he has been accustomed to put forth, that he is a being 
 sui generis, and that he is separated by an impassable 
 gulf of greatness from the highest types in the animal 
 creation? Is he in future humbly to consider himself 
 as only the most " developed " creature in the organic 
 world, possessing nothing but what is seen in germ 
 in the beast of the field, the fowl of the air, and the 
 creeping things of the earth ? 
 
 There are those who believe that the theory of Evolu- 
 tion has erased the last fundamental distinction hitherto 
 drawn between Man and the rest of organic nature, and 
 that there is no ultimate difference between him and 
 those next to him in the scale of life, except such as 
 can be explained by a difference of development. Man 
 according to this theory, is nothing more or less than a 
 more highly evolved animal. He is actually what the 
 brutes 2lvg. potentially. The difference is one of degree, 
 not of kind. 
 
 This conclusion, however, is not by any means accepted 
 in its totality by all candid Evolutionists ; and it is a 
 matter for fair inquiry whether those who hold this view 
 
 43 
 
44 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 do so because they are Evolutionists, or because they 
 link their Evolution with a system of philosophy which 
 is quite separable from it. Bearing in mind what has 
 already been said on this subject, it is enough here to 
 say that, though the most determined effort has been 
 made by a certain school of thinkers to prove the 
 complete continuity of the serial links that connect 
 Man with the orders of life below him, and to include 
 his moral and spiritual nature, i.e. his most distinctive 
 qualities, in the same generalisations as those that 
 express the facts of organic life, this effort has not as 
 yet been crowned with success. The more the contents 
 of human personality are investigated and understood, 
 the more hopeless does this effort become. Just as no 
 possible bridge can be thrown across the chasm that 
 separates the material from the psychical, so no possible 
 bridge seems capable of being thrown across that subtle 
 but no less real chasm which separates the self-conscious 
 from the merely conscious creature. 
 
 With this essential qualification, to be further con- 
 sidered later on, we shall find no difficulty in fully 
 accepting the evolutionary theory of Man's physical 
 origin, and to allow, to a large extent at least, his 
 mental as well as physical kinship with the lower orders. 
 The more freely we allow this, and the more adequately 
 we weigh the facts that are common to us and all 
 living things, the more clearly will those facts which 
 characterise our nature alone stand out in their unique- 
 ness. We may go further, and allow that, whereas there 
 are distinctive facts in human nature whose origin must 
 not be sought for in any cunning adjustment of organic 
 structure and function, but in some other direction, 
 these facts still belong to the order of Evolution, inas- 
 much as they develop according to similar laws and 
 follow the same processes, 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 45 
 
 I 
 
 It is no part of our purpose here to lay before the reader 
 the evidence which has convinced scientific thinkers that 
 Man is physically descended from the brute creation. 
 Such a task can only be adequately accomplished after 
 a survey of vast and complicated ranges of facts, many 
 of a very technical nature, which can be properly handled 
 only by skilled biologists. The outstanding characteristic 
 of this argument is that it is cumulative ; i.e. it derives 
 its cogency not from a single, or a few, groups of facts 
 of clear and irresistible force, but from the gradual 
 convergence towards one conclusion of many apparently 
 diverse and unrelated phenomena. These facts are 
 explicable, and fall in line with all other biological 
 deductions, on the theory that Man is physically derived 
 from an " extinct arboreal creature " ; but they resolve 
 themselves into a perplexing and complicated enigma if 
 we refuse to accept the conclusion towards which they 
 move. Anatomy, morphology, embryology, pathology, 
 and many other sciences speak with consentient voice 
 on the matter ; and though no single line of evidence 
 suffices to settle so great a question, the more it is 
 examined in all its bearings, the more irresistibly are 
 we driven to the acceptance of the evolutionary view of 
 the origin of Man. It has taken over half a century to 
 gather, formulate, classify, and discuss the facts on which 
 the theory is based ; and the present position it occupies 
 in the judgment of those most qualified to deal with it 
 is that " there is no more reason to suppose that it will 
 be ever gainsaid, than that the Copernican Astronomy 
 will sometime be overthrown, and the concentric spheres 
 of Dante's heaven be reinstated in the minds of men." * 
 
 " Man's Destiny viewed in the Light of his Origin," by John 
 Fiske, p. 20. 
 
4^ The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 This presentation of the case is open to the obvious 
 objection that it seems to hand over the average man, in 
 the formation of his opinions on the subject, into the 
 hands of experts, and to reduce the acceptance of the 
 theory to an act of blind obedience to authority in 
 the domain of science. This, if literally true, would 
 be veritably a falling into the whirlpool in trying to 
 avoid the rock, and is exactly the sin which scientific 
 men have ever charged against theologians. But even 
 if the charge in this case be true, it is not true in the old 
 meaning of the terms. There is a sense of course in 
 which the average man is in the hands of specialists in 
 every science. The popular belief in the Copernican 
 theory of Astronomy is based on the bona fides and 
 competency of physicists and astronomers and mathe- 
 maticians, who base their conclusions on calculations so 
 complicated that only skilled students can follow them. 
 At the same time, we all go on the assumption that if 
 we fit ourselves by special training to follow out these 
 calculations, we shall inevitably come to the conclusions 
 already arrived at by previous thinkers. The only 
 authority really acknowledged is the authority of rightly 
 weighed and tabulated facts, and this authority of 
 course is and must be paramount. He who desires to 
 test the conclusions of biologists on the question of 
 human origins has but to apply himself to a thorough 
 study of the question to enable him to form his own 
 conclusions. Nor is so drastic a course of special 
 training now necessary in order to come to a sufficiently 
 intelligent conclusion ; for the general lines of evidence 
 have in recent years been so ably summarised, and pre- 
 sented in so popular and readable a form by competent 
 writers, as to be intelligible in their broad outlines to 
 any careful and open-minded reader. And finally, it 
 must be pointed out that the theory holds the field at 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 47 
 
 present to the entire exclusion of every other. The 
 alternatives are, either to fall back on some theory 
 which has no scientific evidence to uphold it, or to remain 
 in a state of suspended judgment which leaves the mind 
 to act in an intellectual vacuum. The latter alternative, 
 under conceivable circumstances of disputable and 
 contradictory evidence, in which diverse theories might 
 be fairly advocated with almost equal probability, would 
 be the only logical course to follow; but in this 
 particular instance it would have to be taken in the face 
 of a well-supported generalisation, which commands the 
 strenuous support of all those who have gone into the 
 question with an open mind, and indeed of thousands 
 who have done so with minds previously strongly 
 prejudiced against the conclusion. For ourselves, we 
 take up the position that it has been substantially 
 proved, so far at least as the physical nature of Man is 
 concerned, that *' descent with modification " froro some 
 earlier and extinct species of creature accounts for the 
 structure he possesses and the functions he fulfils in 
 common with the lower animals. 
 
 II 
 
 The further question, however, returns and presses for 
 an answer— does this bring Man entirely within that 
 circle of orgamc nature to which he finds himself so 
 vitally and closely related, and are we to believe that 
 all his higher faculties, intellectual, moral, and spiritual, 
 are evolved from the germinal mental qualities of the 
 animal creation ? 
 
 This fear of the dethronement of man from his unique 
 place at the headship of creation is at the root of much 
 of the aversion to the idea of Evolution felt by the 
 average man. There are many sensible and devout 
 
4^ The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 people who believe earnestly in the Bible revelation, who 
 are no longer troubled by the problems raised between 
 Geology and Genesis, or by the fact that the precise 
 order of events in the one cannot be quite harmonised 
 with that of the other ; familiarity has blunted their 
 sensibilities in these directions, and they instinctively 
 feel their faith to be safe whatever view may be taken 
 of these questions. But the problem of Man's origin 
 and place in Creation comes home very near to us. 
 It touches our self-respect, wounds our pride, seems to 
 endanger our racial sovereignty, and binds us so tightly 
 in ignoble bonds of relationship with the monsters of 
 the slime and the chattering apes of the forest that our 
 link with God seems strained to snapping-point. 
 
 It is as well, therefore, that we should at this point 
 emphasise the unquestionable fact that the theory of 
 Evolution in no sense of the term dethrones Man from 
 his pedestal of unique greatness among the creatures 
 of earth. It simply defines his position, and tells us 
 exactly in what his greatness consists. The more 
 closely the physical relationship between Man and 
 brute is established by Evolution so far as descent is 
 concerned, the more profoundly has it demonstrated 
 the mental and moral gap between him and his lowly 
 kindred of the woods and the desert. Its motto is " So 
 near, and yet so far ! " This growing sense of a new 
 element in Man, that he is not only the last of one 
 series of beings, but the first of another, which, without 
 changing its specific character, has in it unlimited 
 possibilities of progress, fills the scientific mind with a 
 profounder conviction than ever of Man's greatness 
 because it is a conviction founded not on sentiment but 
 on scientific proof. It has turned the eyes of the 
 noblest thinkers from the lowly past, which belongs 
 to other creatures than Man, to the limitless future, 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 49 
 
 which belongs in all its aeons to him alone. Evolution, 
 in a word, has at last risen from its knees among the 
 bones of the dead studying the origins of Man, and, 
 assuming the prophet's mantle, shades its eyes with 
 reverent hand in order to catch a vision of the dim but 
 authentic City of God which hangs like a cloud on the 
 horizon's edge. Let us therefore dismiss once for all 
 the notion that Evolution interferes with the supreme 
 dignity of Man. It crowns him with a diadem of 
 glory and honour, on which the faint and yet un- 
 mistakable light of Immortality begins to glow. The 
 moment when the full-grown Man, first of his kind, 
 spurned the ground with his heel, and lifted his face 
 towards the morning-stars, was a moment when the 
 rigid and pitiless bond of physical necessity was broken, 
 a new era of development begun, and the narrow portal 
 of the Way of Life thrown wide open, that he might 
 walk therein. 
 
 Let us glance at some of the considerations that bear 
 on this all-important point. 
 
 Mr. Fiske, writing in the interests of science pure and 
 simple, makes the following sweeping remark on the 
 bearing of Evolution on the place of Man in the 
 physical creation : — 
 
 " So far from degrading Humanity, or putting it on 
 a level with the animal world in general, the Darwinian 
 theory shows us distinctly for the first time how the 
 creation and perfecting of Man is the goal toward which 
 Nature has been all the while tending. It enlarges 
 tenfold the significance of human life, places it upon 
 even a loftier eminence than poets or prophets have 
 imagined, and makes it seem more than ever the chief 
 objective of the creative activity which is manifested in 
 the physical universe." ^ 
 
 * •' Man's Destiny," etc., p. 25. 
 
 4 
 
50 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 When we ask in what way this is so, we find, as we have 
 suggested, that science has rather defined and elaborated 
 facts already well known, than added any recondite 
 evidence of the supremacy of Man on earth ; but these 
 facts are now better understood, and their wider bear- 
 ings more thoroughly appreciated. Let us glance at 
 the most salient and suggestive of these. 
 
 Of course the root of Man's superiority is to be found 
 in his mental and spiritual organisation. At some 
 far-off period — so far off indeed that no record of it will 
 ever be found — the moment came when mental changes 
 became of more importance than physical changes to 
 the brute ancestor of Man. Silently and unnoticed, 
 this great day of Man dawned ; without observation he 
 entered into his distinctive heritage. Two results more 
 or less immediately followed. 
 
 I. First, there was an arrest of bodily development. 
 Organic Evolution had reached its climax ; having 
 succeeded in making a Man, " the force of Nature 
 could no further go." The lower creatures gained their 
 footing on the earth in virtue of some peculiar excellence 
 of limb, or efficiency of organ, or sharpness of instinct, 
 and new species ousted older ones by surpassing them 
 in some useful development. But in virtue of a superior 
 mental endowment, Man was no longer dependent on 
 the perfection of his physical organs for victory against 
 his foes, for he could now reach by strategy what they 
 could only gain by force. According to the "law of 
 parsimony " which rules in Nature, therefore, no further 
 pains were spent on bodily developments, except to 
 evolve a better brain as an organ for the evolving mind. 
 Thus the physical advance made by man from pre- 
 historic times to the present day has been almost entirely 
 cerebral. By the enlargement of the cephalic cavity, 
 and its storage with a finer quality and a more convoluted 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 5t 
 
 form of brain-substance, he has been provided with all 
 the organic improvement he has needed. The rest of 
 his body may have gained in grace and beauty, but it 
 has developed neither in the efficiency of its organs 
 nor in any addition to the organs he already possessed. 
 The tendency has indeed been largely in the other 
 direction : pari passu with the advance of mind there 
 has been in many ways a positive deterioration of the 
 physical frame ; and though there is a law which 
 restrains the range of this deterioration within certain 
 needful limits (since the loss of bodily vigour beyond a 
 certain point inevitably results in mental decay), there 
 is no doubt that there has been a definable loss of bodily 
 efficiency since Man became Man. 
 
 2. Secondly, and at the root of this arrest of physical 
 Evolution, there is the unquestionable fact that the 
 absolute sway of the law of " Natural Selection " has 
 been broken, and a new principle of survival been 
 introduced in its place. That law is but another name 
 for the tyranny of the environment ; and Man has in 
 a large measure risen above this tyranny. 
 
 When the customary food of an animal becomes 
 scarce or fails, it has no resource but to get adapted to 
 some new kind of food or die off. " Natural Selection " 
 will settle which individuals and species {i.e. those with 
 the least adaptable systems of digestion) must be weeded 
 out. But Man can guard against this peril not only 
 by the wonderful catholicity of his appetite, but by the 
 power he has of controlling his environment in accord- 
 ance with his needs. He is able to sow seeds, to defend 
 his crops, to reap his harvest, and to store his grain. He 
 can domesticate animals for purposes of work or food- 
 supply ; he can cook and eat what would otherwise be 
 indigestible or even poisonous. He is thus, apart from 
 accidents and vast cyclic changes (such, for instance, as 
 
52 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 the occurrence of an ice-age, which has once at least 
 completely swept a continent of a whole race of human 
 beings^), independent of any changes in his edible 
 environment, and can force Nature's hand to supply him 
 with the best of her stores as he may require. 
 
 In the same way he is largely independent of the 
 violent climatic changes that have been fatal to so many 
 species. By altering his mode of living, by wearing 
 more or less clothing as the climate changes, by his 
 command of fire, by his architectural resources, he 
 can adapt himself to, or defeat, the inclemency of 
 the weather. Climate not only fails to kill him, but it 
 largely loses its power to modify his physical structure. 
 Thus in many ways Man can create an artificial environ- 
 ment for himself, and so put himself out of the range 
 of that watchful and wily enemy that struts through the 
 scientific world in the mild garb of professorial dignity 
 under the name of " Natural Selection." 
 
 The discovery of tools — the spade, the plough, the 
 sickle, the wheel ; the hammer, the axe, the sword ; the 
 sling, the arrow ; the lever, the wedge — began that 
 extraordinary career of mastery over Nature, which, with 
 us, " on whom the ends of the ages have come," has 
 issued in the steamship, the locomotive, the hydraulic 
 drill, the cannon-ball, the telephone, the spectrum, and 
 countless other contrivances ; all of which have extended 
 the value of the primeval human muscle, ear, eye, and 
 hand, till the very face of the planet is changing under 
 the impress of the mind, and the globe has become a 
 kind of " secondary body " for Man. By the use of 
 
 ^ According to Sir John Evans (Inaugural Address before the 
 British Association at Toronto, 1897), the last ice-age came between 
 the eras of Palaeolithic and Neolithic Man in Europe, the control 
 of the race over the conditions of life at the former period being 
 insufficiently developed to enable it to migrate to warmer regions. 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 53 
 
 these tools and weapons he has tamed the wildest 
 animals, he has rendered deserts fertile, he has conquered 
 time and distance, " even the winds and the sea obey 
 him." And even yet it would appear that this kingship 
 over Nature is only in its infancy. Things are possible 
 to him to-day which a hundred years ago would have 
 been laughed at as the dreams of crazy enthusiasts ; and 
 it may be that before another century is out the triumphs 
 of to-day will become as antiquated as the spinning- 
 wheel and the stage-coach of yesterday. And all this 
 is due simply to the fact that Man is realising the 
 possibilities of his mental faculties, and beginning to 
 use them in a practical way, stooping into obedience 
 to natural law only that he may conquer it to his will. 
 Natural Selection thus abdicates in favour of Mental 
 Selection, and, by disciplining himself, Man is learning 
 to subdue the earth, and so to possess it. 
 
 3. Another vast step in advance made by Man is in 
 realising the possibilities of his social instincts. These, 
 it is true, appear in a highly developed form in certain 
 animal species, in whom there has been a reciprocal 
 action of mental and social factors of great beauty and 
 intricacy. It would seem, however, that this process 
 has never risen above the region of the instinctive in 
 the lower animals, and as instinct is non-progressive 
 except at a very slow and cyclic rate, and even then 
 only within sharp and rigid limits, the analogy between 
 such communities and human society is but faint. For 
 in Man the principle of progress is self-conscious ; it 
 knows itself i which is a peculiarity of quite immeasurable 
 import. It is also different in that it is capable of 
 acting in an altruistic manner, and of being swayed 
 by moral affections. "In the rudest tribes," writes Mr. 
 Wallace, " the sick are assisted, at least with food ; less 
 robust health and vigour than the average does not 
 
^4 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 entail death. Neither does the want of perfect limbs, 
 or of other organs, produce the same effect as among 
 animals. Some division of labour takes place ; the 
 swiftest hunt, the less active fish, or gather fruits ; food 
 is to some measure exchanged or divided. The action 
 of natural selection is therefore checked ; the weaker, 
 the dwarfish, those of less active limbs, or less piercing 
 eyesight, do not suffer the extreme penalty which falls 
 upon animals so defective."^ Thus we come upon a 
 real social activity, essentially different in kind from that 
 which obtains among animal communities. Animals 
 have a social instinct ; they will perform the most 
 " heroic " acts in defence of their young, or even of 
 their community ; but these moving incidents have 
 this fatal mark of inferiority, that they are performed 
 blindly, in obedience to an impulse, and not consciously, 
 out of reverence for an ideal. But Man, out of these 
 materials of instinct, weaves a texture of noble deeds 
 which are truly moral, because they are the fruit of 
 a free and conscious will. Not blindly, but with clear 
 vision of the cost as well as of the value of self-sacrifice ; 
 not mechanically, but from a choice unfettered by a 
 mere organic necessity; not pushed from behind, but 
 drawn by a vision from above, does Man rise into the 
 lofty heights of unselfishness and give his life for 
 others — the strong for the weak, the wise for the erring, 
 the good for the vicious. Thus are the limits of person- 
 ality broken down ; the poorest member of a community 
 is made partaker of the moral and spiritual wealth 
 of the best, and the soul that is weakest made the 
 heir of the souls that are strongest and most beauteous. 
 By means of language the riches of the most developed 
 minds are made available for the benefit of the least 
 developed ; and by love and mutual service the 
 
 > " Natural Selection," p. 112. 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 55 
 
 resources of the finest characters become common 
 property. 
 
 The net result of these considerations is to bring us 
 to the startling conclusion that in Man physical 
 Evolution has reached its limits and that there will 
 never appear on earth a higher being than himself. 
 
 On the old theory of Man's origin there was no assur- 
 ance but that at some time or other another being higher 
 in the scale of physical being would appear on the earth, 
 and Man be dethroned from his proud position at the 
 head of things; for what happened once through 
 miraculous power might happen again, nor is there 
 anywhere in Scripture any assurance that this would 
 not occur. But on the Darwinian theory this is im- 
 possible,^ for we have seen that he stands at the head 
 of physical Evolution, and all future development is in 
 his own hands and under his own control. 
 
 Nor is it possible for any of the lower animals at any 
 future time to dispute with Man for his lordship over 
 creation. For the way of upward evolution is a " very 
 straight and narrow way, and few there be that find it." ^ 
 " In the case of organic evolution it is so straight and 
 narrow that any divergence therefrom is fatal to upward 
 movement towards man. No living form of animal is 
 on its way manward, nor can by any possibility develop 
 into man. They are all gone out of the way. There 
 is none going right ; no, not one." ' There being but 
 one direction along which Evolution could possibly reach 
 from physical to psychical results — the line along which 
 
 * I.e. because the law of Natural Selection has reached the limits 
 of its action, and has given way to the higher law of Rational Life. 
 This is a change so immense in its significance that the conditions 
 of the whole problem are changed, and the future march of 
 Evolution takes an altogether fresh direction. 
 
 * '• Evolution and Religious Thought," by Joseph Le Conte, p. 90, 
 ' Ihid, 
 
56 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 Man has been led — we may rest in peace that our 
 position is impregnable, and that in the future even 
 more than in the past the world will be under our 
 authority and control. In what direction and with 
 what machineries we may look forward towards further 
 advancement we shall see later on, when our thoughts 
 will be running along higher levels, in view of the 
 Incarnation and the Cross. 
 
 Ill 
 
 But the question may be fairly asked — Is it quite clear 
 and certain that the self-conscious factor which is the 
 distinguishing quality of Man is not a " by-product " 
 of the older forces that have been in action from the 
 beginning, but which have not till this late period 
 unfolded all their possibilities and results ? In a word, 
 may not Man's mental and moral nature, remarkably 
 as it differs from that of the brute creatures around 
 him, still be of the same fundamental essence ? 
 
 Let us appeal to those who know most about the 
 science that deals with the borderland between the 
 mental and physical worlds, and enters into the essential 
 differences between physical and psychical phenomena 
 — the science of Experimental Psychology. 
 
 On the one side we find that Darwin himself seems 
 to have seriously entertained the belief that Man was 
 altogether, mentally as well as physically, derived from 
 the brute creation, and that the exhibition of mentality 
 in him is not different in any essential particular from 
 that in the lower animals. He says in the third chapter 
 of " The Descent of Man " : " My object in this chapter 
 is to show that there is no fundamental difference 
 between man and the higher animals in their mental 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 57 
 
 faculties."^ Mr. Wallace in another place interprets 
 Darwin's position thus : — 
 
 " Although perhaps nowhere distinctly formulated, 
 his whole argument tends to the conclusion that man's 
 entire nature, and all his faculties, whether moral, in- 
 tellectual, or spiritual, have been derived from their 
 rudiments in the lower animals, in the same manner, 
 and by the action of the same general laws, as his 
 physical structure has been derived." ^ 
 
 If this statement of Darwin's position be accurate, 
 and there is no reason whatever to doubt that it is 
 essentially correct, nothing could be clearer than that 
 the discoverer of the theory of " Natural Selection " did 
 really believe in the identity of the mental life of Man 
 and his humbler brethren in the scale of being. And 
 there are not a few eminent men, prominent among 
 whom was the late Prof. G. J. Romanes, who have 
 undertaken the systematic proof of this formidable pro- 
 position. In his two bulky works on " Animal Intelli- 
 gence " and " Mental Evolution in Man," the professed 
 aim is "to prove that human and animal psychology 
 differ not in kind but in degree," difference in kind, 
 meaning, according to him, "difference in origin."^ His 
 work in this direction is painstaking and ingenious, 
 but it is not convincing. It is a fundamental flaw in 
 Prof Romanes' method of treating the question that 
 he argues entirely on the basis of the old-fashioned 
 empirical psychology of Locke, " curiously supple- 
 mented by terms borrowed from the Kantian School," * 
 a careless or ignorant obliviousness of facts known to 
 all who have given even a perfunctory attention to the 
 
 ^ Page 66. 
 
 ' "Darwinism," p. 461. 
 ' " Mental Evolution in Man," p. 3. 
 
 * See an interesting review of Prof. Romanes' position in Aubrey 
 Moore's "Essays, Scientific and Philosophical," pp. 41-60. 
 
58 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 history of philosophy during the last hundred years. 
 Without entering into the involved argument which 
 he weaves out of these doubtful premises, it will be 
 enough to dwell for a little while on the turning-point 
 in the discussion, which is thus put by Mr. Romanes 
 himself : — 
 
 " The whole distinction between man and brute resides 
 in the presence or absence of conceptual thought, which 
 in man is but the expression of the presence or absence 
 of self-consciousness. . . . The distinction between a 
 recept and a concept is really the only distinction about 
 which there can be no dispute." ^ 
 
 Put into the language of science as ordinarily used, 
 this means simply the distinction between "truth per- 
 ceived, and truth perceived as true," and we have but 
 to consider this for a moment to see that it is one of 
 the root-distinctions of mental science. 
 
 By recept, a term invented by Prof Romanes in the 
 exigencies of his own peculiar psychology, he means 
 that which may be called a " compound idea," or " com- 
 plex idea," or " mixed idea," i.e, the combination of 
 " simple " or " concrete " ideas into that kind of com- 
 posite idea "which is possible without the aid of 
 language," and which stands in the order of ideation 
 midway between the simple or particular idea (usually 
 termed "percept") and the truly general idea (usually 
 termed " concept "). 
 
 Now, that animals possess the " receptual " power no 
 psychologist doubts ; the question is whether the re- 
 ceptual and conceptual powers are of the same order, 
 and whether the former has all the essential but un- 
 developed elements of the latter? If so, then Prof. 
 Romanes is right when he compares the leap from the 
 receptual stage to the conceptual stage in the budding 
 * Romanes' "Mental Evolution in Man," p. 175. 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 59 
 
 infant mind to the leap in the bodily life at the moment 
 of birth. But is the analogy a fair one ? The mental 
 change involved in the former case is sui generis ; and 
 this even on Prof. Romanes' own showing, for he says, 
 with the frankness that is as honourable to himself 
 as it is fatal to his argument, "A receptual judgment 
 is always separated from a conceptual inference or true 
 judgment by the immense distinction that it is not in 
 itself an object of knowledge." In other words, "the 
 whole distinction between man and brute resides in 
 the presence or absence of conceptual thought, which 
 in man is but the expression of the presence or absence 
 of self-consciousness." 
 
 " The presence or absence of self-consciousness " — 
 that is the way truly to test the difference between Man 
 and brute. The question is narrowed down to this 
 — What is the psychological significance of self-con- 
 sciousness ? The problem needs careful consideration. 
 
 1. Beginning for a moment a little further back, 
 neither sentiency nor self-consciousness is in any sense 
 a product of material forces.^ 
 
 2. Neither is self-consciousness the same fact as 
 sentiency. Man in common with the higher and lower 
 animals possesses a delicately adjusted nervous system 
 which reacts on proper contact with the outer world. 
 His system shows the same susceptibility to reflex, 
 automatic, and instinctive action as theirs do. He has 
 the same "sensory consciousness" as have the higher 
 animals. What then is the difference between him and 
 them ? What is there peculiar to him ? 
 
 " It is his rational discrimination in advance of 
 
 sensory discrimination. All organism feels contact and 
 
 acts in response to it. All human life not only does 
 
 these two things, but also interprets experience, thereby 
 
 ^ See above, p. 29. 
 
6o The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 forming a knowledge of the things with which the 
 sensitive organism comes into contact. This contrast 
 is bold and sharp in outline. We first say, it is with 
 man as with the animal ; we next say, it is not with 
 the animal as it is with man."^ And if the question 
 is pressed — What is the difference between sensibility, 
 common between man and the star-fish, and rational 
 discrimination, belonging only to man ? — we must put 
 it in this way : — 
 
 {a) It is a sense of contrast between successive sensory 
 impressions and the consciousness of difference between 
 past and present impressions. 
 
 This is not exactly the same fact as memory (which 
 is to be found in a nascent form in the brutes), because 
 it is something that reacts on the materials provided 
 by memory (being a power of which there is no 
 ascertainable trace in the brutes). This kind of internal 
 observation, or introspection as it is sometimes called, 
 is Man's starting-point for. the development of the 
 rational life ; by means of it he can analyse, compare, 
 and contrast his past and present experiences as they 
 come up before his mental purview. His identity does 
 not consist in the fact that he is a mere bundle of 
 associated sensations, as is the case with the brutes, 
 but in the fact that he can observe, mentally rearrange, 
 and judge, qualitatively and quantitatively, of the 
 nature of his sensations. There is thus in his nature 
 a tertium quid, which has the faculty of disposing of 
 the factors of every act of comparison and judgment, 
 and this is his distinctive Ego, or Self. 
 
 {F) In self-consciousness there is implied a conscious- 
 ness of the world, or mental environment, as something 
 outside or distinct from the Self. 
 
 > See Calderwood's chapter on " Sensory Rational Discrimination," 
 in "Evolution and Man's Place in Nature," pp. 122-144 (ist Ed.). 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 6i 
 
 That is to say, " in observation we pass from 
 experience to objects." Such observation is impossible 
 " without consciousness of distinction between self and 
 successive experiences, and also of the distinction 
 between experience and external objects." In such a 
 transition, we move from the recognition of feelings to 
 that of qualities, and though all qualities can be 
 interpreted in terms of feeling, they are felt by the mind 
 to be quite different in nature — qualities being referred 
 to the external objects in which they inhere, and 
 feelings to the Ego that experiences them. This 
 duality in self-consciousness is, so far as can be scien- 
 tifically ascertained, absolutely missing in the sense- 
 consciousness of the highest animals. 
 
 (c) In self-consciousness we do something more than 
 barely realise our own individuality and the existence 
 of an external world. We classify as well as compare, 
 and so get to general notions or ideas. We group 
 objects and feelings alike in separate categories, and 
 bring into rational order what would otherwise be a 
 mere jumble of meaningless experiences. When we 
 exercise this power we turn the materials of knowledge 
 into Science. As we go on making new observations 
 we enrich or modify our previous classifications, and 
 by observing the sequences as well as the groupings of 
 phenomena, we come at last to the conception of general 
 laws, and especially to the law of causation, and so 
 finally of a great First Cause. "Simply by his pos- 
 session of rational power," says Prof Calderwood, 
 "every member of the race goes on his way as a 
 freeman, taking possession of his inheritance in the 
 earth. For every man who does not lose his way, 
 through darkness, or through blinding passion — over- 
 whelmed by life's mysteries, or besotted by animal 
 indulgences — a rich possession is waiting, quite above 
 
62 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 the supply of the common requirements of organic life. 
 Science is his servant ; literature is his property ; 
 philosophy is his guide in higher thought ; revelation 
 becomes his inspiration. Under warrant of abundant 
 evidence, we distinguish two worlds in Nature — the 
 world of matter and the world of mind ; a world visible 
 only to the eye ; a world invisible to organism — visible 
 only to rational insight." ^ 
 
 And thus, whether viewed subjectively or objectively, 
 Man is in no danger of being dethroned from the 
 position he has occupied in his own eyes from the 
 earliest day when he began to reflect on his place in 
 the earthly order, but is pronounced by Science to 
 be separated by an impassable gulf of greatness from 
 the brute creation at its highest. Evolution only links 
 him in closer physical kinship with the rest of the 
 organic Universe. It does not explain his origin. 
 It cannot uncrown him of his supremacy. It reveals 
 him still as a being apart from the rest of the world 
 in which he lives ; unique in his endowments ; possessing 
 many brute qualities in virtue of his physical organisation, 
 but absolutely apart from the highest brutes in the 
 possession of distinctive and inalienable qualities of 
 his own. 
 
 3. Here we may pause to consider the account given 
 by the physical school of Evolutionists of the rise of 
 the moral sense in Man. They hold that the raw 
 material of this faculty is to be found in the social 
 instincts and affections. Primitive races gifted with 
 the largest capacity for co-operation were better able 
 to repel the attacks of outsiders, and finding that the 
 welfare of the community and its internal development 
 depended largely on the habit of close and united action, 
 it was inevitable that this sense of common interest 
 ' "Man's Place in Evolution," p. 220 (ist Ed.). 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 63 
 
 should be gradually increased by exercise. The 
 "individualistic" tribes, being thus at a disadvantage 
 in the struggle for existence, would be gradually weeded 
 out, both through internal dissension, and through the 
 attacks of better disciplined enemies. The surviving 
 tribes would become more and more convinced of the 
 utility of social co-operation, and would elaborate into 
 a law what at first was the fruit of an unreasoning 
 instinct. The relationships of the family, rooted as 
 they are in the very necessities of our being, and laying 
 upon all parents the unavoidable burden of caring for 
 their children during the long years of infancy and 
 childhood, would be of immense service in developing 
 the finer social affections, and furnish a basis for the 
 higher virtues, such as sympathy, gentleness, and 
 altruism.^ Finally, the discovery of the many ad- 
 vantages following on the subdivision of labour in the 
 community would work strongly in the direction of 
 fostering a sense of mutual reliance and interdepend- 
 ence. Thus Man, by infinitely slow but sure degrees, 
 would develop a conscience, and become possessed of 
 a more or less lively sense of responsibility towards his 
 fellows. 
 
 It may be freely granted that a social environment 
 was necessary to the emergence and development of 
 the ethical nature of Man. The moral sense still finds 
 its appropriate environment in the interplay of social 
 relationships. Environment, like opportunity, however, 
 is not creative. It does not account for the contents 
 of organism as such. There must be something for 
 environment to work upon, something for opportunity 
 to call into action. In the case before us, this something 
 is a faculty that appears for the first time in humanity, 
 
 * Prof. Drummond in his " Ascent of Man," chaps, vii. — ix., develops 
 this aspect of social evolution with great power and eloquence. 
 
64 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 constituting a fre^ departure as distinct from blind 
 impulse and irrational instinct as living matter is distinct 
 from matter devoid of life. The fundamental basis 
 of the true moral faculty is found in self-consciousness, 
 which constitutes Man into a " free " personality capable 
 of reflecting on the facts of his conscious life, able to 
 regard motives in an ascending and descending scale 
 of value, to choose between such as present themselves 
 as alternatives, and to give the effective place to any 
 motive, not in virtue of its momentary strength, but 
 of its ethical "quality." Moral relationships in the 
 proper sense can only exist between beings thus endowed. 
 There is nothing in purely animal psychology to corre- 
 spond with this sense of the qualitative difference between 
 the alternatives of choice. Animals may "hesitate" 
 before they act, that is, when conflicting impulses within 
 them are in unstable equilibrium. The hesitation, how- 
 ever, at once ceases as soon as any one impulse emerges 
 into dominance, and the action follows as inevitably as 
 a moving body follows the resultant line of mechanical 
 forces pressing upon it. Man, on ti'ie contrary, can 
 " reflect " on his warring impulses ; he can judge, 
 rearrange, and control such motives as may be present 
 in his mind, and by this " self-determining" power settle 
 whether he shall obey them or dismiss them out 
 of his regard altogether. To the objective observer 
 he may still seem to be determined by the strongest 
 motive (all moral action is action determined by motive) ; 
 but as he subjectively observes himself, he knows that 
 he is not the mere sport of any motive, but a free agent 
 who has given some particular motive the victory in 
 obedience to a higher or lower ideal of conduct which 
 he chooses as the regulative principle of his character. 
 Ethical action, thus, is not " uncaused " action ; it is 
 " self-caused." " To be free means that one is determined 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 65 
 
 by nothing but by oneself." ^ No animal possesses a 
 self in this higher sense, nor any dawning sense of it ; 
 and moral freedom is thus another distinguishing mark 
 of the genus Homo, 
 
 4. Closely allied with the ethical is the religious 
 sense. The sphere of ethics is found in the relation- 
 ships that exist between man and man ; the sphere 
 of religion is found in the relationships that exist 
 between Man and his Maker.^ How he first became 
 conscious of the existence of a Higher Being or Beings 
 is a question of great interest and of great difficulty ; 
 it does not, however, make any difference, as is some- 
 times alleged, as to the reality and validity of the facts. 
 It is the contention of the Physical School that the 
 notion of a Deity, to whom he owes allegiance and 
 with whom he can come into conscious touch, was 
 evolved through the influence of dreams. After some 
 
 ^ Mackenzie's " Manual of Ethics," p. 94. In a footnote this 
 writer adds : •' Those writers who insist on the fact that there 
 is determination or law in all our actions, and who on this ground 
 deny freedom, are commonly known as Necessitarians or Deter- 
 minists. On the other hand, those who insist on liberty to such 
 an extent as to deny all law or determination in human conduct, 
 are called Libertarians or Indeterminists. It is now generally 
 recognised that these two schools of writers simply represent 
 opposite sides of the same truth, and that the idea of self-determina- 
 tion combines the two sides." 
 
 ' Dr. Martineau in his "Study of Religion" (Vol. I., p. i) rightly 
 insists on this distinction between Ethics and Religion, "under- 
 standing by ' Religion ' belief in an Ever-living God, that is, of 
 a Divine Will ruling the Universe, and holding Moral relations 
 with mankind." Dr. Fairbairn (" The Place of Christ in Modern 
 Theology," p. 493) says that Religion is "but the symbol of the 
 kindred natures and correlated energies of God and man. . . . 
 Religion may be described as man's consciousness of supernatural 
 relations, or his belief in the reciprocal activities of his own spirit 
 and the Divine." Similarly Prof. W. N. Clarke in his eminently 
 fresh and able " Outhne of Christian Theology " puts the matter 
 thus: "Religion is the life of man in his superhuman relations; 
 that is, in his relation to the Power that produced him, the 
 Authority that is over him, and the Unseen Being with Whom 
 he is capable of communion" (p. i). 
 
 5 
 
66 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 one had died, some one else dreamed about him, and 
 this gave rise to the idea that he was still alive. Hence, 
 by degrees, there evolved the so-called instinctive belief 
 in the survival of the soul after death, which later on 
 developed into the full-grown doctrine of Immortality. 
 In the earlier stages of this process came the phase 
 of ancestor-worship, still prevalent among savage races, 
 and even among the civilised Chinese and other Eastern 
 nations. This gradually became purified of its grosser 
 elements, passing during the process through various 
 well-defined stages. The first of these was a belief 
 in a plurality of gods, who were held to be very 
 powerful in their influence on human destiny, capable 
 of being incensed by wrong-doing and of being placated 
 by means of worship and sacrifice. By slow degrees, 
 this faith was sublimated once more of its more 
 materialistic aspects, and ethicised into Monotheism, 
 or a belief in one God, Maker of heaven and earth, the 
 Friend and the Saviour of Mankind. Once more, and 
 for the last time, we are face to face with a change 
 in religious belief, which involves a denial of the person- 
 ality of the Divine Being, whom we are henceforth to 
 conceive of as a Self-existent but Unknowable Entity, 
 whose nature is hidden from us behind the impenetrable 
 mists of phenomena. Worship thus finally resolves 
 itself into Reverence for the Unknowable Power, and 
 Religion into practical ethics " tinged with emotion," 
 the duty of Man to God being replaced by a loftier 
 and more operant sense of our social duties. 
 
 This is the programme of the physical school of 
 Evolutionists. It is not necessary, in order to deal 
 successfully with it, and to maintain our position as 
 believers in the unique quality of the moral and religious 
 " instincts," to deny their gradual and almost imper- 
 ceptible development. A process may be evolutionary 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 67 
 
 in form without being necessarily physical in origin. 
 The religious instinct clearly evolves in the individual : 
 there was a time in the infancy of the most devout 
 men when they had no more interest in matters spiritual 
 than have the lower animals. We have all grown into 
 the possession of our moral and religious faculties. 
 This does not in any way disprove that they are 
 innate in the individual. Nor does it do away in the 
 race with the fact that these instincts are peculiar to 
 Man, and cannot be resolved into elements of which 
 we have rudimentary glimpses in the lower creation. 
 Whether, therefore, the process which ends in the 
 reasoned faith of Chnstianity began with Animism, or 
 Ancestor-worship, is a matter of profound indifference 
 so far as the question of the validity of the Faith is 
 concerned. It is but natural that there should have 
 been many crude guesses at the riddle of existence 
 before the final answer was reached ; that many partial 
 revelations of the truth should have been granted, 
 suitable to the various stages of Man's religious con- 
 sciousness, before the Word was made flesh in the 
 fulness of time ; that much darkness should have been 
 mingled with the light before it broadened into perfect 
 day. That this should be so, both in the region of 
 ethics and that of religion, is exactly what was to be 
 expected in a world like this, and with a being so 
 essentially slow to come to complete mastery of his 
 faculties and of his environment as Man has always 
 proved himself to be. 
 
 IV 
 
 Evolution has sometimes been represented as dis- 
 crediting the notion of a Creator. This again is an 
 entirely gratuitous assumption, and breaks down after 
 
68 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 a little examination. The true antithesis brought to 
 light by the new science is not that of " creation " v. " no 
 creation," but of "creation by fiat" v, "creation by 
 process." " The essence of the difference between the 
 older and the newer doctrine," writes Dr. Martineau 
 in his usual trenchant style, " lies in this : that the 
 causality which the former concentrates, the latter 
 distributes ; the fiat of a moment bursts open, and spreads 
 itself along the path of perpetuity." ^ 
 
 The case may be put in another way. Was the 
 method of creation by the substitution of new species 
 for the old in successive epochs, or by the transmutation 
 of old species into new by gradual modification and 
 descent ? In the first case, when a fresh species appeared 
 on the earth, it would be specially created by a separate 
 and unrelated Divine act ; in the other, it would come 
 about by the gradual modification of some existing 
 species. 
 
 Now it is clear that this does not in any way touch 
 the question of creation as a fact, but only the method 
 of creation. Strangely enough, there are those who 
 think that God is not only dethroned but abolished 
 when His method of working is explained. Once more 
 to quote Prof Le Conte : — 
 
 " So long as we knew not how worlds were made, 
 we of course concluded that they were created, but as 
 soon as science showed how it was probably done, 
 immediately we say that we were mistaken — * they were 
 not made at all.' So also, so long as we could not 
 imagine how new organic forms originated, we were 
 willing to believe that they were created ; but, so soon 
 as we find that they were originated by Evolution, 
 many at once say, ' We were mistaken ; no Creator 
 is necessary at all.' Is this so when the question is 
 1 "The Seat of Authority in Religion," p. 13. 
 
Chap. Ill Evolution and Man 69 
 
 concerning the work of man? Yes, of one kind — viz. 
 the work of the magician. Here, indeed, we believe 
 in him and delight in his work, until we know how it 
 is done, and then all our faith and wonder cease. But 
 in any honest work it is not so ; but, on the contrary, 
 when we understand how it is done, stupid wonder is 
 changed into intellectual delight." ^ 
 
 And indeed so long as the fact of Evolution is so 
 undeniably true of the individual life, it is surely 
 perversity alone that finds an insurmountable barrier 
 to the acceptance of the same fact in the history of 
 the race. Every single human being undeniably grows 
 to full maturity by a perfectly natural process from a 
 homogeneous egg-cell or corpuscle. Is it then a lower- 
 ing of Man's dignity to say that he is the latest flower 
 of the great tree of life, whose roots stretch back into 
 the illimitable past, and into the " dim profound " of 
 a mystery that lies alike behind organic and inorganic 
 existence? Is God's hand less clearly impressed on 
 Man because his body has been derived from that of an 
 " apelike " ancestor (also created by God), i.e. because 
 his Creator has made use, as it were, of material already 
 prepared, through countless aeons, for His final chef- 
 d'oeuvre^ instead of using what may be literally called 
 the "dust of the earth"? And is the coming of the 
 spiritual principle in Man less Divine and impressive 
 because, in the higher animals, organism was already 
 becoming sensitive to something nobler than physical 
 stimulus, and was, as it were, trembling forward towards 
 finer issues, till ready to be kindled at the sacred touch 
 of God's breath, and become the tabernacle of an 
 immortal soul? Nor, finally, should any difficulty be 
 felt at the impossibility of stating exactly when the 
 critical moment occurred which turned the "manlike 
 1 *• Evolution and Religious Thought," pp. 287, 288. 
 
7<5 The Ascent through Christ Introd. 
 
 ape" into the "apelike man." For the same difficulty 
 presents itself precisely in the history of the individual 
 Man. At what point in the embryonic development 
 of the individual is the soul "with its potential con- 
 sciousness implanted ? Is it in the protoplasmic cell ? 
 in the new-born infant ? or at five years of age ? " ^ 
 This question has never been settled ; and yet no one 
 doubts that at some point or other this stupendous 
 change took place ; nor does the difficulty of deter- 
 mining the matter seem to trouble those who in the other 
 case are full of fears lest the dreaded proof of Darwinism 
 should overthrow the foundations of their theology. A 
 little calm reflection will show how exactly parallel the 
 two cases are, and how utterly baseless are the fears 
 of those who tremble so violently for the ark of God 
 in the one instance, while in the other they are so 
 unconscious of peril. It is one of those cases, which are 
 far more frequent than we imagine, in which a failure 
 to realise the true issues at stake breeds an inconsistent 
 attitude towards the whole question ; and those who 
 otherwise would find no difficulty in accepting the 
 results of science are kept in a constant state of fear 
 and trembling lest some fancied outpost of the Faith 
 be taken by assault. What is wanted is a mind well 
 informed in the real alternatives, and a heart whose 
 personal grasp of the truth of God is steadfast and 
 unwavering ; and then there is nothing to fear, and 
 much, as we hope we have shown, to gain, by following 
 out the relations between the teachings of Science and 
 Religion in regard to the Origin of Man. 
 
 ^ See Prof. Ray Lankester's "Advancement ot Science," 
 PP- 51-55. 
 
Book I: Evolution 
 and the Fall of Man 
 
 b 
 
 7« 
 
" Did you say the stars were worlds, Tess 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "All like ours?" 
 
 *' I don't know ; but I think so. They sometimes 
 seem to be like the apples on our stubbard-tree. Most 
 of them splendid and sound— a few blighted." 
 
 " Which do we live on— a splendid one or a blighted 
 one ? " 
 
 "A blighted one." 
 
 Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D Urbervilhs, 
 
The subject of the first chapter oj 
 Genesis is not Creation^ but the Creator. 
 What it gives us is not a world, but a 
 God." 
 
 Prof. W. G. Elmslie. 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 EVOLUTION AND THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 Chapter L— Genesis and the Creation — 
 The First Account 
 
 Three Centuries of Controversy — Triumph ot Science in her own 
 Domain — And of Genesis in the Spiritual Sphere — A False Scent — 
 Characteristics of Elohist Writer— Tabular Scheme of the "Days of 
 Creation "— " Not Science, but Theology." 
 
 BEFORE we go further in our approach towards the 
 first of the three great questions which form the 
 landmarks of our inquiry, that is, the doctrine of the Fall 
 of Man as affected by the theory of Evolution, let us 
 carefully consider the Biblical account of the creation of 
 Man as we find it outlined in the first chapter of Genesis. 
 The average thoughtful mind, in approaching this 
 discussion, is very much in the position of a man who 
 is called upon to admire a landscape as the last grim 
 sounds of battle are dying away from it. Under such 
 conditions, it would be impossible for him to rise into 
 an aesthetic mood, or to give a dispassionate consideration 
 to the higher suggestions of the view. Especially would 
 this be so if he were vitally interested in the conflict 
 itself. The tragic struggle would absorb all his mind, 
 and though what was left of its traces might be insignifi- 
 cant amid the vast expanse of beauty, their presence 
 would be enough to obscure the glory of the whole 
 landscape. It is with something of the same feelings 
 that many devout readers of the Bible approach the 
 
 73 
 
74 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 first chapters in Genesis. For generations they have 
 been the scene of bitter and oft -renewed conflict, involving 
 some of the most vital interests of the human soul. 
 Now, it is Copernicus and the doctors of his time, 
 wrangling over the comparative claims of the earth and 
 the sun to be considered the centre of the Solar System ; 
 now, it is Galilei in a dark Italian prison, signing away 
 under fear of Inquisition-torture, the earth's last right 
 to revolve round her own axis, but whispering all the 
 time " Still she moves " ; now it is Lyell's " Geology " 
 that conflicts with Archbishop Ussher's chronology of 
 Scripture, multiplying by millions the meagre thousands 
 of birthdays hitherto allowed to the earth ; now it is a 
 controversy whose watchwords suggest a mere question 
 of rival authority between Moses and Darwin, as though 
 they were professors in two opposing schools of instruc- 
 tion ; and yet once more the earth and the heavens are 
 shaken by the broader issues involved in the terms 
 " Higher Criticism," " Evolution and Genesis." For four 
 hundred years the haze of battle has not lifted from 
 these sublime and incomparable chapters. This would 
 not much matter if the issues involved were purely 
 abstract and theoretical. But they are unfortunately 
 supremely practical. The struggle has been in reality 
 between two essential parts of Man's nature. The 
 intellectual and the spiritual instincts have been at war ; 
 and the issues have been none the less bitterly fought 
 out because they have been complicated by all the 
 quenchless animosity of a civil war. All men who have 
 any regard for their higher welfare have thus, in spite of 
 themselves, been drawn into the mood of conflict, and 
 most of us at one time or another have lost all the 
 stimulus and grandeur of the sublime creation-scene 
 in a sorry participation in the confusion and wrath, 
 the recrimination and passion, that have marked the 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 75 
 
 course of this age-long and apparently interminable 
 controversy. 
 
 But now that a better mood is dawning, and the 
 smoke of battle is clearing off, and a truer appreciation 
 of the common brotherhood that ought to exist between 
 the religious and the scientific man is growing, two 
 great results begin to stand out clear and prominent, 
 and a third seems inevitably suggested. 
 
 I 
 
 First, it is clear that, wherever the alleged teachings 
 of Genesis as to the method of Creation have come into 
 conflict with the ascertained principles of Science, the 
 latter have triumphed all along the line. It was 
 supposed at one time, for instance, that to hold the 
 sun to be the centre of the Solar System was incom- 
 patible with a belief in the teachings of Genesis. Does 
 any one think so now ? It was at one time believed, 
 on the supposed authority of Genesis, that the sun and 
 moon were created as celestial appendages to the earth, 
 and that their only function was to " rule the day 
 and the night " as luminaries. Does any one hold that 
 faith now, or doubt that the earth is astronomically as 
 much an appendage to the sun as the moon is to the 
 earth ? It was at one time believed that the vast layers 
 of geologic rocks were superimposed on one another, 
 all ready stocked with fossils, in six days of twenty-four 
 hours each, just as we find them now, upheaved by 
 cyclic disturbances, and weathered as we know by 
 timeless aerial influences. The elder Mr. Gosse, forty 
 or fifty years ago, believed that a fossil skeleton, found 
 with the remains of food in its interior, was never a 
 part of a living creature, but was made just as we find 
 it, " a kind of stage property "in the theatre of Nature. 
 
76 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 Does any intelligent man, scientist or theologian, believe 
 in such a monstrous theory now, or doubt that the 
 fossiliferous strata of the earth really contain the record 
 of the course of ascending life through countless genera- 
 tions and millenniums of existence ? Thirty years ago, 
 many scientists, and all but a few theologians, believed 
 that all the species of animals came into existence 
 independently, and by direct creative fiat. Now there 
 are very few men of scientific attainments, few even 
 of our religious thinkers, who do not believe in the 
 gradual evolution of one species from another, and 
 that even Man is to be included — physically at least — 
 in the category of those creatures who have developed 
 from lower orders by "descent and gradual modification." 
 It would seem at this point of time as impossible to 
 resist the cogency of the scientific argument in this 
 direction, and keep back the advancing tide of Evolu- 
 tionary thought with the besom of a literalistic inter- 
 pretation of Scripture, as it was for Dame Partington, 
 in Sydney Smith's story, to repel the inroads of the 
 Atlantic Ocean with her mop. Considering how in the 
 past all endeavours to beat off the advance of Science 
 in her own domain, on the ground of her disagreement 
 with the letter of Scripture, have ended so uniformly 
 and inevitably in discreditable and hopeless defeat, it 
 is clear that the only remedy is to take up our theologic 
 standpoint above high-water mark altogether, and so 
 be freed from the recurrent necessity of retreating to 
 " safe ground." If we remain much longer on these 
 lowlands, our fate will be that of the submerged village 
 of Is on the Breton coast, and the voice of inspiration 
 will become as faint and uncertain as the legendary 
 bells of that lost hamlet, which the fishermen of Brittany 
 say they can still dimly hear on calm evenings between 
 the lulls of Atlantic storms. 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 77 
 
 II 
 
 That is the first lesson history teaches us. The 
 second is still more startling. It is that in spite of 
 these successive stormings of the old " theologic " 
 positions, and the abandonment of the ancient "out- 
 works" of faith, the Genesis account of Creation still 
 holds a unique place in the world's reverence. Not 
 all the dust and din of this weary controversy can 
 suffice to destroy its impression on the mind. It still 
 speaks to us as no other record of the origin of things 
 can do. It strikes a higher and more august note ; it 
 plumbs lower depths of feeling ; it finds us in a more 
 secret place of the soul, than anything that ancient 
 philosophers or modern scientists can tell us. Neither 
 Homer nor Hesiod, Anaxagoras nor Lucretius, 
 Assyrian tablet nor Egyptian hieroglyphic, Accadian 
 myth nor Sanscrit folklore, any more than the specu- 
 lations of Spencer or Darwin, Huxley or Haeckel, can 
 touch the sonorous chords — " like the sound of a great 
 Amen " — that vibrate through these grand and pregnant 
 sentences. What the later sages say concerning the 
 first beginnings of order and life in the universe meets 
 the intelligence with conviction, but leaves the heart 
 still orphaned and homeless. When they have told us 
 all they have to say about the How ? and the When ? 
 and the Where ? of Creation, we are still hungry for 
 the answer to the greatest questions of all — the Why ? 
 and the Whence ? and the Whither ? It is these 
 greatest questions that find their authentic answer in 
 Genesis, and nowhere else. As it has been well pointed 
 out,^ in the theatre of Creation the scientists and 
 philosophers — the scene-shifters — present us with the 
 drama complete in all its subsidiary movements and 
 > Prof, W. G. Elmslie, Contemporary Review for December. 1887. 
 
7B The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 parts, but the principal Personage is invisible from the 
 auditorium in which the spectators stand. As a result, 
 we admire the scenery, the accessories are perfect, the 
 action is harmonious ; but there is no deep meaning in 
 it all, no Divine passion, no spiritual climax : the heart 
 waits for something, for some one, that will reduce the 
 whole to unity and final order, and give the underlying 
 meaning of it all. In vain do we ask and wait ; nothing 
 comes. But from the elevated position in which the 
 author (or authors) of Genesis places us, we suddenly 
 come in sight of the Prime Mover, the Central Char- 
 acter ; we hear His mighty and all-commanding voice ; 
 the whole drama falls into place and beauty and 
 meaning ; the dry bones of Science suddenly spring into 
 life, rise, and sing the Hymn of Praise which the 
 " morning stars sang together," when " all the sons of 
 God shouted for joy." The vast creation is no longer 
 a " charnel-house and a grave," which is all that the 
 geologist can make of it, nor a tragic battle, "red in 
 tooth and claw," which flashes from the canvas of the 
 biologist : in the dim primeval light we recognise the 
 first glow of God's " great Rose of Dawn," which will 
 sometime broaden into the perfect day of grace ; and 
 as the conviction thus grows on us that the Universe 
 is " Godlike and my Father's," we cannot but worship 
 and bow the head. 
 
 Ill 
 
 What are we to infer from these two unquestionable 
 results — the triumph of Science in her own domain, 
 and the still more striking triumph of the Genesis record 
 of creation from the higher point of view ? The infer- 
 ence seems sufficiently obvious. We have been running 
 after a false issue all these centuries, which has plunged 
 us into the most painful and persistent controversy since 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 79 
 
 the dawn of the Reformation. In this controversy there 
 have been three parties, all guilty of a fundamental 
 fallacy. There are those who uphold the Bible account 
 of creation as scientifically accurate in all its details. 
 This party has to all intents and purposes had its day ; 
 the steady advance of established scientific results has 
 hopelessly discredited the assertion that the first chapters 
 of Genesis, understood verbatim et literatim^ are an 
 exact account of the origin of things, and it is not likely 
 to be ever revived. Then there have been those who 
 have absolutely denied any permanent value to the 
 Biblical story, because it cannot be squared with the 
 story of Science. This is still a strong and influential 
 party, and includes many eloquent and earnest scientific 
 writers in its ranks. And there are those who have 
 been ever making earnest, but it would appear futile, 
 attempts to prove that there is no essential contradiction 
 between the two accounts, and by a system of ingenious 
 compromise have aimed at striking a via media between 
 a crude literalism on the one hand and a bald rejection 
 of the Biblical position on the other. The worst of 
 this method is that with the advance of Science it is 
 necessary to correct a recurrent tendency to panic, by 
 undignified compromises and ever-broadening conces- 
 sions to the spirit of the age, as it goes its inevitable way 
 towards capturing the whole position. 
 
 The fallacy of which these three parties are guilty is 
 to imagine that the account of creation given in the 
 Sacred Volume is really meant to be a scientific revela- 
 tion. Both by the exponents and the opponents of the 
 theory that the Bible is the authentic Word of God, 
 this has been at first tacitly, and then formally, taken 
 for granted. And the consequences have been compli- 
 cated by the theory of Verbal Inspiration which has 
 lived so long, and which is now dying so hard. That 
 
8o The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 theory, which makes the slightest error in points of fact, 
 of history, or even of accidental allusion, fatal to the 
 whole authority of the Book, has given an immense 
 advantage to its opponents. For if they can prove the 
 slightest inaccuracy in the form and vehicle of Revelation, 
 they have altogether discredited the Bible as an infallible 
 guide. Let us not forget the good wrought by this 
 theory, in earlier ages, nor impugn the excellent motives 
 and character of those who still hold to it. Before the 
 days of printing, it was the safeguard of textual accuracy, 
 when every copyist who rewrote the Sacred Book was in 
 danger of mutilating it by carelessness and inattention ; 
 it ensured a careful and devout study of the whole 
 volume ; it established the authority of the Book deep 
 in the heart and conscience of its readers ; and it secured 
 for the Bible the unique place it has held in the rever- 
 ence and faith of Christendom. So far we must include 
 the theory of Verbal Inspiration among those beneficent 
 illusions by which the Spirit of Truth and Love has 
 been educating the race towards the apprehension of 
 higher truths. But now that the text of the Bible has 
 been finally secured from all possibility of corruption by 
 careful scholarship and the art of printing, now that 
 new canons of historical inquiry have been developed, 
 and positive science has been born, it is this theory 
 more than any other fact that has prevented the Bible 
 from being historically, and so spiritually, understood. 
 Whatever good therefore it has in times past been the 
 means of doing, it now does little but harm. For if you 
 erect never so strong a building on an insecure and 
 shifting foundation, you sacrifice the superstructure as 
 soon as the foundation gives way ; and the imperishable 
 truths of revelation are endangered in the faith of 
 thousands to-day, when they are told that if ascer- 
 tained Science unquestionably teaches one thing, and 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 8i 
 
 Genesis another, they must throw over the one or the 
 other. 
 
 In the interests of faith therefore — for Science may 
 be safely left to take care of herself — it is well for us 
 to ask whether it is needful for us to affirm that the 
 Bible is meant to teach Scientific as well as Religious 
 Truth. For our own part, in common with thousands 
 of fellow-believers in the profound inspiration of the 
 Book, we have no hesitation in holding that it was never 
 meant to teach us any Science at all. In this matter 
 it is reassuring to find ourselves in one solitary point in 
 agreement with so uncompromising a believer in plenary 
 inspiration as Mr. G. H. Pember, who in his curious 
 book on " Earth's Earliest Ages " gives utterance to these 
 sane and weighty words : "[The Scriptures] altogether . . . 
 avoid contact with the science of men. God does not 
 forbid us to search, as far as we can, into the laws of 
 His universe ; but He utterly refuses to aid or accelerate 
 our studies by revelation." ^ We are convinced that the 
 true method of reading the first chapters of Genesis 
 is to look to them for neither science nor history in the 
 usual acceptance of these terms. These glowing pages 
 were surely written from an entirely different standpoint ; 
 and it is that standpoint into which we have now to 
 inquire. 
 
 IV 
 
 In order to do this with effect, let us consider the 
 following facts : — 
 
 I. The point of view taken up in the first chapter 
 of Genesis is not that of a scientific man, but of an 
 ordinary devout spectator as he stands gazing at thej 
 earth and sea and sky. He views everything from the ; 
 
 * Page 29. 
 
82 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 standpoint of a plain practical man. The heavens above 
 him, the earth beneath him, the sea before him, are all 
 considered, not in a causal relation to each other, but 
 in relation to himself and to the first origin of things. 
 The sun and moon are to him, what they still are to 
 the average man in his average mood, luminaries that 
 create the day and glorify the night ; what they are in 
 themselves he does not seem to ask, nor even to care. 
 The green grass, the air filled with the rush of wings 
 and the tremor of song, the forest and wilderness 
 teeming with savage life, the ocean filled with monsters, 
 are so many phenomena which interest him by their 
 ordered beauty, ranged in ascending sequences of life 
 till they arrive at Man himself at the top. Gazing at 
 all these wonderful things, his mind is eagerly concerned, 
 not with their proximate constitution, but with their 
 ultimate origin, their spiritual import for him. What 
 do they mean in relation to his own soul and life and 
 destiny ? Who made them ? That is the mood in 
 which he approaches the subject, and through it, as 
 through an open door, the Eternal Spirit enters and 
 sheds His light on all things. The word GOD leaps to 
 his lips, repeats itself in manifold chords and harmonies, 
 and weaves itself into this fadeless psalm of Creation. 
 
 2. Secondly, we notice that in so doing the writer, 
 whoever he may be, is dealing in no sense with the 
 scientific, but with the religious aspect of things. Science 
 can only take note of secondary causes. It has nothing 
 to say about a First Cause. That is a question for 
 religious philosophy. Science takes for granted force, 
 order, matter, motion, and all their inter-relations ; and 
 on these postulates it builds up the order and sequences 
 of things in detail. How one thing follows another ; 
 how cause produces effect, and the same cause always 
 the same effect ; how physical phenomena and organic 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 83 
 
 life are interdependent, — these are the problems of 
 Science. In other words, to recur to a phrase already- 
 used more than once, it asks When ? Where ? How ? 
 and when it has obtained a satisfactory answer to these 
 questions, it sinks back satisfied, having no more questions 
 to ask, its function as an instrument of inquiry being 
 completed. But when the scientific faculty — the intellect 
 — has done its work, or rather, in point of time and 
 importance, before it has begun it, the soul with its 
 deeper and more ultimate inquiries comes forward and 
 passionately inquires, Whence ? Why ? Whither ? What 
 is the ultimate source of all these things? Why are 
 they here, thus, and so? What moral plan is being 
 developed by their means? What is the great End 
 towards which they all tend ? These are the questions 
 of religion, of religious philosophy. And it is to these 
 questions that this first chapter of Genesis gives a reply. 
 It is not Science at all, therefore ; it is Religion. Every- 
 thing is viewed in relation to the Eternal Cause and 
 Source of all things, — a consideration which has, strictly 
 speaking, no place whatever in a scientific argument, — 
 and the name of GOD therefore occurs twenty-nine times 
 in thirty-one verses. 
 
 3. We note as a third significant fact that the language 
 and the structure of this chapter do not belong to prose, 
 which is the vehicle of Science, but rather to poetry, 
 which is supremely the vehicle of Religion. This 
 is not easily noted in the unmetrical and literal transla- 
 tion which we hold in our hands ; but it is very clear 
 in the original Hebrew. It is seen — 
 
 First, in the language employed. The words are full 
 of sonorous music ; " rubrical phrases " occur at regular 
 intervals — " and God said," " and it was so," " and God 
 saw," " behold, it was very good," " evening and morning 
 were the first [etc.] day." Apart from this there is a 
 
U The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 fine poetic sense shown in the vivid and skilful use 
 of words to describe the various creatures and objects of 
 which the world is made up, and the Divine acts where- 
 by they are brought into being. The dignity and 
 stateliness of the diction are surpassed in no part of the 
 Bible; the whole drama is described in picturesque 
 language, full of glancing lights and shadows ; we have 
 but to read with unprejudiced mind to feel instinctively 
 that we are in the hands of one who was a poet and a 
 word-painter, as well as a philosopher and a prophet. 
 Secondly, in the conception which forms the mental 
 picture presented. The drama of Creation is presented 
 under the simile of a man going forth to his daily work 
 in the morning, and completing a certain self-allotted 
 task before night, as part of a full week's effort. There 
 are the diurnal hours of work, the nightly hours of 
 pause and silent rest ; there is the progressive comple- 
 tion of one task after another, and to-morrow the work 
 will be resumed where it was left off to-night ; there 
 is the review at the end of each day, with an ever- 
 growing satisfaction at the attainment of yet another 
 stage towards completion, uttered in the evening psalm ; 
 and at the close of all, the complete rest of the Sabbath, 
 with its happy outlook on the week's final triumph. 
 How complete and beautiful a picture, free from all 
 controversial elements, is presented to us by such an 
 interpretation, as compared with that which affirms that 
 the stupendous work of Creation was actually completed 
 in six days of twenty-four hours each ! How many 
 otherwise insoluble questions are answered before they 
 are raised ! How human, and yet how far beyond 
 the reach of human power and resources, looms the 
 figure of the Divine Worker, likening Himself to His 
 creature in His glorious creative activity, so linking us 
 with Him as co-workers, reflecting as we do within 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 85 
 
 the tiny scale of our time-measurements the shadow 
 of His own achievements in the vast perspectives and 
 on the twilight background of Eternity ! 
 
 Thirdly, in the topical arrangement of the chapter. 
 One of the final difficulties in the harmonising of this 
 account of Creation, if it is to be taken in its strict 
 literalness, with the order of the creative process as 
 revealed by Science, is the inversion of the series of 
 events in the creation of the sun and the earth. 
 Literally, as we find the story told us in Genesis, the 
 earth precedes the sun in the sequence of existence : 
 the earth is the original ; the sun is a subsidiary body, 
 coming into being on the fourth day. It is one of the 
 most certain facts of Astronomy, on the other hand, 
 that the earth and her sister-planets were formed out 
 of great rings of fiery matter thrown off by the molten 
 sun in its wild revolution upon its own axis. Many 
 strenuous endeavours have been made by harmonisers 
 of Science and Revelation to bring these two accounts 
 into something like working agreement. One of the 
 most ingenious is that suggested by the late W. E. 
 Gladstone in his suggestive and reverent little work 
 called "The Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture."^ 
 He reverted to the hypothesis already touched on, that 
 the writer views the acts of Creation rather from the 
 standpoint of a spectator on earth than of an absolute 
 narrator of ordered detail ; and that under the con- 
 ditions of the case, the sun, though created, would not 
 appear till the fourth day, when the air would be free 
 from mist, and land and sea would be defined within 
 clearly marked limits. One of the faults of this method 
 of interpretation is that it is much too subtle to accord 
 with the broad lines in which everything is drawn in 
 this chapter ; it is out of all keeping with the straight- 
 * See chap, ii., pp. 26-92 ; especially p. 78, 
 
86 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 forward march of the events ; and it has the further 
 fatal demerit of emptying the word make in the 
 sixteenth verse of the meaning which it has in all the 
 other places in which it occurs. Why should it be 
 taken as meaning " cause, to appear " in this passage, 
 when it means simply to " make " elsewhere ? And if, 
 on the other hand, the author really meant to suggest 
 that the sun was made four days after the earth, we 
 are once more face to face with an absolute contra- 
 diction between Genesis and Astronomical Physics, and 
 our end is again worse than our beginning. 
 
 But let us look a little more closely at the order of 
 the creative process as it is given here. " In Biblical 
 interpretation," writes Prof. R. G. Moulton in his 
 masterly work on " The Literary Study of the Bible," 
 " the question will repeatedly arise, whether a particular 
 passage is to be understood as a simple narrative of 
 facts or an idealised description : in such a case paral- 
 lelism of clauses will undoubtedly be one factor in the 
 interpretation." ^ Such a test applied to this chapter 
 will bring out the most startling and helpful results for 
 the purpose of our study. The form of parallelism 
 resorted to here is that called the "Envelope Figure," 
 perhaps the most important of all forms, " and the most 
 attractive to the genius of Hebrew poetry," " by which 
 a series of parallel lines running to any length are 
 enclosed between an identical (or equivalent) opening 
 and close." ^ In accordance with this principle it will 
 
 1 " The Literary Study of the Bible. An Account of the leading 
 forms of Literature represented in the Sacred Writings. Intended 
 for English Readers." (London: Isbister & Co., 1896.) The 
 quotation is from p. 70. 
 
 * Page 53. Compare Psalm viii., where the opening stanza 
 (verse i a^ b), which forms the theme of the whole psalm, is 
 repeated at the close (verse 9), the intervening portions being but 
 the expansion of this text. The opening stanza of Southey's 
 ^'Jhalaba" gives us an example from pur own literature. 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 
 
 87 
 
 be found that the matter and form of this chapter are 
 arranged in the most minute parallelism. First of all 
 we have the six days of creation arranged in two 
 groups corresponding to each other in a special rela- 
 tion ; and then each day is furnished with an opening 
 and closing formula which correspond. The following 
 scheme will at a glance put the whole before the reader's 
 eye. 
 
 PARALLELISM OF THE FIRST CHAPTER 
 OF GENESIS.! 
 
 FIRST GROUP OF DAYS. SECOND GROUP OF DAYS. 
 
 (1) 
 
 (2) 
 
 Attd God said — 
 
 [Creation of Light] 
 And there was evening and 
 
 there was mornings one 
 
 day. 
 
 (And God said — 
 
 [Creation of the Firma- 
 ment dividing waters 
 from waters] 
 And there was evening and 
 there was morni?igt a 
 second day. 
 
 cAnd God said— 
 \ [Creation of Land] 
 And God said — 
 
 [Creation of Vegetation, 
 
 dimax of inanimate 
 
 nature] 
 
 And there was evening 
 
 aftd there was morning, 
 
 a third day. 
 
 And God said — 
 
 ([Creation of Lights] 
 And there was evening and 
 there was mornings a 
 fourth day. 
 
 (5) 
 
 (6) 
 
 (And God said— 
 
 [Creation of Life in the 
 
 Firmament and in the 
 
 waters] 
 
 A7td there was evening and 
 
 there was mornings a fifth 
 
 day. 
 
 And God said — 
 [Creation of Life on 
 Land] 
 And God said — 
 
 [Creation of Man, climax 
 of animate nature] 
 And there was evening 
 and there was mornings 
 a sixth day. 
 
 [{ 
 
 > The above is taken from Prof. MouUon's work, p 72, 
 
88 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 A careful examination of this tabic will show that 
 the first group of three days presents us with three 
 vast empty tenements or habitations ; and the second 
 furnishes us with their occupants. The first day gives 
 us the sphere of light (the sky) ; the fourth day (the 
 first of the second group) tenants it with the sun, moon, 
 and stars. We can thus at once see how it has come 
 about that the heavenly bodies do not appear on the 
 scene till the fourth day ; the logical order of grouping 
 made this necessary. The second day brings before 
 us the realm of air and water ; the fifth day (the second 
 of the second group) supplies the inhabitants — birds 
 and fishes. The third produces the habitable land; 
 the sixth (again the corresponding day) stocks it with 
 animals and with man. " The idea of this arrangement 
 is on the face of it [not chronological but] literary and 
 logical. It is chosen for its comprehensiveness, its all- 
 inclusive completeness. To declare of every part and 
 atom of Nature that it is the making of God, the author 
 passes in procession the great elements or spheres which 
 the human mind everywhere conceives as making up the 
 world, and pronounces them one by one God's creation. 
 Then he makes an inventory of their entire furniture 
 and contents, and asserts that all these are likewise 
 the work of God. For his purpose — which is to declare 
 the universal creatorship of God and the uniform 
 creaturehood of all Nature — the order and classification 
 is unsurpassed and unsurpassable. With a masterly 
 survey that marks everything and omits nothing, he 
 sweeps the whole category of created existence, collects 
 the scattered leaves into six congruous groups, encloses 
 each in a compact and uniform binding, and then on 
 the back of the numbered and uniform and ordered 
 volumes stamps the great title and declaration that 
 they are one and all, every jot, and tittle, and shred, 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 89 
 
 and fragment, the works of their Almighty Author, and 
 of none beside." ^ " In the beginning" — God ; on each 
 step of the way — God ; at the end — God ; everywhere — 
 God! 
 
 If this method of interpreting Genesis is the correct 
 one, it will be seen at once that it finally disposes of all 
 the difficulties arising from a supposed conflict between 
 it and Science. The two accounts of Creation, being 
 on different planes and looking at the same facts from 
 totally distinct points of view, not only do not, but 
 cannot in any way, conflict.^ There is no room for 
 disagreement where there is no basis for comparison. 
 This frees us from any embarrassment in accepting the 
 results of Biology and Anthropology as to the nature 
 and origin of Man, whatever they may be ; and it puts 
 the Scientist out of court if, stepping out of his proper 
 sphere and function, he tries to discredit the inspired 
 Record on the ground that it contains antiquated 
 scientific statements. It matters not for the purposes 
 of the author or authors of the first chapters of Genesis 
 whether the framework of physical ideas in which they 
 clothe their teaching is accurate from the modern point 
 of view. That belongs to the accidents, and not the 
 essentials, of their message, and the message is equally 
 valid, and equally Divine, whatever may be thought 
 of the human vesture of thought in which it is clothed. 
 Through the perishable ideas shines an everlasting 
 
 * This passage is from a notable paper by the late Prof. Elmslie, 
 in the Conte7np or ary Review ior December 1887, p. 824, in which 
 the same view as Prof. Moulton adopts is developed with great 
 learning and eloquence. 
 
 ' '• For Christians the facts of Nature are the acts of God. 
 Religion relates these facts to God as their author, Science relates 
 them to one another as integral parts of a visible order " (Aubrey 
 L. Moore, "Science and the Faith," p. 185). The first sentence of 
 this quotation exactly describes the standpoint of the author of the 
 first chapter of Genesis. 
 
90 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 light ; and when the ideas have passed, the light 
 remains, shining all the more brightly through the 
 broken window of a once universally accepted, but now 
 abandoned theory. If the accounts of Creation given 
 in the first two chapters of Genesis were scientifically 
 correct, therefore, "it would not prove that they were 
 revealed ; if they are scientifically crude and inexact, 
 it does not prove that there is no revelation contained 
 in them." ^ 
 
 To sum up. From a careful examination of the 
 structure, language, arrangement, and purpose of the 
 first chapter of Genesis, we have come to the conclusion 
 that it is not meant in any way to be a scientific 
 account of the way in which the heavens and the earth 
 were made. It is not Science, it is Theology. Its aim 
 is to establish the Divine origin of all things, and to 
 find the rationale of the Universe in the presence and 
 activity of a Holy, Just, Beneficent, Gracious God. It 
 is written not in order to describe and establish for all 
 time the precise order of events in the process of 
 creation, but to expound their spiritual import. It 
 combats, and it perpetuates, no scientific error. It is 
 not a treatise of physics, but a Hymn of Praise, or, 
 at the lowest, a polemic against Atheism, against 
 Pantheism, against Polytheism, against Demonology, 
 and all manner of heathen witchcrafts. In order to 
 realise its Divine origin, we should contrast it, not with 
 modern scientific speculations, but with rival ancient 
 notions of the origin of the created Universe ; and 
 whether we put it alongside the Assyrian, Accadian, 
 Greek, or Egyptian circle of ideas, it will at once spring 
 into unique and imperishable contrast. Nay, more ; 
 we have but to compare it with modern religio- 
 philosophical attempts to enter into the higher aspects 
 1 " Revelation and the Bible," by Dr. R, F. Horton, p. 31. 
 
Chap. I Genesis and the Creation 91 
 
 of the Universe to find it springing into lofty and 
 unmistakable antithesis. Agnosticism pales its in- 
 effectual fires before the still radiance of this wonderful 
 Hymn ; Positivism falls silent just where its sonorous 
 chords begin to sound ; Pessimism sinks into shamed 
 silence in the presence of its exultant refrain, " Behold, 
 it was very good." It is the world's morning-chant of 
 the goodness and the beauty of the Creator's activity 
 in the making of all that was, and is, and is to come ; 
 and to the world's evening in the dim future, it will 
 continue to voice the highest and devoutest mood of 
 humanity in looking at the earthly home in which it 
 dwells, and works, and aspires. 
 
BOOK I: EVOLUTION 
 AND THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 • The Elohist presents us with Man i\ 
 the making ; the Jehovist with Man in 
 the marring." 
 
 Chapter IL — Genesis and the Creation — 
 The Second Account 
 
 The Jehovist and the Elohist — Story of the Fall— Principles of Inter- 
 pretation — History, Tradition, Legend, Myth — A Myth may be " in- 
 spired " — Contrast between Scriptural and Ethnic Myths — Five " Fall- 
 myths " in Jehevist's Account— Some Deductions. 
 
 I 
 
 IT IS now allowed by nearly all serious students of the 
 structure and composition of the Book of Genesis 
 that it contains two independent accounts of the Crea- 
 tion, written at different times and from diverse points 
 of view, the two having been brought together by an 
 unknown editor for a special purpose. The first is that 
 contained in the first chapter and the first four and a 
 half verses in the second chapter ; the second beginning 
 at that point, running on to chap. iii. 24. These two 
 passages are easily distinguishable from one another in 
 subject-matter, in diction, and in the fundamental ideas 
 that underlie them. Their full treatment belongs to 
 the general question of the composite character of the 
 Pentateuch ; here we can only touch on such salient 
 points as are essential for our own purpose. With the 
 general drift and special structure of the first, or Elohist, 
 account (so called because the author consistently calls 
 the Creator by the name Elohim) we have already dealt 
 in the preceding chapter. We now address ourselves 
 to the second or Jehovist account, so called because the 
 
 writer calls the Creator by the name Jehovah-Elohim, 
 
 92 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 93 
 
 In reading these two versions of the Creation it is at 
 once obvious that the centre of interest is changed. 
 The logical order, the stately movement, the progressive 
 development of the drama of Creation that characterises 
 the first account, as well as its poetical and balanced 
 diction, are now exchanged for an entirely different 
 method of treatment. The Elohist is bent on putting 
 before us the general sequence of the creative process as 
 a series of phenomena flowing from the Unseen, and 
 filling space and time with the glory and goodness of 
 God ; and Man appears at the end of the series in his 
 own appropriate place, the earthly climax to which all 
 leads. The central figure of the drama is the Divine 
 Being, and even Man derives his chief dignity because 
 he is the most perfect embodiment of the Divine Nature.^ 
 In the Jehovist account all this is changed. There is 
 no attempt to trace the upward process from the formless 
 void; there is no mention of the "days" of creation; 
 and there are several features which are inconsistent in 
 detail with what has been clearly and unambiguously 
 stated in the first chapter. For it is here clearly implied 
 that Man was made before either plant or herb or 
 animal existed : ^ " And no plant of the field was yet 
 in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung 
 up : for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon 
 the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground " 
 (suggesting that plant-life was the result of human 
 cultivation) ; " but there went up a mist from the earth, 
 and watered the whole face of the ground " (this idea 
 seeming to be the counterpart in the mind of the Jehovist 
 of the " void and darkness " of primal chaos in the first 
 account). The Elohist proceeds on the supposition that 
 the creation of Woman was contemporaneous with that 
 
 * Gen. i. 26, 27. 
 
 * Ibid.^ ii. 5, 6: cf. verses 18-20. 
 
94 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 of Man ; ^ the Jehovist describes her as a kind of after- 
 thought on the part of the Creator and suggests that 
 she was made to supply Adam's failure to find a fitting 
 helpmeet among the beasts of the field,^ the method of 
 creation being from the " rib " taken from Adam's side. 
 In the first account Man is shown to be the last link in 
 the chain of being, supreme in the possession of God- 
 likeness, and so fitted for the lordship of the earthly 
 order. In the second, he is still the creature for whom 
 all things exist, but his place in the serial order of 
 ascending life is not suggested, and the horizon within 
 which he moves is more limited. In the first, his home 
 is the vast creation, arched by the dome of the sky, 
 in which sun, moon, and stars perform their orderly 
 functions, and filled with teeming orders of life, vege- 
 table and animal ; all having been completely prepared, 
 down to the last detail, before Man came to enjoy 
 and to rule. In the second, his place in the world is 
 determined by a series of adjustments after he has arrived 
 on the scene : the planting of the garden, the creation 
 of the animal orders, the formation of the woman who 
 was to be his helpmeet.^ All this makes it clear that 
 the mere physical order of creation is subordinate in the 
 mind of the writer to some other end. This end is to 
 exhibit Man not so much as the intellectual head of 
 creation, but as a moral being who is on his trial. We 
 can thus see at once why the Jehovist is so careless 
 about much that the Elohist considers of vital importance, 
 and why the dramatic movement of the story is centred 
 not in the world without but in the world within. The 
 horizon shrinks to the limits of Eden ; but in so doing 
 it intensifies our interest by concentrating our attention 
 on the spiritual drama of Man's discipline, ending in 
 
 » Gen. i. 27. ^ Cf. Gen. ii. 5, 8-10, 18-25. 
 
 ■ Ibid., ii. 21-25. 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 95 
 
 lapse from " his first estate." If the earlier story is told 
 that we may realise Man's normal relation to the Universe 
 which is the theatre of his existence, the second is told 
 that we may understand how that relation has become 
 abnormal. We learn from the Elohist what Man, made 
 in the image of God, was meant to be, the climax of 
 creation ; the Jehovist tells us what Man is, the victim of 
 moral maladjustment, rebellion, and sin. Thus the two 
 accounts, if diverse in their incidental details, are mutually 
 complementary in their subject-matter, and fittingly find 
 their place together as a full description of the complex 
 nature of Man, and of his actual relations both to his 
 Creator and to his environment. They enable us, in 
 a word, to understand how Man is at once at the head 
 of things, and is yet pursued by the sense of failure and 
 deposition. Man's dignity is the lesson of the first ; 
 Man's fall, of the second ; and a full doctrine of Man 
 must include both lessons. 
 
 II 
 
 Let us now turn our attention more particularly to the 
 Jehovist's account of Man's primal condition and Fall 
 into sin. 
 
 His teaching is that Man was created in a state of 
 innocence, and lived in some kind of conscious communion 
 with his Maker. In a real sense, however dim, he knew 
 God. By Him he was placed in a special environment, 
 in which he was not only in unison with the Divine 
 Being, but with all things around him. There was 
 none of that spirit of unrest and discord within him 
 which is his distinctive moral characteristic at present. 
 Work was pleasant to him. All things were fair in his 
 eyes. He lived at peace with himself, with the world, 
 and with God. One thing only there was in his Eden 
 
96 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 of innocence and blessedness that spread a possible 
 shadow on his mind. In the garden in which he was 
 placed there was a tree, called the "tree of the know- 
 ledge of good and evil," ^ from the fruit of which he was 
 forbidden to eat, under penalty of " death." ^ The story 
 goes on to say that a " serpent " tempted the two human 
 beings, who then represented the race, to disobey this 
 command, under the false promise of a sudden develop- 
 ment of their natures towards the Divine. The woman 
 succumbed first. She ate of the fruit, and having done 
 so without any apparent harm, she persuaded her 
 husband to follow her example. We are then told how 
 there fell on both a sense of shame and guilt, which was 
 intensified when next they became aware of the presence 
 of God in their garden, so that they endeavoured to hide 
 themselves in the midst of the trees ; how they were 
 convicted of their sin ; and of the punishment which 
 was finally passed on their disobedience. The Divine 
 judgment was pronounced ; they were expelled from the 
 fair garden in which they had been so innocent and 
 happy, and sent forth discredited into the inhospitable 
 earth, to take their place in the struggle of life with the 
 brute creation, no longer as the vicegerents of God, but 
 as outcasts from the presence of the Lord. Before, how- 
 ever, the last word 's spoken, we have a glimpse of a 
 merciful promise o'' . ademption that was to be wrought 
 out in the course of the ages by the " Seed " of the 
 woman, who was to crush the " seed " of the serpent. 
 This faint and almost formless point of light, shining 
 dimly, like an evening-star, in the twilight of Man's 
 Fall, is explicable only in the after-glow of the later 
 Revelation. By itself it is nothing ; but, seen in the 
 light of the Gospel, it has ever been recognised as the 
 starting-point of the redemptive process which was 
 Gen. iii. 5. » Ibid,^ verse 3. 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 97 
 
 consummated on Calvary and at the empty tomb of 
 Christ. '* The fact that evil was present, although its 
 nature and its curse were but imperfectly discerned ; 
 the fact that salvation was possible and promised, 
 although the manner of its accomplishment was not 
 indicated as yet, or but in the vaguest manner : these 
 were the truths which constituted the beginnings of 
 God's revelation to Man."^ 
 
 This is the Jehovist's account of the Origin: ^;id 'Fall 
 of Man from primal innocence — a story '^hicV lias 
 captivated and held the mind of man frfr u.ntcild 'a:ges^/ 
 which has been the background of almost all the religious 
 thinking of Christendom, the theme of some of its 
 highest poetry and speculation, the soil in which its 
 deepest sentiments have quickened and ripened, the 
 quarry out of which has been hewn one of the corner- 
 stones of its theological systems. The question how far 
 the New Science of Man has made this story incredible or 
 obsolete is thus no mere idle one ; it is deserving of the 
 closest and most reverent study; and in approaching it 
 we should be as free from a reckless spirit of iconoclasm 
 and destructiveness, as from the spirit of foolish con- 
 servatism, which clings to the husks of truth with blind 
 tenacity because it is so afraid of losing the kernel. The 
 position we would take up is that the spiritual import 
 of the story of Eden is not to be in any way confounded 
 with its form, nor identified with its historicity in the 
 usual sense of the term ; that it represents a fact of 
 the profoundest importance ann the most far-reaching 
 consequences, whose truth is unaffected by any theory 
 we may be constrained to form as to the literary 
 interpretation of the story which is its vehicle; and 
 that the permanent teaching of this portion of Sacred 
 
 ^ "The Development of Revelation," by E. Reeves Palmer, 
 M.A„ p. 61, 
 
 7 
 
98 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 Scripture may be best retained in the present day 
 by the frankest acceptance of the results of criticism 
 which, in emancipating us from the tyranny of the letter, 
 leave us free to search with more hope of realising the 
 power of the spirit. . 
 
 • 'tHE ''position of the average religious mind in relation 
 '« s^J.r'to-the Jstcry of Eden may be paralleled by such a case 
 
 *as would have existed had we all been brought up to 
 believe that the Christian Faith was indissolubly bound 
 up with the historicity of our Lord's parables. There 
 is nothing in the mere form of these parables which 
 negatives such a notion. In many cases the incidents 
 are such as might have taken place at any time ; many 
 of them must have occurred again and again. Let us 
 imagine that this presupposition of the historicity of 
 the parables had been firmly fixed in the minds of 
 devout believers, and that suddenly a " higher critic " 
 ventured the statement that the substance of their 
 teaching was in no wise bound up with the reality 
 of these incidents ; that as a matter of fact none of 
 them ever occurred ; but that this made no difference, 
 their spiritual import being the same. We can easily 
 imagine the shock which such a statement would cause 
 to the faith of thousands of earnest souls, who would 
 revolt against the notion that our Lord should con- 
 descend to use " fictions " as the vehicle of His teaching ; 
 some would doubtless go so far as to say that such an 
 idea, if established, would for ever destroy their faith in 
 His infallibility as a Teacher. Never having had our faith 
 bound up with such a childish theory of Inspiration, we 
 can afford to smile at the unnecessary alarm which the 
 breaking up of such a theory would unquestionably 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 99 
 
 cause. We rightly say : "It matters not at all to us 
 whether the incidents used in our Lord's parables for 
 the conveyance of Divine truth be historical facts or 
 charming inventions of fancy. The question at issue 
 is not the objective reality of the stories, but the 
 character of the lessons they convey, which are 
 exactly the same whether these stories are made up 
 of fact or fiction." \ • ;. : : •. ; ;*•. :; 
 
 Fortunately we have been spared any such' ti^etU'e'ss '•' * 
 difficulty in regard to the New Testament;';' 'bvit th^t;*^*. \\i \\ \ 
 have fallen into it inadvertently in regardf to* portions' * '* * 
 of the Old Testament is a demonstrable fact. Partly 
 owing to imperfect knowledge of the distinction in form 
 between Hebrew prose and poetry, — an ignorance until 
 comparatively recent times almost universal, and 
 rendered almost inevitable by the mechanical way in 
 which the Authorised Version is printed, failing as 
 it does to make any distinction between the historical 
 and the poetical books,^ and between narrations of fact 
 and the lyrical passages so often imbedded in them,'^ — 
 and partly owing to an entire failure to recognise the 
 possibility of imparting spiritual truth through un- 
 historic media, — v/e have been stubbornly unwilling 
 to believe that the early records in Genesis contain 
 legendary or mythical elements, on the assumption that 
 the truths they teach are inseparably bound up with 
 the literal accuracy of the stories in which these truths 
 are embodied. 
 
 ^ The Book of Job, now universally allowed to be a drama, but 
 until recently believed to be entirely historical in form as well as 
 in substance, is a case in point. Any one reading Prof. Moulton's 
 metrical version of the book will at once see how essentially poetic 
 and dramatic is its structure. Of course this does not in any way 
 affect the question as to whether there was such a historical personage 
 as Job. 
 
 ' Cf. the story of the sun and moon " standing still in the valley 
 of Aijalon in the A.V. and in the R.V, 
 
loo The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 There is no reason in the nature of things why this 
 should be so. Whether the Fall of Man as a spiritual 
 fact in the history of the race, and as an explanation 
 of the origin and nature and universality of sin, be a 
 true doctrine, is a question which, we may be sure, is not 
 bound up with any such doubtful hypothesis ; if it be 
 a fact at all, it must have other evidence in support of 
 it besides these immeasurably ancient and impressive, 
 bu.t.r)ot ; necessarily infallible, narratives. Even as it 
 .iV wo' should not really believe the story of the Fall 
 rj e*t .* unless ;it; interpreted our inner consciousness of sin as 
 '«*"• '•nothing else^ has ever done; and though we may have 
 to give up belief in the historicity of the narrative as 
 it has come down to us, that need no more disturb 
 our acceptance of its teaching, than we are bound to 
 give up faith in Jesus Christ because He chose fictitious 
 narratives, that is, parables, as media for conveying 
 His teaching concerning the Kingdom of God. 
 
 The question then is — How are we to account for 
 the existence of these stories, and why were they used 
 for the embodiment of religious truth ? 
 
 We find that the annals of mankind invariably change 
 their form in well-defined stages as we travel back into 
 extreme antiquity. First, we have what we call history 
 which is a more or less accurate statement of facts, 
 told in their chronological order, and in their mutual 
 relations of cause and effect. Behind this comes the 
 region of tradition, in which again we have a more or 
 less accurate presentation of facts, intermingled with 
 products of imagination in which they have been over- 
 laid, but not altogether submerged, this complex whole 
 having been handed down orally through one or more 
 generations till it was at last fixed in writing. Back 
 of this again is the penumbral region of legend, in 
 which the imagination has worked so long on the 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation loi 
 
 nucleus of fact that it has altogether permeated it, and 
 it is not always possible to distinguish between the 
 real soil of history and the overgrowth of fancy which 
 has struck its roots through and through it. And then 
 behind all this we have the most ancient of all forms 
 of past records, which is technically called myth^ in 
 which we have only the vaguest — if any — guarantee of 
 historicity in the substance of the story, but which 
 is still a genuine attempt to preserve the tn^iHciry''/;^ 
 some real fact or event of human experi^rice.^ It^Js^ 
 in these myths that we find imbedded '.the/.^rjimftive.^ 
 thoughts and beliefs of men, like fossils in the strata 
 of the earth. The study of myths, therefore, is one of 
 the most interesting though difficult means of arriving 
 at the earliest contents of belief in the human race. 
 
 Now, we are familiar with the thought that it is 
 possible to possess an inspired version of history, by 
 which we are to understand not a perfectly infallible 
 account of facts in their bare reality, but a story of 
 events from a spiritual point of view, in which their 
 inner Divine meaning is clearly brought to light. The 
 contemporary chronicles of the New and Old Testa- 
 ments are typical examples of this class of literature. 
 A true theory of Inspiration does not affirm that minor 
 inaccuracies may not have crept into the narrative ; 
 but it claims that the spiritual import of the events 
 recorded is given so that we can understand their place 
 and bearing in the development of revealed truth. The 
 same is true of those portions of the history of Israel 
 which are traditional in their origin, or partly so (for 
 written history and tradition are often inextricably 
 intermingled), such as the story of the wanderings of 
 the Israelites in the desert, and the conquest of Canaan. 
 Here there is more room for error in matters of detail ; 
 but it is certain that the main stream of narrative is 
 
I02 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 historical, and the spiritual meaning of the events is 
 forcibly and vividly driven home on the mind of the 
 reader. In the earlier stories of Genesis, from the call 
 of Abraham to the death of Joseph, we are technically 
 in the region of legend, though it is quite possible that 
 scraps of contemporary history {i.e. in Gen. xiv.) are 
 contained in the narrative, and the vivid and sober 
 character of the whole is more than suggestive of sub- 
 stantial historicity. No one indeed who ponders these 
 wpi^d^r/lil biographies with an open and unprejudiced 
 mind can lielp^ feeling that the authentic note of inspira- 
 ; tjoii istrjkes the ear, conveying as they do, through the 
 media oi impressive personalities hanging on the verge 
 of history, matchless and ennobling spiritual truths. 
 If these figures are idealised, as we know them, in the 
 imagination of later ages, they carry with them a 
 profound conviction of reality, and the message of 
 their lives and their faith is imperishably clear and 
 persuasive. 
 
 IV 
 
 Now, we ask, why should we be ready to go so far 
 and refuse the one step remaining? Why should 
 history, tradition, and legend be legitimate channels for 
 the imparting of spiritual truth, and myth alone be 
 shut out ? Is it likely that the Spirit of Truth should 
 have condescended to transform these later forms of 
 recording men's impressions of the past, and use them 
 for the progressive revelation of His will and purpose 
 in the redemption of men, and have stopped short here ? 
 We have seen how the earliest speculations of the 
 human mind regarding the first origins of creation are 
 lifted, in the first chapter of Genesis, from the trough 
 of imbecility and uncleanness into which they had run 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 103 
 
 in the theogonies and cosmologies of the heathen 
 nations, so that all the errors of polytheism, materialism, 
 and pessimism are, for the religious mind, for ever dead 
 and buried. Is it not at least conceivable that the 
 same Spirit, acting on the mythical materials ever 
 present in the primitive imaginations of Man, should 
 uplift, redeem, and sanctify such of these as were suited 
 for His purpose, and transform them into fitting channels 
 for revealed truth concerning the facts that lie at the 
 roots of our spiritual being ? ;',,... 
 
 This is exactly what we hold has been^ ddhs^Vt^tth 
 the earliest narratives in Genesis. It- is .not .quite 
 accurate, as has well been pointed out by jDr , l>ale/ 
 to speak of them as mere myths, " for an ordinary myth 
 is the growth of imagination uncontrolled by Divine 
 revelation," and, we might add, because they represent, 
 as we believe, facts and occurrences of which the shell 
 only is mythical. But the stories have a mythical form, 
 and, so far, they must be interpreted in the same way. 
 " We have to ask, What are the truths which they 
 embodied? How were they understood by the people 
 who found in them the expression of their religious 
 faith ? " ^ Having ascertained these points, we have 
 further to ask, What is there of permanent meaning 
 for us, as the possessors of the final revelation in Jesus 
 Christ, in these earliest media of religious enlightenment 
 as it vanishes in the unfathomable mists of remotest 
 antiquity? 
 
 In order to answer these questions, we have to compare 
 this story of Eden and the Fall with the parallel accounts 
 of the same events in other ancient literatures. During 
 recent years it has been discovered that some such 
 
 ^ See " Christian Doctrine," Note T, " The Accounts in Genesis 
 of the Creation of Man," pp. 322-4. 
 "^ Ibid., p. 224. 
 
I04 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 story is to be found in the records of several if not 
 of all Eastern nations. Notably there is a Babylonian 
 fragment, forming the third tablet in the Creation series, 
 which has curious resemblances to the third chapter 
 of Genesis. This was first deciphered by the eminent 
 English Assyriologist Mr. W. St. C. Boscawen, and is 
 described by him in an article on the " Babylonian 
 Legend of the Serpent Tempter " in the October, 1890, 
 number of the Babylonian and Oriental Record} Of 
 it '.He ^iy§, ?' It is almost impossible not to see in this 
 fragment the 'pith of the story of the Fall, while the 
 l^st Kno ;at - pnce brings Merodach before us as the 
 one who would defeat the tempter and restore the 
 fallen."^ There is a common framework in the two 
 narratives (and we might add that the same is true 
 of others in a lesser degree), which clearly points to 
 the conclusion that, so far from being deliberately 
 composed fables (these myths arose before the age 
 of conscious invention ^), the true key to their solution 
 
 * Here is the fragment in question : — 
 
 " The great gods, all of them determiners of fate, 
 They entered, and, deathlike, the god Sar filled. 
 In sin one with the other in compact joins. 
 The command was established in the garden of the god. 
 The Asnan (fruit) they broke in two, 
 Its stalk they destroyed ; 
 The sweet juice which injures the body. 
 Great is their sin. Themselves they exalted. 
 To Merodach their Redeemer their fate he appointed." 
 
 ' See a most suggestive treatment of the whole question in 
 Prof. Herbert Ryle's " Early Narratives of Genesis," especially 
 pp. 21 ff. ; also pp. 42 fi. 
 
 3 "The formation of myth ceases with the times in which the 
 nature-religions are shaped and modified by the peoples in naive 
 freshness and vivacity. Where a religion, regarded as fully matured, 
 has become an occult doctrine in the hands of priests and scribes, 
 there may very well be a further artificial development of myth, 
 but there is no longer any genuine creation of it. The proper time 
 for forming myths is, as Mr. Max Muller has correctly maintained, 
 when the languages are growing. Myth and language rise to- 
 gether" (Schultz, "Old Testament Theology," Vol. I., p. 23). 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 105 
 
 is that they are veiled and fanciful forms of handing 
 down primeval beliefs. As such they have a common 
 origin. We are to look for this common origin not 
 in any one of the extant forms, certainly not in the 
 theory that the Jewish form is derived from the 
 Assyrian, but in an original tradition from which all 
 the allied versions were derived at a time prior to the 
 dispersion of the Semitic races from the parent stock. 
 " The original tradition, marred by the intricacies of 
 a bewildering polytheism, was received from their 
 Mesopotamian ancestofs by the founders of the original 
 branch of the Semitic race." ^ 
 
 But if the Scriptural account of the Fall is parallel in 
 form to those of other nations, its religious teaching is 
 essentially different in tone and quality. We might even 
 begin on lower levels, comparing it with them in an artistic 
 and literary sense, and even so we should find the out- 
 ward similarity fading into a striking contrast. The 
 Babylonian fragment is immeasurably inferior, even 
 from this point of view, to the story of Eden, which is 
 unapproachable among these creation-legends or myths 
 for vividness and naturalness of narrative, for the human 
 touches that abound in it, and for its general purposeful- 
 ness and clear dramatic movement. Without making 
 any doubtful deductions from that fact, we are on safe 
 ground in drawing attention to the extraordinary differ- 
 ence in the spiritual standpoint of Genesis. While the 
 Ethnic narratives are, as it has been well put, " full of 
 extravagant detail, mixing their nucleus of fact with the 
 stories of the gods and heroes of polytheism. Divine 
 inspiration has filled the sacred narrative with a totally 
 different spirit." Between the Bible and other sacred 
 books of the East there is all the " distance of one of 
 
 * " Early Narratives of Genesis," p. 42. 
 
io6 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 the most tremendous revolutions which has ever been 
 effected in human beliefs."^ 
 
 This difference represents the gap between an inspired 
 and an uninspired piece of literature. We may say 
 that one of the chief services wrought for us by the 
 Higher Criticism in regard to this portion of Scripture 
 is that it, as it were, takes us into the very laboratory 
 of Inspiration, and enables us to see the Holy Spirit 
 at His sacred work. We know the character of the 
 materials with which He dealt — the crude, confused, 
 low-thoughted mass of primitive belief in the minds of 
 men. And we know how out of this degraded, almost 
 senseless, jumble of legend and myth, His influence on 
 the mind of the seers who were His human media 
 resulted in a version of these early beliefs purified from 
 all grossness, sensuality, polytheism, and pessimism, 
 and enshrining the noblest teaching concerning the 
 nature of God, of Man, and of the sin that marred his 
 life and arrested his development almost at the be- 
 ginning of his career.^ The one point of departure 
 
 ^ " We must keep that word [Sin] it we would understand the 
 problem thus presented to the Hebrew mind. If we would look at 
 the aberrations of humanity as imperfection, if we would see in Sin, 
 with the non-moral Greek, a falHng short from an ideal to which the 
 race was continually making an approach, these repeated allegories 
 of explanation are needless. Man struggles upward ; he began in 
 imperfection and will end in imperfection ; there is no need to 
 imagine a Fall. And yet the idea of a Fall haunts the imagination 
 even of a race to which it was uncongenial. Legends of an Eden, of 
 a Fall of the Angels, are found in the Hellenic Genesis \i.e. the 
 theogony of Hesiod, and in Empedocles], left as it is in its unedited, 
 unharmonised condition, and we are forced to recognise as we com- 
 pare the two that the truth which occupied the horizon of the 
 Hebrew seer found a place even in that of the race least inclined 
 to ponder or to accept it " (Julia Wedgwood, " The Message of 
 Israel," pp. 128, 129 ; see also footnotes). 
 
 ' " The mythical ideas about the origin of the world and of man, 
 held in common by the primitive Semites, naturally took in each 
 tribe a particular form, according to the cast of its spirit and re- 
 ligion. Thus in Israel too the spirit which sustained and developed 
 
Chap, II Genesis and the Creation 107 
 
 which marks the new from the old attitude towards this 
 account of the Fall of Man lies in the literary treatment 
 of the story. Its essential attitude towards the doctrine 
 underlying it is in no wise modified.^ Instead of 
 vacillating, as the older commentators were forced to 
 do, between a pragmatic and an allegorical interpreta- 
 tion, in which we are now dealing with symbolical 
 conceptions (the " tree of life," the " tree of the know- 
 ledge of good and evil," the " rib," etc.), and now with 
 geographical details (such as the attempt to identify 
 two of the rivers of Eden with the Tigris and the 
 Euphrates, and the other two with the Indus and the 
 Nile, which would have made the "garden" as large 
 as a continent^), we frankly affirm that the value of 
 the narrative lies not at all in its literal accuracy, but 
 in the revelation of moral and spiritual truth which it 
 embodies. Here is a pictorial representation of the 
 profound fact that there was a time when sin was not 
 in the world, and that at a given moment sin entered 
 into it. If not exactly in the precise historical manner 
 here depicted, probably in a very dim and unrecognised 
 manner, in keeping with the undeveloped condition of 
 the spiritual nature in Man, the first conscious trans- 
 gression against the dawning Higher Law of the Spirit 
 
 Israel's religion could appropriate such myths as raw material, and 
 saturate them with its true and enduring beliefs concerning God, 
 the world, and man " (Schultz, " Old Testament Theology," p. 24). 
 
 * " Nothing but confusion of thought," as Principal Tulloch in 
 his work on the " Doctrine of Sin " says, •' can arise from attempting 
 to fix a definite meaning to the accessories of the incident, all the 
 genuine meaning of which arises from the moral portrait it sets 
 before us. This moral portrait is a true expression of the religious 
 thought of the Hebrews, and it is their thought as to sin which we 
 are in search of, . . . whatever may be made of the literary vesture 
 in which that thought is expressed. Here as elsewhere, the reality 
 of the thought is not dependent on the view which we take of the 
 narrative forms in which it is conveyed " (p. 67). 
 
 ' Dr. Horton's " Revelation and the Bible," pp. 39, 40. 
 
I08 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 took place ; and here its implicit contents are unfolded 
 for the enlightenment and guidance of the whole world. 
 We have travelled very far from the mental and moral 
 position occupied by the thinker who wrote this story in 
 the form in which we have it here ; but we have done 
 little more, so far as the doctrine of Sin is concerned, 
 than complete and carry to a clearer and fuller con- 
 ception the suggestions here given us of the nature 
 and consequences of moral transgression. We may 
 say without exaggeration that the story of Eden is the 
 kernel out of which the full doctrine of sin developed 
 in the New Testament is unfolded, and that from this 
 point of view it contains nothing out of harmony with 
 the teachings of our Lord and His apostles. 
 
 The Genesis account of the Fall is usually supposed to 
 end with the Expulsion from Eden, or rather it would 
 be more accurate to say from the " garden " which was 
 " in Eden." ^ This is to miss the entire spiritual meaning 
 of the subsequent narratives, which culminate in the 
 Flood and the Tower of Babel. For the whole of this 
 early Jehovistic literature is really an editorial handling 
 of legends derived probably from many sources, with 
 a view of showing the progressive ravages of sin in the 
 subsequent history of the race. Genesis in fact presents 
 us with the story, not of one, but of many Falls into 
 evil, though, strangely enough, the first step of the 
 series has so taken hold of the imagination of the world 
 as to almost entirely exclude the others from view — 
 possibly because of its superior vividness and detail 
 as a story. 
 
 The second Fall is that of Cain. Here we are taught 
 * Gen. ii. 8. 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 109 
 
 by implication rather than by distinct enunciation, the 
 propensity of evil to repeat itself from one generation 
 to another. The sin of Adam and Eve is followed by 
 that of their eldest son. Disobedience to the Supreme 
 Being in them ends in wrong between man and man 
 in him ; once the relation between the Creator and 
 His creatures becomes abnormal, it breeds an abnormal 
 relation among themselves also. And the character of 
 the wrong committed by Cain illustrates the hereditary 
 nature of evil as a tendency. His sin is not primarily 
 in the murder of Abel, nor does it lie, as certain com- 
 mentators have alleged, in the fact that he offered a 
 sacrifice " of the fruits of the ground." ^ It is in some- 
 thing that lies back of that, in his attitude towards God, 
 which has its natural result in a spirit of jealousy and 
 envy against his brother, and which issues in the crime 
 of murder. " For this is the message that ye heard 
 from the beginning, that we should love one another : 
 not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his 
 brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his 
 own works were evil, and his brother's righteous." ^ In 
 other words, hatred against our fellow-men is the outcome 
 of rebellion against God. What began with the eating 
 
 * What more natural than that each should bring to God the 
 results of his own labour — Cain of the fruits he had grown, and 
 Abel of the firstlings of his flock ? " The ancient views that an 
 offering of animals was preferred above an offering of the fruits 
 of the earth, or that Abel had more correctly performed the ritual 
 of the offering, are mere guess-work " (Prof. Kyle, " Early Narratives 
 of Genesis," p. 68), and are clearly the result of the effort to read 
 into the narrative a later development of the outward forms of 
 worship, out of all keeping with the primitive character of the 
 story. It is also out of harmony with the explanation of the author 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews, '' By faith Abel offered unto God 
 a more excellent sacrifice than Cain " (Heb. xi. 4). The Jehovist, 
 as Prof. Ryle says (p. 69), " wishes to draw attention to the inner 
 motives and to the moral characters of the offerers, by which alone 
 the value of their offerings could be really distinguished." 
 
 ' I John iii. 11, 12. 
 
no The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 of the forbidden fruit in one generation, ends with the 
 slaying of a brother in the next. 
 
 One of the consequences of the Fall of Cain is the 
 bifurcation of the human race into two genealogies, one 
 of which represents the line of continuous and progressive 
 degeneration, and the other the line in which the — so 
 far, implicit — forces of redemption are treasured up. 
 The next step in this degeneration is found in the fifth 
 generation. Obscure as the Song of Lamech is, it 
 clearly enough marks another step in the downward 
 career of the race. It is suggestive also that the de- 
 generating branch of the human family is in the line 
 of social and industrial civilisation, while that identified 
 with the redemptive process is attached to a quiet pastoral 
 life. Cain was not only a husbandman, but a city-builder, 
 while Abel was a shepherd.^ Lamech is represented 
 as the first polygamist, and at the same time the father 
 of the originators of the various arts ; * and he it is who 
 figures next as the type of a fallen being, carrying on 
 into a more developed system of blood-revenge the 
 crime of isolated murder associated with his father Cain.' 
 " Again the spirit of inventive industry betrays a deep 
 connection with evil ; the father of this Hebrew Vulcan* 
 
 * Gen. iv. 2 : cf. verse 17. 
 
 ' Ibid., 19-22. 
 ' Ibid., 23, 24. 
 
 * The curious similarity between the names of Tubalcain and his 
 brothers and those of Vulcan and Apollo, and the similarity of their 
 respective functions, has been given as a reason for believing that 
 we have in this legend a suggestion of a cognate source for Hebrew 
 and Greek myths, at least in this particular instance. " We may 
 here conceive of some reference to a common stock of traditions 
 busy with dim memories of dawning civilisation " (Julia Wedgwood, 
 " The Message of Israel," p. 114, who points out in this relation the 
 striking contrast between the genius of the Greek and Hebrew mind, 
 in the tendency of the latter to maintain a clear distinction between 
 the Divine and the human : Jabal, Jubal, and Tubalcain are simply 
 men, while the originators of the arts among the former are raised 
 to the level of the superhuman, and appear as gods). 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 1 1 1 
 
 profits by the discovery of iron to indulge a spirit of 
 fierce revenge; and we seem to come on the trace of 
 a new impulse given to hatred with a new facility for 
 its achievement. The connection of knowledge and 
 evil, visible from the first, seems again emphasised ; the 
 impulses which profit most by the gain of civilisation, 
 it would seem, are those which end in crime." ^ 
 
 The next step in the downward career of the human 
 race is that obscurely associated with the Fall of the 
 angels, in the legend of the alliance between the " sons 
 of God " and the " daughters of men." ^ It is needless 
 to enter here into the various expositions of this passage. 
 The most plausible view is that it contains a very ancient, 
 probably parallel, account of the original Fall, out of 
 an altogether different source from that which stands 
 at the head of human history in the Jehovist's account 
 of Eden, inserted here by the compiler for the sake of 
 emphasising the complex forces at work in the deterio- 
 ration of Man's spiritual and moral nature. " The 
 temptation here comes from beings of a higher race ; 
 the entrance of sin and death is ascribed to the abandon- 
 ment by the * daughters of men ' of the position which 
 God has allotted to them." ^ Its purpose is to " illustrate, 
 from the earliest traditions, the current belief as to the 
 enormity of the wickedness that prevailed in the pre- 
 historic centuries."* This particular form of sin is 
 suggested as the cause of the hopeless condition into 
 which the race had fallen, necessitating the drastic remedy 
 of a universal Flood as the only way of preserving the 
 whole family of Man from final and irremediable ruin.* 
 
 ^ "Message of Israel," p. 112. Ct. "The tree oi knowledge is 
 again the tree of death " (p. 113). 
 ' Gen. vi. 1-6. 
 3 Ryle, " Early Narratives of Genesis," pp. 94, 95. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 95. 
 
 * Gen. vi. 5, 6 
 
112 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 Its religious purpose seems to be the enforcement of the 
 principle that unnatural and unequal alliances between 
 men and nations are among the most devastating sources 
 of evil in the world. " That the sons of God see the 
 daughters of men that they are fair, is the history of 
 many a fall, and we may sometimes fancy that, this 
 temptation once more removed, the path of humanity 
 would be almost clear ; directly or indirectly it is the 
 source of all the heaviest evil that afflicts the sons and 
 daughters of men ; and pondering over its wide ramifica- 
 tions and irresistible sway, we might well be tem.pted to 
 believe that we have here not merely an important 
 specimen of human sin, but the source of all." * 
 
 The story of the Tower of Babel completes the cycle 
 of Fall-legends in the Jehovist's account of primitive 
 Man. It deals with the problem, which must have 
 greatly perplexed the ancients, of the dispersion of man- 
 kind, and the degradation of language, meant to be the 
 bridge of communication between man and man, into 
 a veritable barrier against the interchange of thought 
 and fellowship. " The familiar story of the Tower of 
 Babel supplied to such primitive questionings an answer 
 suited to the comprehension of a primitive time." ^ It 
 connected the dispersion of mankind, and its division 
 into hostile communities, diverse in tongue and so in 
 almost everything else, with another great sin — the sin 
 of intellectual pride and self-sufficiency. Whether we 
 identify the Tower with that of Bis-Nimrud at Borsippa, 
 which stands at a little distance south-west from Babylon, 
 on the west bank of the Euphrates, or with the great 
 temple of Merodach within Babylon itself, the point of 
 connection appears to be the Babylonian study of the 
 stars. " We should look on their astrology as an ideal 
 
 * Julia Wedgwood, "The Religious Message of Israel," p. 119. 
 
 * Ryle, "Early Narratives of Genesis," p. 128. 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 113 
 
 attempt to mount to heaven, and once more to become 
 *as gods.'"^ It is meant to illustrate the sin of the 
 intellect as a barrier both to human unity and to 
 Divine fellowship. 
 
 VI 
 
 Summarising our outlook on the successive stages 
 of the Fall of Man, several reflections are naturally 
 suggested as the outcome of our study. 
 
 1. We see the persistence of the tendency to sin when 
 once its destructive and debasing power is permitted to 
 lay hold of the heart. From generation to generation it 
 goes on repeating and unfolding itself in ever-widening 
 ranges, descending from father to son, and spreading 
 from circle to circle of human relationships, till its clinging 
 poison has penetrated to the very roots of being, and 
 the one remedy is to make a clean sweep of the race that 
 has been so hopelessly contaminated.^ Incidentally we 
 are taught that, once sin has laid hold of a man or a 
 community, there is no principle of self- recovery inherent 
 in human nature which will enable it to throw off the 
 infection by its own spiritual resources. It tends ever 
 more and more to lay hold of its victims, and to hurry 
 them from one form of iniquity to another, till it has 
 entrenched itself irremediably in the heart. " And the 
 Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the 
 earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of 
 his heart was only evil continually."^ 
 
 2. Another feature in the teaching of the Jehovist 
 is the variety of the ways in which sin attacks and 
 gains entrance into the soul. Its primary and ubiqui- 
 tous characteristic is its contamination of the will, as 
 
 * " Message of Israel," p. 122. 
 
 ' This is the moral significance of the tradition of the Flood. 
 
 ' Gen. vi. 5. 
 
 8 
 
1 14 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 the source of obedience to the Divine law ; this is the 
 form of the first temptation in Eden. In Cain, the 
 centre of the affections is tainted ; the clear current of 
 love is made turbid and swollen with all the passions of 
 the murderer. In the case of Lamech, the same evil 
 is brought into relation with advancing civilisation, 
 which, while it enriches human life by the discovery 
 of weapons and all the witchery of the arts, yet fails 
 in itself to purify the affections of men, but rather 
 facilitates the development of evil passions by providing 
 them with more adequate means of satisfaction. The 
 " Fall of the Angels " suggests evil as entering through 
 the doorway of unnatural sexual relationships, and that 
 the lower side of these relationships has more power 
 to work evil than the higher has to redeem. Finally 
 the story of Babel illustrates the degrading effects of 
 godless intellectual development and scientific research, 
 when used not for the spiritual perfection of our nature, 
 but for mere purposes of self-sufficiency and the gratifi- 
 cation of impossible ambitions. So is the power of evil 
 over the threefold activity of human nature — the will, 
 the affections, and the intellect — brought home to 
 the mind in a series of vivid cartoons whose mythical 
 or legendary envelope has no power to cloud the 
 forcible and striking spiritual lessons they enforce. 
 Whatever their value as history, they are imperishably 
 true in the lessons they teach and the light they throw 
 on the nature, the ravages, and terrible consequences 
 of wrongdoing. 
 
 3. A consideration of the subject would be incomplete, 
 however, without a glance at the other side of the 
 picture. The writer whom we call the Jehovist is no 
 mere pessimist, as we have already suggested ; and the 
 story of the successive degradations of the human race 
 is told not with any view of inspiring despair as to the 
 
Chap. II Genesis and the Creation 115 
 
 condition of humanity, but in order to bring into 
 brighter relief the promise of Divine Redemption 
 which is interwoven with his narrative. In close con- 
 nection with the utterance of doom on Adam and on 
 Cain, as well as with the sombre description of the 
 hopeless corruption of the world before the Flood, we 
 have the offer of pardon and the prospect of renewal. 
 This is to come through the woman's seed in the first 
 case, and as the story is developed we are kept in view 
 of the line of descent along which the process of 
 redemption is to be achieved. In the genealogy of 
 Seth we have enshrined the principle of the spiritual 
 survival of the fittest. God has never left Himself 
 without witness in the world ; among the worst com- 
 munities there are to be found men who are not given 
 over as their fellows are to hopeless sin, but have kept 
 alive the instinct of obedience to a higher law, and a 
 sense of their relationship with the great Father of 
 Mankind. Just as the later books of the Old Testament 
 bring before us the broad stream of national history 
 through which the redemptive purpose of God was 
 gradually accomplished, till in the fulness of time the 
 Eternal Son was made manifest in the flesh ; so in 
 this, the earliest, we are never out of sight of some 
 great character who, amid the deepening shadows of 
 human corruption, still remains tiue to the highest he 
 knows, and reflects some of the glory of* God. Abel, 
 Enoch, and Noah are the fixed stars in the firmament 
 of prehistoric time — the first triplet in the glorious 
 succession of spiritual heroes who have never suffered 
 the night of sin to be without some ray of light, and 
 who are the beacon-lights of our fallen race, brightening 
 the dim hills of time, and heralding the time when 
 the dawn shall come and the shadows flee away. And 
 what glorious figures they are! How grandly they 
 
ii6 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 stand out among the prehistoric figures of other nations 
 — the lustful demigods of Greece, the half-human 
 monsters of Asia, the magnificent but coarse shadows 
 that hang on the horizon of time in the Far North ! 
 Abel, the type of innocence and devoutness, appearing 
 and passing away from the scene in an act beginning 
 with the smoke of sacrifice, and ending with the blood 
 that speaketh to all generations more eloquently than 
 all the wars of history, because it is the blood of 
 martyrdom ; Enoch, whose gentle spirit passed over 
 the world's ken like a breath, a perfume from higher 
 regions, and which is gone like a breath, a perfume, 
 leaving a sweetness as of prayer behind it ; Noah, the 
 type of the righteous man, living a true and noble life 
 in the midst of unholy surroundings — the first instance 
 of that astonishing phenomenon, a man who can create 
 his own spiritual environment, and maintain an inherent 
 grandeur of character though all the influences that 
 play on him from without are deteriorative and poison- 
 ous. The vision of such men on the very verge of 
 time must have had a profound influence on the 
 national life of which they were the first heroes, puri- 
 fying men's morals, lifting up their thoughts above 
 the sordid present, and giving them a spiritual ideal 
 of incomparable nobility and beauty. And for us they 
 are a witness to the principle of spiritual progress, which, 
 while it has had many a night of eclipse and period 
 of painful pause and retrogression, has never failed in 
 the end to reassert itself in the chequered career of 
 humanity, but has from the earliest times passed on 
 through an unbroken succession to the climax of all 
 excellence in Jesus Christ — that perfect flower of the 
 great Tree of Life, whose roots clasp the foundations 
 of the earth, and whose " leaves are for the healing of 
 the nations." 
 
BOOK I: EVOLUTION 
 
 AND THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 *'All great ruins are but a name for 
 greatness in ruins ; and we shall see the 
 magnitude of the structure in that of 
 the ruin made by its fall. So it is 
 with man. Our most veritable, though 
 saddest, impressions of his greatness, as 
 a creature, we shall derive from the 
 magnificent ruin he displays." 
 
 Horace Bushnell. 
 
 Chapter IIL— The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 
 
 Results so far — Later Development of Biblical Doctrine of Sin — Old 
 Testament Terms for Sin— Teaching of Christ— Pauline Doctrine- 
 Biblical Exposition of Mystery of Evil summarised — ^The Redemptive 
 Idea. 
 
 I 
 
 WE have now examined the outward structure and 
 inward significance of the early narratives of 
 Genesis,— those relating to the Creation and the Fall, — 
 and have arrived at the conclusion that their value to 
 us does not in any way depend on a literal interpreta- 
 tion of their contents. If, as until recently was thought 
 to be the case, they were found to be pragmatic versions 
 of historical facts, that would not prove them to be 
 inspired ; and the real element of inspiration that per- 
 meates them is in no way affected now that we have 
 come to the belief that they contain as their substratum 
 a basis of myth and legend of little or no historical, 
 though of great anthropological and spiritual, value. 
 
 This leaves us free to enter with unbiassed minds 
 into the permanent teaching on the nature of sin, and 
 the means of recovery, of which these early narratives 
 contain the germinal doctrine ; and to co-ordinate them 
 with the later and more fully developed teaching of the 
 
 117 
 
1 1 8 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 Bible concerning the same subject. We shall then be 
 in a position to gauge the relation of this teaching to 
 the Evolutionary doctrine of Man, and how far that 
 theory necessitates a modification in our ideas of the 
 nature of sin, and of the Christian faith concerning 
 Redemption. 
 
 First, we are taught in both the accounts of Creation 
 that have come down to us through the channel of the 
 Old Testament, as regards the nature of Man, that he is 
 both a part of the order of Nature and a being above 
 that order. He is one with the animal creation in the 
 possession of a bodily frame, of sense and appetite ; in 
 a word, he belongs to the category of the " flesh." He 
 is above it in that he is endowed (i) with a special 
 authority over the earth and the orders of life which 
 it contains,^ which were created with express reference 
 to him as their climax,^ and which he has the capacity 
 of understanding and " naming " ; ^ and (2) with a unique 
 nature, separated in kind, and not merely in degree, 
 from the highest earthly creature, so that he " is some- 
 thing new, and not merely a higher stage of the animal 
 world," * being created by God " in His own image," 
 " after His own likeness." ^ " This image is the stamp 
 left by a living spiritual Being upon an inferior sensuous 
 nature. . . . On the basis of impersonal life, Man is to 
 be personal ; on the basis of transitory life, spiritual ; 
 on the basis of a limited, sensuous life, morally free." ® 
 
 Secondly, we are taught that Man's present condition 
 as a spiritual being is not what it was meant to be by 
 
 * Gen. i. 26 ; ii. 19. 
 
 * Gen. i. 29. 
 
 » Gen. ii. 19 f. Schultz, "Old Testament Theology": "He is 
 given the right of naming them, and thus of showing himself their 
 master by his knowledge of them " (I. 255, 256). 
 
 * Ibid., p. 256. 
 » Gen. i. 26. 
 
 * Schultz, II. 268, 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 119 
 
 his Maker. He has lost his place in the creation by his 
 own fault, a fault which has become an evil habit and 
 condition, whose baleful influence has passed on from 
 generation to generation, and which has spread laterally 
 from man to man, till there have been times of sore 
 and unspeakable corruption, for which the only remedy 
 is the absolute destruction of those who have surrendered 
 themselves hopelessly to its power. But all men have 
 not equally handed themselves over to the dominion 
 of sin ; in all generations there have been a few men 
 who have retained enough of their spiritual nature to be 
 the chosen vessels of the redemptive forces that God has 
 kept in store for the ultimate renewal of humanity, and 
 these have been selected and hallowed for the convey- 
 ance of this Divine grace down the generations 
 
 II 
 
 So much generally. More particularly, the essential 
 factors in the picture of the first and of subsequent falls 
 into sin are these : — 
 
 1. The Divine personality and the human are placed 
 in striking relation and contrast. The human spirit is 
 in conscious relation with the Divine, but it is distinct 
 from it, so that a free alliance and at the same time a 
 deliberate revolt are possible. God desires to be served 
 by Man, but it must be from free will, and not from 
 compulsion. He is therefore put on his trial, so that the 
 possibility of virtue, i.e. innocence, may by discipline 
 and effort be transformed into the possession of virtue, 
 i.e. moral character. 
 
 2. The Divine will expresses itself in direct command 
 or law, acknowledged by the human spirit as such. In 
 the story of Eden this command seems to be of a some- 
 what arbitrary character, but it is so clearly symbolical 
 
I20 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 that no stress need be laid on its mere form. It is quite 
 certain that it stands for a typical Divine injunction, 
 which, like an algebraic formula, may be translated into 
 any number of particular cases. Those therefore who 
 pour contempt on the story on the ground that there 
 would be nothing essentially wrong in the mere act of 
 eating an " apple," only show that they have not yet dis- 
 abused themselves from that spirit of literalism against 
 which in others they are never tired of railing. The 
 essence of the situation lies in the fact that Adam is 
 said to have transgressed what he knew to be a Divine 
 command. 
 
 3. The temptation to evil is represented both as a 
 suggestion from without and as an impulse from within. 
 These two factors are essential to a true act of wrong- 
 doing. How far we are to consider the " serpent " 
 as a representation of the Evil Spirit in a crude and 
 material form, we need not now inquire ; all that is 
 significant for our purpose is that the objective and 
 the subjective factors of wrongdoing are clearly in- 
 dicated. There are lowering influences in the environ- 
 ment ; there are wayward desires within the organism ; 
 and the marriage of these two issues in an act, and 
 then in a condition, of sin. At the same time we must 
 note emphatically that there is no principle of dualism 
 in the Old Testament. There is but one Creator, and 
 He is altogether good, and has made all things good. 
 It is through the maladjustment of things not in them- 
 selves evil that evil arises ; the choosing, at the wrong 
 time and under wrong conditions, of a course of conduct 
 which thereby becomes wrong. 
 
 4. This act of sin is unmistakably presented, not as 
 an accident, nor as a necessary element in the upward 
 progress of the soul, which could not have been avoided 
 but as truly a stumble, a lapse, a fall. No hint is given 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 121 
 
 us what the development of Man would have been if the 
 Fall had not taken place ; the purpose of the Jehovist 
 is entirely practical — contingencies are not in his 
 mind. But he is clear on this point : sin is an intruder 
 in the universe. It has no business here ; the one thing 
 of supreme interest is — how to get rid of it. The sole 
 element of apparent gain to Man that has come to him 
 through the Fall is a gain in intellectual standing ; hence- 
 forth he knows good and evil experimentally, and not 
 merely as ideas ; but this, if a gain at all, does not in 
 any way minister to his true blessedness ; rather it 
 implies the degradation of the very intellect, by enlisting 
 it with the evil will in a fellowship of wrongdoing, so 
 that in the very act of being developed it is also 
 debauched.^ 
 
 5. The penalties of sin are complex. They involve that 
 sense of heavy labour and disappointment that is inwoven 
 in the lot of man, and makes his work a burden instead 
 of being a pleasure ;^ the subjection of the free human 
 spirit under the tyranny of natural law — i.e. his enslave- 
 ment to his environment, from which his emancipation 
 has been so slow and painful ; the entrance of suffering 
 and pain into his life, a penalty of which woman has 
 
 * " The being is enlarged by the mental experience of evil, but it 
 loses far more than it gains. It loses cheerful communion with the 
 Divine ; it loses the sense of self-approval ; it is driven forth from 
 Paradise. Adam and Eve have grown at once to the consciousness 
 of manhood and womanhood— they are no longer as children in 
 a garden — but they are at the same time ashamed of one another, 
 and afraid of God. In short they are fallen; they have lost a sure 
 position — they have gained an uncertain future. The idea of a fall, 
 of a distinct moral loss not to be recovered, is carefully and com- 
 pletely preserved, and whatever later theory may have made of a 
 balance even of moral good in the origin of evil, there is nothing to 
 encourage such a theory in the early picture. From the moral side 
 —and this is the essential side— the picture is dark throughout" 
 (Principal Tulloch, " The Christian Doctrine of Sin," pp. 75. 76). 
 
 » See Barry's " Manifold Witness to Christ," p. 50. 
 
122 The Ascent through Christ Bookl 
 
 had to bear so heavy a share ; ^ decay and " death," due 
 to the withdrawal of the sustenance of the "tree of 
 life " ; ^ and the loss of close and friendly communion 
 with God, linked with that sense of shame and guilt 
 which is one of the moral differentiae of the human race.^ 
 In some sense or other all these consequences are 
 associated in the mind of the Jehovist with the first 
 Fall of Man into sin, consequences which are afterwards 
 passed on by the mysterious law of heredity into the 
 universal lot of mankind, and give their meaning to 
 Paul's saying, "As in Adam all die."* 
 
 in 
 
 The later development of the doctrine of sin in the 
 Old Testament is but a deepening and enrichment of 
 the ideas seen in germ in the first acts of recorded 
 sin. The Hebrew language is peculiarly copious in the 
 vocabulary of sin — a sure sign that the Hebrew mind 
 was exceptionally sensitive in this direction. The 
 following are the keywords which give the determining 
 idea to the thought. 
 
 I. The most universal term for sin in the Old 
 Testament is chatath, derived like its New Testament 
 equivalent — hamartano — from a word signifying to miss 
 the mark. It implies failure to reach a point aimed 
 at, a coming short of an ideal end of conduct. We are 
 made for obedience, and to become disobedient is to 
 
 ' Gen. iii. i6. 
 
 * Gen. iii. 2. The precise meaning which we are to attach to this 
 word "death " is one of the most vexed questions of interpretation, 
 and will be dealt with at large later on. See, however, on this 
 point Principal Tulloch in " The Christian Doctrine of Sin," p. 77, 
 where he advocates the view that it is not taught that death as a 
 physical fact is here meant, but that its character is changed. 
 
 ' Gen. iii. 23. 
 
 * I Cor. XV. 22, 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 123 
 
 fail not merely in the sense in which a blighted plant 
 fails to reach its perfection, which it cannot help, but 
 in the sense of refusing to co-operate in the process of 
 growth. It therefore always conveys a suggestion, 
 more or less severe, of moral blame ; it means that we 
 have failed where we might have succeeded. 
 
 2. The word that next denotes the characteristic 
 feature of sin is avon, which literally means that which 
 is crooked as opposed to what is straight— exactly like 
 our right and wrong. This word is radically identical 
 in connotation with the preceding. " As there is a right 
 mark or point to be aimed at, so there is always a right 
 line to it. And sin is not only failure as missing a 
 mark, but perversity as taking a wrong line." There 
 the Divine will is conceived as ideal^ here as directive ; 
 any deviation of our course from the straight line is 
 therefore equivalent to a failure to reach the goal, for 
 that goal can be reached only in one way.^ 
 
 3. Another common word is aven^ which primarily 
 means vanity and nothingness. Evil as opposed to good 
 is its privation^ or negation, emptiness as opposed to 
 fulness, loss as opposed to gain. 
 
 4. Still more definite is the frequently used word 
 pesha^ translated variously transgression^ trespass^ or 
 rebellion. Behind this lies the idea of a Divine 
 ordinance or law, and of an intentional breach of the 
 same. The advance of connotation here is suggested 
 clearly in the passage in Job where it is stated, "he 
 addeth rebellion {pesha) unto his sin {chattatho)." ^ 
 
 5. Generalised expressions such as ra^ " denoting 
 evil in all senses, physical, ethical, and accidental," * and 
 
 * For illustrations of the use of this word, see Gen. iv. 13, xliv. 
 16, and in Psalms xxxii. and li. 
 
 * Cf. Amos V. 5, and Isaiah xli. 29. 
 'Job xxxiv. 37. 
 
 * Cf. Lev. xxiii. 10; Gen. viii. 21 ; and Isatah ifi. il. 
 
124 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 resha, wickedness, in the primary sense of tumultuous 
 lawless conduct, and derivatively " the disposition of 
 evil, evil become a habit," occur frequently. 
 
 6. One more word is needful to complete this 
 abbreviated list of Hebrew terms for sin. It is asham, 
 to be discriminated from chatath in a sacrificial sense ; 
 the latter meaning sin-offering in a more general 
 application, the former trespass-offering for definite 
 acts of wrongdoing and breaches of well-known 
 prohibitions of the law.^ 
 
 Gathering up the composite meanings distributed 
 among these special terms, we find them all full of 
 moral significance. They can in their Old Testament 
 uses only be properly used of creatures with a spiritual 
 nature, and capable of choosing between two courses 
 of conduct. Knowledge of the right is implied, and 
 the power to do it ; so that wrong courses are the result 
 of depraved desires, of a will that is out of harmony 
 with the right and true, the spiritual and the Divine. 
 Only one qualification need be made to this statement 
 of the case, and even this tends to give a deeper mean- 
 ing to the idea of right and wrong in the Hebrew mind. 
 A definite place is made in the list of possible trespasses 
 for those that arise from ignorance and inadvertence. 
 These are not considered to be so heinous in their guilt 
 as wilful transgressions of the law. But the law is 
 conceived as something so sacred and inviolable in its 
 objective character, that even these sins of ignorance 
 must be in some way expiated, and an elaborate code 
 of penance is laid down for such offences in Lev. iv. 
 for individuals, for priests, for the nation, and for its 
 rulers. The immediate effect of this regulation was 
 to give a higher sanctity to the law, and to remove 
 the temptation of remaining wilfully ignorant of its 
 * Num. V. 6, 7 ; Lev. vi. 2-7. 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 125 
 
 commands, which might otherwise have become a serious 
 danger to the community. The Mosaic legislation here 
 held the mirror up to Nature, whose laws follow their 
 undeviating course irrespective of our knowledge of 
 them, and visit the ignorant with like punishment with 
 the wilful — an apparent injustice in the case of the 
 individual who has had no opportunity to make himself 
 acquainted with them, but, for the race, one of the most 
 powerful incentives to persevering inquiry into the 
 character and range of those laws. 
 
 This idea of the essential nature of wrongdoing, as 
 the violation of Divine law, was vastly enriched and 
 sensitised by the " Mosaic " code of ritual and worship. 
 From an absolute point of view, it had the radical 
 defect, in common with every ritualistic system, of 
 creating artificial sins, of investing neutral acts with all 
 the sanctity of moral excellences, and of drawing the 
 sense of wrongdoing to the surface, from the disposition 
 and the motive to the outward act. But as an educative 
 system it was the finest instrument the world has ever 
 seen for raising the sense of propriety and social right 
 to the level of spiritual principles. It sensitised the 
 moral sense till it was capable of receiving the impress 
 of a still higher revelation. "The law came in that 
 the trespass might abound,"^ says Paul, meaning that 
 its purpose was partly at any rate to increase the 
 consciousness of sin ; " so that the law hath been our 
 tutor to bring us unto Christ." ^ This was its ideal end. 
 In point of fact, the lower side of its influence was 
 developed even more than its higher ; so that in the 
 issue that which was meant to be a temporary bridge 
 from the " natural " to the " spiritual," actually became 
 a barrier to the influx of a greater good than itself, 
 and Judaism, the degenerate type of Mosaism, sank into 
 * Rom. V. 2a * Gal. iii. 24. 
 
126 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 the worst hindrance which the Saviour had to meet in 
 His earthly work, and was at last the proximate cause 
 of His rejection and crucifixion. 
 
 We see in the Psalms and the Prophets a state of 
 religious evolution which was intermediate between 
 these two points. Then for the first time in history 
 the dawning sense of the perfect spiritual life came into 
 conflict with the outward ceremonial ideal of the Mosaic 
 law. These prophets were passionate in their denuncia- 
 tion of mere outward obedience, when the heart was 
 impure and false. In contradistinction with that kind 
 of religious performance, they preached the moral ideal 
 pure and simple, spoke of God as the embodiment of 
 holiness and righteousness and mercy, and announced 
 fearlessly that He demanded a service of which the 
 essential elements were not the offering of bulls and 
 rams, but devout, noble, and immaculate lives. Sin 
 thus became a transgression against the principles of 
 right living, rather than a violation of ceremonial law ; 
 registering another step in the evolution of the moral 
 sense. The prophets also brought out in clearer light 
 than before the organic nature of sin, its persistence in 
 the nation as well as in families and individuals. Its 
 presence is felt to pervade the world, to be as diffused 
 as the universal air which all men breathe — a moral 
 miasma poisoning life in its inward parts. From the 
 individual it has spread into the race, and wherever 
 it has spread it has carried a sure degeneration and 
 a certain punishment, which on one side is the infliction 
 of Jehovah's will, and on the other the inevitable result 
 of the evil itself. Neither the one nor the many can 
 hope to escape this judgment on sin ; the nations that 
 forget God will as surely go down into the pit as the 
 men that forget Him ; for not even is the law of 
 gravitation more universal or constant than this 
 
Chap, III The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 127 
 
 dragging weight of evil. The sombre influence of this 
 thought so deeply colours the prophetic mind, that 
 there is little room for the brighter side of the picture ; 
 the beauty and the reward of the ideal life only rarely 
 flash out, like a fair landscape seen on the background 
 of a retreating storm.^ But over all these are visions 
 of the blue sky of Divine mercy and pity for wayward 
 humanity. Here and there through the earthquake and 
 the storm is heard the still small voice, which invites 
 to repentance and promises pardon to those who will 
 leave their sin. The terrible nature of wrongdoing is 
 nowhere so forcibly shown as in the prophets ; at the 
 same time it would be difficult even in the Gospels 
 to find more attractive and convincing glimpses of 
 the way of recovery — a way never barred on the 
 Divine side, however slow Man may be to enter on its 
 privileges. 
 
 IV 
 
 When we step across the threshold of the Gospels, 
 however, we find ourselves in a different atmosphere. 
 The clouds are still in the heavens, but they have re- 
 treated to the horizon, and hang there in dense masses ; 
 our minds are almost always in the sunshine as we 
 read the discourses of our Lord, and watch Him at His 
 saving work. For we are here in view, not of Man's 
 sin, so much as of God's righteousness. The perfect 
 Life fills the foreground with its beauty and fragrance ; 
 we behold " His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten 
 of the Father, full of grace and truth." ^ We see sin 
 in the light of its opposite, and though that sight 
 
 * Isaiah xi. 1-9, and Ixv. 13-25, are typical examples of the 
 idyllic element in prophecy. 
 
 * John i. 14. 
 
128 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 sheds a more awful radiance on its heinousness, and 
 shame, and ingratitude than the sternest denunciations 
 of the Old Testament, the effect of the picture is to 
 manifest the holiness and love of God in Christ, and 
 the possibilities of our nature as realised in His 
 life and character, rather than the depth of human 
 depravity. 
 
 But there is no contradiction between the Old Testa- 
 ment teaching concerning the nature of sin and that of 
 the New. The harmony comes forth all the more em- 
 phatically when we realise what the perfect life is like, 
 and what are its dominating motives and principles of 
 conduct. If sin is seen in the Old Testament to be a state 
 of rebellion, of transgression, of self-will, the true life of 
 holiness is seen in the Gospels to be a state of perfect 
 obedience, submission, and active harmony with the 
 fatherly will of God. " Lo, I come to do Thy will, O 
 God," ^ is the central pivot round which the Son's whole 
 life circled ; it is the key which unlocks all its mysteries. 
 
 I. But there is advance as well as harmony in the 
 teaching. Jesus completes the conception of sin towards 
 which the Hebrew conscience had been slowly working 
 its way, by showing that it consisted not in mere out- 
 ward acts, nor even in isolated motives, but in something 
 that lies at the roots of the personal life. It is a con- 
 dition and a tendency. " Man not only sins, but is 
 a sinner naturally." It is a disease infecting the springs 
 of moral life, pervading the heart, and contaminating the 
 very thoughts. Nothing good can come out of a bad 
 man. " Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit ; but a 
 corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit" ;^ "The tree is 
 known by its fruit. O generation of vipers, how can 
 ye, being evil, speak good things ? for out of the abund- 
 ance of the heart the mouth speaketh " ; ^ " That which 
 Heb. X. 7, 9. * Matt. vii. 17. ' Matt. xii. 33, 34. 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 119 
 
 is born of the flesh is flesh ; and that which is born 
 of the Spirit is spirit " ^ (where we find the first distinct 
 reference to that division of our nature which is so 
 elaborately worked out by St. Paul) ; " But the things 
 which proceed out of the mouth come forth out of 
 the heart ; and they defile the man. For out of the 
 heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, 
 fornications, thefts, false witness, railings: these are 
 the things which defile the man."^ These passages 
 illustrate, both in the principle underlying them and 
 in their vivid summary of particular sins, our Lord's 
 conception of wrongdoing as a corrupt self-will, branch- 
 ing out in all directions into loathsome acts each with 
 the same characteristic element at its root. 
 
 2. The superhuman aspects of evil and good alike 
 are also greatly emphasised and enriched in our Lord's 
 teaching. There is a great Over-world divided into 
 sharp and hopeless antagonism, a Kingdom of God 
 and a kingdom of the Evil One ; and these are in 
 conflict for the possession of Man's soul. We must be 
 careful, however, once more, not to allow ourselves to 
 imagine that there is here the slightest tendency to teach 
 that system of dualism which was the canker at the 
 root of the philosophic thinking of that time. The 
 Devil and his angels are still on sufferance, and while 
 their influence on the human spirit is great, extending 
 down into his physical condition,^ and causing all manner 
 of painful diseases, the range of their power is strictly 
 limited,* they are consistently represented as under the 
 control of Jesus,^ and their tenure of influence is in God's 
 good time to come to an end.^ It is impossible to 
 believe that in dealing with these superhuman agencies 
 
 ' John iii. 6. * Luke viii. 32. 
 
 » Matt. XV. 18, 19. ' Matt. viii. 33, 34. 
 
 3 Matt. ix. 32, etc. * Luke x. 18. 
 
i3o The Ascent ttirough Christ Book 1 
 
 as existent, Jesus is only making a concession to the 
 superstitions of the time, as some commentators, who find 
 it difficult to believe in the existence of evil spirits, would 
 make out. His attitude towards the whole question is 
 too serious for such a hypothesis ; our only choice is 
 either to say that He is mistaken, or to accept His teach- 
 ing as determining the real existence of daemonic beings. 
 Its bearing on our present purpose is found in the 
 deepening sense which it gives us of the way in which 
 evil is intertwined with the spiritual as well as the 
 physical facts of human life, and of the vast forces 
 needful for its expulsion from the Universe. 
 
 3. Another advance in the teaching of Jesus concern- 
 ing the nature of sin is the way in which our duty to 
 God and to our fellow-men is shown to be essentially 
 inter-related. Obedience to our Heavenly Father is to 
 be proved by our performance of what is right and kind 
 and loving to those around us. Not by acts of outward 
 worship is He pleased, but by right affections, by noble 
 conduct, by gentle ministries to one another.^ Love to 
 God, and love to man— this is the " fulfilling of the 
 Law," this is "the Law and the Prophets." Sin is 
 ingratitude against God, and hatred against our brother. 
 Self-will against Him who made us is the same thing 
 as that which shows itself in selfishness in our earthly 
 relations. 
 
 4. Again, Jesus introduced into the conception of right 
 and wrong a fine discrimination, a sense of more or less, 
 which has never had its true place in Christian thought. 
 The notion that all sins are equally heinous, that there 
 is no difference between venial and mortal offences, is 
 altogether foreign to His teaching. The Gospels are 
 full of illumination on this point. We are taught to see 
 things in their proportion and perspective, to distinguish 
 
 » Matt. V. 21.26/38-42. 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 131 
 
 between sins that are rather symptomatic of misdirected 
 passions or of an imperfect development of the moral 
 sense than of hopeless corruption on the one side, and 
 those on the other that arise from a wilful rejection of 
 the essential principles of right conduct and holy feel- 
 ings. Space forbids us to enter into this matter with 
 any detail, but we may say in a word that the test which 
 is everywhere applied is this: that sin is mortal which is 
 a final barrier to the entrance of the grace of God, and 
 that sin is venial, or least mortal, which by the influx of 
 a truer light or tenderer treatment makes way for the 
 Divine influence. This is why Jesus was so kind and 
 pitiful to the publicans (the victims in many cases of 
 a corrupt occupation) and to the impure (the victims of 
 misdirected passions driven into extremes by bitter social 
 ostracism), and why He was so uncompromising against 
 the Pharisees, who had all possible spiritual light and 
 yet rejected His message. His worst judgment against 
 these Pharisees was uttered in the quiet word, "The 
 publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of heaven 
 before you." ^ It is of the utmost importance that this 
 aspect of our Lord's teaching should have its right place 
 in our system of morals and in our attitude towards the 
 erring and the lost. Especially should it be made clear 
 that those who are ostensibly religious are still in danger 
 of sins that are beyond measure dangerous in their 
 subtlety and power. 
 
 5. But the final and most important of all the aspects 
 of sin that are emphasised in the Gospels lies, not in 
 the direct teaching, but in the sacrifice of our Lord. 
 Only against that supreme act in which He delivered 
 Himself up for our offences, and became the propitiation 
 for the sins of the whole world, is it possible for us to 
 measure the terrible hold sin had gained on the soul 
 1 Matt. xxi. 31 
 
13^ The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 of man, and the tremendous effort needed to uproot 
 it from the world. How true this is may be seen in 
 the fact that when we lose faith in the reality and 
 necessity of the atonement, we inevitably tend to 
 shallower views of sin, and the passion of our an- 
 tagonism against evil begins to wane. But to believe 
 in very truth that it was needful for God to stoop, in 
 the person of His Son, so low that He went under 
 the yoke of death on our behalf, in order that the 
 terrible bondage of sin might be broken, must make sin 
 itself inexpressibly loathsome to every true believer. 
 Beyond this even Divine love could not go. The 
 sacrifice of Christ on the cross at once measures the 
 otherwise fathomless depths of sin, and the matchless 
 and omnipotent range of the Love that would redeem 
 at such cost a race that has been so. slow to be redeemed. 
 
 Finally, in the Epistles, we find another, and in some 
 directions still more developed, treatment of the question 
 of sin. This is to be found most vividly in the writings 
 of St. Paul, and it will be sufficient for our purpose if 
 we limit our remarks to his theory. Paul was a 
 psychologist and a philosopher, and all his references 
 to the great realities of the spiritual life are controlled 
 by this fact, as well as by the consideration that he 
 had received a subtle and careful training in the 
 Rabbinical schools of his day. Without entering into 
 some of those things in his letters which are " hard 
 to be understood," we find that the salient points of 
 his teaching on the question of sin are clear and 
 unmistakable. 
 
 I. In the background of all his thoughts there stands 
 the conception of the great moral order of the universe. 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 133 
 
 mirrored and emphasised in the Mosaic Law to the 
 Jew,^ and lying implicit, but accessible, to the Gentile, 
 in the revelations of Nature and the voice of con- 
 science.^ To this moral order all men are responsible. 
 But Jews and Gentiles alike have failed to fulfil this 
 responsibility. The source of sin in the Gentile is 
 the obscuration of the idea of God through the effects 
 of idolatry and sensuality.' Its source in the Jew is 
 other than this, but though favoured with fuller light, 
 he has fallen under the same evil tyranny as the Gentile, 
 and he is therefore all the more guilty, since more was 
 to be expected of him.* Thus all men have alike 
 failed to fulfil the demands of the moral law, and are 
 "under sin.",^ 
 
 2. So far Paul puts the case in terms of Rabbinical 
 thought. But his distinctive contribution to the science 
 of sin is when he speaks in the language of the psycho- 
 logist. Man according to him is a complex being — a 
 fact that seems to have been burned into the mind of 
 the apostle by the stress of his own fierce inward 
 experiences. Two natures fight hard for the mastery 
 in Man. There is the carnal or lower nature, the " flesh," 
 and the higher or " noumenal," which is the seat of the 
 " spirit." ® The lower nature is the seat of sin ; it is 
 altogether corrupt : " I know that in me, that is, in my 
 flesh, dwelleth no good thing." ^ The higher nature is the 
 seat of all holy impulses, of all Divine activity. Between 
 these conflicting elements there is no truce : " The flesh 
 lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the 
 flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other."' 
 The sad spiritual unrest which is so marked a feature 
 
 * Rom. iii. 2. * Ibid., iii. 23 ; Gal. iii. 22. 
 ' Ibid., i. 32. * Ibid, vii. 5, 6. 
 
 * Ibid., i. 21-24. ' Ibid., vii. 18. 
 < Ibid., ii. 17-24. » Gal. v. 17. 
 
134 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 of the inward life arises from the perpetual and irrecon- 
 cilable warfare between these two principles. It explains 
 the contrast between ideal and accomplishment ^ in the 
 best men ; the failure of all to live a true life in their 
 own strength ; the need of help from above, ere the 
 victory can be gained by any one.^ According as the 
 lower or the higher nature prevails, a man is in a saved or 
 lost condition. There are some in whom the flesh is so 
 paramount that they are " dead in sin." ^ But even here 
 there is responsibility : for conscience is not absolutely 
 dead\ it is really sleeping, and may yet be awakened 
 by Divine influence.* Those who have thus been 
 quickened by the Holy Spirit are " new creatures," and 
 " the old things are become new to them," ^ and they have 
 entered on a fresh career of hope and progress, which 
 has perfection for its goal and heaven for its horizon. 
 Such men are no longer under the " law of sin and of 
 death " ; ^ they can do " all things through Christ that 
 strengtheneth them," ^ who " lives " in them, ^ who has 
 redeemed them from " the curse of the law," ^ and has 
 made their experience one of " righteousness and peace 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost." ^^ 
 
 3. Behind the psychologist in Paul stands the philo- 
 sopher. He is not satisfied with dealing with the facts 
 of human experience ; he has a theory with which to 
 account for them. Two great doctrines round which 
 endless controversy has been waged from the first age of 
 Christianity to the present stand out in his explanation 
 of the mystery of iniquity. The first is the universality 
 of sin in the race ; and the second its hereditary or 
 " original " character in the individual. Our purpose 
 
 ^ Rom. vii. 19. ^ Rom. viii. 2. 
 
 ' Ibid., vii. 24, 25. ' Phil. iv. 13. 
 
 » Eph. ii. 1,5. « Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 * Ibid. 9 Ibid., iii. 13. 
 
 • 2 Cor. V. 17. »<» Rom. xiv. 17. 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 135 
 
 is not to enter into the controversial aspects of these 
 difficult questions, but simply and briefly to expound 
 their salient points. 
 
 Sin, according to the great Apostle of the Gentiles, 
 is a universal fact. The whole race, and every individual 
 in the race, is tainted with it. " All have sinned, and 
 come short of the glory of God." ^ By this the Apostle 
 means that each individual, on his own account, has 
 done what is wrong, and what he knows to be wrong, 
 so that the whole race in its totality stands con- 
 demned, and is under the judgment which everywhere 
 follows on the commission of evil. 
 
 But there is more than this to be said. Not only 
 do all men individually, and so collectively, do wrong, ' 
 but there is an original evil bias, or tendency, which 
 has been transmitted from the first ancestor of the race 
 down the ages, in which we all share. This bias, being 
 a bias towards sin, carries with it in a mysterious but 
 real sense an element of condemnation. The springs 
 of spiritual vitality in the race have been poisoned at 
 the fountain-head, and in virtue of the solidarity of 
 the generations, and of that law by which we share in the 
 organic disabilities of our progenitors, we suffer loss, 
 and are tainted with sin and with the consequences, 
 penal and other, entailed by sin. There has been no 
 time in the history of Christian thought when this 
 mysterious New Testament doctrine may be rationally 
 grasped so easily as in the light of the scientific doctrine 
 of heredity of to-day, which has cast its sombre shadow 
 over such wide reaches of human thought, and has 
 deepened so sadly every problem of social regeneration. 
 What in earlier times had to be taken on faith, and 
 believed on the authority of Sacred Writ, now meets 
 us as an induction from the pages of every textbook 
 ^ Fom. iii. 23 : cf. verses 9-18, 
 
13^ The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 of biology, and as a corner-stone in every philosophical 
 theory. The generations are linked, each to each, in 
 the bonds of a relationship so close and intimate, that 
 the idea of a racial responsibility is but a necessary 
 deduction from the facts ; and the many passages in 
 which God is represented as dealing with humankind 
 not so much as a collection of separate individuals, but 
 as a kind of organic unity, are in entire keeping 
 with the whole scientific outlook, and especially is this 
 so of the latest generalisations of human thought on 
 the moral condition of Man. 
 
 VI 
 
 To sum up this brief survey of the Biblical doctrine 
 of Sin, in view of our special purpose. 
 
 Right through the Bible there is a consistent and 
 progressive theory of human sin and depravity. It 
 dominates each writer according to his historical place 
 and perspective, and pervades all the various classes 
 of literature of which the Bible is composed. In other 
 words, it is an organic and formative idea, slowly realised, 
 constantly enriched by new illustrative material from 
 the thought and the life of the Hebrews, and finally 
 rounded into completeness in the revelation of Jesus 
 Christ and His apostles. 
 
 The implication behind this idea is that Man stands 
 in a unique relation with God — i.e. that he is a spiritual 
 being. As such he had an ideal destiny, which has 
 been from the outset interfered with, and, so far as he 
 is concerned, defeated, because he has failed to maintain 
 his Divine sonship. The moral poison has permeated 
 his whole nature, affecting his mind, his will, his 
 affections ; it has entailed all kinds of disabilities and 
 penal consequences in the individual and the race. His 
 
Chap. Ill The Biblical Doctrine of Sin 137 
 
 vision of God is clouded ; his relations with his fellow- 
 creatures have been degraded from love into hatred, 
 from trustful co-operation into suspicion and bitter 
 alienation ; his history in the race, from being one of 
 steady progress and gradual triumph over the natural 
 obstacles with which in any case he would have had 
 to struggle, has been one of fitful effort after a better life, 
 ending ever in defeat and retrogression, discouragement 
 and shame, and in the individual, in a constant warfare 
 between the lower and the higher nature, in which the 
 lower has been mainly triumphant, till his soul is 
 darkened with a sense of continual failure. Side by 
 side with this exposition of Man's ruin, there is developed 
 in the Bible a redemptive idea, which is also slowly 
 and painfully developed, waxing and waning in succes- 
 sive generations, but on the whole steadily opening 
 out into clearness and beauty. The fundamental con- 
 ception of the Bible is that what Man could not do, 
 and what the educative and disciplinary forces of life 
 could not do, God is willing to do and has done by the 
 unfolding of His love and grace. By Man's willingness 
 on his side to be helped and redeemed, he is enabled 
 to defeat the work and ravages of sin, and to transform, 
 through the Incarnation, what seemed doomed to hope- 
 less failure into a new and higher development of 
 spiritual life, both for the individual and the race. 
 
BOOK I: EVOLUTION 
 AND TH6 FALL OF MAN 
 
 " This I know — and this may by all men 
 be known — that no good or lovely thing 
 exists in this world without its corrc' 
 spondent darkness; and that the 
 universe presents itself continually to 
 tnankitid under the stern aspect of 
 warning, or of choice, the good and the 
 evil set on the right hand and the left." 
 John Ruskin. 
 
 Chapter IV. — Anthropology and the Fall 
 
 Conscience and the Fall — The Adam of Scripture and of " Paradise 
 Lost " — The Evolutionary Theory and Moral Evil — Degeneration in the 
 Organic World — Man physically deteriorating — Intellectual v. Moral 
 Progress — Primitive and Savage Man — Witness of History. 
 
 I 
 
 WE have now to inquire into the problem whether 
 the Biblical theory of the Fall of Man, and of 
 the nature of sin, can be squared with the current ideas 
 of his primitive nature and condition, and with other 
 broad generalisations of Anthropological Science. 
 
 Beginning with the testimony of our moral and 
 spiritual consciousness, there is no doubt that the 
 doctrine of a Fall from a state of innocence is fully 
 consistent with the subjective facts of human life. The 
 appeal of the Biblical story calls forth an involuntary re- 
 sponse from the conscience. The best men equally with 
 the worst — perhaps the best more emphatically than 
 the worst, because their ^noral consciousness is more 
 normal and developed — confess to a sense of dislocation 
 in their inward life. They feel that there is something 
 wrong with them. When they endeavour to interpret 
 this universal testimony of conscience, they are not 
 satisfied with calling to mind separate acts of trans- 
 
 138 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 139 
 
 gression, or even acquired habits of evil. The trouble 
 lies deeper than anything to which they can point in 
 their individual experience, in those "abysmal depths 
 of personality" from which all the acts and facts of 
 life take their rise. There is, in other words, a pre- 
 disposition towards evil in all hearts and lives, dating 
 from the time when they were neither responsible for 
 what they did, nor fully understood the character of 
 their impulses. In the case of individual men and 
 women, it is impossible to say that all the evil in their 
 lives is the outcome of their unbiassed will. It runs 
 back into the hereditary element in their nature. And 
 yet there is an unequivocal voice in our moral con- 
 sciousness which tells us that both the patent acts of 
 wrongdoing of which we are guilty, and the latent 
 predisposition from which these partly at least emerge, 
 are abnormal facts in our nature. They ought not to be. 
 They are stamped from the outset to the issue with 
 being unnatural in the highest sense. Now, if sin 
 were but an inevitable circumstance in the career of 
 a normally developing being, if it were nothing more 
 than the " throwing off of the brute inheritance," such 
 a testimony on the part of conscience would be 
 incomprehensible. The only non-biblical explanation 
 that has even an aspect of plausibility about it, that 
 this attitude of the conscience is but the natural fruit 
 of Christian training, will not hold water for a moment. 
 As a matter of fact, when the doctrine of the fallen 
 condition of our race is brought home to the awakened 
 non-Christian conscience, ife- is found to interpret its 
 own vague and undeveloped sense of wrongdoing as 
 nothing else seems to do. The quickened moral sense 
 responds to it like a rusty lock to its long-lost key. 
 And thus, where the consciousness of sin has not been 
 altogether lost, the story of the Fall becomes the more 
 
140 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 credible because it has this interpretative power over 
 the inner life. Whether true as history in its literal 
 sense, it is undeniably true in the illumination which 
 it throws on the subjective mystery of evil. All that 
 conscience tells us about ourselves is at least consistent 
 with the theory that we are a fallen race. 
 
 II 
 
 So far, we are not out of touch with the old belief. Our 
 subjective consciousness substantially tallies with the 
 " allegory " of the Fall. But when we bring that 
 ancient postulate to the bar of the new Anthropology, 
 we are met by what look like insuperable objections. 
 
 It is, for instance, confidently affirmed that the early 
 chapters of Genesis present us with a conception of 
 the first man which in the light of present science is 
 incredible, impossible, and monstrously out of keeping 
 with what must have been the facts of the case. 
 
 To weigh the value of this assertion we must glance 
 at the conception of Adam as limned in such graphic and 
 simple lines in these chapters. 
 
 In passing, we must bear in mind that the " con- 
 cept " which most of us have of Adam is based not so 
 much on Genesis as on Milton's ** Paradise Lost." 
 Grand and impressive as the personality of the first 
 man is in that great epic, and justifiable as it may be 
 on the ground of poetic license, it is an entirely false 
 reproduction of the Adam of Scripture. It is a 
 distorted conception of " what is virtually a full-grown 
 manhood masquerading under the conditions of child- 
 hood." In "Paradise Lost" Adam is a philosopher 
 and a courtier, with the ideas of the sixteenth century 
 and the manners of a diplomat. He is self-conscious, 
 imaginative, and punctilious ; in fact he is the mediaeval 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 141 
 
 Man transferred to the canvas of prehistoric time ; that 
 is to say, he is a monstrosity. But Adam in the Garden 
 of Eden is a very different being. As Bp. Barry says : 
 "In the Scriptural vision of primeval humanity, we trace 
 indeed all the germs of civilisation to come ; — in simple 
 work, the germ of material civilisation, — in the origin 
 of language, of the intellectual,— in marriage, of the 
 social and moral, — in the hearing of the voice of the Lord, 
 of the religious. But it is in germ only ; in a simplicity 
 not brutish indeed or savage, as we now see degraded 
 savagery, but childlike, * naked and not ashamed ' ; 
 clearly the beginning of a development in all the 
 elements of human nature — which the entrance of evil 
 into the world disturbed and perverted by a morbid 
 development of itself, but destroyed not — up to the 
 perfection of manhood in the dispensation on earth, 
 and the earnest of a higher perfection still in the world 
 to come." ^ In the Bible story Adam is a simple child, 
 with everything to learn ; untried, fallible, and easily 
 temptable because of the very innocence which is his 
 most attractive quality. 
 
 Now is there anything hopelessly discordant between 
 this and the account given of Man in the textbooks 
 of Anthropological Science ? 
 
 Evolution posits it as a fundamental principle that 
 Man has been slowly raised — so slowly indeed that 
 it is impossible to trace the steps — from the grade of 
 the lower animals into that of a self-conscious creature. 
 We shall never know the moment when, as we have 
 already said, "the manlike ape became the apelike 
 
 » Clement Alexandrinus ("Strom.," vi. 12. 98) in answer to 
 question whether Adam was formed perfect or imperfect replies : 
 ••They shall learn from us that he was not perfect [/>. com- 
 plete in development, rcXetoy] in respect ot his creation, but in a 
 fit condition to receive virtue." Ct. Irenaeus, ** C. Haer.," iv. 38. 
 (See " Lux Mundi," Appendix II., 5th Ed., p. 535, footnote.) 
 
142 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 man " ; for the reason that the change, being mental and 
 moral, has left no trace either in geological remains or 
 in any more legible record. But at some moment 
 or other Science affirms that the great change did 
 unquestionably take place. Awaking from a state of 
 animality, Man at last stood upright, possessed of 
 dawning self-consciousness and a germinal moral sense. 
 The change was none the less real because we cannot 
 mark its exact date ; and having taken place, the 
 essence of it was that Man, henceforth, since he was 
 capable of entering into moral distinctions, was capable 
 of sin. Before this he was capable of breaking the laws 
 of God without sinning : " without law " {i.e. the " know- 
 ledge of law ") " there is no transgression " ; but " when 
 the commandment came, sin revived."^ All this is 
 simply what the "tree of the knowledge of good and 
 evil" means in the Book of Genesis. When for the 
 first time Man stood face to face with definite conscious 
 temptation to do that which he knew to be wrong, he 
 held in his hand the fruit of that tree, and his destiny 
 as a moral being was trembling in the balance. And 
 when for the first time he succumbed to temptation, and 
 faint dawnings of remorse visited his heart, at that 
 moment he was banished from the Eden of innocence 
 in which his nature had hitherto dwelt, and he was 
 driven forth from the presence of the Lord. His 
 consciousness of the Divine, as suggested in Genesis, 
 is a dramatic statement of a fact that must have been 
 almost inconceivably faint and imperfect; but in all 
 essentials there is no difference between the fact and 
 its exposition there. Till this point in his career, a 
 fair and happy development of moral nature had 
 opened before Man, to which the development of his 
 physical frame in bygone aeons was as nothing, beauti- 
 VRom. vii. 9. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 143 
 
 ful as that had been. But with the first sin another 
 line of development was started,— no longer upward 
 but downward ; no longer in the direction of his latent 
 possibilities for good, but in the line of his capacity 
 for evil. The hidden rift between what he might 
 be and what he was appeared ; lie parted with his 
 ideal life, and henceforth the return to the garden of 
 innocence out of which he had been driven was guarded 
 by fiery cherubim of remorse. We may put it in 
 evolutionary or in theological language as we please ; 
 we may say that ''Man is fallen,'' or that he is the 
 victim of "arrested development," of "retrogressive 
 moral forces " ; the fact is the same.^ 
 
 Ill 
 
 A FAR more serious charge against the Evolutionist is 
 that his theory of the origin and nature of Man empties 
 the idea of moral evil of its distinctive contents, and so 
 tends to discountenance the Biblical doctrine of sin as 
 expounded in the previous chapter. 
 
 What then has the consistent Evolutionist to say 
 about this question ? 
 
 It is needful to be careful here in the use of terms. 
 There are few words in the English language more 
 ambiguously used than this word evil, 
 
 ^ As regards the question whether there was a single First 
 Man or not, various views have been held by Anthropologists, 
 and their arguments are almost equally divided in point of cogency. 
 Wallace has the following remarks on this very difficult subject : 
 " If we are of opinion that he was not really Man till the higher 
 faculties were fully developed, we may fairly assert that there 
 were many originally distinct races of men; while, if we think 
 that a being closely resembhng us in form and structure, but with 
 mental faculties scarcely raised above the brute, must still be 
 considered to have been human, we are fully entitled to maintain 
 the common origin of all Mankind " (" Natural Selection," p. 322). 
 
144 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 I. First, it is made to do duty for the idea oi physical 
 suffering, and not unfrequently it is used in this sense 
 with much of the suggestion of obloquy which logically 
 belongs only to other meanings of the term. In a 
 recently published book on "Evil and Evolution," the 
 whole argument of the author is vitiated by this 
 confusion of terminology. No adequate distinction is 
 made between pain as a fact of organic life and wrong- 
 doing. " Suffering itself is evil, and nothing but evil." ^ 
 The only distinction in the words according to this 
 writer is that involved in a lower and higher maladjust- 
 ment to environment. This idea of the essential " evil " 
 of pain is a relic of that hedonistic philosophy of morals 
 which has vitiated so much recent thought on the 
 subject, by confusing vital issues. Until we get rid of 
 this fallacy it will be impossible to regain a true faith 
 in the essential goodness of God, and in His moral 
 government. The only way to retain respect for the 
 Divine Being on such a hypothesis is to hold, as does 
 this writer, that the presence of suffering in the 
 Universe implies interference on the part of some 
 malignant Being of vast resources, who has insinuated 
 himself not only into the Providential order, but even 
 into the creative process, so that organic life as well as 
 history are but a record of the conflict between these 
 almost equal Powers. "Tigers and hyenas, vultures 
 and sharks, ferrets and polecats, wasps and spiders, puff- 
 adders and skunks," and such creatures are not the result 
 of the creative activity of a perfectly beneficent and 
 omnipotent God, but the work of a Devil,^ who has 
 maliciously intruded his malignity into the otherwise 
 
 1 "Evil and Evolution," by the author of "The Social Horizon," 
 p. 56- 
 
 » See idid., p. 144, and many other passages where this idea is 
 plainly suggested. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 145 
 
 perfect order and harmony of the world. That there is 
 such a Being, who has interfered in the moral evolution 
 of Man, has been the almost universal belief of Christians 
 in all generations, but the Christian doctrine restricts 
 his activity within the moral sphere, and gives him no 
 place in the creation of organic life. To elevate him so 
 highly that he shares in God's creative attributes, is to 
 be guilty of a modernised form of Zoroastrianism, which 
 finds no hint of support from Scripture, though this 
 writer seems to imagine that he is building on a 
 Christian basis. The fallacy lies in the suppressed 
 premise in the argument — that physical pain and moral 
 evil are identical in kind, and that they must spring 
 from a common root of malevolence. Mysterious and 
 trying to faith as many of the aspects of physical 
 suffering often are, there is nothing gained by com- 
 plicating the problem in this manner, and there is more 
 lost than this writer seems to think. Thousands of 
 devout souls who now bear their trials in patience in 
 the belief that there is some hidden beneficent pur- 
 pose in all their sufferings, would utterly break down 
 beneath the burden if once they lost this refuge of faith. 
 No ; pain and suffering are too much inwoven with the 
 very tissue and end of life not to be a "part of the 
 plan " ; and that this is so ought to make us revise, 
 not the belief that God is all-good, but the other belief, 
 that pain is all evil. 
 
 2. Secondly, the word evily more appropriately, is 
 used in the sense of moral wrongdoing. Here it can 
 only be applied to the dispositions and acts of an ethical 
 being, i.e. to one endowed with freedom of will. It 
 presupposes not only the potential existence of this 
 faculty, but a conscious realisation of it. There is 
 implied in every moral act a knowledge of alternatives, 
 and a sense of their ethical quality not merely as 
 
 10 
 
14^ The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 stronger and weaker, but as higher and lower. This 
 bars out all such " wrongdoing " as arises from ignor- 
 ance, or from such utter weakness of resolve that the 
 worst alternative is forced on us by a stress which makes 
 resistance impossible. Only when we are free to choose 
 can a foolish or disastrous act be morally wrong. This 
 is the beginning of evil in the strict sense. In all other 
 cases we can bear to think of the individual being 
 sacrificed for the good of the race. That implies a 
 sacrifice in the course^ in order to reach the goal\ but 
 of the evil that spells moral debasement, we can only 
 say that it is a missing of the goal itself. ^ 
 
 It is clear that a true conception of this form of evil 
 depends on an adequate theory of the human will. A 
 necessitarian philosophy destroys the very basis of 
 responsibility, and empties moral wrongdoing of its 
 distinctive contents ; for if we are at the mercy of the 
 dominant motive, or rather if we have no share in deter- 
 mining which motive shall become dominant, then we are 
 equally incapable of virtue and vice, guilt is a mere 
 juridical term, and punishment a mere utilitarian 
 device. ^ But we must not identify Evolution with 
 any such philosophy. The Evolutionist is bound to 
 find room for all the facts of life, and if moral freedom 
 be a sublime reality, as we believe it is, we are not 
 
 * Le Conte, ♦' Evolution and Religious Thought," p. 370. 
 
 « Coleridge in " Aids to Reflection " puts the matter thus : " A 
 moral evil is an evil which has its origin in the will. An evil 
 common to all must have a ground common to all. But the actual 
 existence of moral evil we are bound to admit ; and that there is an 
 evil common to all is a fact, and this evil therefore must have a 
 common ground. Now this evil ground cannot originate in the 
 Divine will, it must therefore be referred to the will offman; and 
 this evil ground we call original sin. It is a mystery, that is, a fact 
 which we see but cannot explain, and the doctrine a truth which we 
 apprehend, but can neither comprehend nor communicate. And 
 such by the quality of the subject (namely, a responsible will) it 
 must be, if it be true at all " (Comment CIXc. 20), 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 147 
 
 precluded by this theory from a thorough belief in free- 
 dom, implying as it does the possibility of moral lapse. 
 Not the certainty of course, but only the possibility. It 
 is conceivable that the race, when the alternatives of 
 moral choice were first realised by it in the dim past, 
 might have chosen the upward path with undivided will, 
 as we believe it was chosen by one Individual of the 
 race, Jesus Christ. But once the door was open for trans- 
 gression, the possibility arose which has since become 
 a dreadful fact — that the whole race should give way 
 to temptation, and (in varying degrees) choose evil for 
 its portion. In no other way than by providing for this 
 dread possibility, that is, by the | creation of beings 
 possessed of the essentials of moral freedom, could 
 Innocence become Virtue. " Innocence," it has been 
 well said, " is a pre-established, virtue a self-established, 
 harmony of spiritual activities. The course of human 
 development, whether individual or racial, is from 
 innocence, through more or less discord and conflict,, 
 into virtue. And virtue completed, regarded as a 
 condition, is holiness ; as an activity, is spiritual freedom. 
 Not happiness nor innocence is the goal of humanity. 
 Happiness will surely come in its train, but if we seek 
 happiness primarily, we miss both. Two things must 
 be steadily borne in mind: virtue is the goal of 
 humanity ; virtue cannot be given ; it must be self- 
 acquired."^ Now if, with innocence as a possession, 
 and virtue as a possibility, evil is voluntarily chosen, 
 then, instead of a moral evolution into virtue, there is a 
 fall into guilt. From the standpoint of Evolutionary 
 Ethics, therefore, there is nothing irrational or even 
 improbable in the notion of a Fall. The improbability 
 would be that, considering the tremendous drag of the 
 lower nature and the initial weakness of a new instinct, 
 * ILe Conte, '•Evol4tion and Religious Thought," p. 7?, 
 
14^ The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 a creature just starting on a moral evolution should not 
 fall into wrongdoing. 
 
 3. But we have not yet exhausted the full meaning 
 of the word evil So far, we have only dealt with moral 
 evil^ which simply presupposes an ethical personality, 
 living in social relations. There are many of the fore- 
 most thinkers of the present day whose philosophy of 
 evil ends here. All Agnostic Evolutionists take for 
 granted, as their postulates oblige them to do, that what 
 they call " sin " is purely a social fact, and consists in 
 the violation of " social relations," having no meaning 
 except within the range of these relations. In thus 
 using the word " sin " they are stealing a term from the 
 realm of theology, and using it in a sense that is in- 
 applicable in any other. For sin implies that man is 
 something more than a moral being, and that he has 
 higher relationships than those that bind him to his 
 fellow-men. He is a child of the Eternal, and is a 
 citizen of a supersensuous realm ; as such, he is subject 
 to a higher law of conduct, and is the heir of a nobler 
 ideal of character, than is involved in the fullest harmony 
 with his earthly ethical environment. When he is faith- 
 ful to these, he is good in the highest possible sense, and 
 attains his true end of Divine Sonship ; when he fails to 
 do so, he is guilty of a more heinous wrongdoing than 
 when he violates his human relations qua human only. 
 Here for the first time do we come to the true meaning 
 of the word " sin." Just as " evil " in its restricted and 
 technical connotation is a philosophical term, and 
 " vice " is an ethical term, and " crime " is a legal term, 
 so is " sin " distinctively a religious term, implying the 
 personality of God, His Fatherly relations to Man, and 
 all the deep responsibilities of this august relationship. 
 It is a term at once individual and collective ; and it 
 issues in an individual and collective realisation of guilt. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 14^ 
 
 " It involves, like evil, the notions of suffering and loss ; 
 like vice, the notions of disobedience and blame ; like 
 crime, the notions of revolt and wrong, culpability and 
 penalty ; but it enlarges almost to infinity all these 
 ideas and elements, and combines them into a unity 
 representative of Man's personal and collective being 
 under a Divine Sovereignty he has denied or forgotten." ^ 
 This is the essence of the act and condition of sin. 
 There is nothing in evolutionary science which necessi- 
 tates any modification or attenuation of its meaning, 
 except when that theory is made synonymous with a 
 materialistic scheme of the universe and a necessitarian 
 scheme of morals. Since neither alternative is forced 
 upon us, we are left free to inquire whether Evolution 
 can throw any new light on the actual course of sin in 
 the human heart, and so endow the Biblical doctrine 
 with fresh vividness and force. 
 
 IV 
 
 There is one more obvious objection that may be 
 raised against the Biblical doctrine of evil, to which 
 we must give close attention, since it seems to rise 
 
 1 Fairbairn, "The Place of Christ in Modern Theology," pp, 452-3- 
 Coleridge long ago recognised that the real point of conflict between 
 Christian and non-Christian thinkers is to be found not in any ques- 
 tion of criticism, textual or otherwise, of the Bible — " the freest 
 views on which the churches must learn to tolerate." — "The real 
 question is whether there is a Divine root in Man at all ... a 
 spiritual centre answering to a spiritual centre in the Universe. All 
 controversies of any importance come back to this. Coleridge would 
 have been a great Christian thinker if for no other reason than this, 
 that he brought all theological questions back to this living centre, 
 and showed how they all developed from it. Apart from this postu- 
 late, sin was inconceivable to him, and in the same manner all sin 
 was to him sin of origin or original sin. It is essentially the property 
 of the will that it can originate. . . . ' A state or act that has not its 
 origin in the will may be a calamity, deformity, or mischief ; a sin 
 it cannot be ' " (Tulloch, " Movements of Religious Thought," etc., 
 pp. 21, 22). 
 
1 so The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 from one of the most fundamental postulates of 
 Evolution. 
 
 That theory is said to be incompatible with the Fall 
 of Man because it seems to necessitate the notion of 
 Man as an evolving rather than a degraded being. 
 
 This objection may be raised, first, on general and 
 a priori grounds, and must be met by a statement of 
 what the theory of Evolution really does teach on the 
 question of possible lapses into a degraded condition 
 on the part of individuals and species ; and secondly, 
 on the ground of fact, which can only be met by 
 dealing with the facts of human nature and history. 
 
 First, then, let us ask whether it is compatible with 
 the fundamental principles of Evolution that a race of 
 beings should fall into a state of degeneration. 
 
 If the reader will turn to pp. 20, 21, ante^ he will 
 find a reference to what Prof. Le Conte calls the " law 
 of Progress of the Whole," as one of the special features 
 of the evolutionary process. By this he means the 
 progress of the organic kingdom in its entirety. It 
 does not mean that each creature is necessarily an 
 improvement on those that have preceded, nor even 
 that each species or family is essentially progressive, 
 but that the created order on the whole moves on " to 
 some far-off Divine event " which is its goal and ideal. 
 But the idea seems to be ingrained in the minds of 
 many, that as Man is on the crest of the advancing 
 wave of Evolution, it must follow that, whatever may 
 be the case with individuals or even particular tribes 
 who may have fallen or may be falling into a lower 
 plane of being, the family of Man as a whole is and 
 must be developing into a higher life psychically and 
 spiritually, which of course negatives the notion of a 
 universal Fall such as the Bible teaches. 
 
 Let us see how far this idea is necessitated by the 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 151 
 
 true theory of Evolution, which of course professes to 
 be built up on facts rather than on preconceived notions 
 on the one side or the other. 
 
 The impression given by some of the textbooks of 
 Science, that the only law of Evolution is that of 
 development, is misleading in the extreme. Side by 
 side with upward evolutionary processes, there are, as 
 we have already seen, lateral movements, which are 
 neither upward nor downward (specialisation); and 
 there are also true downward movements (degeneration), 
 which affect not only individuals, but whole races of 
 creatures. It is a law so interesting and so important 
 in its bearings on our particular subject, that we will 
 give it our close attention for a little while. 
 
 The great condition of progress in the organic world 
 is that the evolving creature should be in growing 
 harmony with its environment. When this condition 
 is fulfilled, we find an upward movement, i.e. a. move- 
 ment towards improvement of type. When, however, 
 as often happens, there is a lack of correspondence 
 between the creature and its environment, there is 
 either degeneration, if the disharmony is not so great 
 as to endanger life, or extinction, if it becomes so 
 dangerous. The chances of the persistence of a species 
 are, therefore, in exact ratio to the adaptability of its 
 organism to its surroundings. Now as the environment 
 is always changing, though never in active co-operation 
 with any of the organisms which it may be nourishing,^ 
 all the adaptation must be on the part of the organism 
 itself. The variability of organisms is sometimes very 
 great, and it is by no means always in the line of the | 
 creature's interests. There are thus many chances ^ 
 against the favourable evolution of any particular 
 
 » See Calderwood's "Evolution and Man's Place in Nature," p. 75 
 (1st Ed.). 
 
15^ The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 individual or species ; and when these chances are 
 constantly and actively in operation, they sometimes 
 lead to what we call Degeneration. 
 
 The action of this law is even wider than we would 
 anticipate. As a matter of fact, we find its evidence in 
 every direction. The number of familiar objects and 
 organisms which are instances of its work is startling. 
 
 Take the vegetable world first. 
 
 Mr. Grant Allen, in his little work on the " Colours 
 of Flowers," gives some wonderful examples of degenera- 
 tion. The reason why flowers are coloured is in order 
 to attract the visits of fertilising insects. He asserts 
 that the sequence of colouring according to the ascend- 
 ing order of species is as follows : " Yellow^ which is the 
 original colour of all flowers, stands at the bottom of 
 the scale ; then comes white^ then /?ink and red; finally 
 purple and blue]' which are the colours of the most 
 specialised flowers, and are as a rule fertilised by the 
 most specialised insects. Now the more evolved flowers 
 sometimes, from special causes, relapse into former con- 
 ditions. The gradation of colours is then from blue to 
 red, from red to white, and from white to yellow. As 
 they fall back, they lose their special characteristics, and 
 sometimes their essential characteristics, such as the 
 number and arrangement of their parts. Some become 
 self-fertilisers after being cross-fertilisers, which is always 
 a fall to a lower plane ; and some become anemophilous 
 (wind-fertilised) instead of entomophilous (insect-ferti- 
 lised), these latter plants having " usurped all the best 
 places in Nature." It is startling to find it stated that 
 " green is a sign-post of floral degeneration," and that 
 " grasses and plantain-like plants of open wind-swept 
 plains are plants that have become anemophilous, which 
 once possessed coloured insect-attracting corollas." 
 When we think of the vast tracts of the earth's surface 
 
Chap. IV Anthropologfy and the Fall 153 
 
 that are covered with green plants and verdant grasses, 
 two reflections are suggested, if the above statements 
 are accurate, (i) How wide is the range of this law of 
 degeneration in Nature, and (2) how what is degenera- 
 tion in one direction may become a means of advance 
 in another ; for what is degradation in the status of 
 green plants, is a necessary condition of progress in the 
 case of that large portion of the animal creation which 
 could not exist without green food. Truly it is not only 
 in the human or spiritual world that one class becomes 
 rich on the foundation of another's poverty ! 
 
 Take the animal world. Here the evidence is more 
 familiar and scarcely less striking. Prof. Ray Lankester 
 puts the case thus, so far as it applies to this division 
 of organic Nature : " Degeneration may be defined as a 
 gradual change of the organism adapted to a less varied 
 and complex condition of life. ... In degeneration 
 there is a suppression of form, corresponding to the 
 cessation of work." Most of the degenerate animals 
 have gone down in the scale because they have become 
 parasites ; others because they have taken to an im- 
 mobile instead of an active life. A degenerate animal 
 is at once known to the embryologist because it recapitu- 
 lates in its embryonic stages the life-history of its more 
 highly evolved ancestors. For instance, Lernaeoceray 
 which is a parasite attached to the gills of fishes, has 
 lost the well-defined legs of its earlier childhood, and 
 become an elongated wormlike creature, fitted only to 
 suck in nourishment and carry eggs. The barnacle is 
 a degenerate animal which, swimming about for a while, 
 fixes its head to a piece of wood, and takes to a 
 perfectly immobile state of life. Its organs of touch, 
 of sight, and of locomotion, atrophy ; its legs lose their 
 power of motion, and simply serve to carry its food into 
 its mouth, which is no longer a mouth in the ordinary 
 
154 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 sense, the true mouth being used for purposes of attach- 
 ment, and the stomach taking its place as both orifice 
 and receptacle ; so that an eminent naturalist has com- 
 pared one of these creatures to a man standing on his 
 head and kicking food into his mouth. 
 
 All this shows that the principle of degeneration is 
 an active force in Nature, and a little further considera- 
 tion will show that it is not confined in its action to 
 the smaller or meaner species or genera. Curiously 
 enough, the biggest animal that remains on earth is 
 a signal instance of degeneration. The whale has lost 
 caste as a mammal because he was foolish enough at 
 a time very long ago, when he was a true quadruped, 
 to take to a marine form of existence ; and Nature, 
 jealous of unused materials and organs, has cursed it 
 with the loss of some of its limbs, and a remarkable 
 modification of others. The baleen whale has no teeth, 
 though the embryo has (these are never cut) ; on all 
 whales there are traces of hairy coverings which have 
 been discarded ; many whales have pelvic bones, but 
 no trace of hind-limbs, while in others there are such 
 traces as abundantly prove the former existence of such 
 limbs. 
 
 There are indeed not wanting distinct signs of 
 a process of physical degeneration in Man himself. 
 " Civilisation — and the civilised state, be it remembered, 
 is the ultimate goal of every race and nation— is always 
 attended by deterioration of the five senses. Every 
 man pays a definite price for his taming." ^ Thus the 
 sense of smell, so valuable to primitive Man, has largely 
 disappeared in many persons ; the muscles for the 
 erection of the ear have been almost entirely aborted, 
 and as compared with savage races, and still more 
 with the lower animals, "we are almost deaf"; the 
 ^ Drummond, " Ascent of Man," p. 135. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 155 
 
 skin has lost its protective covering, the teeth are 
 rapidly degenerating/ and it is being found necessary 
 to resort to such artificial methods as gymnastics and 
 athletics to keep up the efficiency of the muscular 
 system. Though the results of special training show 
 that the possibilities of the body in civilised Man are 
 largely within reach of recovery, it is certain that there 
 is a slow principle of physical deterioration at work. 
 It is also very suggestive that this process is directly 
 due to the fact that in other directions Man is evolving. 
 As he advances in civilisation, some of his bodily 
 functions, both by use and disuse, tend to inefficiency. 
 He no longer develops his eyesight in the chase, and 
 so it becomes duller ; in order to quicken it, he has 
 invented instruments which supplement his power of 
 vision, and so by the " cessation of natural selection " 
 more people are born with imperfect vision than would 
 be the case were those already imperfect in this matter 
 weeded out before they were of marriageable age. He 
 cannot run like the antelope, so he has invented various 
 methods of artificial locomotion ; this militates against 
 an active habit of body, and so the evil is increased. 
 Man indeed, in conquering Nature, tends to lose 
 himself as an individual. " He has expanded till the 
 world is his body. The former body, the hundred 
 and fifty pounds or so of organised tissue he carries 
 about with him, is little more than a mark of identity. 
 It is not he who is there ; he cannot be there, or any- 
 where, for he is everywhere. The material part of 
 him is reduced to a symbol ; it is but a link with the 
 wider framework of the Arts, a belt between machinery 
 and machinery. His body no longer generates, but 
 only utilises energy ; alone he is but a tool, a medium, 
 
 * It is stated that Neolithic Man wore down his teeth to the 
 roots without decay, while we lose ours often in early middle life. 
 
156 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 a turn-cock of the physical forces." ^ This rhetorical 
 passage, which so finely emphasises the growing 
 supremacy of Man over the organic and inorganic 
 creation, is from another point of view a threnody 
 announcing not only that he has come to the climax 
 of his physical endowment, but that the point of 
 highest efficiency has been passed, and that the penalty 
 of mental evolution is to be found in a gradual but 
 real deterioration of his bodily resources. Thus while 
 he progresses as a Man, as an Animal he deteriorates. 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, does not Science tell us that 
 there has been a steady progress in the race as a whole 
 in the higher sense} Are there any indications, apart 
 from revealed truth, that he is a Fallen Creature ? 
 
 In considering this question, we have to be careful 
 to distinguish between intellectual and spiritual progress, 
 and to remember that the former may take place even 
 while there is distinct and fatal moral decline. It is 
 surely not necessary to show that this is true of the 
 individual; the sad proofs of such a fact stare at us 
 from all sides. We all know men whose intellectual 
 ability is equalled only by their moral shamelessness, 
 who seem to have sharpened their faculties by an 
 elaborate exercise of evil ingenuity, and who make 
 use of their intellectual equipment for no other purpose 
 than to degrade themselves and others. The question 
 is, can this same fact be true of the race as a whole, 
 as it certainly is of individuals, and even of communities 
 at certain crises in their history ? 
 
 We must also be careful not to fall into the fallacy 
 
 * Drummond, l.c^ p. 139. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 157 
 
 of many anthropologists who take for granted that we 
 find a true type of primitive man in the degenerate 
 races of the present day. It would be as logical to 
 say that we find a type of the original tree in one of 
 its decaying branches. Primitive Man at least differed 
 from the modern savage in this : he was the progenitor 
 of all the civilised races as well as of these " arrested " 
 or " degraded " types ; and while some of the existent 
 tribes of savages seem to have lost almost entirely the 
 capacity for civilisation, he had in him all the potentiality 
 for progress which finally issued in the culture of Plato's 
 day, the saintliness of the first age of Christianity, the 
 elaborate civilisation of the present century. When 
 therefore so eminent an authority in Anthropology 
 as Prof. Tylor says that the Tasmanians of to-day are 
 probably the representatives of the Stone Age, we are 
 not to understand by this that they are a true picture 
 of all mankind in that age, but that they represent at 
 best a stage in the physical culture of the race — a stage 
 at which they themselves remained fixed, while the 
 rest of their contemporaries swept forward towards the 
 consummation reached by the civilised races of to-day. 
 The difference between prehistoric Man and the modern 
 savage has been aptly described as that between a first 
 and second childhood. " The one represents the remnant 
 of humanity that has failed to progress ; the other must 
 have contained in himself the germ of all the progressive 
 peoples." ^ And therefore it is a com^Xo^it petitio principii 
 to attempt to build up a theory of the condition of 
 primitive humanity from the materials supplied by 
 savage culture to-day. We may gain dim indications 
 of primitive habits, of the stage of outward civilisation 
 attained by Man at certain periods, and of the external 
 
 ^ "Personality Human and Divine," by Canon Illingworth, 
 p. 146 (cf. p. 109). 
 
158 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 symbols of such faith as he possessed, from the data 
 furnished by geological remains, but even these are 
 not very valuable when we endeavour to reproduce 
 his moral and spiritual condition, which ex hypothesi 
 also must have contained the germ of the most developed 
 religions of to-day. " If therefore we believe, as we do, 
 that a divine influence is distinctly traceable throughout 
 the historic period, there is nothing whatever to suggest 
 its absence from the prehistoric races, and the presump- 
 tion is all in its favour." ^ To quote another authority, 
 of undoubted scientific weight : "It matters little," says 
 M. Reville, "that the dawn of religious sentiment in 
 the human soul may have been associated with simple 
 and rude notions of the world, and of the objects of 
 faith. The point of departure is fixed and the journey 
 begins. In substance it comes to precisely the same 
 thing to say, God revealed Himself in the beginning 
 to Man as soon as Man had reached a certain stage 
 in his psychic development, as to say that Man was so 
 constituted that, arrived at a certain stage in his psychic 
 development, he must become sensible of the reality 
 of the divine influence. In this sense ... we accept 
 the idea of a primitive revelation."^ 
 
 What kind of being Primitive Man was, and to what 
 stage of spiritual enlightenment he had arrived when sin 
 took hold of him, is a question which we are not bound 
 to answer. It is pretty certain that it will never be 
 answered. The essential point is that he must have 
 been a very difl'erent creature mentally, and also morally, 
 from the degraded remnants of ancient races which 
 survive here and there in the savage regions of the globe. 
 He was the discoverer of the weapons which they have 
 only been able to use practically without improvement 
 
 * "Personality Human and Divine," p. 109. 
 ' Quoted by lUingworth, ibid,^ p. 109. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 1 59 
 
 from immemorial times ; his was the dawning moral 
 and spiritual sense which has by response to Divine 
 influence been brought to the perfection of the Christian 
 conscience and life. Whether the fact of sin did not 
 result in a disability which poisoned the spiritual nature 
 at its root, and has shown a stubborn tendency to defeat 
 what would otherwise have been a normal and steady 
 progress in the higher life, is the problem before us. 
 
 Perhaps the best outline of what Primitive Man was 
 in the essentials of his moral and spiritual equipment 
 is given us in Prof. Drummond's marvellous exposition 
 in his " Ascent of Man." Whatever may have been 
 that writer's point of view regarding the Biblical doctrine 
 of the Fall (he nowhere seems to have explicitly stated 
 his view), the whole of the work may be accepted as 
 true without in any way vitiating our hold on that 
 doctrine. The " Ascent of Man " is in effect an exposition 
 of the social and moral influences at work in the training 
 of the human race. The writer expends an ingenuity 
 that is marvellous, and an eloquence that is delightful, 
 in presenting us with a picture of the way in which, 
 far back in the animal world, there was a preparation 
 for the emergence of true moral character in the cosmic 
 order, as soon as a being arrived in whom these dawning 
 qualities could be unified into a personality, and so given 
 a truly ethical import. It is an idealised picture of Man 
 in the early dawn of his history, awakening to his 
 distinctive humanity, and filled with the elements of 
 conflict and victory in the spiritual life. In a word. 
 Prof. Drummond's book deals with Man in the same 
 spirit as does the Elohistic writer of the first chapter of 
 Genesis. His purpose is to show what went to the 
 making of Man. What more there may be in his history 
 he does not tell us, nor whether this " making " has 
 issued in a masterpiece or a failure. What the religious 
 
i6o The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 world now needs is for some one to take up the question 
 from that point and deal with Man not as ideal, not 
 as he was meant to be, but in the spirit of the Jehovistic 
 writer who follows on with the tale of Man as actual, 
 as he is in point of history and fact. 
 
 In making an attempt to deal with this aspect of a 
 very difficult problem, we would guard against a miscon- 
 ception into which it is easy to fall. A theory of the 
 Fall of Man from innocence into sin does not imply 
 that he by that fact lost all the power to develop in 
 other directions, nor does it even preclude the possibility 
 of a kind of real moral development. No one can 
 deny that a marvellous intellectual evolution has taken 
 place, though not such a development as to furnish him 
 any new powers or faculties. Civilisation is the record 
 and the result of a vast intellectual-social development 
 which has been fitfully, and with many an interval of 
 pause and retrogression, accomplished within historic 
 times. Literature and art, science and philosophy, bear 
 witness to a more or less steady advancement in mind and 
 heart on the part of at least the vast majority of the 
 human race. Mysteries have been solved which were 
 once unfathomable to the wisest ; discoveries have been 
 made which have again and again revolutionised the social 
 conditions of human life, making ever for richer and 
 more complex relationships between individuals, com- 
 munities, and races ; there has been a steady and ever- 
 increasing accumulation of the results of past efforts 
 and struggles, so that many mistakes can be avoided, 
 and many disastrous experiments rendered unnecessary. 
 We stand to-day on a commanding height of mental, 
 moral, and spiritual attainment, representing the outcome 
 of ages of effort and insight and high endeavour which has 
 been transmitted to us from the past, and forms the basis 
 of a future development which is bright with promise. 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 16 1 
 
 VI 
 
 All this may be freely granted, and fully allowed for, 
 and yet it may be true that Man is in a real sense 
 a fallen creature. His instincts for development may 
 have survived the shock of a wide moral disaster 
 sufficiently to carry him forward in many directions 
 with almost unabated energy ; they may have been strong 
 enough, even in the very direction in which he fell, 
 to enable him to make some headway against the 
 dragging weight of the evil that holds him down. And 
 if we take the actual history of mankind from earliest 
 times we must remember that among the factors of that 
 history are to be found those spiritual remedial forces 
 which, flowing from the Unseen, have ever been acting 
 beneficially on human life. God has never left Himself 
 without witness in the world, and both in the dim 
 twilight of heathenism, and the unfolding dawn of 
 Judaism, there was always a Divine factor at work, 
 lifting the fallen, and drawing the better spirits (and 
 through them to some extent the worst) up the 
 abandoned heights of holiness and truth. Since the 
 full day of Jesus Christ, these remedial energies have 
 escaped from the trammels of their earlier conditions, 
 and have been potently at work leavening the world 
 with a new life, so that there has been a real recovery 
 in those men and races that have come under the 
 influence of the Gospel. The problem is thus a very 
 complicated one, and it is easy to fall into confusion 
 of thought in dealing with it. All we desire to establish 
 is the unquestionable fact that there has been from the 
 beginning of human history, so far as we are in posses- 
 sion of its records, a traceable check to the development 
 of the moral nature of Man, and that the evidence for 
 
 II 
 
1 62 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 this recurring and obstinate mischief meets us on all 
 hands, and is too weighty to be explained away. 
 
 It is a sidelight not without its significance in its 
 bearings on this question that philologists, in tracing 
 the development of languages, have long made use of 
 the idea of degeneration in accounting for certain 
 linguistic phenomena. Under certain conditions, in the 
 mouths of this or that branch of the race, a highly 
 elaborated language has sometimes become degenerate, 
 and is no longer fit to express complex conceptions, 
 but only such as are simpler and more obvious. This 
 inevitably suggests the possibility of at least a wide- 
 spread intellectual degeneration. And Prof Ray 
 Lankester points out that such a process has un- 
 doubtedly been taking place in history. All ancient 
 records tell of it. The mournful ruins of ancient cities 
 and civilisations, staring at us as they do from the midst 
 of desert sands, or lying fathoms deep beneath, only 
 to be laboriously disentombed in this distant age, are a 
 sufficient proof that in the dim, forgotten past there 
 were, here and there, on the world's surface splendid 
 cities and highly developed forms of social and political 
 organisation, which would in some respects rival the 
 noblest we have since produced. Nor is it any answer 
 to say that this may be true without the inference 
 being forced on us that there has been a universal 
 degeneracy in humanity. In certain directions at least 
 there has been a permanent and apparently irrecover- 
 able loss of definite gains that had been registered in 
 the evolution of the race. It would seem from the 
 study of the ruins of ancient civilisations, that they had 
 mastered some secrets now altogether forgotten, and 
 others which are only now beginning to be regained. 
 What was the traction and lifting power by which the 
 Egyptian builders upheaved those colossal monuments 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 163 
 
 to their buried kings — the Pyramids ? We naively take 
 for granted that it was all done by the unmerciful and 
 tyrannical use of human muscle ; but have we ever tried 
 to realise the extravagant nature of such a notion ? ^ It 
 has been discovered also that these same Egyptians were 
 possessed, as long as 5,000 years ago, of a highly com- 
 plex form of civilisation ; and that, later on, they had a 
 thorough knowledge of some branches of the higher 
 mathematics, and of astronomical science. And quite 
 recently the writer was assured by a workman in metal 
 that they were in possession of a secret that has since 
 been entirely lost — that of welding bronze with the 
 hammer, whereas we can only treat it in the molten state 
 and run it into moulds. As a matter of fact, we do not 
 know but that there lie buried beneath the accumulated 
 drifts of time relics of still higher secrets, the very 
 memory of which has died, and which, when recovered, 
 will give us a new idea of the highly developed character 
 of the forgotten civilisations of the past. 
 
 Even within the period of history familiar to us all, 
 there has been no clear proof of the point that is so 
 often taken for granted — that the human mind is really 
 evolving intellectually. It is quite true that within the 
 last two or three centuries there has been a sudden and 
 remarkable leap forward in the direction of Science, and 
 that a new mastery is just now being obtained over the 
 forces of Nature ; but this is confessedly due not to the 
 evolution of any new power on the part of Man, nor 
 even to the increased efficiency of one already in his 
 possession ; it is simply the result of the discovery of 
 a new mode of procedure. The application of the 
 Inductive Method of inquiry is at the root of all recent 
 
 * " We now regard the Pyramids as the work of men's hands, 
 aided probably by machinery of which no record remains " (Tyndall's 
 '• Uses and Limits of the Scientific Imagination," p. 55, Ed. 1870). 
 
164 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 developments in every department of human activity ; and 
 if this weapon had been discovered (say) in the age of 
 Aristotle, there is no reason to doubt that the results 
 of which we are so fond of boasting as the peculiar glory 
 of the nineteenth century would have become common- 
 places long ago. It is at least clear to those who know 
 anything of Greek Art and Literature, that in Philosophy, 
 Sculpture, and the Drama we still look with despairing 
 admiration at the masterpieces which have in part or in 
 whole come down to us from the distant past. The 
 statues of Pheidias and Praxiteles, the dramas of 
 Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, the pregnant 
 narratives of Thucydides, the encyclopaedic works of 
 Aristotle, the philosophic breadth and intellectual wealth 
 of Plato — what have we in mediaeval or even in modern 
 Art or Literature that surpasses these triumphs of the 
 human mind ? In the arts of music and painting alone 
 is there any unquestionable superiority in mediaeval and 
 modern over ancient work ; in all else we are indebted 
 for our higher attainments to better instruments of 
 inquiry, and more efficient methods of collecting and 
 grouping our facts. 
 
 These remarks are not made with any intention of dis- 
 paraging the unquestionable value of modern culture, but 
 of showing in what direction we are to look for an ex- 
 planation of it. And they bear on our special subject in 
 this way. If it is by no means clear that the human mind 
 as such has been in active process of evolution within 
 the historic limits that are open to our observation, but 
 is apparently subject to waves of retrocession as well as 
 advance, it is not contrary to the possibilities of the case 
 that a great moral retrogression has taken place in which 
 the whole race has shared ; and if this is so, it is by no 
 means impossible that this Fall should have taken place 
 at the very outset of the career of the race, i.e. when it 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 165 
 
 was just starting on its distinctively moral phase of Hfe. 
 This is the position taken up by those who hold the 
 Biblical doctrine of human depravity, as a consequence 
 of the Fall of Man. 
 
 There is one consideration forced on us by history 
 which tends to make this belief still more reasonable. 
 If the story of those nations who in times past rose to 
 positions of greatness and power and civilisation, and 
 afterwards fell away, be examined, it will be found with- 
 out exception that what brought about their downfall 
 was a marked moral deterioration. So long as they 
 maintained the measure of ethical purity which lay at 
 the root of their greatness, and were faithful to such 
 light as they had, they were steadily progressive. But 
 when the period of struggle was over, they one and all 
 began to relax their moral ideals, and the downward 
 process began. Licentiousness took the place of moral 
 restraint ; the love of ease sapped all hardihood of 
 character; the culture of pleasure crowded out the 
 higher ends of life ; and religion degenerated into 
 elaborate and meaningless rites and ceremonies. Then 
 came the end : sometimes suddenly and swiftly through 
 the inroads of some younger and more vigorous race, 
 whose faith was stronger, whose blood had not yet been 
 poisoned by self-indulgence, whose racial ideal had not 
 yet been dragged in the dust ; sometimes slowly and 
 gradually, through the waning of all the formative forces 
 of national life, and the cancerous growths of social 
 decadence. Such was the case with all the mighty 
 nations of ancient times. Far beyond the range of 
 recorded history we find traces of great empires, whose 
 only record is to be found in crumbling monuments and 
 mournful relics, bearing witness to what once must have 
 been a high state of civilisation. On the verge of historic 
 time we find clearer indications of the same thing ; and 
 
1 66 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 as we come down to the period when literature begins 
 to leave its traces, we not only find richer evidences of the 
 reality, but gain a truer insight into the causes, of national 
 decay. And everywhere it is the same — a story of pro- 
 gress which is defeated by decaying faith and degenerate 
 morals. Egypt, Accadia, Assyria, Babylon, Greece, 
 Rome — whence their fall ? Of all, the same story is true. 
 Their social order, their political power, their intellectual 
 achievements, their brilliant conquests — all failed to pre- 
 serve them from an inward paralysis of faith and will, 
 issuing in an outward scourge of licentiousness that ate 
 into the heart of their civilisation and brought them to 
 their doom. How terrible and wasting this process of 
 decay must have been is evidenced by the splendour of 
 the civilisations which it sapped, and by the unspeakable 
 records of shame it has left behind. All this bears 
 witness to some inherent and widespread evil tendency 
 in the human heart, which has shown itself everywhere, 
 and which everywhere has defeated those instincts of 
 moral evolution that have battled against it. So true is 
 it, as an eloquent writer has put it : — 
 
 " Our most veritable, though saddest, impressions of 
 Man's greatness, as a creature, we shall derive from the 
 magnificent ruin he displays. In that ruin we shall 
 distinguish fallen powers that lie as broken pillars on the 
 ground ; temples of beauty, whose scarred and shattered 
 walls still indicate the ancient, original glory ; summits 
 covered with broken stones, infested with asps, where 
 the palaces of high thought and great aspiration stood, 
 and righteous courage went up to maintain the citadel 
 of the mind, — all a ruin now — an archangel in ruins." ^ 
 
 Now this repeated and widespread disability does 
 not, as we have hinted, mean that there is not a kind 
 
 ' Horace Bushnell in his striking sermon on the "Dignity of 
 Human Nature shown from its Ruins," in "The New Life." 
 
Chap. IV Anthropology and the Fall 167 
 
 of moral progress in the race. The instincts toward 
 development are not dead even in sinful guilty men. If 
 evil tends to perpetuate itself, so does good, and there 
 is a sense in which there has been a real advance in 
 moral condition, pari passu, if we may say so, with 
 its periodical degradation. " Gross forms of evil are 
 outgrown. Progress slowly removes some ills and 
 crimes from general life ; civilisation banishes the forms 
 of cruelty that belong to barbarism ; evils that once 
 were common have become impossible." ^ The lessons 
 taught by the downfall of one nation after another have 
 not been altogether lost upon those succeeding to their 
 heritage of power and sovereignty ; thus, probably, no 
 two races have fallen in quite the same way. But 
 this undoubted fact in no way invalidates the great 
 truth we have been expounding. If old evils pass 
 away, others arise out of the new conditions ; coarser 
 forms of vice and crime give way to more refined and 
 cultured indulgences ; and though there seems to be 
 a steady advance in many directions, closer inspection 
 soon reveals the old foe behind a new face. Even that 
 stern monitor Experience only appears able to help men 
 and peoples to avoid old pitfalls ; and even as they 
 turn their steps away from them, fresh ones open up, 
 into which they fall as though they had never fallen 
 before. The open shame of Sodom and Gomorrah may 
 never flaunt itself in the streets of Paris or London. 
 It does not follow that these cities are not honeycombed 
 with vices equally unnatural, though garbed in less 
 revolting forms. 
 
 Whether this solid phalanx of facts is to be taken 
 as a corroboration of the Biblical doctrine of the Fall 
 or not, it is clear that any new explanation, to be 
 
 1 " An outline of Christian Theology," by W. N. Clarke (Cam- 
 bridge, Mass.), p. 218, 
 
1 68 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 adequate, must take full note of them, and not be 
 content to explain other phenomena, while leaving these 
 out of account. There are certain aspects of human 
 life, we are well aware, which are explicable on the 
 hypothesis that Man is a steadily evolving creature ; 
 but such a hypothesis is incapable of meeting the whole 
 case as stated above. The view most consistent with 
 the teachings of Christian Theology, as well as the 
 facts and deductions of Evolutionary Science, is that 
 he manifests all the instincts and aptitudes of a develop- 
 ing life, morally as well as mentally, but that these are 
 held in check by a deep-rooted moral poison that has 
 mingled with the very springs of life 
 
BOOK I : EVOLUTION 
 AND THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 " Th* Sting of Death is'^Sin.' 
 
 St. Paul 
 
 Chapter V. — The Relation between 
 Death and Sin 
 
 An Old Problem reopened — Biological Function of Physical Death — 
 Does the Bible teach that Bodily Death was the Result of a Spiritual 
 Disaster ?— The Jehovist and St. Paul— The Old Faith and the New 
 Science co-ordinated — Christ's Victory over Death—" All Hail ! " 
 
 THERE is one vexed problem arising out of the 
 relation between Death and Sin supposed to be 
 taught in Scripture, which we must deal with at some 
 length, because it has received new emphasis since the 
 birth of biological science during the last half-century. 
 
 The basis of this doctrine is to be found in the words 
 of the woman in Eden : " Of the fruit of the trees of 
 the garden we may eat : but of the fruit of the tree which 
 is in the midst of the garden, God hath said. Ye shall 
 not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die" ^ Till 
 recent times this was understood to mean that physical 
 death in creation was the direct fruit of Man's sin, 
 apart from which neither animals nor men would taste 
 of it. All creatures, it was assumed, were born naturally 
 immortal ; and but for the transgression of Adam, we 
 should be immortal still, as well as all the lower 
 kingdoms of life. 
 
 This view seemed to our forefathers to receive an 
 absolute and Divine authority, because they believed it 
 to be vitally interwoven with the teachings of St. Paul on 
 
 Gen. iii. 3. 
 »69 
 
170 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 the same subject. On the face of it, many of his words 
 appear to bear this interpretation. In his great argu- 
 ment in the Epistle to the Romans, and in a passage in 
 the First Epistle to the Corinthians, there is much that 
 gives colour to the idea that he believed physical death 
 to be the natural fruit and penalty of sin. " Therefore, 
 as through one man sin entered into the world, and 
 death through sin ; and so death passed unto all men, 
 for that all sinned. . . . " ^ " For if, by the trespass of the 
 one, death reigned through the one ; much more shall 
 they that receive the abundance of grace and of the 
 gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, even 
 Jesus Christ." ^ " For since by man came death, by 
 man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in 
 Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." ^ 
 These and other passages in which the same idea is 
 implied give a clear and distinct impression that Death, 
 in some sense or other, was the result of Sin. 
 
 On the other hand, it is now proved with equal 
 clearness by geology and by biology that death, so far 
 from being an interloper into the world, has been here 
 from the beginning, or almost from the beginning, of 
 the appearance of life. Geology has heaped up the 
 evidence of the essential mortality of the animal 
 creation in every stratum of rock since the Tertiary 
 formations were laid down. "Thousands of years 
 before the existence of the human species, generations 
 of living creatures came and passed away, and they 
 passed away by that precise method whereby human 
 lives now disappear, — the method of death." * Biology 
 again, approaching the problem from another point of 
 
 * Rom. V. 12 
 
 ' Ibid., verse 17. 
 
 * I Cor. XV. 21, 22. 
 
 < «' Can the Old Faith Live with the New ? " by Dr. Matheson, 
 p. 280. 
 
Chap. V Relation between Death and Sin 171 
 
 view, proves from the very laws of life, that as it had a 
 beginning, so it must have an end. If Man had never 
 sinned, or if he had never appeared on earth as the 
 highest of all the hierarchies of life, the creatures that 
 already existed would have died just as surely, and 
 in the same manner, as now. Latterly, as we shall 
 presently see, biology has discovered what seem to be 
 the place and function of physical death in the world, 
 and these appear to be beneficent rather than otherwise, 
 and to have been essential to the progressive pathway 
 which life has followed from the beginning. By way 
 of further strengthening the teachings of science, comes 
 the universal experience of mankind, which testifies that 
 death is a normal process in the organic world. In 
 view of all the evidence available, it may be pertinently 
 asked whether we can any longer consider it as a 
 tenable belief that this vast and ever-present tragedy 
 of death is the effect of a moral disturbance in human 
 life, and is a punishment for the Fall of Man ? 
 
 It is no longer possible to hoodwink our intelligence 
 by such subterfuges as theologians of a generation ago 
 were obliged to invent in order to dovetail the new 
 science into the old beliefs. That God should have 
 created the rocks as they now exist, with the remains 
 of animals in them which could never have died because 
 they never lived, is a hypothesis so extravagant that 
 only a mistaken piety could have devised it, in a frantic 
 effort to avoid a disagreeable conclusion. That the 
 lower orders died an anticipatory death in view of 
 the Fall is shocking to our moral sense, and may be 
 dismissed without any more ado, since it outrages the 
 very notion of God's justice. It is too clear that death 
 is the normal ending of life for us any longer to raise a 
 question on the subject. The evidence is overwhelming. 
 
 Are we then to conclude that the writer of Genesis 
 
172 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 and the Apostle of the Gentiles were both mistaken in 
 their attempt to link these two mysteries, death in the 
 physical world and sin in the moral ? Before we allow 
 this to be the true solution of the question, it would be 
 well to re-examine the real teaching of the Bible on the 
 whole subject ; for it is by no means clear that that 
 teaching has been rightly understood. 
 
 i II 
 
 It may be well, first, to look for a moment at the teach- 
 ing of biology on the function of death in the organic 
 world. ^ 
 
 It is affirmed by Weismann that the earliest organisms 
 are potentially immortal. Unicellular creatures pro- 
 pagate by fissure, and the parent lives on indefinitely 
 alongside of its offspring. Death entered the world 
 contemporaneously with two other facts, which at first 
 sight seem to have little relation with it. These are, 
 the differentiation of cells into the somatic and the 
 reproductive, and the simultaneous appearance of sex. 
 In other words, death was the result of complexity in 
 the organism, the mark of a developing life. It was the 
 symptom not of a degenerating process, but of the 
 contrary. " Its r^ign began with the coming of a new, 
 more powerful dynasty of life." It marked a vital step 
 in its progress. But for death the higher and more 
 complex orders would never have come into being ; 
 Evolution would have been impossible. " If we suppose 
 other laws and processes of nature to remain such as we 
 know them to be, we may assert that there could have 
 been made on this earth no garden, no flowers, no leafy 
 
 * For the argument in this section the writer is mainly indebted 
 to Dr. Newman Smyth's striking little work on " The Place of Death 
 in Evolution" (T. Fisher Unwin, 1897). 
 
Chap. V Relation between Death and Sin 173 
 
 trees for them to sing in, had it not been for the entrance 
 and ministry of death — had death never been sent along 
 life's way to take from life its useless burdens, and to set 
 its energies free for better adaptations and results ever 
 more fair and fruitful. Man himself might not have been 
 made of the dust of the earth, if that dust had not been 
 mingled of the elements of the dead forms which were 
 before him. We owe our human birth to death in 
 nature. The earth before us has died in order that we 
 may live. We. are the living children of a world that 
 has died for us. Biology furnishes thus to philosophy 
 a suggestion of profound truth and of far-reaching 
 significance." ^ 
 
 This sheds a very different light on " the last enemy," 
 showing that, whatever it may have become to us owing to 
 our siUj it was in the beginning a purely beneficent 
 fact, the servant of life in the race. Living creatures 
 have died in order that others might come into being, 
 and the vital process be freed from what would have 
 been a prison-house rather than a home. The same 
 thought is pressed upon us when we look more care- 
 fully at the place of death in the life of the individual. 
 It has been ascertained that the normal length of life is 
 clearly determined on the principle of utility to the 
 species. Animals live so long, broadly speaking, as it 
 is to the advantage of their kind that they should do so. 
 The golden eagle, to take but one instance, lives just as 
 long as it is expedient, in order to secure enough eagle's 
 eggs, and to rear enough young eagles to keep the 
 species in existence. When the interests of the 
 species are safeguarded, the vital function of the in- 
 dividual is over, and it decays and dies. Were it not 
 for this beneficent law, the generations would jostle 
 and crowd each other, and the struggle for life would 
 * Newman Smyth, I.e., pp. 30, 31. 
 
174 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 be so great that all happiness and progress would 
 be impossible. The only possible alternative to this 
 law would be such an arrest of the power of procreation 
 as to limit the number of births ; and this would react 
 harmfully in another direction, by rendering the better- 
 ment of species infinitely slower and more precarious, 
 if it would not render it entirely for ever impossible. 
 Death has thus a great and gracious office to fulfil in 
 the world. It is here primarily not as a sign of dis- 
 location and ruin, but as part of the original plan ; 
 and if it assumes another aspect to our eyes, it is 
 because it has altered its character to us, on account of 
 some change in ourselves. 
 
 How then are we to understand the Scriptural 
 doctrine? Must we set it aside as a crude attempt to 
 account for the horror the human heart cannot help 
 feeling at the thought of personal dissolution, and the 
 breaking of our dearest ties, and the eclipse of our 
 brightest hopes ? Or can it be that for lack of insight 
 into the real teaching of the Bible, we have been content 
 with an interpretation which a little careful examination 
 will enable us to correct? 
 
 Ill 
 
 That the Bible does not really suggest that physical 
 death was introduced into the world as the penalty of 
 sin, receives an initial corroboration in the very passage 
 where it is supposed to be so distinctly taught. In the 
 announcement of the punishment to be inflicted for the 
 first transgression, it is a curious fact that the idea of 
 natural death is brought in as though it were the 
 normal heritage of our mortality. The real penalty is 
 said to be, in the case of the woman, sorrow and 
 anguish of child-birth, and subordination to the will 
 
Chap. V Relation between Death and Sin 175 
 
 and authority of her husband, whom she was the means 
 of cajoHng into sin ; and in the case of the man, sorrow 
 of toil, and a sense of alienation and warfare between 
 him and the forces of nature. Then follow these 
 significant words : " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
 eat bread, till thou return unto the ground ; for ojit of 
 it wast thou taken: for dust thou art^ and unto dust 
 shalt thou return!' ^ Whatever hidden meaning these 
 words contain, they certainly imply that man is 
 naturally mortal, and that as he undoubtedly had a 
 physical beginning, so he must in the natural order 
 of things have a physical ending. The marks of his 
 mortality are inwoven into the tissue of his constitution. 
 He is of the earth, earthy. 
 
 If we turn from the earliest to the later Biblical refer- 
 ence to this subject, we shall find the same idea driven 
 home by implication. St. Paul tells us that the curse 
 brought upon the race by sin is lifted from the redeemed 
 portion of it by Jesus Christ. " For the law of the Spirit 
 of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin 
 and of death." ^ Now it is plain, as a matter of fact, that 
 the salvation wrought through Jesus Christ does not 
 involve any remission of the law of physical death. 
 Good men die as well as bad men, and in the same 
 physical sense. There is one end to the righteous and 
 the ungodly. Their bodies decay and perish and pass 
 into dust, and their spirit returns to God who gave it. 
 With this fact staring him in the face, Paul yet spoke 
 of the curse of death as having been remitted in and 
 through Christ. It follows that when he spoke of death 
 as having entered into the world through sin, he must 
 have used the word in another than a physical sense. 
 
 * Gen. iii. 19. 
 
 * Rom. viii. 2. Cf. vi. 23, and the whole passage from that point 
 to the end of the argument in chap. viii. 
 
17^ The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 The key to this perplexity is to be found in a 
 more accurate appreciation of the use of Biblical terms. 
 Both life and death are used in the Old Testament in 
 a sense of which we find no trace in the ethnic literatures. 
 "What makes life in the case of man is not simply 
 his physical being in the unity of body and soul, but 
 that together with his moral relation to God. Life 
 therefore is identified with God's favour and with 
 righteousness. Nothing that lacks this spiritual element 
 of fellowship with God is real life in the Old Testament 
 sense." ^ The same thing is true of the converse. " Death 
 is in every case the withdrawal of the Divine spirit 
 of life. But in man's case it is not that alone. It is 
 not an event of nature, but a moral effect, the conse- 
 quence of sin. . . . This penal sense of death colours 
 all that the Old Testament says of man's end."^ It 
 is not "cessation of being, but penalty and reduction 
 of being, carrying two results with it — removal from 
 the fellowship of the living on the earth, and removal 
 from the fellowship of God." What lends horror to 
 the thought of physical dissolution is not the mere 
 passing of the breath and the decay of the body, but 
 this sense of separation from the fellowship of God 
 and man ; that is, the privative aspect of death — 
 the loss it implies of all that the living man loves 
 and longs for. And it is because sin implies this 
 deprivation of the presence and fellowship of God, 
 the source of all life, that the Old Testament seers 
 connected it with the mysterious fact of physical death. 
 If this sense of attenuated life, and of removal from 
 the springs of life, could be dissociated from the act 
 of dying, then the chief source of the dread with which 
 
 * Salmond's " Christian Doctrine of Immortality," p. 196. 
 ' Ibid,^ p. 197. The reader is referred to this masterly work for 
 detailed treatment and proof-texts. 
 
Chap.V Relation between Death and Sin 177 
 
 it was regarded by them would be also removed. The 
 curse of death would be gone, and it would take its 
 place among the normal facts of human experience. 
 
 A vivid ray of light is shed on the distinction between 
 physical death as a fact, and its moral significance as 
 related to punishment, in the attitude of our Lord on the 
 subject. To Him, apparently, the only painful aspect 
 of natural death is the dislocation it causes in human 
 relations. This He feels so keenly that on three 
 occasions at least He restores the dead, well and happy 
 and joyous, to their friends.^ In itself, bodily death is 
 only a " sleep." ^ He never speaks of His mission as 
 including the abolition of this process from human 
 life ; it is clearly to Him a natural law, and as such He 
 was here to honour it as of Divine appointment. But 
 there is a state of the soul of man which He speaks of 
 as a state of death, because it is altogether the result of 
 sin, and it was the very purpose of His work to bring 
 men out of this condition of spiritual death into the 
 enjoyment of life. " He that heareth My word, and 
 believeth Him that sent Me, hath eternal life, and cometh 
 not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into 
 lifer ^ " For the bread of God is that which cometh 
 down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world."* 
 " Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep My 
 word, he shall never see death." ^ It was the purpose of 
 the proclamation of the Gospel, according to the fourth 
 Evangelist, to enable men to have life in Christ's name.® 
 Death was the state of sin in which men were till they 
 came into the " light of life." ^ When once they received 
 His message and were spiritually joined to Him, then 
 
 * Luke vii. 11-15 ; Matt. ix. 23-25 ; John xi. 43, 44. 
 
 ^ Matt. ix. 24 ; John xi. 11 : cf. xi. 14. See also Acts vii. 60. 
 ^ John V. 24. 
 
 * John vi. 33 : cf. i John iii. 14. * John xx. 31 : cf. xvii. 3, 
 ^ John viii. 51. ' John viii 12 : cf. i. 4, 
 
 13 
 
178 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 physical death was no more to be dreaded ; it had lost 
 its retributive and terrible character. " He that be- 
 lieveth on Me, though he die, yet shall he live ; and 
 whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die." ^ 
 
 It is clear also that what weighed upon Him in view 
 of His own death was not the physical suffering, nor 
 the mere fact of dissolution, but the knowledge that it 
 was associated with the bearing of sin's penalty. He 
 died " for us," the " just for the unjust," and it was the 
 heavy weight of human guilt that pressed Him down 
 into the depths of sorrow and woe, " My soul is 
 exceeding sorrowful, even unto death!' ^ The suggestion 
 of the words is that He felt desolate and homeless, that 
 He was separated from that constant and beautiful 
 fellowship with His Father which was the real joy of 
 life to Him. That is to say, death was nothing to Him 
 except in the intensified form of the experience suggested 
 in the Old Testament conception. To be severed from 
 God, the fountain of life, to be spiritually forsaken and 
 alone in the universe — that was death, in the mind of the 
 Son of God. To be restored to the sense of Divine 
 companionship, to be in vital relation with the source of 
 the highest life — that was " life indeed." To a soul in 
 that state, physical death was nothing but an outward 
 change which was like sleep ^ — a condition which leads 
 normally to a revived and intensified form of life. 
 
 The more we examine the writings of St. Paul in 
 
 * John xi. 25. 
 
 * Matt. XX vi. 38. 
 
 * This is the expression used by our Lord in referring to the 
 deaths of the little daughter of Jairus and of Lazarus {v. Matt. ix. 24 
 and John xi. 11 : cf. in the latter instance w. 13, 14, where Jesus 
 uses both terms for the same fact). St. Paul also uses the term 
 sleep for death. See i Cor. xv. 20, 51; i Thess. iv. 13, 14: cf. 
 Acts vii. 60, xiii. 36 ; 2 Pet. iii. 4. These passages suggest that the 
 apostles fell naturally into this characteristic expression of our 
 Lord in speaking of physical death. 
 
Chap. V Relation between Death and Sin 179 
 
 the light of what we have just said, the more clearly, 
 we think, it will be seen that he does not make the 
 obvious mistake of representing natural death as the 
 direct penalty of human sin. His doctrine in its 
 essentials is that of Jesus as we find it developed in 
 the Johannine Gospel and Epistles. He certainly 
 connects the idea of physical death with a moral 
 penalty,^ but the penalty seems rather to be something 
 superadded to the natural fact than to consist in death 
 itself. " The sting of death is sin " — that is what makes 
 it what it is to our experience, giving it a character 
 which otherwise it would not have. There is a curse 
 in it. " Were there no darkness in our lives — did sin 
 not waste and ruin them— then death could hardly be 
 to us what it is. There would be no terror in it. 
 The gloom of it would vanish or be less oppressive. 
 It is this full meaning of the fact, even on its physical 
 side, for moral creatures, that the apostle brings into 
 causal connection with sin. Death was what it was 
 to him and to his fellow-Christians because of sin. 
 The final shadow rested on human life because that 
 life had turned itself away from God, and chosen 
 the evil rather than the good." ^ If this was what the 
 apostle meant, it is easy to go with him in his com- 
 plementary doctrine of the victory gained over death 
 in Jesus Christ. By bestowing the " free gift " of 
 spiritual life upon His people, and bringing them back 
 to their normal relation to God who is its source, the 
 curse or sting of death is removed with its cause, 
 and the natural fact becomes once more a part of 
 the beneficent order of God's government. When 
 believing men die, there are no longer for them any 
 
 1 Rom. V. 12-14; I Cor. xv. 21, 22, 25, 26 and many other 
 familiar passages. 
 
 2 TuUoch, " The Christian Doctrine pf Sin," p. 164. 
 
1 80 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 craven fears, any retributive terrors ; for death to 
 them is merely an episode, leading to a larger life 
 and a closer communion with all that makes life 
 desirable. It is a putting off of the " mortal," ^ the 
 " corruptible," that the "immortal," the "incorruptible" 
 may be " put on " ; it is a loosening of the " tent-ropes " 
 that the inhabitant may enter a "building of God 
 eternal in the heavens." ^ It is even a glorification of 
 the body itself, which in death " is sown in corruption " 
 but " is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dishonour ; 
 it is raised in glory : it is sown in weakness ; it is 
 raised in power : it is sown a natural body ; it is raised 
 a spiritual body," ^ Paul, we must remember, is here 
 speaking of physical death, which still remains a part 
 of the inalienable lot of man ; but no longer as some- 
 thing to which we are held in the " bondage of fear " ; * 
 rather as something which is a means of release from 
 the disadvantages and restrictions of this mortal life ; 
 nay, as t/ie condition of entering on the unveiled vision 
 and the unbroken fellowship of the blessed Saviour.^ 
 This is the very climax and joy of Paul's spiritual 
 experience, a thought to which he returns again and 
 again with secret but irrepressible delight, a " flying 
 point of bliss remote" towards which his much-tried and 
 wearied spirit wings its way with increasing longing 
 and anticipation as his career draws to its tragic close. 
 Death is once more transformed ; and as he nears 
 the dread hour he waits for the opening of the door 
 as one who is presently to be ushered into the presence 
 of his King. 
 
 " O death, where is thy victory ? O death, where is 
 thy sting ? The sting of death is szn ; and the power of 
 
 ^ I Cor. XV. 54. * Rom. viii. 1 5. 
 
 « 2 Cor. V. I. M Cor, xiii. 12 ; Phil. i. 23, 24. 
 
 » I Cor. XV. 42-44. 
 
Chap. V Relation between Death and Sin i8i 
 
 sin is the law : but thanks be to God, which giveth us 
 the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, 
 my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, 
 always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch 
 as ye know that your labour is not vain in the 
 Lord."^ 
 
 IV 
 
 We can now see without difficulty in what manner 
 the old faith and the new science are capable of being 
 brought into entire harmony. 
 
 The biological aspect of death, and the Biblical, are 
 complementary, not antagonistic. The former views it 
 in relation to natural law ; the latter, in relation to 
 spiritual law. As a fact in the vital order, death is 
 normal, necessary, beneficent ; it is the condition of 
 progress ; it is a mark of advancing life. As a fact 
 in the spiritual order, it has taken on a secondary* 
 character, due to our subjective condition as a fallen 
 race. Sin, to sinful humanity, is a permeative fact, 
 affecting our complex nature in its totality ; poisoning 
 body and soul, and bringing about disaster in bot 
 the natural and spiritual life. It is thus through no 
 arbitrary enactment, but along lines of obvious causality, 
 that death has been made use of as one of the channels 
 of moral retribution. It is a curse to no creature but 
 Man, nor would it be so to him were he free from the 
 evil that dogs his footsteps and mingles with the flow 
 of his life-blood. We often pity the animal creation 
 in its death-pangs, as though the lower orders of life 
 dwelt under the perpetual horror of death which haunts 
 us. There is a striking passage in Wallace's delightful 
 book on " Darwinism " in which he exposes this fallacy 
 » I Cor. XV. 55-58. 
 
1 82 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 of false sympathy. " Where we err," he says, " is in 
 giving to animals feelings and emotions which they 
 do not possess. . . . The poet's picture of 
 
 'Nature red in tooth and claw 
 With ravine' — 
 
 is a picture the evil of which is read into it by our 
 imaginations, the reality being made up of full and 
 happy lives, usually terminated by the quickest and 
 least painful of deaths." ^ But to our morbid and guilty 
 consciousness, the " last enemy " lies in wait for us 
 as the minister of a law which we have violated, and 
 the executioner of a sentence which we have richly 
 deserved, and from which the all-pardoning grace of 
 God as revealed in Christ can alone save us. 
 
 As Dr. Newman Smyth suggestively points out, 
 there are two ways in which death lends itself as the 
 instrument of moral punishment. 
 
 First, " already existing as an adaptation for a natural 
 use, it may be seized upon by the higher law of spiritual 
 selection, and fitted to a moral use." ^ This is exactly 
 what has been done in the history of the race. Death 
 is invested, to the natural sinful mind, with unreal 
 terrors, so far as its physical aspect is concerned ; and 
 these terrors are the direct result of the consciousness 
 of wrongdoing. The sting of death is verily sin ; but 
 for that sense of moral obliquity that is in us, it would 
 not make "cowards of us all." It is with this acquired 
 character of death that both the writer of Genesis and 
 St. Paul have to do. " Death, which as a natural event 
 may thus occur without its approach being feared or its 
 consequences dreaded, becomes the moral crisis around 
 
 * Page 39. The whole passage on the " Ethical Aspect of the 
 Struggle for Existence," pp. 36-40, is well w^orth studying from 
 this point of view. 
 
 » '• The Place of Death in Evolution," p. 146. 
 
Chap.V Relation between Death and Sin 183 
 
 which the alarms of conscience may be gathered." ^ We 
 may add that death, in this aspect of it, is not only 
 retributive, but preventive. The fear of death and 
 of what may lie beyond has ever been one of the most 
 powerful deterrents from crime and flagrant wrong- 
 doing. And not till a man is saved from the pov/cr 
 and the love of sin is it meet for him or for his fellow- 
 men that he should lose this deep dread of death, this 
 agony of desire to flee from it, which is the last fear 
 we lose. 
 
 Secondly, death as a moral agency may receive an 
 added "retroactive energy as a natural force." ^ That 
 is to say, it may tighten its grasp on the body, and 
 accelerate the process of dissolution, in consequence of 
 sin. " Sin may render death naturally more evil ; its 
 reaction may tend to make it an actual curse." The 
 intimate relation between matter and mind in the 
 organic life renders this process, again, not arbitrary, 
 but natural and inevitable. Sin breeds not only a sense 
 of guilt, thus lowering the tone of the spiritual life ; it 
 also breeds disease, and thus saps the resources of bodily 
 vitality. This process may be restricted to the actual 
 sinner ; or it may be transmitted as an inherited dis- 
 qualification in the race, and so tend to lessen the length 
 of life, and emphasise the pain and horror of death. 
 Both these possibilities are actual facts. We know that 
 "mortality becomes most corruptible among sinners." 
 We know not how many of the diseases that afflict us 
 are the fruit of evil habits in those who have gone before 
 us ; we are often ourselves quite unconscious of the fact 
 that by our evil ways we are increasing our liability to 
 physical evils, when to others the fact may be quite 
 obvious. " Then the lust, when it hath conceived, 
 
 * " Place of Death in Evolution," p. 153. 
 ' Ibid., p. 146. 
 
184 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 beareth sin : and the sin, when it is fullgrown, bringeth 
 forth death." 1 
 
 In strict correspondence with this retributive character 
 of sin is the work of the Saviour in freeing us from the 
 bondage of death. His work is simply to restore death 
 to its normal function, and to invest it with an aureole 
 of hope and joy in place of the terrible penumbra of 
 despair with which sin had surrounded it. By creating 
 a sound and healthy soul in the body. He will gradually 
 redeem the body to new soundness and health on its 
 own account. When men have given over following the 
 lusts and cravings that have so disastrous an effect on 
 their physical organisation, the race will gradually 
 become healthier and stronger ; the more distressing 
 forms of disease will be weeded out of the world for lack 
 of soil in which to flourish ; and it may be that when 
 science has been redeemed and consecrated to highest 
 uses, all disease will be cleansed out of the world, and 
 the race will be composed of redeemed individuals, none 
 of whom shall ever die except of natural decay and 
 old age. And by investing death with all sweet and 
 beautiful associations, the Lord Jesus has worked an 
 unspeakable benefit to His people. The writer — if he 
 may be permitted reference to a personal experience — 
 will not readily forget the rush of joy which swept over 
 him when, one day, in reading the account of the Resur- 
 rection of Jesus, he came upon the scene where the 
 Risen Saviour meets the women returning from the 
 sepulchre, and read His greeting to them — " All hail ! ''^ 
 He had come back from the Spirit-land, from the land 
 of shades and disembodied spirits, peopled to our imagi- 
 nation by so many unknown terrors, and His message 
 to His friends was one full of reassurement. He came 
 back His old self, but a profounder air of peace seems to 
 ' James i. 1-5. ' Matt, xxviii. 9. 
 
Chap. V Relation between Death and Sin 185 
 
 have enveloped His mind than at any time during His 
 previous life. No haunting terror lingered about His 
 eyes, no aroma of mortality or decay breathed from 
 His presence, no trace of having passed through deso- 
 lating wastes of spiritual loneliness clung to Him ; but 
 a sense of indescribable elation, of subtle and deep-seated 
 joy, flowed out of Him both then and on His other 
 appearances to His disciples. " All hail ! " " Peace be 
 unto you ! " ^ — these were the greetings He gave His own 
 on revisiting them for a while. Can we wonder that 
 this vision of the Saviour, as verily conqueror over death 
 and hell, transformed their lives, and sent them forth 
 full of a calm readiness to meet the death which till 
 then they had dreaded so much ? For His victory over 
 death is the victory of all who are His. When our dear 
 ones slip out of our reach on their way into the " valley 
 of the shadow," and we can do no more for them, it is 
 into His hands we commit their spirits, and we know 
 that He will take care of them there as He did here ; 
 when we ourselves " fall on sleep," it will be in the 
 assurance that the " last enemy " has been transformed 
 into an angel of mercy, whose mission is to be our guide 
 into the presence of our Lord. So death " is swallowed 
 up in victory," and the narrow portal of bodily dissolu- 
 tion becomes a royal pathway into the garden of eternal 
 life. 
 
BOOK I: EVOLUTION 
 AND THB FALL OF MAN 
 
 *' Man cannot grow from innocence to 
 virtue without temptation ; he cannot 
 experience temptation without a possi- 
 bility of sin,— that is, of yielding to 
 temptation ; and yielding to temptatiofi 
 is fall." 
 
 Lyman Abbott. 
 
 Chapter VL— The Natural History of Sin 
 
 Spiritual Pathology— Is Sin the Result of a Conflict between Body 
 and Soul ?— St. Paul's Real Teaching— Heredity and " Original Sin "— 
 Physical Analogies of Sin — Arrested Development, Reversion, " Mimi- 
 cry," Parasitism, Disease, Perversion, Atavism. 
 
 I 
 
 WEISMANN in his striking essay on Heredity 
 says: "The history of degenerate forms often 
 teaches us more of the causes of change in organic nature 
 than can be learnt by the study of progressive ones. 
 Such investigation is therefore of the deepest interest." 
 By this means many a forgotten chapter in the history 
 of Hfe has been recovered to the eye of science, and the 
 line of progress has been made clear in many places 
 where otherwise it would have been doubtful and obscure. 
 Many of the triumphs of Evolution have been gained 
 by paying more regard to the failures of the process 
 than to its successes. For the higher creatures, while 
 they register the gains of life through immemorial ages, 
 do not tell us all about the intermediate stages through 
 which their ancestors have travelled in order to reach 
 that point. The outcome is clear, but its process is 
 obscure. For this we have to study those belated or 
 degenerate creatures that have failed to advance, that 
 have been left like milestones along the pathway of 
 
 * "Essays on Heredity," II., p. 3. 
 x86 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 187 
 
 developing life, and so present us with the evidence of 
 stages else lost to view, like the foundations of a 
 building or the shed chrysalis of a butterfly. 
 
 In our study of Man's moral and spiritual nature we 
 may proceed on similar lines. We can consider him in 
 the grandeur of his faculties, in the achievements of his 
 genius, in the triumphs of his heroism, in the beauty of 
 his saintliness. This method will be inspiring, because 
 it will prove what humanity is capable of at its best. 
 But this method will not explain some of the most 
 salient facts of our nature ; it will leave much of his 
 present condition an unfathomable mystery. And so 
 we may proceed on another line, and study Man 
 pathologically ; in the light, not of his capabilities, but 
 of his evil and sin ; learning his greatness, to use Horace 
 Bushnell's phrase, " from the magnificent ruin he dis- 
 plays," and arguing from what he is to what he might 
 be. If the study of degenerate forms has thrown such a 
 blaze of light on the development of progressive forms 
 in the organic world, we may expect that the study of 
 Man's moral lapse will be equally full of reward and 
 enlightenment. 
 
 The mystery of sin is great ; in its ultimate nature it 
 baffles our understanding ; we can no more measure its 
 significance than we can take the parallax of the fixed 
 stars. But while we may be unable to dispel the dark- 
 ness in which its origin is shrouded, a frank and careful 
 study of the forms in which it manifests itself in human 
 life may be of no little use to us, both theoretically and 
 practically. Theoretically, it will enable us to come to 
 a more adequate doctrine of sin ; practically, it will 
 give us many a hint as to how it may be avoided and 
 overcome in our own lives. There are many ways of 
 doing this ; in this chapter it will be our aim to view it 
 analogically in relation to those abnormalities in the 
 
1 88 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 organic world to which it bears so many striking 
 resemblances. Without for a moment falling into the 
 obvious fallacy of those who find a physical origin for it 
 in all its manifestations, there are certain clearly marked 
 lines of analogy between sin and the organic failures, 
 degradations, and lapses of which Nature is so full. 
 
 In what form precisely the first solicitation to do 
 wrong appeared before the dawning moral sense of Man 
 we shall never know, nor is it needful that we should. 
 The essentials of the situation are, that he should have 
 become possessed of sufficient moral insight to recognise 
 a higher and a lower alternative, and of a sufficiently 
 developed will to be in a position to choose either. 
 Though no one has given the slightest proof of such 
 a statement, it may be that he was a Nature-worshipper, 
 and that his creed, so far as it was formulated at all, 
 was a species of Fetichism. Such an idea has been 
 discovered by ingenious theologians even in Genesis, 
 where the " sound of the Lord walking in the garden 
 in the cool of the day" brings such terror into the 
 hearts of the newly fallen pair.^ It is not the form of 
 intellectual belief that is vital to an act of wrongdoing, 
 but the sense of the " dividing ways," the call of the 
 " better part," the choice of the lower alternative in face 
 of the fact that the higher might have been freely taken. 
 Whether the first sin was an act of passion, or an 
 unnatural sensuous indulgence, or the breach of a social 
 regulation ; whether it was in itself a trifle, or a deed 
 entailing bitter and fatal consequences to the doer and 
 to others, — all this is non-vital. Small events may bring 
 direst disaster in their train ; and the eating of an 
 " apple," if only it was done as an act of defiance against 
 the felt will of God, would be quite enough to start 
 a race on its downward career, and be the beginning 
 * Gen. iii. 8 : cf. 2 Sam. v. 23, 24. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 189 
 
 of moral death and destruction. Many of the most 
 wretched criminals have commenced their fall into evil 
 ways through acts as simple and as fatal. The begin- 
 nings of sin, as of all cumulative processes, may thus 
 have been infinitesimally small and trifling to the outward 
 view. It would be against all analogy were it otherwise. 
 The day of the Devil, like the Kingdom of God, came 
 not with observation. In the highlands of prehistoric 
 time the fountain of the moral life was tainted with 
 a little poison, and to-day the broad rivers of humanity 
 show the pollution. 
 
 II 
 
 A MORE fruitful line of speculation is that which finds 
 the origin of sin in a conflict between the higher and 
 lower natures of Man. The course of Man's evolution 
 from the animal to the moral necessitated a struggle 
 between the new and the old elements ere they could 
 be brought into a higher unity. The story of this 
 struggle is the story of human effort towards inward 
 adjustment and harmony — in Mr. Fiske's picturesque 
 phrase, the " throwing off of the brute inheritance." 
 
 There is much in our inner experience which tallies 
 with this striking figure of speech. It also seems to find 
 a remarkable corroboration in the central chapters of 
 Paul's Epistle to the Romans, where the conflict of the 
 " flesh " and the " spirit " is so graphically and subtly 
 told. Henry Ward Beecher says that " it is out of the 
 power of any man to give connected and perfect inter- 
 pretation of these two immortal chapters, the seventh 
 and eighth of Romans, except upon the substantial 
 theory of Evolution." ^ But if we consider Man as 
 possessed of a dual nature, " subordinately as an animal 
 
 ' " Evolution and Religion," p. •](>, 
 
I go The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 with a superinduced spiritual being, an animal at the 
 bottom and a spiritual being at the top, and the two 
 struggling for supremacy, — the seventh of Romans will 
 be very thoroughly interpreted as a commentary on the 
 facts set forth by science and history. If we enter into 
 the eighth chapter of Romans with the understanding 
 that men have advanced to a period in which the 
 direction of the soul of God upon their soul has given 
 them a victory over their animal nature, we shall begin 
 to sound the depths of this wonderful chapter. And 
 we shall see flashes of a philosophy, strange to the 
 Hebrew mind, — strange in Paul's, — yet manifest here, 
 revealing in some sort an account of why the world has 
 been made as it has been made." ^ 
 
 There is, as we have just said, much in our inner 
 experience which seems to tally with this conception. 
 Man is described as a composite being, the various 
 elements of which are at war with one another, the 
 " spirit warring against the flesh," and the " flesh against 
 the spirit " ; in which we find an explanation of the 
 sometimes hopeless dualism in our moral consciousness, 
 which makes us feel almost as though we were two 
 persons at cross-purposes with each other, resulting in 
 a struggle so deadly, that Paul, good man as he was, 
 could find no hope for himself except on the basis of 
 a reinforcement of moral power from on high. 
 
 At the same time, there is in this interpretation of 
 the great apostle's doctrine a fallacy which is but 
 seldom recognised among the exponents of Evolution 
 — a fallacy that, like a great many others, arises from 
 ambiguity of terms. Paul's use of the term " flesh " is 
 itself, to a cursory view, ambiguous, though a closer 
 exegesis reveals a perfectly clear and consistent use of 
 the term to which he is always faithful in the develop- 
 1 •• Evolution and Religion," p. Tj. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 191 
 
 ment of his doctrinal views. First, there are passages 
 in which it simply means the mortal or corporeal nature 
 of man as contrasted with/ or related to,^ unseen 
 realities, where there is no necessary suggestion of 
 corruption in the moral sense. This is the animal or 
 non-ethical nature, of which it would be meaningless to 
 predicate the idea of sinfulness. But Paul also uses the 
 term to represent the natural affections or passions, the 
 psychical nature on the physical side of ity as permeated 
 with a principle of hereditary evil and under the 
 condemnation of God.^ Other terms, such as " the old 
 man,"* "the law in my members,"^ "your members 
 which are upon the earth,"® are used synonymously. 
 We must be careful, however, not to infer from this that 
 Paul placed the origin or root of sin in the bodily frame. 
 That is an essentially heathen notion, foreign alike to 
 the Old and New Testaments. If Paul had meant to 
 imply such an idea, he would be entirely inconsistent 
 with his own philosophy of human nature. For many 
 of the offences which he terms " sins of the flesh " have 
 nothing to do with the animal nature as such — "wraths, 
 factions, divisions, heresies " ; ^ and if the physical side 
 of our being is essentially corrupt, how is it that he so 
 often speaks of sin as though its seat were also in the 
 " mind " ^ as well as the " spirit " ? ^ Further, he speaks 
 elsewhere of our duty to " yield our members instruments 
 
 1 Gal. i. 16; Eph. vi. 12; i Cor. xv. 50. 
 
 « Col. ii. 5, in the same sense as " body and spirit " in I Cor. v. 3 
 and vii. 34. 
 
 3 Rom. vii. 18, etc. 
 
 < Rom. vi. 6 ; Eph. iv. 22 ; Col. iii. 9. 
 
 5 Rom. vii. 23. 
 
 6 Col. iii. 5. 
 
 ' Gal. V. 20, with which cf. i Cor, iii. 3, where, as Prof. Laidlaw 
 says, the charge is "strife," "divisions," etc., not sensuality ; yet it 
 is said, "Are ye not carnal?" See "Bible Doctrine of Man," 
 p. 114, footnote ; also his whole treatment of the question. 
 
 » Eph. ii, 2. * 2 Cor. vii, i. 
 
192 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 of righteousness unto God," * to " present our bodies a 
 living sacrifice,"^ to regard our "bodies as temples of 
 the Holy Ghost " ; ^ the " body is for the Lord, and the 
 Lord for the body,"* — all of which ideas are incom- 
 patible with the identification of the physical or animal 
 nature with the seat of sin. In a word, Paul used the 
 term " flesh " as a convenient means of describing the 
 " corrupt nature in the individual man, for the obvious 
 reason that it is in the course of the flesh, or of the 
 ordinary production of human nature, that the evil 
 principle invariably originates and comes to light." ^ 
 
 There is another obvious reason for this use of terms, 
 and so far the interpretation put upon Paul's language 
 by Fiske and Beecher is right — that once the principle 
 of evil had entered into human nature, it found in the 
 unregulated bodily passions, which were the true 
 heritage of the animal nature, ready and effective 
 instruments for the working out of its will. That is 
 to say, since it is of the nature of sin to act in the line 
 of least resistance, it would inevitably fasten on these 
 dominant bodily passions as channels for its action, 
 as fuel for its fire. At the same time the animal side 
 of human nature is in itself as non-ethical as it is in the 
 brutes from which Man inherits his physical organisation ; 
 the will alone is ethical^ and therefore the will alone 
 can be the true seat of sinful act and bias. Thus what 
 is in a wild beast but the natural activity of its bodily 
 functions, the normal play of its instincts, may in Man 
 become wrongdoing and sin. The rage of the tiger 
 is but Nature's psychic equipment, enabling that animal 
 to defend its young and obtain its needful food. 
 So with the cunning of the wolf, the stealthy glide of 
 
 I Rom. vi. 13 * I Cor. vi. 13. 
 
 ' Rom. xii. i. * Laidlaw, p. 119. 
 
 ' I Cor. vi. 15, 19, 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 19 j 
 
 the serpent, the elaborate circumspection and sudden 
 fury of the lion. What in an animal is healthy sexual 
 instinct, in Man may become lust ; what in a panther 
 is mere killing, in him may be murder ; what in a 
 harmless and otherwise defenceless bird (that lures 
 away the intruder from its nest by pretending to a 
 broken wing) is a legitimate because unconscious ruse, 
 in Man may degenerate into cowardly cunning, vainly 
 trying to avoid the righteous consequences of his 
 misdeeds/ That vast change in Man whereby on the 
 material of these animal endowments the moral sense 
 which he alone possesses works, altogether alters the 
 theatre of events. Action becomes conduct, disposition 
 is transformed into character, psychical necessity is lifted 
 into the dignity of a self-wrought destiny. When we 
 are told, therefore, that the process of human evolu- 
 tion is one in which we merely throw off the " brute 
 inheritance," the description is misleading, where it 
 is not false. What we have to throw off is not the 
 " brute " in the natural sense, but in the human sense. 
 For when a man is a " brute " he is worse than a brute, 
 because he is ideally so much more than a brute. With 
 a moral endowment in virtue of which he is capable of 
 using all the animal passions and propensities for moral 
 ends, he has in all ages used them for immoral ends, 
 and it is the function of grace to give him the power 
 of "throwing off" this inherited tendency, and of 
 starting afresh in the line of his true spiritual develop- 
 ment. In this derivative sense alone is it possible 
 to speak of human progress as a " throwing off of 
 
 * Mr. Rudyard Kipling in his "Jungle Tales" enters with the 
 sympathy of genius into this aspect of animal life. He has 
 delineated its non-ethical aspect with consistent insight, and 
 presents with wonderful power the fact that in them "killing is 
 on murder," but a normal and natural process. 
 
 13 
 
194 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 the brute inheritance." What is thrown off is not 
 the brute, but " brutishness," ^ not sense, but sensuality, 
 not the " animal " nature, of which Man cannot divest 
 himself, but animalism, which does not belong to him. 
 
 Ill 
 
 We have already more than once referred to the 
 problem of heredity in its moral aspects. This will 
 be a convenient place to deal with it more particularly 
 in its relation to the great mystery of Sin in the race 
 and the individual. 
 
 " Heredity," says Ribot, " is that biological law by 
 which all beings endowed with life tend to repeat 
 themselves in their descendants ; it is for the species 
 what personal identity is for the individual. By it a 
 groundwork remains unchanged amid incessant varia- 
 tion ; by it Nature ever copies and imitates herself." ^ 
 
 It is important to notice that this vital tendency acts 
 in two ways. In the general mood of pessimism that 
 is abroad, writers on this subject deal with heredity as 
 though it were a wholly sad and degenerative force. 
 On the other hand, if it tends in certain directions to 
 degrade an organism to the level of its predecessors, 
 it is at the same time the grand conservator of vital 
 force, restraining the tendency to vary within economic 
 limits, and so enabling organisms to repeat and carry 
 forward, under the action of other laws, the advantageous 
 equipments of their progenitors. In other words, 
 heredity means the preservation of all that is favourable 
 in the life-series, as well as what is unfavourable. Like 
 
 ^ Jer. X. 8, 14. 
 
 ' "Heredity," Ribot, p. i (italics ours). It would be difficult 
 to express the moral solidarity of mankind in all generations more 
 definitely than is done in the above phrase by the French 
 psychologist. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 195 
 
 all natural laws, it has its obverse and its reverse, its 
 benefits and its disabilities, telling in one direction for 
 progress as it does in another for stagnation. If we 
 remember this, we shall escape a good deal of that 
 cheap melancholy that so woefully afflicts present-day 
 science, and predisposes social thinkers to pessimistic 
 views of the future of humanity.* 
 
 It would also be well to remember that the fact of 
 heredity is not to be confounded with the conflicting 
 theories concerning it that are abroad. What is its 
 precise meaning and mode of operation may be an 
 unsettled problem ; the fact remains unshaken. There 
 is indeed no one theory of this great mystery that holds 
 the field just now. Whether the hotly contested ques- 
 tion of the inheritance or non-inheritance of acquired 
 characteristics be ultimately settled in favour of Weis- 
 mann and the Neo-Darwinian school, or of Spencer 
 and the Neo-Lamarckian school, it cannot in any way 
 invalidate the established result that organisms tend 
 to reproduce their special peculiarities in their offspring, 
 and that this stubborn tendency runs back far into the 
 past, producing the striking phenomena of " reversion " 
 and " atavism." 
 
 The point of vital interest to us just now is that there 
 is a moral heredity as well as a physical, and that the 
 law of the one is, with differences, the law of the other. 
 We inherit dispositions as well as features, psychical 
 temperament as well as physical organisation, tricks 
 and peculiarities of mind as well as of body. The ever- 
 restless forces of spontaneity produce the fact of 
 
 » Mr. Leslie Stephen, in his " Social Rights and Duties," Vol. II., 
 chap, i., points out with much force that Evolutionary thought, 
 which is imagined to have introduced a new element of perplexity 
 into the doctrine of heredity, and to have complicated the fact 
 of human responsibility, really leaves these questions, from, tkt 
 ethical side, exactly where they were before. 
 
19^ The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 " individuality " ; the stabler and perhaps the deeper 
 " inertia " of heredity results in what we call " solidarity." 
 Human nature in its moral and spiritual aspects " tends 
 to repeat itself" as well as to "vary"; and this for 
 good as well as evil. There is thus an identity of the 
 race as well as of the individual. Freewill is but a 
 spark in a mass of fuel, a little fountain of independent 
 energy in a whirl of undisciplined energies, in which 
 ancestral qualities are seen fighting for their foothold 
 in the individual, and which he must suppress or govern 
 ere he is truly himself Character is the issue, for good 
 or evil, which results from this inner conflict between 
 freewill and heredity. 
 
 Moral heredity, on its theological side, issues in the 
 doctrine of " depravity." It is based on the laiv that 
 there is a tendency in the race to perpetuate sin from 
 generation to generation, and on the postulate that sin 
 has so taken a hold on the race that this tendency has 
 actually become dominant and universal. " The Lord 
 looked down from heaven upon the children of men, 
 to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek 
 after God. They are all gone aside ; they are together 
 become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no, not 
 one." ^ Whatever may have been the immediate applica- 
 tion of these words in the psalmist's mind, there is no 
 doubt that they represent a great truth. Human 
 depravity, in theological language, is " total depravity." 
 This does not properly mean that human nature is 
 entirely and without qualification evil, but that there 
 is in it a taint, a bias towards evil that lowers the tone 
 of his whole being, just as a vapour pervading the 
 atmosphere contaminates the sunlight. " With evil once 
 begun, the race is a succession of tainted individuals, — 
 an organism that works toward the continuance of evil. 
 * Psalm xiv, 2, 3. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 197 
 
 Not but that good is transmitted at the same time, for 
 it goes along with evil." ^ The worst is that the evil has 
 contaminated the springs of action, so that everything 
 is affected by it. " I know that in me, that is, in my 
 flesh, dwelleth no good thing," ^ writes the apostle ; and 
 his candour is echoed in the secret heart of us all. We 
 know that, however fair to outward view are our best 
 actions, they all contain this taint. There is a flaw 
 somewhere in the purest and holiest type of human 
 conduct. In the lowest, there remains scarcely a 
 redeeming element. 
 
 By the laws of generation, acting in a way we cannot 
 understand, this tainted stream passes on from one age 
 to another. Its natural tendency is to perpetuate itself, 
 varied but still persisting. Thus " no interposition of 
 God was needed to bring depravity down from the 
 beginning of sin to later times. But interposition was 
 needed if the flow of evil is to be stopped." ^ For sin 
 has the same qualities in the race as in the individual 
 The race indeed may be regarded as a kind of " compre^ 
 hensive person," whose lifetime embraces that of all the 
 generations — a vast organism in which evil lies as in a 
 reservoir, and from which it flows into the individual lives 
 of whiVh the race is composed. But whether in the racs 
 or the individual, it is always something abnormal, bad, 
 depraved — something that ought not to be^ and which 
 therefore must call forth the stern and emphatic con. 
 demnation of God. 
 
 But we must carefully distinguish between " depravity •* 
 and guilt, in the sense of personal blameworthiness. 
 The theological meaning of this word guilt has nothing 
 to do with blameworthiness, and it is a thousand pities 
 
 1 W. N. Clarke, " An Outline of Theology," p. 218, 
 
 * Rom. vii. 18. 
 
 ? Clarke's " Outline," pp. 220, 221, 
 
r98 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 that it was ever used to represent an idea so easily 
 confounded with it. ^ Ethical guilt is necessarily 
 personal ; it is result of conscious and wilful transgression. 
 It can neither be imputed, nor transmitted, nor trans- 
 ferred. It is as inalienable as personality. While 
 therefore we may share in " Adam's " depravity, the 
 tide of evil tendencies that have come down the channel 
 of the generations to our own lives, we cannot share in 
 his personal ethical guilt, for that was his own, as our 
 guilt is our own. What we do incur from him is 
 the liability to share in the punitive process by which 
 the evil thing he committed is perpetuated in the race 
 (in order to be finally purged out of it). In this sense 
 
 ^ The " Westminster Confession " is responsible for a great deal of 
 painful misconception on this point, where it says, " Our first parents 
 being the root of all mankind, the guilt of their sin was imputed, 
 and the same death, and sin, and corrupted nature conveyed to all 
 their posterity" (c. vi. 3). But the best among even moderate 
 Calvinists have been careful to make a distinction between the 
 ethical and theological meaning of the word guilt. Hodge says : 
 " To impute sin, in theological and Scriptural language, is to impute 
 the guilt of sin. And by guilt is meant not criminality, or moral 
 ill-desert, or demerit, much less moral pollution, but the judicial 
 obligation to satisfy justice. Hence the evil consequent on the 
 imputation is not an arbitrary infliction, not merely a misfortune or 
 calamity, not a chastisement in the proper sense of the word, but a 
 punishment — i.e. an evil inflicted in execution of the penalty of law, 
 and for the satisfaction of justice" (" Systematic Theology," IL, p. 194). 
 •' To be guilty of Adam's sin is to be exposed by it to punishment — 
 i.e. to the endurance of its consequences. Still the phrase is objec- 
 tionable, since though the endurance of its consequences was 
 punishment to Adam, it is not so to us. The constitution established 
 with him was such as to expose us to the results of his conduct ; 
 but that exposure, or liability, is not guilt in any proper sense of the 
 term, or in common parlance even, nor should it ever be so called. 
 The child of a profligate parent is Hable to disease, but he is never 
 thought of as guilty. The term guilt always supposes personal 
 transgression except in technical theology, from which we would 
 banish it " (Payne's " Lectures on Original Sin," pp. 79, 80, note). 
 If this good advice had been followed, it would have saved a good 
 many theological heart-burnings and difficulties. See on this subject 
 Tulloch on the " Christian Doctrine of Sin," pp. 180-199 (and note 
 X)fi, in Appendix). 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 199 
 
 "the punishment of wrongdoing descends far beyond 
 the wrongdoer. Children are involved in their parents' 
 shame. A family without any ill-deserving suffers 
 many ills, and even a sort of death, from the criminality 
 of its head. A nation is plunged into misery, and reaps 
 the reward of iniquity through all its bounds, when 
 its chief men stand condemned at the bar of moral 
 judgment, or have plunged it into flagrant wrong. If 
 it be true that sin is always personal, and God will 
 render unto every man according to his works, it is no 
 less true that all sin is diffusive, and carries with it a 
 train of endless consequences, and many of them of a 
 strictly penal character." ^ This is far removed from 
 the degenerate doctrine of imputed guilt as popularly 
 understood, according to which the personal demerit 
 of Adam is imputed to each and all of his descendants, 
 previous to, or independent of, their own personal com- 
 mission of transgression. This doctrine is not only 
 ethically but logically unmeaning. The rebound from 
 it has been so great that an exaggerated individualism 
 seems to be only too prevalent, and the solidarity of 
 the race a fact frequently ignored in the popular 
 theology. Men say, and rightly say, " Adam may be 
 responsible for what he has made us through his sin, 
 but we are responsible only for what we make ourselves, 
 and not altogether for that, since he has had a hand 
 in spoiling us." Traditional theology here indeed is 
 a kind of Aesop's wolf. " A year ago I was not born ! " 
 cried the lamb. " Sirrah ! " quoth the wolf, " if it was 
 not you, it was your father, and that is all one ! " — and 
 finishes *' with the usual practical application." We 
 are, on the other hand, forced by our moral sense to 
 pity and not to blame the race that has been spiritually 
 contaminated at its fountain-head, and instead of piling 
 * •• Christian Doctrine of Sin " (Tulloch), pp. 195, 196. 
 
200 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 up a vast store of judgment to its account for the 
 past transgressions of the race, to make more and more 
 allowances for its failures in proportion as the evidence 
 accumulates of the solidarity of mankind, and the 
 unspeakable difficulty of working out of the constitution 
 what has become so much a part of the blood and 
 temperament. The peril now is for a degenerate pity 
 and sentiment to take the place of the old degenerate 
 hardness. The balance is trimmed only by distinguish- 
 ing between racial solidarity and individual accountability. 
 We shall then realise that, guiltless as we may be of 
 Adam's transgression, we are still tainted by its 
 consequences, and that so far it is impossible but that 
 God should look upon us as " baddened " or " depraved," 
 needing a renewal of life and a purification of our 
 natures.^ 
 
 There is one more aspect oi heredity which we do 
 not sufficiently bear in mind. It is that we are not 
 only bound up with the past internally by that which 
 we inherit in our constitution and temperament, but 
 that we are born into an " objectified heredity " or 
 environment. The social surroundings into which we 
 come are the fruit of the past, and of the same past 
 as is perpetuated in our own personality. In this 
 environment there is much that is good ; but there is 
 also much that is bad. Thus the evil qualities we 
 inherit find a peculiarly congenial atmosphere in which 
 to grow ; temptation from without, and predisposition 
 from within, answer to each other, as " deep calling to 
 deep." Were it not for this outward heritage of evil 
 into which we are born, many of our bad tendencies 
 might remain dormant, and never make their presence 
 
 ^ Dr. Amory Bradford has a suggestive chapter in " Heredity and 
 Christian Problems " on this subject ; see " The Problem of Siu 
 and the Race," pp. 197 ff. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 201 
 
 felt. As it is, they are stimulated into speedy activity ; 
 " the sight of means to do ill deeds makes ill deeds 
 done." All this puts fresh emphasis on the call for 
 social as well as individual regeneration. The Gospel 
 is to issue in a " new heaven and a new earth wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness " as well as in " new creatures." 
 Heaven in the future life gives the prospect of an 
 environment made entirely in the interests of the 
 redeemed soul. This, together with the tendency 
 towards fixity of character in goodness, will be its 
 surety of eternal life. And similarly the hell of the 
 future must mean a condition in which the soul is left 
 to its own self-created environment of evil. Here too 
 fixity would be presumably, though not necessarily or 
 absolutely, an attribute of character. In this life it 
 is harder and harder for corrupt souls to change into 
 goodness, even in the presence of so many remedial 
 agencies. The probability is that it will be correspond- 
 ingly hard — this at least seems certain— to change in 
 the life to come. 
 
 IV 
 
 It is thus clear that sin began with Man, v/ho is the 
 first earthly creature capable of committing it. When, 
 therefore, scientists speak of "vice among wasps," 
 "cruelty among ants," "fiendish" rage among animals 
 generally, they are consciously or unconsciously speaking 
 in metaphor, and, if they mean more, they are illogical, 
 for such terms have no meaning at all apart from the 
 ethical will. At the same time, certain of the laws of 
 organic evolution are applicable to human conduct in 
 a derivative sense, and much light may be thrown on 
 the mysteries of the inner life by so applying them. 
 Sin may be likened to many facts tb^t we find in 
 
202 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 Nature, and especially do the laws of organic decay help 
 us to understand the various forms which it takes, and 
 the kind of mischief it works, in the soul-life. Let us 
 consider a few of these. 
 
 I. The simplest law of organic life which finds its 
 parallel in the moral life is that called arrested develop- 
 ment. There are many types of creatures which, instead 
 of evolving into higher forms, remain where they are, 
 in a kind of stable equilibrium, while the rest of their 
 species pass on to higher things. There are certain 
 crustaceans and other forms of life which have not 
 changed from the earliest geologic times, when their 
 remains were first deposited, and their descendants are 
 to-day what they were then, imprisoned as it were in 
 a back-eddy in the vital stream.^ The latest theory 
 concerning the blind fishes of the Mammoth cave in 
 Kentucky is not that they have lost their eyes by 
 disuse, but that they never had eyes other than the 
 pigment spots which they now possess. The species 
 
 ^ " If Nature is full of moving things, it is also full of fixtures. 
 Thirty-one years ago Mr. Huxley devoted the anniversary address of 
 the Geological Society to a consideration of what he called persistent 
 Types of Life, and threw down to Evolutionists a puzzle that has 
 never been fully solved. While some forms attained their climac- 
 teric thousands of years ago, and perished, others persevered, and 
 without advancing in any material aspect, are alive to this day. 
 Among the most ancient carboniferous plants, for instance, are 
 found certain forms generically identical with those now living. 
 The cone of the existing Araucaria is scarcely to be distinguished 
 from that of the Oolitic form. The Tabulate Corals of the Silurian 
 period are similar to those that exist to-day. The Lamp-shells of 
 our present seas so abounded at the same ancient date as to give 
 their name to one of the great groups of Silurian rocks — the Lingula 
 Flags. Star-fishes and Sea-urchins, almost the same as those which 
 tenant the coast-lines of our present seas, crawled along what are 
 now among the most ancient fossiliferous rocks. Both of the forms 
 just mentioned, the Brachiopods and the Echinoderms, have come 
 down to us almost unchanged through the nameless gap of time 
 which separates the Silurian and the Old Red Sandstone periods 
 from the present era " (Drummond, •' The Ascent of M^n," 
 pp. J41, 142). 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 203 
 
 had its origin in the subterranean river, and such of 
 their number as found their way to the light outside 
 gradually acquired organs of vision ; while those who 
 clung to their early habitat remained in their present 
 condition of arrested development. 
 
 That there is such a fact as arrested moral develop- 
 ment in Man is beyond controversy. The unique thing 
 about him is that such a fact, when it takes place in this 
 higher sense, is a sin ; he is in a measure responsible 
 for it. Growth or decay in an animal takes place 
 through agencies beyond its control, as it largely does 
 in the bodily life of Man. But growth of soul is not 
 possible, under the conditions of the case, without the 
 consent and co-operation of the soul itself. Since Man 
 spiritually is a germinal rather than a complete creature, 
 and growth is one of the conditions of his ever coming 
 to himself, and since that growth depends on his own 
 will, it is clear that when he declines to develop morally 
 and religiously, it is his own fault. It was the sorrow 
 of the writer to the Hebrews that his readers were in 
 this state of arrested religious life,^ and his urgent appeal 
 was that they should leave behind the elements of 
 spiritual childhood and " press on unto full growth."^ If 
 that may be true of undeveloped Christian life, how 
 much more true is it of the millions who are practically 
 unborn spiritually, and know not their right hand from 
 their left in any high ethical sense? There are few 
 more pathetic facts in life than this, that there are 
 countless multitudes who have all the beautiful possi- 
 bilities of spiritual manhood dormant in their natures, — 
 
 '•As the music of the moon 
 Sleeps in the plain eggs of the nightingale," — 
 
 who yet will not wake to these possibilities, nor move 
 
 H^b. vi, I, ^ ibid. (R,V. margin). 
 
204 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 a step in order to turn them into a reality. " Israel 
 doth not know, My people doth not consider," i is an 
 indictment that describes myriads of souls who are 
 satisfied with living the life of animals when they are 
 men, or who stop at this or that stage of moral 
 development in ignoble contentment, instead of " going 
 on to perfection," and so reaching blessedness. 
 
 In passing it may be well to point out the fact that 
 this phenomenon of arrested development appears not 
 only in individuals in every country and age, but seems 
 to be a characteristic of whole races of men. The 
 Tasmanians and Patagonians seem to be the victims 
 both mentally and spiritually of some such blight ; in 
 a lesser degree indeed, this is true of all savage races ; 
 nay, it is probable that, so far as a progressive moral 
 and religious life is concerned. Eastern nations as a 
 whole are at a standstill. The same non-progressive 
 attitude towards all questions of conduct, all ideals 
 of character, has marked China and India ^ ever since 
 the time when the populations of these countries 
 attained their present form of civilisation. The mar- 
 vellous aspect of this fact is that, in spite of the many 
 generations that have come and gone since it began 
 to be, contact with the Gospel proves that the check 
 given to the higher nature has not sapped the springs 
 of its vitality ; for some of the brightest Christians 
 of this generation have come from heathen stock. Of 
 the lowest and most degraded type of humanity, it 
 is true, spiritually, " he is not dead, but sleepeth." 
 
 2. Reversion to type is another law of organic life 
 which illustrates an aspect of sin. 
 
 * Isaiah i. 3. 
 
 ' Max Miiller in " India and What it can Teach us " says that 
 the India of the villages to-day is the India of three thousand 
 years ago, 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 205 
 
 It has been well said that the "first condition of 
 degeneration is not reversion but perversion of aim. . . . 
 The physical structure that ceases to make progress 
 oscillates for a time about a point, and then moves off 
 toward some degraded condition."^ First, sideways 
 and downwards, then downwards and backwards, rever- 
 sion always follows perversion. It would seem that 
 just as in the world of matter there are two forces, 
 one drawing sunward, the other earthward, so there 
 are two forces in the vital world, one making for 
 progress, the other for degradation. We must not 
 confound this latter with heredity pure and simple, 
 though it is one of its aspects. In heredity we carry- 
 forward into the future the accumulated vital possessions 
 of the past in a perfectly normal way ; it is one of 
 the conditions of stability and balance in organic life. 
 But reversion means that the organism harks back on 
 some outgrown condition. It is a backward leap over 
 one, two, or many generations, with the result that 
 a discarded peculiarity, formerly useful, now useless 
 or hurtful, is resumed and perpetuated. As a matter 
 of fact hardly any organic abnormality is a pure freak ; 
 almost always it is a reproduction of a form once 
 normal. Even in the human subject this is so. One 
 of the most striking facts in the human constitution 
 is the great variability of its structure, and Mr. Wallace 
 says that many of these variations approximate closely 
 to the structure of the lower animals. Darwin mentions 
 that observations made in 36 subjects brought to light 
 as many as 558 such variations, and in a single male 
 there were no fewer than seven muscular peculiarities 
 that plainly represented muscles proper to various families 
 of apes.^ The biological explanation seems to be that 
 
 » " Our Heredity from God," p. 82. 
 
 » " Descent of Man," p. 43 (2nd Ed., revised, etc, p. 90). 
 
2o6 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 in such cases the balance between the static and 
 dynamic forces of life are disturbed in favour of the 
 static, which assert themselves to the detriment of the 
 organism. This is atavism. 
 
 Spiritually, we find an important analogy to this 
 condition. Sin in many of its aspects is to the soul 
 what reversion to an earlier condition is to the body. 
 In its broadest form, it is seen in the lapsing back 
 of a civilised race into the condition of barbarism or 
 semi-barbarism.^ In a developing social community, it 
 is seen in the recurrence of moral conditions which have 
 been outgrown and discarded by the community as a 
 whole. Almost all offences against the laws of a 
 country are of this kind. Social vices and crimes are 
 on the whole a recrudescence of acts which at one time 
 were normal and legal — and, it may have been, right 
 under ruder and less developed conditions. The 
 customs of " blood-revenge " in primeval societies were 
 perfectly justifiable, being the only method of main- 
 taining justice between man and man ; to kill a man 
 now out of revenge is an act of murder, for there are 
 adequate means of vindicating justice through the 
 law of the land. Similarly, lynch-law, on the borders 
 of a Western state, becomes lawlessness in a settled 
 country. Polygamy — sinless in patriarchal times — 
 becomes adultery under the light of the Gospel. 
 Examples might be indefinitely extended of the same 
 kind, but these make the principle sufficiently clear — 
 that certain forms of sinful conduct are only a kind of 
 " antiquated goodness." Circumstances, social relations, 
 and spiritual enlightenment have developed the keen- 
 ness of the moral sense ; and thus what might have been 
 done without wrong long ago becomes vitally and 
 irremediably wicked to-day. The same thing may be 
 Cf. the '• Veddas of Ceylon " (see Tennent's " Ceylon "). 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 207 
 
 seen in the individual life. What is natural and sinless 
 in a child may be very blameworthy in a grown man ; 
 and what in certain stages of our spiritual life would be 
 a venial and passing offence becomes in later stages a 
 sure sign of a depraved and corrupt heart. The essence 
 of this condition of moral reversion or atavism lies in 
 this — that it is felt by the sinner to be a lapse into an 
 outgrown stage of moral development ; it is a sin against 
 light. " The times of ignorance therefore God over- 
 looked ; but now He commandeth men that they should 
 all everywhere repent " ; ^ i.e. what in those earlier times 
 was an infirmity, now becomes a sin. " When I was 
 a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as 
 a child : now that I am become a man, I have put away 
 childish things " ^ — this is the normal condition of a 
 healthy soul ; and when the man or the race falls back 
 into its " childish things," it is moral evil in the form of 
 " reversion " to type. 
 
 3. There is a form of sin which arises out of an 
 opposite tendency to this — a kind of repetition in the 
 moral sphere of what shows itself in the organic world 
 in the form of " mimicry." 
 
 This is one of Nature's methods of enabling lower and 
 weaker forms of life to maintain themselves against the 
 rapacity and cunning of their enemies. They cannot 
 hold their own by force of arms, or swiftness of flight, 
 or fertility of resources ; and so they are endowed with 
 the power of simulating the shape, colour, or habits of 
 more active races. This subterfuge takes many forms. 
 It is the secret of what is called protective colouring, by 
 virtue of which animals are able so effectually to hide 
 themselves that they are lost in the grass or the rocks 
 of their ordinary habitat. The plum curculio at the 
 approach of an enemy rolls up its limbs to look like an 
 * Acts xvii, 30, ^ I Cor. xiii. ii. 
 
2o8 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 aborted bud, and falls to the ground. The common 
 mantis or " walking-stick " is so like a dry twig that it 
 is indistinguishable from one till it suddenly walks away. 
 Certain birds and rodents inhabiting cold climates change 
 the colour of their fur in winter to a dazzling white, so 
 that they may be able to hunt for their food in the 
 snow with impunity. This is also the secret of "ven- 
 triloquism" in Nature. Any one trying to find the 
 tree-toad, or the cicada, or the common house-cricket by 
 their sound, will be bewildered by the impression that 
 there are several near by when really there is only one, 
 and that one will not be easy to find. This is why there 
 are so many apparent duplicates among certain species, 
 one active and well able to take care of itself, the other 
 dependent for its safety on the success with which it 
 repeats the colour and form of the first. Creatures that 
 simulate death are simply imitating lifeless forms around 
 them in the presence of their enemies. The hedgehog 
 is endowed with the double protection of a spiny coat 
 and " simulation." Against some animals it can protect 
 itself; against others it can only pretend to be dead, 
 because it knows by instinct that these do not eat what 
 they do not themselves kill. 
 
 But it is in tropical climates that this imitative 
 instinct is found best illustrated. Prof Drummond, in 
 his " Tropical Africa," after giving striking instances 
 of the myriad forms in which it is met with on that 
 continent, says : " Mimicry is imposture in Nature. 
 Carlyle in his blackest visions of * shams and humbugs ' 
 among humankind never saw anything so finished in 
 hypocrisy as the naturalist finds in every tropical forest. 
 There are to be found creatures not singly, but in tens 
 of thousands, whose very appearance down to the 
 minutest spot and wrinkle is an affront to truth, whose 
 every attitude is a pose for the purpose, and whose life 
 
► 
 
 Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 209 
 
 is a consistent lie. Before these masterpieces of 
 deception the most ingenious of human impositions is 
 transparent. Fraud is not only a great rule in the 
 tropical forest, but one condition of life in it" ^ 
 
 Prof. Drummond here, as usual, allows himself consider- 
 able rhetorical latitude, but the passage sufficiently in- 
 dicates where the same tendency reappears in the moral 
 sphere. Hypocrisy is the colourable imitation of virtue 
 by those who do not possess the reality. All forms of 
 religious insincerity and pretence are an endeavour to 
 reap the advantages and privileges of goodness without 
 possessing any of its moral quality. There is no " lie " 
 among the organisms that simulate the form, the 
 movement, the hue of other organisms ; for it is the fruit 
 of " natural selection " pure and simple. Only a human 
 being can be a " living lie " ; only a man can be a 
 Pharisee. But how much of the generic term " sin " 
 is made up of varied manifestations of this debased 
 instinct in the human heart ; how many have " the 
 form of godliness " without its '' power " ! ^ There are 
 such as have the odour of sanctity clinging to their 
 garments, while their hearts are mephitic with the fumes 
 of selfishness and impurity ; whose character is rotten, 
 while their reputation is sweet ; whose soul is a nest of 
 spawning iniquities, while their " walk " is saintly ; 
 who on the highest authority are but sepulchres of 
 the virtues, fair to outward seeming, but within full 
 of "dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness." ^ 
 Hypocrisy has been described as the " compliment paid 
 by vice to goodness " ; it is rather a mortal offence and 
 insult to it. 
 
 1 "Tropical Africa," p. 179. See also Romanes' " Darwin and After 
 Darwin," pp. 326-332, 
 ' 2 Tim. iii. 5. 
 ' Matt, xxiii. 27. 
 
 14 
 
210 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 4. Parasitism is another fact in Nature which is 
 repeated — with a difference — in the moral life. 
 
 This is one of the most widespread and fatal forms 
 of degeneration in the organic world. " Parasites are 
 the paupers of Nature. They are forms of life which 
 will not take the trouble to find their own food, but 
 borrow or steal it from the more industrious." ^ Plants 
 are many of them parasitic ; and among animals there 
 are whole families, if not whole orders, marked with the 
 same stigma. One of the normal conditions of growth is 
 that there should be a perpetual struggle for existence ; 
 in other words, that food should entail hard exercise. 
 When a species that has been accustomed to earn its 
 living by the " sweat of its brow " (as it were) suddenly 
 or gradually comes on conditions which make it easier 
 to obtain its food, it invariably begins to degenerate ; 
 some of its organs tend to atrophy ; " away go legs, 
 eyes, and ears " ; and slowly it sinks into a degraded 
 condition of life. The law of Nature is that " you 
 must secure food at the expense of work or at the 
 expense of faculty." For instance, it is found that 
 squirrels, in countries devoid of trees, burrow, and lose 
 the power to climb. Red ants have degenerated owing 
 to the habit of keeping slaves. Another species is " so 
 entirely dependent on their black servitors that they 
 have lost the power to build, or even to feed themselves." 
 The dodder among vegetables is an instance of the 
 same tendency. It begins its career with roots of its 
 own ; but it soon fastens on some adjacent plant, gives 
 up its roots, and lives on its friend's toil. So with the 
 mistletoe, and a thousand other plants. Prof Drummond's 
 instances of the hermit-crab, the sacculina, etc., are too 
 familiar to need more than mention. 
 
 This is pre-eminently a social evil, and it appears in 
 
 ^ Drummond's " Natural Law in the Spiritual World," p. 317. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 211 
 
 countless forms in human society, where for the first 
 time it becomes a sin, because wilfully and consciously 
 committed. Were it not for social parasitism we should 
 have a very different state of things in the world. As 
 it is, a large section of society idly exists on the hard 
 toil of the rest. Those who live on the interest of 
 their property without giving back anything in the 
 shape of social effort are parasitic. Those who, at the 
 other extreme, live on the proceeds of open roguery 
 and theft, share this doubtful honour with them. Semi- 
 parasitic are those who make their living out of callings 
 that are detrimental to the social welfare, and breed 
 countless evils as their natural fruit. Drink and 
 gambling have given birth to vast institutions that are 
 carried on not for the direct harm they do, but for the 
 profit that this harm brings to those engaged in them. 
 Were it not for the opportunity of making money 
 afforded by certain grave vices, and the consequent 
 vested interests created, reform would advance at a 
 very much faster rate than it does at present. There 
 is in truth nothing more stubborn, nothing more difficult 
 to remove, than this form of abuse. Like certain 
 parasitic insects, it entrenches itself in the deepest-seated 
 organs of the body politic, inweaving itself into the very 
 texture of the social life. 
 
 In the spiritual world, too, there is a law that nutrition 
 and work must go together. " We must work out our 
 own salvation with fear and trembling." ^ But here too 
 there is an evil and debasing tendency to depend on 
 the efforts of others, and to have only a kind of second- 
 hand virtue. Morally thousands live on the fruits of 
 other men's heroism and greatness. " The world holds 
 few moral choosers ; most act on the judgment of 
 others, or follow inherited custom " — without making 
 » Phil, ii. I?. 
 
212 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 an effort to improve themselves or the world in which 
 they live. Intellectually most people are only edu- 
 cated sufficiently to the extent of following other men's 
 opinions. And in the highest region of all, there is 
 a way of making the grace of God of no account, 
 because we turn it into an excuse for spiritual sloth. The 
 degenerate forms of Evangelicalism, equally with the 
 ** Molluscan shell of Roman Catholicism," pander to the 
 poorest instincts of parasitism in the unregenerate heart. 
 For they equally fail to distinguish between eternal 
 life as the free gift of God in its inception, and that 
 earnest strife of the higher life in the soul, whereby 
 this gift is made our very own. This is peculiarly 
 the peril of those who have many religious privileges. 
 Liberties won by the blood of martyrs are used for 
 no better purpose than to turn the narrow path into 
 a primrose way, instead of an ascending stairway of 
 unceasing progress. " Woe to them that are at ease 
 in Zion ! " ^ writes the prophet. Their doom is to be 
 condemned to lose the power to benefit by the spiritual 
 energies which they refuse to exercise or improve. 
 
 5. There are striking analogies between sin and 
 disease. Indeed physical disease and sin are often 
 inextricably entangled in their causes and their effects. 
 A surgeon in a Scotch prison says : " I have never 
 elsewhere seen such an accumulation of morbid appear- 
 ance as here in the post-mortem examination of 
 prisoners. In every case almost every organ is more or 
 less diseased. Their moral nature seems equally diseased 
 with their physical. Nine out of ten are of inferior 
 intellect, but all are excessively cunning." ^ This 
 coincidence of physical and moral abnormality has of 
 late received the most startling reinforcement, and has 
 
 ^ Amos vi, I. 
 
 ' " Our Heredity from God," p. 91. 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 213 
 
 many subtle bearings on the theory of human responsi- 
 bility and punishment. It does not, however, remove 
 responsibility except in the extreme cases where the 
 power of effective choice is interfered with. The soul is 
 other than the body, however closely interrelated the 
 two may be ; and though each has to bear the burden of 
 the other, it has a burden of its own to bear which it 
 cannot share. 
 
 Sin is like disease in that it is something that bears 
 witness to an abnormal condition, is inimical to well- 
 being and health, interferes with the vital functions, and 
 tends to sap the very principle of life. It is thus the 
 enemy not only of progress, but of life itself. The man 
 given over to hopeless vice is in a state of disintegration ; 
 moral perception grows dull, the voice of conscience 
 becomes weaker, all the delicate affinities of the soul with 
 God are atrophied, and finally the "wages of sin is 
 death." This is the " second death " of which such stern 
 mention is made in the Scriptures. 
 
 6. " Reversion to type begins with perversion " is a 
 dictum which has been already touched upon. We return 
 to it finally because in a sense it sums up in a word the 
 ultimate result, as well as the initial step, of the act and 
 condition of sin. 
 
 Moral perversion — this is sin. It is the turning aside 
 of the will as the principle that controls the whole inward 
 life of Man, from the path of its true life and rightful 
 development, into a byway. So it began in the far-ofif 
 past when sin was first conceived ; so it ends in the final 
 tragedies to which it leads. Perverted will, perverted 
 intellect, perverted affections — these are the hall-marks 
 of the corrupt heart and life. " Sin," as was said in the 
 chapter on the Biblical doctrine on this subject, when 
 expounding the Hebrew word avon^ " is not only failure 
 as missing a mark, but perversity as taking a wrong 
 
^14 iThe Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 line." Self-will— we come back to this again — is at the 
 root of the matter. When powers meant to be used in 
 serving God and man are turned towards purely personal 
 ends ; when the brightness of the intellect is prostituted 
 under the tyranny of vain ambitions ; when beautiful 
 affections are squandered on objects that are unworthy 
 of a rational being's slightest thought ; when the 
 resources of immortal souls are concentrated on the 
 pursuit of shallow futile pleasures, which exhaust the 
 body while debasing the mind ; when the spiritual 
 abdicates in favour of the carnal in man, — we have a 
 condition not only perverse, but hopelessly corrupt till 
 there is a true renewal of the springs of moral life. 
 
 7. It is sometimes said that, whether the Fall as 
 related in Genesis be a historical incident or not, it at 
 any rate truly represents, in dramatic form, what takes 
 place in every man's personal history.^ With all our 
 weight of heredity, we are born in an Eden of innocence, 
 having no experimental knowledge of good and evil. 
 To us too comes a slowly dawning sense of a law to 
 W obeyed, a prohibition to be honoured, and a tempta- 
 tion to taste of the forbidden tree. And we all " like 
 sheep " do go astray. We long to know good and evil 
 by experience, and whether from self-will in the form 
 of curiosity, or in some other more depraved form, we 
 fall into the beaten way of sin, hardened by the feet 
 of so many countless generations of those who have 
 gone before. 
 
 Strangely enough, there is a biological law which 
 seems closely analogous to this. It is one of the most 
 
 ^ " The story of the Fall of Man is rather a parable than a legen^. 
 It bears the aspect less of an account of events in the infancy of 
 humanity than of a crisis in the development of an individual spirit ; 
 it is a hidden chapter in every biography, not an ascertainable event 
 in the dawn of history" (Julia Wedgwood, "The Message of 
 Israel," p. 95). 
 
Chap. VI The Natural History of Sin 215 
 
 interesting discoveries of recent times that the embryo 
 recapitulates the life-history of the race in a swift, 
 condensed series of changes ere it reaches the moment 
 of birth. " The embryo of a higher animal passes now 
 through stages represented by lower forms, because in 
 its evolution (phylogeny) its ancestors did actually have 
 these forms'' ^ This process is a kind of physical race- 
 memory, in which there are many links missing, but 
 which does give a kind of imperfect picture of the 
 pathway of organic Evolution in the dim past. One 
 of the most remarkable features of this process is that, 
 in the case of a degenerate type, the embryonic creature 
 actually in its early stages attains a point of develop- 
 ment higher than that of the adult animal, and then 
 at the point (presumably) at which the race-degeneration 
 began long ago drops back into the condition of its 
 immediate parents. The Sacculina is an animal 
 organism in which there is no sign of life beyond a 
 mere pulsation of the saclike body into and from which 
 water flows through an aperture. If we lay open this 
 sac, we find the creature to be a mere bag of eggs and 
 no more. But if we trace the development of any one 
 of these eggs, we shall find that it first becomes an 
 active little being with three pairs of legs. This larva 
 is known as a naicplius, which differentiates into a kind 
 of bivalve shell, with six pairs of short swimming feet 
 and two elongated organs with which it attaches itself 
 to a crab ; after which the limbs are aborted, and the 
 animal sinks rapidly into an adult saclike sacculina. 
 There are dozens of low crustaceans which, like this 
 sacculina, are free and locomotive in their youth, but 
 
 ^ For a treatment of this interesting question, see Romanes' 
 *« Darwin and After Darwin," pp. 136-155, and Le Conte's " Evolution 
 and Religious Thought," pp. 148-182. This theory, however, is 
 severely criticised in a recent work, Bateson's " Materials for the 
 Study of Variation," pp. 8-10. 
 
21 6 The Ascent through Christ Book 1 
 
 which, losing eyes, legs, and all the belongings of ordinary 
 animal life except their digestive systems, go to the bad, 
 as a natural result of participating in what has been 
 well named the " vicious circle " of parasitism. 
 
 Can it be that there is a real analogy in the case of 
 Man morally and spiritually ? The condition of infancy 
 and early childhood, with its beautiful promise and its 
 high possibilities, presents at least some resemblance 
 to this process. There is a time in which the racial 
 tendency to evil does not show itself, when the soul 
 seems clean from the stain of inherited proneness to 
 evil, and even the dawning passions do not affect us 
 with any impression of sinfulness. We all feel that 
 there is a sense in which the Child is the superior to 
 the Man. We long for the child-consciousness as though 
 it were our lost Eden, in which we sojourned for a while, 
 only to be driven forth, as Adam was driven forth, and 
 into which we in vain desire to re-enter. As we look 
 back at our life's pathway, we remember when this and 
 that and the other sinful habit began to assert itself, as 
 though it were some internal enemy that had been 
 hiding in ambush in the unawakened soul, serpent-wise 
 cajoling the will, destroying the " illusion " of innocence, 
 and dimming the prospect of a true normal development. 
 It is as though we carried within us the essential elements 
 of the Fall-parable, and recapitulated the tragedy of the 
 Race in the microcosm within. And do we not some- 
 times, in watching the growth of our own children, feel 
 a sinking of heart as we detect the beginnings of faults 
 which vividly recall the half-forgotten lapses of our own 
 wayward youth, as though reproducing on the canvas of 
 a fresh generation the blurred memory of our own moral 
 experience? If what we have hinted on this point be 
 true, we can see a deeper truth than we had guessed in 
 the solemn words of the Saviour, "Verily I say unto 
 
Chap.V . The Natural History of Sin 217 
 
 you, Except ye turn, and become as little children, ye 
 shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."^ 
 For it would mean that, by Divine grace, we must as it 
 were take a leap backwards to that stage of upward 
 spiritual progress where the feet of little children tread 
 the clean and uncontaminated way of life, and where 
 we too trod till the race-bias towards sin turned our 
 feet aside. 
 
 These analogies, if they are cautiously followed out, 
 with a due sense of the imperfection of all analogies 
 between things natural and things spiritual, and if they 
 are brought into the light of that doctrine of sin which 
 is progressively revealed in the Bible, as detailed in a 
 former chapter, will enable us to see that there is nothing 
 in the Evolutionary conception of Man out of harmony 
 with that view. In several striking particulars the 
 Hebrew words for sin tally remarkably with the 
 categories of organic life which we have been studying. 
 " Arrested development " is but another name for 
 " missing the mark," to " come short of an ideal end 
 of conduct " — and this is chatath. " Reversion " is 
 first, as we have seen, " to go out of the way," or out 
 of the "straight" — Hke avon—'Ccit.vi to go backwards 
 and downwards. " Perversion," the disposition towards 
 evil — especially that form of evil that manifests itself 
 in " lawless tumultuous conduct," the " lawlessness " 
 {anoniia) of the Apostle John— resembles ra. And 
 when we go behind words to ideas, we find in these and 
 other cases a striking resemblance between biological 
 processes and moral evil. 
 
 We are also helped by these analogies to understand 
 the nature of sin more clearly, and especially to realise 
 its destructive work in the soul. They largely explain 
 ^ Matt, xviii. 3. 
 
1 1 8 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 how the race, meant for growth in the likeness of God, 
 and with such instincts for moral development, has been 
 struggling so long in the toils of sin, has been waylaid 
 by so many perils, has been honeycombed with so many 
 cancerous evils, and is still, in spite of the many remedial 
 agencies at work, so laggard in its spiritual progress. 
 This tendency to waywardness, to revert to earlier and 
 outgrown conditions of moral life, to pretend to a better 
 attainment than is really the case, to accept the privileges 
 while rejecting the duties of religion, to fall into countless 
 fevers and sicknesses of soul, bears witness to some deep- 
 seated trouble in the spiritual life, having all manner 
 of evil consequences, and needing radical Divine 
 measures for its removal. We hope that we have 
 shown more than that. Since the theory of Evolution 
 has been preached by the votaries of science, there has 
 been a tendency to lose sight of the reality of sin on the 
 part of many writers on social subjects who have gained 
 the public ear. The course of thought in this and 
 previous chapters proves, we think conclusively, that 
 this is due to a faulty psychology of the human will, 
 leading to a defective theory of the moral nature of Man. 
 And we have shown how easily all the older thought on 
 this mystery of sin is capable of being translated into 
 Evolutionary language, so that it can once more be seen 
 in its true proportions, and while our pity for and 
 sympathy with the victims of evil surroundings, and of 
 hereditary tendencies, is immeasurably deepened, the 
 old Scriptural view of moral evil, of sin as such, is 
 recognised to be as true to objective facts, as it is 
 wonderful in its interpretation of the inner consciousness 
 of the soul. 
 
BOOK 1 : EVOLUTION 
 AND THE FALL OF MAN 
 
 ' ' / believe that the root oj almost every 
 schism and heresy from which the 
 Christian Church has ever suffered, has 
 been the effort of men to earn, rather 
 than to receive, their salvation; and 
 that the reason that preaching is so 
 commonly ineffectual is, that it calls on 
 men oftener to work for God, than to 
 behold God working for them." 
 
 John Ruskin, 
 
 Chapter VIL— How a Fallen Race 
 may be Redeemed 
 
 The " Strait and Narrow Way " of Evolution— No getting back to the 
 Track — Impassable Limits to " Self-recovery "—How then may Man be 
 redeemed ?— Possible Methods — " Sifting," Education, Incarnation — 
 Three Results of the Divine Method. 
 
 WE have now passed under review the chief 
 questions that bear upon the Biblical and 
 Evolutionary aspects of the mystery of moral evil, and 
 have come to the conclusion that there is nothing 
 essential to the older doctrine of Sin and the Fall of 
 Man which the new science has made no longer 
 believable. Setting aside, on the one hand, a literal 
 interpretation of the early narratives of Genesis as 
 untrue to history and non-essential to an accurate and 
 helpful exegesis of Scripture, and, on the other, certain 
 crude and undigested theories of human personality 
 and moral evil which had been identified with an 
 Evolutionary philosophy, we have arrived at a point 
 of view which combines the essential teachings of past 
 theology and of present anthropology into a synthesis 
 to which each contributes its quota of truth. Man 
 has been developed physically from the brute creation ; 
 mentally he is also akin to them ; but there are unique 
 elements of self-conscious, moral, and spiritual life in 
 
 219 
 
220 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 him which separate him from them by an impassable 
 chasm. He was not created with a perfectly developed 
 nature, but with one in which the animal heritage was 
 transformed by the presence of a spiritual factor which 
 at its first appearance was inconceivably faint, but 
 which was meant to grow into the dominating and 
 determining element in his complex nature. His course, 
 like that of every other creature, was meant to be one 
 of gradual and steady growth. But at a very early, 
 if not the earliest, stage of his existence as a race, he 
 turned aside from the path of his normal development ; 
 and while his capacity for civilisation, intellectual 
 progress, and, to a certain extent, moral growth was 
 not destroyed, this twist in his spiritual nature proved 
 an effectual barrier to his highest development, and 
 reacted with fatal persistence on all the lower channels 
 of his life ; so that beyond a certain point he has never 
 succeeded in rising to his ideal condition. History is 
 a record of continual upward efforts, which have come 
 to their climax only to sink into failure ; and though 
 the stream of progress has never ceased to push forwards, 
 it has constantly had to change its course, and seek 
 new and ineffectual lines of advance. If the story of 
 the past has proved anything, it is that Man, individually 
 and socially, is incapable of coming to his own ; and 
 that with an unconquerable instinct driving him forward 
 to a fairer and nobler life, his final experience is one of 
 bafflement and despair. His cry as a race is that 
 of the Apostle, " Who shall deliver me from the body 
 of this death ? " ^ 
 
 The question therefore is one of vital importance, 
 
 " Has God provided some means of escape from this 
 
 blighting influence of evil and sin on the race ? Is 
 
 there a way of escape from the effects of the Fall ? " 
 
 ' Rom. vii. 24. 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 221 
 
 In approaching this question there is a prior one over 
 which we must spend a little thought—" In what way 
 may a Fallen Race be redeemed ? " 
 
 I 
 
 It seems to be a law of biology that once a creature 
 has drifted out of the line of development, through the 
 failure of the power of adaptation to its changing sur- 
 roundings, or a loss of inherent vitality, it can never 
 recover lost ground. In a passage already quoted. 
 Prof. Le Conte says of the lower orders in relation to 
 Man that " the way of evolution toward the highest — 
 i.e. from Protozoan to man, and from the lowest man to 
 the ideal, the divine man — is a very straight and narrow 
 way, and few there be that find it. In the case of 
 organic evolution it is so straight and narrow that any 
 divergence therefrom is fatal to upward movement to- 
 wards man. . . . Once off the track, and it is impossible 
 to get on again. . . . The tree of evolution is an exairrent 
 stem " [does not Prof. Le Conte mean " a stem with 
 excurrent branches " ?], " continuous through the cluster- 
 ing branches to the terminal shoot — man. Once leave 
 the stem as a branch, and it is easy to continue growing 
 in the direction chosen, but impossible to get back on 
 the straight upward way to the highest. In human 
 evolution, whether individual or racial, the same law 
 holds, but with a difference. If individual or race gets 
 off the straight, narrow way toward the highest — the 
 divine ideal— it is hard, very hard, to get back on the 
 track. Hard I say, but not impossible, because man's 
 conscious voluntary effort is the chief factor in his own 
 evolution. By virtue of self-activity, through the use 
 of reason and co-operation in the work of evolution, 
 
222 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 man alone of all created beings is able to rectify an 
 error of direction and return to the deserted vvay."^ 
 
 If this passage be true in its reference to man spiri- 
 tually, as it certainly seems to be true of animals 
 physically, then there is an end to our argument in this 
 book. Having fallen, Man has only to rise again. Sin 
 having laid hold of him, he has but to fall back on his 
 reserves of spiritual power to shake off the incubus. 
 Having wandered from the way of life, he has but to 
 turn back to the deserted pathway. There is indeed 
 enough obvious truth in this position to make it a deadly 
 and desolating error. For in many of the mistakes and 
 lapses which we make, whether intellectually or morally, 
 a certain power of self-recovery remains to us ; and with 
 better knowledge of the issues of life, and more favour- 
 able environal conditions, we are certainly able to reverse 
 our course and to make up for lost chances. The spread 
 of education is sufficient in most cases to put certain 
 sins of carelessness and ignorance out of the question. 
 Civilisation has cleansed the world of a whole brood 
 of shameful evils into which, let us hope, the race will 
 never again fall. And in our individual life, many of 
 the wayward tendencies of youth are purged away by 
 the sharp lessons of experience and the sense of in- 
 evitable penalty attached to their indulgence. Up to a 
 certain point, and within certain limits, it is borne in 
 upon us by overwhelming evidence that, "individually 
 and racially," men may " rise, on stepping-stones of their 
 dead selves, to higher things." 
 
 The crucial question is, Has this process of self- 
 recovery an impassable limit? Is the power of re- 
 adjustment in things ethical and spiritual such that Man 
 has it in him to leave behind him all the degrading evils 
 that have laid hold of his soul ? 
 
 » " Evolution and Religious Thought," pp. 90, 91 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 223 
 
 Two considerations seem to force us to a negative 
 answer. 
 
 I. First, there is the historical argument. In order to 
 weigh the value of this, we must bar out of the evidence 
 that line of advance which, according to the Christian 
 position, is the direct result of a Divine interposition 
 in human history. Those nations that came within 
 the influence of the Jewish and Christian revelation 
 must be set aside, for it is a part of our contention that 
 the essential factor in their immense superiority to the 
 rest of the world is the stream of Divine influence 
 which has mingled so subtly with their thought 
 and life. If then we restrict our vision to the other 
 peoples of the world, we come to the most positive 
 evidence that, so far from being morally and spiritually 
 progressive, they are, without exception, either absolutely 
 stagnant, or in a state of sure and steady degeneration. 
 The non-Christian nations of the East, the savage races 
 of the South and West, are confessedly stationary or 
 retrogressive in all that makes life sweet and fair and 
 beautiful. All the progressive races to-day are those that 
 have come tinder the direct or indirect influence of Christian 
 civilisation. Science and Art flourish only among them, 
 and spread out from them to the rest of the world. 
 More than this ; it is an indisputable fact that wherever 
 the civilisation of the West penetrates, without being 
 accompanied by its religious atmosphere and sanctions, 
 it exercises a blighting and fatal influence on other 
 peoples. They copy our vices and seem powerless to 
 emulate our virtues. They fade away rapidly under the 
 pressure of our material institutions and social customs ; 
 there is no principle of self-poise or resiliency in virtue of 
 which they are able to maintain themselves against us. 
 This is so in a marked manner with savage races. In 
 the case of Eastern nations, who seem to have been 
 
224 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 from times almost immemorial in a static social state, the 
 disintegrating effects of the impact of Western civilisa- 
 tion are not so evident. But that the effect must in the 
 long run be disintegrating is unquestionable : our social 
 order is clearly destined to break up their most distinctive 
 institutions ; our science and our thought are supplant- 
 ing their most ancient philosophies, and making their 
 religions as incredible to them as they are to us ; in the 
 end we are clearly destined to overpower them, and 
 either lift them up by the contagion of our ideals, or 
 crush and destroy them by the contamination of our vices. 
 On the other hand, it is equally certain that where we 
 go to them first with the Bible in our hands, and plant 
 the knowledge of God and Christ firmly in their hearts 
 before they have come into contact with the darker side 
 of our civilisation, non-Christian peoples seem to be 
 able to survive its impact, and to assimilate its material 
 blessings without evil results. Does not this suggest 
 with irresistible force that what gives even Western 
 civilisation its capacity to resist the degenerative 
 influences imbedded within it is the religion which has 
 become interwoven with its life, and is the very breath 
 of its progressive activities ? And when we remember 
 that it is a central contention of this religion that it is 
 a superhuman and Divine force let down into human life, 
 a saving truth revealed because without it Man would 
 be powerless to undo the effects of sin, does it not 
 equally suggest that, without some such Divine revela- 
 tion, the race would never have been able to regain its 
 capacity for effective spiritual development? Both 
 negatively, therefore, and positively, we seem driven 
 to this position, that without a Divine intervention 
 Man would not have been able to undo the effects of 
 the Fall. So much the course of History appears to 
 make plain. 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 225 
 
 2. The same conclusion is driven home upon us by 
 psychological and moral considerations. 
 
 If sin attacked only the outer departments of our 
 moral life, leaving the springs of our spiritual activities 
 uncontaminated, there would be no reason to doubt 
 our power of resistance against it. There would be a 
 hard battle, but the end would be assured. On the 
 contrary, it is a fact to which our innermost consciousness 
 bears the most emphatic testimony, that the seat of 
 moral evil is in the very will which could alone resist and 
 overcome it. The springs of motive have been contami- 
 nated ; the enemy has penetrated the fortress ; there 
 is a traitor within. Till the will is renewed, therefore, 
 there can be no recovery ; till the fountain has been 
 cleansed it will continue to send forth defiled waters. It 
 would seem to follow that without a visitation from 
 on high, involving a reinforcement of our whole ethical 
 and spiritual nature, it is not possible for us to regain 
 our lost position, and move onward toward the light. 
 Apart from this the spiritual history of humanity must 
 be a series of hard and ineffectual endeavours to expel 
 a trouble that has become a drag on the very energy 
 which alone can do battle with it. And is not this the 
 actual course of human life ? Have not the best men 
 confessed to a sense of inability to conquer sin ? Do 
 not the sad records of the past echo and re-echo with 
 the cry of the tortured human heart as it feels itself in 
 the grip of an enemy too strong to be overcome ? " The 
 question of evil is as old as humanity itself It enters 
 into all forms of religion. It is the background of 
 mystery in all human life ; and its shadow falls ever 
 on that outward world of cosmical law which seems 
 most removed from it." ^ In all lands, philosophies, and 
 creeds, it is the one fact that refuses to be classified, the 
 1 " The Christian Doctrine of Sin," by Princ. Tulloch, p. 29. 
 
 15 
 
226 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 residuum of darkness which no light can pierce, the one 
 burden that no comforting thought can overcome, no 
 soaring hope outfly. It is absolutely certain that, if 
 Christ has no message of release for the race, there is 
 no other direction to which we may look with confidence 
 for emancipation from the dominance of evil. We lose 
 ourselves in frothy generalities about progress, and vague 
 dreams about social regeneration, which leave the springs 
 of motive without reinforcement, and do little or nothing 
 to quicken the individual soul to newness of life. 
 
 3. There is one other consideration that bears in the 
 same direction. The renewal of life can only come from 
 the source of life. Unless God, who has lit the spark 
 of our spiritual nature, and in whom we all live and 
 move and have our being, gives us fresh stores of 
 spiritual vitality, the disease that afflicts us can never 
 be expelled. But, it may well be asked, has not that 
 door of hope been left open from the beginning ? Is it 
 not a part of the original conditions of our being that, 
 by aspiration and prayer, men should be able to come 
 into fresh and vitalising contact with the Father of 
 lights? This is unquestionably so. Whatever barrier 
 we may have raised between the soul and its source, 
 that barrier has never hindered the free flow of Divine 
 love and grace towards all His creatures ; He has ever 
 been willing to receive the prodigal back, and restore 
 him to filial communion. What need then is there that 
 there should be a Divine interposition in order to bring 
 about a result already provided for in the normal course 
 of spiritual law ? This, that the barrier is irremovable 
 from our side. Sin has intrenched itself in the universe ; 
 it has fatally vitiated the relations that ought to exist 
 between God and Man ; and unless something is done 
 of a special character by the Former to remedy the 
 abnormal course into which human life has fallen, we 
 
Chap, VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 227 
 
 on our side, for reasons already given, can do nothing 
 effectual to set matters right.^ 
 
 The need for a special revelation of God to Man being 
 thus demonstrated, the next question is, In what manner 
 may we expect this to have been made ? 
 
 II 
 
 There are several conceivable ways in which a race 
 of creatures spiritually fallen might be restored. 
 
 I. Perhaps we may begin further back. The old race 
 might have been swept away, and a fresh start be 
 made from the very beginning. There is, however, only 
 one hypothesis on which such a plan would have been 
 admissible. It is that sin should have taken such 
 irremovable hold on the old humanity that it had 
 lost all capacity for renewal. That this has actually 
 happened with whole communities is certain. Just as 
 races have been physically swept away through the 
 ravages of virulent epidemics, or so weakened in vitality 
 and self-protective energy that they have succumbed to 
 other foes,^ so has an epidemic of sinful habit fatally 
 sapped the physical as well as moral life of certain 
 
 ' The fact that in almost all countries there have appeared choice 
 souls who seem to have lived in close communion with God, and 
 been the media of real though imperfect revelations of His Nature 
 and Will, does not vitiate this argument. It only shows that where 
 the barrier on our side is thinnest, the light which shines on the 
 other side burns through, and gives us authentic, though vague, 
 indications of the goodness and grace which ever seek entrance 
 into human hearts and lives. 
 
 ' For instance, it is well known that a severe epidemic of small- 
 pox so decimated the Indian tribes whose territories bordered on 
 the Plymouth settlement of the Puritans of New England, that 
 they were utterly unable to withstand their attacks, and whole 
 tribes gradually melted away before the advancing civilisation of 
 the white man. This visitation was put down by the Puritans 
 to a Divine interposition in their behalf 
 
228 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 peoples, so that they were finally exterminated by the 
 ravages of disease and the attacks of stronger and less 
 depraved races. Nor is there anything inherently un- 
 reasonable in the idea of a Providential order that should 
 make use of physical agencies for moral and spiritual 
 ends as a means of cleansing the world of such centres 
 of pollution, as the old legend tells us was the case with 
 Sodom and Gomorrah,^ where there were not even 
 enough good men to furnish the necessary leaven of 
 moral vitality to permit a gleam of hope for the future. 
 But as applied to the whole race of humanity this 
 hypothesis is inadmissible on two grounds. It would, in 
 the first place, be an utter confession of failure on the 
 part of the Creator. In the second place, it would 
 necessitate the creation of a fresh race of creatures by 
 Divine jiaty which we know to be inconsistent with 
 His Evolutionary methods of work. 
 
 2. A second conceivable method would have been to 
 force the fallen race into the paths of moral rectitude, 
 and so undo the mischief that had taken place. But 
 a little consideration will show that this plan, though 
 it often appears to suggest itselfto the minds of immature 
 thinkers, would also involve an impossibility still more 
 inadmissible. By no possible method can a moral 
 creature be made good and pure by force. Good- 
 ness is " self-elected virtue " ; it is something that must 
 be voluntarily chosen ; necessitated goodness is a con- 
 tradiction in terms. A Creator desiring to crown His 
 creative work with a race of moral beings 7nust^ in the 
 very conditions of the case, give them freedom to choose 
 between moral alternatives ; and however He may be 
 at liberty to persuade and attract His creatures into 
 the paths of holiness by all kinds of legitimate induce- 
 ments, there must ever be left to them an opportunity 
 
 > Gpn. xix. 12, 13 : cf. xviii. 23-33. 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 229 
 
 of effective refusal. A race " gone out of the way " 
 therefore can never be brought back to the right path 
 by force, be that force physical or moral ; it can only 
 be drawn back by inducements which, however strong 
 and beautiful they may be, still leave the way open to 
 a persistent choice of lower alternatives. 
 
 3. Working within this limit, there are still several 
 alternatives that seem to have been open. The method 
 of destruction mighty for instance, be combined with 
 that of preservation. The hopelessly bad might be 
 swept away directly they lost the power to respond to 
 higher appeals, leaving room for those who were still 
 within reach of response to such appeals to recover lost 
 ground and continue the race. This is the method 
 which the Jehovist writer in Genesis believed to have 
 been followed. He seems haunted by the exceeding 
 corruptness of human nature, and explains the legendary 
 accounts of prehistoric catastrophes that had come 
 down as Divine visitations on sin. Miss Julia Wedg- 
 wood, indeed, in her brilliant work on the " Message of 
 Israel" endeavours to make out that the Jehovist 
 narratives represent the Divine Being as continually 
 interfering with His own work because of its imper- 
 fection, and trying to make up for His mistakes by 
 alternately renewing and spoiling His handiwork. 
 Taking the anthropomorphic language of the writer in 
 its literal sense, she says : " He repents that He has 
 called into existence a race incurably divergent from 
 His ideal ; ^ He aims at destroying them, and then 
 illogically arranges for their perpetuation.'^ He is a 
 weak, impetuous, changeable monarch, less what we 
 mean by God than many an imperfect man." ^ This is 
 
 ^ Gen. vi. 5-7. 
 
 ■ Gen. vi. 13-21. 
 
 ' " Message of Israel," pp. 81, 82. 
 
230 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 plausible, but thoroughly misleading. Making due allow- 
 ance for the markedly anthropomorphic manner in which 
 this writer everywhere pictures forth the Divine Being, 
 his purpose is rather to show how Man's sin has 
 necessitated successive interferences with the course of 
 human history, than to express the idea of a vital 
 miscarriage of purpose. This gifted authoress comes 
 nearer the mark when she says : " The expulsion of 
 Adam from Paradise, of Cain from Eden, of the Angels 
 from heaven, and finally the obliteration of all but a 
 single family from earth, must be regarded as in each 
 case a vivid expression of what we may almost call 
 perplexity at the marvel which we touch on in the name 
 of sin."^ But even this does not fully state the case. 
 The Jehovist is really putting before us a two-sided 
 conception of sin : first, its utterly demoralising effects 
 on Man, necessitating a thorough spiritual sanitation of 
 the world at critical intervals ; and secondly, the 
 persistence with which God works for the future 
 progress of humanity, not only by this process of 
 destroying the hopelessly bad, but by carefully preserv- 
 ing such as are still capable of carrying on the moral 
 evolution of the race. It is the beginning of the " Story 
 of the Remnant " of which Seth, Enoch, Noah, are the 
 prehistoric channels ; and Abraham, with his descendants, 
 the Chosen Race, the later developments on the plains 
 of recorded history. The hopelessly sinful Many are 
 destroyed, in order that the faithful Few may be 
 preserved ; and these Few are preserved in order that 
 finally the whole race of Mankind may be blessed and 
 redeemed.^ 
 
 This principle of specialisation or " sifting " is the 
 key to all the namtives of Genesis, and more or 
 
 * " The Message of Israel," p. 128. 
 ' Gen. xii, 3. 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 231 
 
 less those of the whole Old Testament. We first have 
 the genealogy of Seth separated out from that of 
 Cain ; ^ then the family of Noah from the evil generation 
 amongst which it lived ; ^ ten generations later the 
 Call of Abraham takes place,^ and the way is prepared 
 for the growth of a nation which is consecrated to the 
 saving purpose of God. But this does not complete 
 the cycle of separations. The tendency towards de- 
 generation reappears again and again. In the next 
 generation but one, we find Jacob chosen as the 
 representative of the same purpose, and Esau is rejected; * 
 and though this was the last case in which the selection 
 was purely genealogical, the process still goes on. 
 The Chosen Race is again and again sifted ; the evil 
 elements are winnowed out ; as the family multiplies 
 into a nation, it is made to undergo a constant discipline 
 of character and ideal. The long slavery in Egypt, 
 continued for 400 years ; the trying vicissitudes of the 
 wilderness wanderings ; the fierce struggle for the 
 possession of the land of Canaan ; the varied and 
 perpetual moral lapses and recoveries of the times 
 of the Judges, leading through the stages of a more 
 or less pure theocracy into that of a theocratic 
 monarchy, — all are a series of disciplinary processes 
 with a distinctively spiritual end in view. At this point 
 a fresh selection takes place ; the splitting of the 
 kingdoms of Judah and Israel results in the rejection, 
 and finally the scattering, of the latter among the 
 heathen nations, while the former is destined to become 
 the ultimate channel of redeeming grace, after which 
 the discipline again becomes educative and spiritual. 
 Without descending into detail, the whole history of 
 the people clearly illustrates a continuous principle of 
 
 ^ Gen. V. 3. 3 Gen. xii. 3. 
 
 ' Gen. vi. 8. * Gen. xxviii. 14. 
 
23 2 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 moral sifting : the unfit are dispersed and rejected ; the 
 fit alone survive, and carry on the Divine purpose to 
 its consummation. " And God divided the light from 
 the darkness," the waters above the firmament from 
 those below, the dry land from the seas ^ — this earliest 
 creative process is continued throughout all generations 
 in the region of character, till we come to its consumma- 
 tion in the arrival of Jesus Christ in the flesh.^ 
 
 4. But even this does not put the whole case before us. 
 God's method of redeeming the fallen Race of Man 
 involved something higher than a process of Education. 
 It was also a Revealing process. You cannot by 
 education develop anything which is not already im- 
 plicit in the soul. The Divine purpose for Man included 
 an uplifting towards Himself, and so it was necessary 
 that His own nature should be made known by means 
 which Man could never have attained through any 
 natural development. And in the Old Testament we 
 have the history of a Divine Revelation, interwoven with 
 the history of a Moral Discipline. There is a shining 
 of light from above, as well as a purifying of vision 
 from beneath. Primitive ideas of God are unified, 
 clarified, raised to a higher plane, and supplemented 
 by direct communications from the Unseen. This 
 process, like the other, is very gradual, and proceeds 
 pari passu with it. It is a superhuman process through- 
 out, but it follows all the laws of an evolutionary 
 growth. At first, it is germinal, inchoate, undefined, 
 
 » Gen. i. 4, 7, 9. 
 
 ' "The ultimate outcome of Israel's long discipline manifests 
 the reality of that continual and delicate Divine pressure which 
 lifted a rude and barbarous tribe above its surroundings and raised 
 it to the throne of spiritual influence, in reference to which Athanasius 
 declares that Israel was ' a sacred school of the knowledge of God 
 and of the spiritual life for the whole world ' (De Incarn., c. xii.) " 
 ("Aspects of the Old Testament," Ottley, pp. 58, 59). 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 233 
 
 and mingled with all manner of extraneous and in- 
 consistent elements ; but slowly the earthy element is 
 winnowed out, the spiritual becomes more pronounced 
 and pure, and at last Israel is in possession of a 
 Monotheism which serves as a mould for the final 
 revelation of the Divine nature in the New Testament. 
 5. And here we come within sight of the crowning 
 element in the redeeming process. The Old Testament 
 is, throughout, the history of a process of Incarnation. 
 It is the story of a Hope, and of the gradual realisation 
 of that Hope in humanity. Whatever may have been 
 the exact import at different times of this Messianic 
 Hope to the people of Israel, it is clear that they were 
 from the first battling with an Idea too big for their 
 comprehension, and one destined to be fulfilled in a 
 manner far exceeding their highest conceptions. It 
 is only in the light of the sequel that we can read the 
 meaning of the early intimations of a Deliverer that ever 
 hovered before their imperfect spiritual vision. The 
 Cradle as well as the Cross throws a searchlight across 
 the centuries, and gives significance and clearness to 
 much that otherwise would be dark and meaningless. 
 The discipline of Israel becomes a deeper and more 
 sacred process to our eyes when we realise that it was 
 a preparation for the incoming of God Himself into 
 Humanity, and the necessary rudeness of the means — 
 being governed by the historic conditions — is hallowed 
 in view of the loftiness of the end. The presence of the 
 supernatural in the Old Testament histories— though we 
 may freely allow legitimate criticism to deal with the 
 records, and to sift fact from legend — gains a new 
 credibility in the face of the stupendous miracle to 
 which they all lead as their consummation and fruit. 
 The intermingling of the human and the Divine elements 
 in the ancient revelation becomes more comprehensible 
 
234 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 to us in view of that supreme fact of History — the 
 Person of Jesus Christ — in whom we have the perfect 
 embodiment of the Divine under the essential limita- 
 tions of humanity.^ The whole Old Testament glows 
 with a new light when we realise, as Wellhausen puts 
 it, that the religion it records " did not so much make 
 men partakers in a Divine life, as make God a partaker 
 in the life of men."' With reverence we may say that 
 it tells us of the gradual attempts of the Divine to enter 
 into and make its home with the human. The entrance 
 was barred by many obstacles, and guarded by the 
 flashing swords of many fiery passions and implacable 
 repugnances. If at last it was opened that the " King 
 of glory might come in," this was due to no willinghood 
 at the start, but to the infinite patience and grace of 
 the Most High. The birth of Christ heralds the moment 
 of victory in a battle which had lasted from the begin- 
 ning of time. " We know that the Son of God is come, 
 and hath given us an understanding, that we may know 
 Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even 
 in His Son Jesus Christ " ^ — this is the final ridge of the 
 slow process, the dawnings of which vanish in the misty 
 uplands of an immeasurable past. 
 
 ^ On this point Ottley is suggestive and helpful : — " In the light 
 of God's actual dealings with the world in the gift of His Son, we 
 can appreciate better all that recent research has taught us respect- 
 ing the close affinity between Israel's early faith and practice, and 
 that of its heathen neighbours and kinsfolk. It no longer startles 
 us to find Divine wisdom adopting, regulating, and consecrating to 
 higher uses traditional customs or practices common to the entire 
 Semitic race, in order to employ them as elements in a system of 
 rudimentary instruction and graduated moral discipline. We can- 
 not be surprised even to find that very low and inadequate concep- 
 tions of the Godhead are accepted as the necessary basis of higher 
 and more spiritual ideas " (•* Aspects of the Old Testament," p. 14). 
 
 * '• Sketch of the History of the People of Israel," p. 17. 
 
 ' I John V. 20. 
 
Chap. Vll How to Redeem a Fallen Race 235 
 
 III 
 
 This then was God's method of Recovery for the Race 
 lying under the bafflement and defeat of Sin. He undid 
 that evil work, and restarted the life of humanity in the 
 line of its ideal by sending forth His Son "in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh." 
 
 By this means three essential results were achieved. 
 
 First, " He condemned sin in the flesh." ^ The evil 
 power that had so marred and hindered the true 
 development of the soul was revealed in its dreadful 
 reality in the light of the age-long difficulty which it 
 presented to the manifestation of the Divine nature in 
 the mould of humanity, and still more in the perfect 
 beauty and holiness of that human life in which the 
 Divine glory was revealed.^ This condemnation was 
 further driven home in the sacrifice of the Cross, which 
 was the consummation of all the sacrificial types and 
 symbols of the Jewish Law — the reality of which they 
 were the imperfect shadow. Without this complete and 
 perfect revelation of the true nature of Sin, it could not 
 be clothed with that repugnance and loathing without 
 which it can never be overcome and destroyed. And 
 it must be condemned " in the flesh " ; that is, in the 
 very human nature in which its destroying forces had 
 been seen and experienced. Were all the forces of the 
 universe voiced into thunders, they would not have 
 availed so perfectly to condemn sin as that quiet life 
 of holiness, and that awful act of self-sacrifice, which 
 were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Divine " Son of Man." 
 
 Secondly, the Incarnation showed the possibilities of 
 human nature when voluntarily and perfectly delivered 
 into the hands of God. Simply to condemn and judge 
 
 * Rom. viii. 3. ^ Ibid. ^ John i. 14. 
 
236 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 sin would not have been a real redemption. It would 
 have brought Man to despair, not to salvation ; to self- 
 loathing, not to self-respect. Men must be taught to 
 iionour their own nature, to believe in its high possi- 
 bilities, ere they can make adequate efforts after 
 reformation. Self-respect is one of the conditions of 
 moral endeavour. And the Incarnation, by showing 
 that even sin has not quite destroyed the image of 
 God in the soul, gave a great impulse to every aspiration 
 in the human heart. Christ came " in the likeness of 
 sinful flesh " ; He came in our marred and broken 
 nature. This proves the capacity of that nature, even 
 in its fallen condition, to entertain, nay, to embody the 
 Eternal, and it fills the weakest and the sinfullest with 
 hope for himself under the grace of God. The reien 
 of Sin is not a hopeless tyranny ; it is an incubus that 
 may be thrown off, an evil dream out of which the 
 worst man may awake, and so "come to himself " and 
 to God. 
 
 Thirdly, the Incarnation proves the immeasurable 
 interest of our Maker in us, and His willingness to put 
 Divine resources at our disposal for a new and holy life. 
 It is the crowning seal of His love and grace. Sin had 
 interfered with our natural growth in goodness ; God 
 has interfered again, and by a gift of matchless love has 
 brought us back where we may once more set out on 
 our forsaken pathway. We could not have done this of 
 ourselves, but " what the law could not do, in that it was 
 weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the 
 likeness of sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin, con- 
 demned sin in the flesh : that the ordinance of the law 
 might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but 
 after the spirit." ^ " Wherefore if any man is in Christ 
 Jesus, he is a new creature : the old things are passed 
 * Rom. viii. 3, 4. 
 
Chap. VII How to Redeem a Fallen Race 237 
 
 away; behold, they are become new."^ The past is 
 blotted out ; the present is free ; the future is radiant 
 with possibilities, and beautiful with hopes. 
 
 The line of thought we have pursued in this chapter, 
 while it bears witness to the personal " interference " of 
 God in the history of redemption (viewed from the 
 lower side of physical law), also illustrates the evolu- 
 tionary method pursued in His dealings with the Fallen 
 Race. The Redemptive process, belonging as it does to 
 the kingdom of personal relations, would in the nature 
 of things involve what must appear arbitrary and un- 
 related to the biologist and the physicist. Therefore 
 those whose science proceeds on the ground that every- 
 thing in the higher orders of life must be explained in 
 terms of the lower, will find here much that is perplexing. 
 Their perpetual peril will be to minimise and even to deny 
 facts, when they cannot be brought within the categories 
 with which alone they are willing to work. That 
 only proves the incompetence of these categories to deal 
 with the facts. Viewed from a freer standpoint, they 
 make room for ampler explanations and more adequate 
 theories. We are brought by these facts within the 
 scope of a Divine order, whose beginning will be a 
 mystery, as every beginning is ; but whose method of 
 work may be studied, and whose results may be classified, 
 because, like all the orders of life, it follows the laws 
 of development. 
 
 It thus comes to pass that, though a materialistic 
 Evolution can find no place for the fact and process of 
 the Incarnation, we are not for this reason debarred from 
 expounding that mystery from an Evolutionary stand- 
 point. By so doing, we bring the highest facts of religion 
 into line with the rest of human knowledge. It is well 
 
 ^ 2 Cor. V. 17 
 
238 The Ascent through Christ Book I 
 
 to remember that in no case does science throw light 
 on beginnings. It tells us nothing about how matter, 
 life, mind, self-consciousness came into being. These 
 are the data, and the task of science is to tell us how 
 they grew from little to more, and expanded from 
 almost imperceptible beginnings to their consummation. 
 Similarly, science cannot explain to us the prime impulse 
 of the Incarnation ; that is the datum of our inquiry ; 
 but it can watch the growth of the process from little to 
 more, till we come to the perfect flower and fruit in 
 Jesus Christ ; which in its turn is a starting-point for a 
 still broader incarnation — the life of the Spirit in 
 sanctified and holy men who believe in His name and 
 are the recipients of His love and grace. Leaping over 
 the intermediate stages of that vague preparation for 
 the coming of the Redeemer which are revealed in the 
 Old Testament, let us now pass on to the study of the 
 Incarnation as it is seen in the Person and work of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
Book II : Evolution 
 and the Incarnation 
 
" This man so cured regards the Curer, then, 
 As — God forgive me ! — who but God Himself, 
 Creator and Sustainer of the world, 
 That came and dwelt in flesh on it awhile ! 
 — 'Sayeth that such an one was born and lived, 
 Taught, healed the sick, broke bread at his own house. 
 Then died, with Lazarus by, for aught I know, 
 And yet was .... what I said nor choose repeat. 
 And must have so avouched Himself, in fact, — 
 ***** 
 
 The very God ! think, Abib ; dost thou think ? 
 So, the All-great, were the All-loving too — 
 So, through the thunder comes a human voice. 
 Saying, * O heart I made, a heart beats here ! 
 Face, My hands fashioned, see it in Myself ! 
 Thou hast no power, nor canst conceive of Mine, 
 But love I gave thee, with Myself to love. 
 And thou must love Me who have died for thee ! ' " 
 
 Browning. 
 
 S40 
 
" This earth too small 
 For Love Divine f Is God not Infinite f 
 If so, His Love is Infinite. Too small/ 
 One famished babe meets pity oft from Man 
 More than an army slain ! Too small for Love I 
 Was earth too small to be of God created f 
 Why then too small to be redeemed f" 
 
 Aubrey De Vere. 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 EVOLUTION AND THE INCARNATION 
 
 Chapter L — Some Modern Difficulties 
 
 Points of Conflict — "Unknowableness" of God — Can He limit Him- 
 self ? — Nature a Form of Divine Self-limitation — Degeneration of Man 
 divinely arrested — Ultimate Beneficence of " Waste " — Incarnation a 
 •' Geocentric " Idea — Historical and Physiological Objections. 
 
 THE law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath 
 made me free from the law of sin and death." ^ 
 This is St. Paul's statement of the saving work wrought 
 in his soul by his Saviour. Through Him and what He 
 did, the heritage of evil was expunged and eliminated 
 from his nature. " Behold, all things are become new " ;^ 
 " Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any- 
 thing, but a new creature in Christ Jesus " ; ^ " It is 
 no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me."* 
 Such are a few of the glowing words in which he 
 describes the profound blessing and deliverance which 
 he realised, in some sense or other, through what Christ 
 had done for him and in him. 
 
 What this was and is in the life of believers in Christ 
 it is now our business to inquire. 
 
 In the old phraseology, the saving work of Christ 
 was made possible through His Incarnation, Atonement, 
 and Resurrection from the dead. The question we 
 
 ^ Rom. viii. 2. * Gal. vi. 15. 
 
 * 2 Cor. V. 17. * Gal. ii. 20 (R.V. margin). 
 
 241 16 
 
2^2 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 have to consider here is whether these doctrines have 
 been left behind by the advance of scientific thought, 
 or whether they can be harmonised with the teachings 
 of Evolution. 
 
 I 
 
 There are several points of seeming or real conflict 
 between the doctrine of the Incarnation and the 
 principles of the Evolutionary philosophy as expounded 
 by some of its foremost exponents. 
 
 I. Let us begin with the bearings of the doctrine of 
 the Incarnation on the nature and character of God. 
 It has been assumed by some believers in Evolution 
 that God in Himself is Unknowable, a position which, 
 if true, would make the notion of an Incarnation of the 
 Divine in humanity a contradiction in terms. 
 
 But we have already seen that this association of 
 theological nescience with scientific Evolution is purely 
 factitious. There is, according to Mr. Huxley himself, 
 no necessary connection between the two views. To 
 quote a saying of his already referred to, " Evolution has 
 no more to do with Theism than the first book of 
 Euclid."^ If Mr. Spencer is an avowed Agnostic, it 
 cannot be too clearly understood that it has no more 
 to do with his being an Evolutionist than has his 
 opinion of bimetallism. Since this is so, and our 
 subject is limited in its scope to the immediate and 
 logical bearings of Evolution pure and simple on the 
 fundamental and distinctive doctrines of the Faith, we 
 will not deal here with the arguments that are concerned 
 with the Knowableness of God, but will restrict our- 
 selves to the more relevant aspects of the case.^ 
 
 ^ On this point it is interesting to know that Darwin was of the 
 same opinion. See his " Life and Letters," L 307, 313 ; III. 236, 304. 
 ^ On this point see Iverach's " Is God Knowable ?" 
 
Chap. 1 Some Modern Difficulties 243 
 
 2. There is an analogous and somewhat more pertinent 
 form of this objection on which, however, we desire to 
 say a few words. It takes the form of assuming that 
 the Incarnation, being a kind of self-limitation on the 
 part of the Supreme Being, is inconsistent with His 
 essential Godhead, that the union of the Divine and 
 Human natures in one person is absurd, and that the 
 notion cannot be translated into clear thought. 
 
 The idea that the Infinite Being is above all change, 
 and so above self-limitation, is not a new one, but it 
 has, for certain reasons that we need not now go into, 
 received a new emphasis since the rise of the Evolu- 
 tionary Theory. Once however the fact of the existence 
 of God is affirmed, there is clearly no validity in this 
 objection. 
 
 For the very existence of the Universe affords evidence 
 of an act of self-limitation on the part of the Creator. 
 The very fact that He works by Law and not by Fiat is 
 a signal proof of His voluntary submission to definite 
 limitations — limitations which He has ordained for ends 
 that may only be dimly guessed at by us, but which Faith 
 believes could be gained in no other way. And this 
 principle of self-limitation is greatly emphasised by 
 what Evolution tells us of His ways. Thinking of Him 
 loosely as the Omnipotent, we keep constantly asking, 
 " Why does God not do this, that, or the other ? " 
 And we are inclined sometimes to rebel against ordin- 
 ances which seem to us to be by no means essential 
 to the carrying on of the world's events. Before the 
 discovery of the Evolutionary process which is now 
 regarded as the process which God has for His own 
 reasons elected to be the working method of Nature, 
 this was a question which could not but rise to men's 
 lips. But now we see far more clearly than before 
 that the Almighty has chosen to work along lines of 
 
244 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 limitation that often seem to our eyes arbitrary, and 
 often incomprehensible, but which are at least perfectly 
 consistent and invariable. As Mr. Le Conte says ^ : — 
 
 " See then the difference between man's mode of working 
 and Nature's [by which here he means God's]. A man 
 having made a steam-engine, and desiring to use it for a 
 different purpose, . . . will nearly always be compelled to add 
 new parts not contemplated in the original machine. Nature 
 rarely makes new parts — never if she can avoid it — but, on 
 the contrary, adapts an old part to the new function. // is 
 as if Nature were not free to use any and every device to 
 accomplish her end, but were conditioned by her own plans of 
 structure ; as indeed she must be according to the derivation 
 theory:'^ 
 
 From an entirely different point of view, Mr. Ruskin 
 puts the same thought in language so beautiful and 
 suggestive that we feel that the reader will thank us for 
 quoting the passage in extenso : — 
 
 " The highest greatness and the highest wisdom " [he says, 
 in dealing with the " Lamp of Truth " in Architecture] " are 
 shown, the first by a noble submission to, the second 
 by a thoughtful providence for, certain voluntarily admitted 
 restraints. Nothing is more evident than this, in that supreme 
 government which is the example, as it is the centre, of all 
 others. The Divine Wisdom is, and can be, shown to us only 
 in its meeting and contending with the difficulties which are 
 voluntarily, and for the sake of that contest, admitted by the 
 Divine Omnipotence : and these difficulties, observe, occur 
 in the form of natural laws or ordinances, which might, at 
 many times and in countless ways, be infringed with apparent 
 advantage, but which are never infringed, whatever costly 
 arrangements or adaptations their observance may necessitate 
 for the accomplishment of given purposes. The example 
 most apposite to our present subject is the structure of the 
 
 * " Evolution and Religious Thought," p. 129. [Italics ours.] 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 245 
 
 bones of animals. No reason can be given, I believe, why 
 the system of the higher animals should not have been 
 made capable, as that of the Infusoria is, of secreting flint, 
 instead of phosphate of lime, or, more naturally still, carbon ; 
 so framing the bones of adamant at once. The elephant 
 and rhinoceros, had the earthy part of their bones been made 
 of diamond, might have been made as agile and light as 
 grasshoppers, and other animals might have been framed, 
 far more magnificently colossal than any that walk the earth. 
 In other worlds we may, perhaps, see such creations ; a 
 creation for every element, and elements infinite. But the 
 architecture of animals here is appointed by God to be a 
 marble architecture, not a flint nor adamant architecture; 
 and all manner of expedients are adopted to attain the 
 utmost degree of strength and size possible under that great 
 Hmitation. The jaw of the ichthyosaurus is pieced and 
 riveted, the leg of the megatherium is a foot thick, and the 
 head of the myodon has a double skull; we, in our wisdom, 
 should, doubtless, have given the lizard a steel jaw, and the 
 myodon a cast-iron headpiece, and forgotten the great 
 principle to which all creation bears witness, that order and 
 system are nobler things than power. But God shows us in 
 Himself, strange as it may seem, not only authoritative per- 
 fection, but even the perfection of Obedience — an obedience 
 to His own laws : and in the cumbrous movement of those 
 unwieldiest of His creatures, we are reminded, even in His 
 divine essence, of that attribute of uprightness in the human 
 creature; *that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth 
 not. ' " 1 
 
 * Ruskin's "Seven Lamps of Architecture," Aphorism 1 1, pp. 77-80. 
 Cf. the following passage from Frances Power Cobbe's "Dawn- 
 ing Lights " : " ' Of this/ says Aristotle, * even God is deprived : 
 to make the past as though it had not been.' He cannot alter the 
 relation of numbers, or make circles and triangles to have the same 
 properties. These are limitations of Omnipotence which all of us 
 admit " (p. 105). The very faithfulness of God to Himself in the 
 maintenance of reasoned order in Creation is thus a form of self- 
 limitation. 
 
246 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 This passage has a far wider scope than that for 
 which it was primarily written, and expresses a law 
 in the method of creation which throws light on many 
 of the mysteries of God's ways. Here we have to do 
 with it only in so far as it illustrates the fact that 
 in creation as we see it there is abundant evidence 
 that God obeys a law of self-limitation. He has in a 
 sense abdicated the throne of Omnipotence, and works 
 by means \ and consistency to the conditions He has 
 laid down for Himself necessitates that in all His 
 dealings with His creatures He should act in a certain 
 way, and not in another way. Since this self-limitation, 
 so far at least as the particular form which it takes, 
 is voluntary, and not fated by any condition outside 
 of the Deity, it does not imply a loss of power abso- 
 lutely, though it does seem to do so relatively. It 
 only shows why, once the conditions under which the 
 creation is carried on were settled by Divine wisdom, 
 things should be as they are and not otherwise, and 
 makes us sure that in the Redemption of Humanity 
 God would act on lines of definite procedure, in 
 thorough harmony with all that He has implicitly laid 
 down in the plan of creation. And it quite removes 
 any antecedent difficulty we might feel as to the 
 unthinkable nature of such a mystery as the Incarna- 
 tion. For, in a lower sense, the creation itself is but 
 an Incarnation of the Most High ; and it is not more 
 but less difficult to understand that He should incarnate 
 Himself in Humanity than in the material forms of 
 creation ; for in Man at least we have a being that 
 must be nearer in nature to God than the insentient 
 rock or the merely sentient brute. 
 
 3. But it may with some plausibility be argued 
 that the character of God as seen in the workings of 
 Nature — if we are to take Nature as in any sense a 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 247 
 
 revelation of character and not merely one of power — 
 is not consistent with the notion that He should incar- 
 nate Himself in a special way for the redemption of 
 Man from the power of the evil which has laid hold 
 of him. 
 
 The testimony of Nature, as we have seen, is that 
 when once an animal is degraded in the ranks of being 
 through the action of the law of degeneration, there 
 is no remedial process by which it may regain its lost 
 status. Having " gone out of the way " it has hence- 
 forth to take its place amongst those lower beings 
 with which it is allied, and can by no possibility return 
 to its own proper position. Why should this rule be 
 put aside in the case of Man ? Is there any reason 
 to think that this has been done in his case which is 
 never done in the case of any other earthly being, — 
 or even that it could be done, i.e. under the con- 
 ditions ? 
 
 This again, like a good many ideas that seem to have 
 had their birth in modern ways of thinking, is by no 
 means a recent difficulty. It suggested itself long ago 
 to the Psalmist as he gazed at the glory of the midnight 
 heavens, and thought of the almost infinite littleness 
 of Man as an object to be specially noticed and 
 redeemed by God. "When I consider Thy heavens, 
 the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which 
 Thou hast ordained ; what is man, that Thou art mindful 
 of him ? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him ? " ^ 
 But there is no doubt that there are certain considera- 
 tions that have tended to make this a more pressing 
 difficulty in the present day than in earlier times ; for 
 the discoveries of science have clouded to many minds 
 the vision of the Divine goodness, and indisposed them 
 to receive the message and burden of the Gospel, that 
 \ Psalm viii. 3-5. 
 
248 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 God IS a Being full of mercy and lovingkindness, 
 slow to anger and of great mercy. For the revelation 
 of Science, we are told, is this : that the weakest goes 
 to the wall by the stern law of the survival of the 
 fittest ; that there is no provision of pity and kindness 
 for those that are unable to take care of their own 
 interests ; and that, in fact, the whole Universe is 
 a vast inquisition-chamber in which there is little but 
 slaughter and agony with intervals of joy and gladness. 
 And though it is easy to exaggerate the element of 
 suffering which undoubtedly exists in the world among 
 all the ranks and races of living things, by introducing 
 an imaginative element into the argument without 
 knowing it, and ascribing to the brute creation our own 
 keen susceptibility to, and anticipation of, pain and 
 anguish, still there is enough validity in this objection, 
 arising as it does out of the sympathetic side of our 
 nature, to make it worth our while to deal with it. For 
 though it be a true difficulty, and will always make a 
 demand on our faith and trust in its contemplation, 
 it is yet by no means so hopeless as many nowadays 
 seem to find it. 
 
 Let it be freely granted that the theory of the 
 survival of the fittest, with its tremendous waste of life 
 and its terrible infliction of suffering, has emphasised 
 the difficulty felt of old in this direction. But if so, it 
 has also shed a ray of light on the very darkest spot 
 of the difficulty. For what was the most trying point 
 of the problem ? It used to be this — that there did 
 not seem to be any beneficent purpose in this terrible 
 infliction of pain on the brute creation. On the old- 
 fashioned belief that all creative processes came to an 
 end with the birth of Man, no one seemed able to 
 suggest a purpose sufficiently plausible to account for 
 so sad ^ fact. But with the theory of Pescent^ while 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 249 
 
 the mystery was made worse in so far that a clearer 
 vision is obtained of the amount and possibly of the 
 intensity of suffering in the world, while we were 
 appalled to think of the seemingly cruel waste of life 
 that stains the onward march of the generations, at 
 the same time (and for the first time in the history of 
 Science) a clear line of purpose is seen to run along 
 the line of suffering. For it has been shown as an 
 essential part of the theory in question that the " waste " 
 of life leads to a beneficent end. It has had the result 
 of conserving and improving life itself It has led to 
 the introduction of higher forms of life. It is the 
 blood-stained pathway making possible that upward 
 march which has reached to Man's coming into the 
 world. And so we now see that the infliction of 
 suffering was by no means without purpose or result. 
 In the very phrase "the survival of the fittest" we 
 have a glimpse of the beneficent end towards which 
 this dreadful " groaning and travailing of the creation 
 until now" was all the while tending. So we are at 
 least indebted to physical Science for removing one 
 of the most serious stumbling-blocks in the path of 
 faith, by showing that the most perplexing fact in 
 Nature is one of the conditions by means of which God 
 has been leading His creation upward and onward 
 towards its high goal and destiny.^ 
 
 ' "This 'survival of the fittest' is what Darwin termed 
 ' natural selection/ because it leads to the same results in nature 
 as are produced by man's selection among domestic animals and 
 cultivated plants. Its primary effect will, clearly, be to keep each 
 species in the most perfect health and vigour, with every part of 
 its organisation in full harmony with the conditions of its existence. 
 It prevents any possible deterioration in the organic world, and pro- 
 duces that appearance of exuberant life and enjoyment, of health 
 and beauty, that affords us so much pleasure, and which might lead 
 a superficial observer to suppose that peace and quietude reigned 
 throughout nature " (Wallace's " Darwinism," p. 103). 
 
250 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 The same line of thought will greatly help us to 
 understand why a new departure has been taken by God 
 in His treatment of Fallen Man as compared with His 
 treatment of the lower creatures who have degenerated 
 into a lower plane of existence. Because Man is the 
 ideal end towards which the lower creation has been 
 moving — an end which had no sooner been reached 
 than it was disturbed and threatened with ruin through 
 sin — there is nothing incongruous in the idea that God 
 should, in order to bring things back to their true line 
 of development, incarnate Himself in a new and higher 
 sense in a human person, and so destroy the power of 
 evil and open up the way to a still higher Evolution of 
 character. Once grant the fact that God had a purpose 
 in creation, and that this purpose was to lead to Man 
 as its earthly fulfilment, we are bound, if we believe in 
 God at all, to believe that He would not allow it to be 
 all lost by Man's transgression, without doing what He 
 could — apart from interfering with Man's freewill — to 
 redeem him from its shame and tyranny, so that the 
 interrupted course of His purpose might be resumed. 
 
 This is exactly what the Christian Theology repre- 
 sents as God's end in the Incarnation and Resurrection. 
 It is, in a sense, a Divinely spontaneous scheme for the 
 re-habilitation of the Fallen Creation — for in the Fall 
 of Man the whole Creation fell, since all its upward 
 strivings were thereby for the time made of no avail. 
 It was in another sense the Divine answer to the prayer 
 of Fallen Humanity for help to rise again — for evil, 
 though it had stunted and threatened to kill all good in 
 Man, had not quite done so. Still the redemption must 
 come in the first instance from God ; for Man had lost the 
 power to rise independently of God's assistance ; indeed, 
 since his lapse into sin he had largely lost the conscious- 
 ness of the Divine presence through which alone he 
 
Chap. I Some Modem Difficulties 251 
 
 could further develop. Redemption, in other words, 
 could no longer come primarily through the ascent of 
 Man to God, but mediatelyy through the descent of God 
 to Man. And so there is in Hebrew prophecy, and in 
 the strain of sacred bard and poet, an earnest expecta- 
 tion of Some One to come, who should be a starting- 
 point of a new life in God — an expectation fulfilled in 
 the coming of Jesus Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 We must consider another difficulty which has been 
 raised on the question of the Incarnation — not that it 
 is really a formidable one, but it has been brought 
 forward several times recently by representative men of 
 Science, and must therefore be one that is really felt by 
 them as a barrier to the acceptance of the Christian 
 position. 
 
 This has to do, strange to say, with a discovery 
 which is by no means a recent one, but which has been 
 the occasion of suggesting it, so far as we are aware, 
 only in very recent times. One would think that the 
 bearings of the Copernican system of Astronomy must 
 have long since been realised in their entirety, at least in 
 so far as they relate to Theology. But this does not seem 
 to have been the case, if we are to judge from many utter- 
 ances on the subject from recent scientific thinkers. They 
 assume that Christian theology is absolutely — as we may 
 freely allow, because of the historical conditions of the 
 case, it was incidentally — based on an essentially geo- 
 centric system of thought, and cannot for that reason 
 be any longer accepted. So long as the earth was 
 believed to be the centre of creation, it was reasonable 
 enough to imagine that even for the outcast race of men 
 God should live a human life and die a human death. 
 
252 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 But since it has been discovered that, so far from being 
 the centre of creation, it is but a very small and insig- 
 nificant planet, it is not reasonable — we are told — to 
 suppose that the Eternal should leave His courses 
 among the stars and incarnate Himself in a human body 
 for the purpose of rescuing that race from perdition. 
 Such an idea savours of that self-important and exalted 
 notion of himself that Man has ever been too prone to 
 form.^ 
 
 In facing this difficulty it is, to begin with, by no 
 means true that Science has interfered with Man's 
 notion of his supreme position in the order of creation. 
 We have already shown that Science has clarified 
 this sense of self-importance by defining its nature and 
 limits more exactly ; establishing it on a basis of 
 scientific certainty, instead of a ground of empirical 
 observation or of sentimental feeling. There is therefore 
 no reason for Man to feel any fresh access of modesty 
 in considering his relationship with the creation generally, 
 nor to find any new difficulty of a religious kind in that 
 direction. 
 
 It is clear that there must be some other reason for 
 
 * It is startling to find in Dr. Pfleiderer's "Gifford Lectures" for 
 1894 the following statement of the same fact. Speaking of the 
 " new scholasticism " consequent on the return of Protestant theology 
 after the Renaissance to the "old Dogmas," he says: "Yet these 
 partially retrograde currents could not keep back the new advance 
 of non-theological secular science which had proceeded from the 
 impetus of the Renaissance. While the theologians were still 
 busily employed in the Churches in restoring the old dogmas which 
 had been built up on the basis of the Ptolemaic cosmology, and 
 which fitted only into its framework, this cosmology was destroyed 
 by Copernicus and supplemented by the new view of the world 
 which stands in utter contradiction to the whole of the system of the 
 ecclesiastical dogmatics, from the creation to the coming of Christ 
 and His Return again, as was clearly recognised by Melancthon 
 much more acutely than by all his later followers " (" Philosophy 
 and Development of Religion," by Otto Pfleiderer, D.D., being the 
 
 Gifford Lectures" for 1894, Vol. I., p. 76). 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 253 
 
 rejecting the Christian conception of God, before such a 
 point could be raised at all. The objection would apply 
 only to the notion of a Deity who was devoid of all 
 the finest and highest attributes that are ascribed to 
 Him in the Bible. Especially irrelevant are such objec- 
 tions in view of the revelation of the character of God 
 the Father in the parables of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 To any one who believes the teaching enshrined in these 
 glowing idylls of Divine love and goodness, the notion 
 that the mere place of residence of a race would be a 
 consideration in the mind of God in determining or 
 hindering His saving purpose towards them seems inex- 
 pressibly paltry. It is certainly entirely at variance with 
 the teachings of Him who said that His purpose was, 
 not to save the high and the mighty only, but also the 
 outcast and the despised ; and who left the palaces for 
 the streets of Jerusalem, and consorted with publicans 
 and sinners — not because He was one of themselves, but 
 because He wished to show them that they were of 
 equal value to the heart of God as were those clothed 
 in fine raiment, and who fared sumptuously every day. 
 Take the parable of the Lost Sheep, and consider for 
 a moment what it teaches us, by suggestion, of the 
 character of God. If this parable is true, it must mean 
 that God regards His creatures, not from the standpoint 
 of the inherent or attained nobility of their nature, but 
 from their moral standing and their need of Himself 
 It must mean that if all the countless suns which had 
 from the beginning of time kindled their fires at the 
 central glory were all bright and glorious still, and that 
 but one small satellite had broken loose from its 
 celestial moorings, and was plunging into wastes of 
 eternal death, then God would, so to speak, leave all, 
 that He might bring back the wandering planet to its 
 allegiance. It must mean that though every other star 
 
254 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 were peopled with bright beings who had never sinned 
 and so had never suffered, and that on this little earth 
 alone a rebel race existed, the great Heart to whose 
 throbs the Universe keeps in tune would never rest till 
 it had done all that Divine love could do to bring that 
 race back to Himself. It must mean that though every 
 star in the sky were peopled with sinful creatures, Christ 
 the Son would make Himself poor for their sakes, 
 would become Man, would suffer and die, in every one 
 of them, rather than permit one of these creatures to 
 perish for want of a Saviour. It is not the astronomical 
 position of a world that measures God's care for it — if 
 the teaching of Jesus is true; and it is not the moral 
 perfection, but the possibilities of moral perfection in a 
 race, that makes Him willing to suffer for it. Has a 
 planet wandered ? Has a soul fallen ? Are there in 
 the farthest corner of His creation beings that need 
 salvation ? Then God is there, if the Gospel of Jesus 
 is true, as though He were nowhere else ; His lave and 
 pity are concentrated from the four quarters of the sky 
 in one burning focus on that sin-darkened spot. The 
 heart of God is where want and weakness are, and 
 sorrow and shame that cry for deliverance and pardon, 
 and dying creatures that hold up hands of appeal for 
 pity and help. God is where Love is, and Love is where 
 her help is most sorely needed. 
 
 Ill 
 
 There is one other difficulty that remains to be 
 considered — to many the most serious difficulty of 
 all — in the way of accepting the fact of the Incarnation. 
 This refers to the historical form in which that supreme 
 event took place. From the earliest Christian times 
 it has been held that the ordinary laws of generation 
 
Chap. I Some Modem Difficulties 255 
 
 were partially suspended in the coming of Jesus Christ 
 into the world, and that He was born of a virgin 
 mother. This belief, which has prevailed unbrokenly 
 among Christian thinkers through the generations, 
 constitutes so serious a break in the sequence of history, 
 and in the vital series, that it is an insurmountable 
 barrier in the path of many religious Evolutionists to 
 the acceptance of the fact. It would be well for us, 
 however, to remember that the difficulty did not emerge 
 for the first time with the prevalence of the Evolutionary 
 Theory, but has been inherited from the times of the 
 German Rationalists, who found in this miracle, even 
 more than in others, a barrier to belief in Christianity. 
 But the objections raised by these older thinkers are 
 still felt, and to the historical is added the physiological 
 objection. Let us briefly glance at these in order. 
 
 I. The narratives in Matthew and Luke ^ which tell 
 of the Virgin Birth of the Saviour present problems 
 peculiarly intricate and difficult of solution, so much 
 so indeed that some writers, such as Schleiermacher and 
 Keim, who have found it impossible to set aside the 
 authenticity of many of the later miracles owing to the 
 force of the evidence in their favour, found themselves 
 constrained to reject these narratives as statements 
 of fact. The chief difficulties may be summarised in 
 this way : only two of the Gospels contain any 
 reference whatever to the Virgin Birth, and there is 
 no other unequivocal reference to the event in the 
 whole of the New Testament ; these two narratives 
 are inconsistent with each other ; they are flatly con- 
 tradicted by the pedigrees which are associated with 
 them ; ^ the event is interwoven with elements of the 
 marvellous which inevitably suggest a mythical origin ; 
 
 * Matt. i. 18 — ii. 23; Luke i. i — ii. 40. 
 
 ^ The clause in Luke iii. 23, "as was supposed/* must on this 
 
256 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 the alleged Massacre of the Innocents detailed by 
 Matthew is most improbable, contemporary writers 
 being quite silent on the subject ; the story, in Matthew 
 at least, is apparently the result of a desire to give 
 prophecy a literal fulfilment; and it is unnecessary 
 to a firm belief in the essential reality of the Incarnation. 
 Some of these objections vanish with a little careful 
 examination. On any reasonable view of Inspiration, 
 it is not necessary that parallel accounts of the same 
 event should square in every detail in order to substan- 
 tiate the central fact. Granted that it is not possible 
 to make the two accounts of the event in question 
 harmonise in certain points, the discrepancies are not 
 incompatible with substantial historicity. They are 
 clearly drawn from diverse and independent sources. 
 It is probable that the original writer of each version 
 was ignorant of the existence of the other version. 
 That in Matthew is not improbably incorporated from 
 a document representing Joseph's testimony to the 
 fact ; ^ that in Luke from a document or an oral tradition 
 derived in the first instance from Mary herself. Each 
 gave a personal, but by no means complete, account of 
 the incident ; and each account must be supplemented 
 by the other in order to obtain a full and circumstantial 
 statement. The objection, therefore, that Matthew seems 
 to know nothing of the fact that Joseph and Mary had 
 been living at Nazareth before going to Bethlehem, 
 and that Luke is quite oblivious of the Massacre and 
 
 theory be considered an interpolation by some harmonising scribe. 
 It is significant, however, that Meyer, who seems to reject the 
 historicity of the Virgin Birth, says with regard to the various 
 readings of this verse, that they are "not so well attested as to 
 warrant a departure from the Received Text," so that the words 
 must be considered a genuine part of Luke's narrative. 
 
 ^ Gore's " Dissertations on Subjects Connected with the Incarna- 
 tion," p. 28. 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 257 
 
 the Flight, is therefore of little value.^ As to the 
 genealogies, they may well have been survivals of the 
 time before the Virgin Birth was known to any but 
 the few who were aware of it from the first. Keim's 
 remark that " they could only have been devised by 
 their original authors in the belief that Jesus was 
 Joseph's son" may have been true, but when he goes 
 on to say that this suffices in itself to discredit the story 
 of the Miraculous Conception, and that the narratives 
 "could be watered down by the later compilers to 
 the notion of a sonship from Mary alone, and fosterson- 
 ship to Joseph, only by doing the most palpable violence 
 not only to the essential form of Jewish pedigree which 
 is dependent on the names of men, but the still more 
 fundamental thought which underlies documents value- 
 less except they demonstrate a blood-relationship to 
 the father,"^ he is met by the simple fact that these 
 final compilers clearly felt no such incompatibility 
 with Jewish usage, otherwise they could never have 
 allowed the pedigrees to stand as a living contradiction 
 to that theory of the true Virgin Birth of our Lord 
 which they were recording. As to the angel appear- 
 ances, it may be said that if they present an insuperable 
 difficulty to any one, he is at liberty to account for 
 them as an imaginative materialisation of what may 
 have been in reality but inward communications, and 
 this without in any way destroying the reality of the 
 historical foundation. " The truth of the inward intima- 
 tion was, on the hypothesis, proved by the subsequent 
 facts : its form was recorded as it presented itself to 
 the subject." ^ Considering, however, the place taken 
 
 * Gore, " Dissertations," p. 37. 
 ' "Jesus of Nazara," II. p. 41. 
 
 ^ Gore, " Dissertations," p. 23, whose treatment of this point 
 should be carefully pondered by those who feel the difQculty. 
 
 17 
 
258 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 by these angelic appearances in the subsequent Gospel 
 narrative/ and the character of the references made 
 by our Lord Himself to the ministry of angels/ there 
 are probably few who will find it necessary to take 
 refuge in this theory of subjective visions as the only 
 credible explanation of the facts. The fact that no 
 other reference is made in contemporary history to 
 the Massacre of the Innocents as recorded by Matthew 
 is of little significance, in view of the very scattered 
 and fragmentary character of the national annals of 
 the times; and the story at least chimes in most 
 harmoniously with the known reputation of Herod for 
 boundless cruelty, and for that unreasoning jealousy 
 which characterised him of rival claimants, real or 
 supposed, to the throne which he so insecurely held. 
 
 The affirmation confidently made by Keim and others 
 that the New Testament contains no other reference to 
 the stupendous fact of the Virgin Birth than these in the 
 early narratives of Matthew and Luke, deserves a little 
 more careful treatment. That the earliest form of the 
 oral, and possibly that of the written. Gospel were quite 
 silent on the matter, is highly probable ; it may be said 
 without exaggeration that the references to the parentage 
 of Joseph prove incontestably that our Lord's closest 
 friends believed during his lifetime that he was His 
 real father.^ This fact, however, only shows that the 
 miraculous birth was not made known during our Lord's 
 
 * Matt. iv. II, xxvi. 53 ; Luke xxii. 43 ; John i. 51. 
 
 ' Matt. xiii. 39, xvi. 27, xviii. 10, xxiv. 31, xxv. 31, etc. 
 
 ' Matt. xiii. 55 ; Luke iv. 22. Gore's inference (" Dissert.," p. 7), 
 from the fact that Mark in the corresponding passage suppresses 
 the reference to Joseph, that the Petrine Evangelist " showed an 
 unwillingness to suggest — even in the surprised questioning of the 
 Jews — the proper parentage of Joseph," seems to us forced and 
 unreal. This difference is surely fully accounted for when we 
 remember the terse and laconic style of this Evangelist as com- 
 pared with that of the others. See Mark vi. 2, 3. The same 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 259 
 
 lifetime by those acquainted with its occurrence. Is this 
 a matter for surprise ? The event took place away from 
 home and among strangers ; the few who were made aware 
 of it through the portents accompanying the birth were 
 soon scattered far and wide, and the two most nearly con- 
 cerned had good reason to keep the matter quiet, in their 
 little one's interests as well as their own. When we 
 consider the kind of comment which would have been 
 made by social opinion, if the fact had been prematurely 
 divulged, we need not be perplexed at the continued and 
 very natural reticence of Joseph and Mary. Even when, 
 long afterwards, the fact began to be preached abroad, it 
 led to coarse and shameful slander, lasting even into the 
 second century. ^ It was not till after the Exaltation 
 of our Lord that the proper atmosphere for the accept- 
 ance of the mystery had penetrated even the Christian 
 Church ; and what we know of the modest and retiring 
 character of the Virgin makes it certain that she would 
 have shrunk from making any premature reference to 
 the fact till the right time for its divulgence had clearly 
 arrived. - It was a part of the Divine plan that the 
 Deity of Jesus should be discovered to the world, and 
 even to the Church, by the gradual unfolding of His 
 personality and saving power, and not by merely out- 
 ward signs. What first impressed the disciples was 
 
 impression is borne out by the many passages in which the astonish- 
 ment of the multitude is expressed at our Lord's teaching, and by 
 the disciples at His miracles, which could hardly have been felt if His 
 Divine parentage had been suspected. 
 
 * See references in Gore's " Dissertations," pp. 6, 7 (footnote). 
 
 ' A comparison between the two narratives of the Nativity makes 
 it clear that the Virgin had shrunk from even acquainting Joseph 
 with her condition — unless indeed we infer from Matt. i. 18, 19, 
 that a fresh revelation of the fact was necessary to force conviction 
 even into the mind of so good a man as Joseph. In this case it was 
 still more natural that the Virgin should have kept the mystery from 
 others. These considerations dispose effectually of Keim's remarks 
 (II. 72), and of Meyer's comments (Mark, Luke; II. 293). 
 
26o The Ascent through Christ Book IJ 
 
 the reality and beauty of His Humanity ; ^ His unique 
 relation to the Father only dawned on the closest of 
 His friends towards the end of His ministry,^ and even 
 then He charged them to " tell no man that thing." ^ 
 During all these years Mary would keep her precious 
 secret hidden in her heart ; and not till she was sure 
 of reverential credence would she entrust so Divine a 
 fact into the safe-keeping of the infant Church. 
 
 But the assertion of ignorance on the part of John 
 and Paul is really a begging of the whole question. 
 The fourth Evangelist, it is almost certain, had the other 
 Gospels before him when he wrote his own ; it was not 
 in his programme to dwell on incidents already fully 
 developed in the earlier accounts ; he built on their 
 foundation ; and there is not a word in his Gospel out 
 of harmony with the alleged fact, but on the contrary 
 much that supplements it, and gives the story an air of 
 reality which, apart from his treatment of the Incarna- 
 tion, would have made it very difficult of credence. 
 They deal with the event sub specie temporis ; he, sub 
 specie aeternitatis ; and the two aspects correspond each 
 to the other as body and soul. The same remarks 
 apply with a difference to the Pauline teaching. Paul's 
 Epistles contain distinct allusions to the prior existence 
 of the Saviour,* and these allusions are entirely con- 
 
 * Cf. Fairbairn, " Christ in Modern Theology," p. 354 : " But what 
 to the EvangeHsts did incarnation mean ? It meant the coming to 
 be not of a Godhead, but of a manhood. Its specific result was a 
 human, not a Divine, person, whose humanity was all the more real 
 that it was voluntary or spontaneous, all the more natural that God 
 rather than man had to do with its making. To the Evangelists the 
 most miraculous thing in Christ was His determination not to be 
 miraculous, but to live our ordinary life amidst struggles and in the 
 face of temptations that never ceased (Luke iv. 3, xxii. 28)." 
 
 ' Matt. xiv. 33, xvi. 16. 
 ' Luke ix. 21. 
 
 * I Cor. XV. 47 ; Phil. ii. 6. So the author of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews; see i. 2. 
 
Chap. 1 Some Modern Difficulties 261 
 
 sistent with the hypothesis that he was as clearly 
 acquainted with the Virgin Birth as he certainly was 
 with that body of Evangelic narrative which, unquestion- 
 ably, is ever in the background of his teaching, but to 
 which he makes no distinct and unmistakable reference. 
 Further, his doctrine of the Second Adam, "the Lord 
 from heaven,"^ postulates His humanity as a new 
 creative act of God, parallel with the creation of the 
 First Adam, and marking a spiritual start for the race.^ 
 The argument from silence, always tricky and unstable, 
 is in this case specially discounted by the fact that the 
 apostle was writing to those who had been well grounded 
 in the facts and teaching of the Gospel, so that it was 
 quite needless to remind them of what had been 
 thoroughly known to them "from the beginning." 
 
 2. Behind the historical comes the physiological pro- 
 blem. That in one and in only one instance in human 
 history the ordinary laws of generation should have 
 been suspended makes a difficulty which, as has already 
 been hinted, is apt to press with peculiar emphasis on 
 the minds in the present age, filled as it is with the sense 
 of the invariable order of Nature, and of the impossibility 
 of imagining such an event as the Virgin Birth. Here, 
 if anywhere, the word " miracle " is apt to spell " monster," 
 for it is apparently out of line with the unchangeable 
 laws through which the Creator works. However, there- 
 fore, we may dispose of objections to the historicity of 
 the narrative, and solve the problems which it unques- 
 tionably contains for the expositor, we are confronted 
 with this prior and still more stubborn difficulty in 
 the physical sphere. It is probable that the weight of 
 this difficulty accounts for not a few of the alleged 
 historical objections drawn from the character of the 
 
 1 See Gore, I.e., p. ii ^ i Cor, xv. 45-49; Rom. v. 15-21. 
 
262 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 narrative, or at least for the pressure which these have 
 exerted over many minds. 
 
 In dealing with this aspect of the question, it is well 
 to point out that the laws of biology do not preclude 
 such an occurrence as this under consideration, in the 
 emphatic way which has been taken for granted. The 
 deeper the laws of life are studied, and their infinite 
 complexity and instability are borne in mind, the less 
 reason is there to look at this event as absolutely im- 
 possible even from a physiological point of view. The 
 mysterious fact oi parthe7iogenesis is widespread in the 
 lower orders of Nature, where it is characteristic of whole 
 orders of creatures, while it occurs in other orders 
 occasionally and sporadically ; and it is a somewhat 
 startling commentary on the scorn which some scientists 
 have poured on this story, to find so eminent a biological 
 authority as Prof. G. J. Romanes, at a period in his life 
 when he would probably have classed himself among 
 reverent Agnostics rather than among devout believers, 
 affirming that such an occurrence, even in the human 
 race, would be by no means out of the range of possi- 
 bility.^ To those who find in the physiological question 
 a final barrier to the acceptance of the Virgin Birth, 
 this testimony will possibly be welcome. It is doubtful, 
 
 ^ "Darwin and After Darwin," p. 119 (footnote). "It has been 
 already stated that both parthenogenesis and gemmation are ulti- 
 mately derived from sexual reproduction. It may now be added, on 
 the other hand, that the earlier stages of parthenogenesis have been 
 observed to occur sporadically in all sub-kingdoms of the Metazoa, 
 including the Vertebrata, and even the highest class, the Mammalia. 
 These earlier stages consist in spontaneous segmentations of the 
 ovum ; so that even if a virgin has ever conceived and borne a son, 
 and even if such a fact in the human species has been unique, still 
 it would not betoken any breach of physiological continuity. 
 Indeed, according to Weismann's not improbable hypothesis 
 touching the meaning of polar bodies, such a fact need betoken 
 nothing more than a slight disturbance of the complex machinery of 
 ovulation, on account of which the ovum failed to eliminate from its 
 substance an almost inconceivably minute portion of its nucleus." 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 263 
 
 however, whether it touches the real point at issue, 
 for it would simply bring the event into the category 
 of the unusual and abnormal, without suggesting that 
 it has any spiritual significance of its own. The deeper 
 question would yet remain, why the Incarnation should 
 have been consummated in this way and not under 
 the ordinary laws of generation, a question which must 
 remain unanswered unless far higher considerations 
 are brought in. For in this case, as in the case of 
 all the Gospel miracles, what makes it believable 
 is something more than mere physical plausibility. 
 Miracles must ever remain " monstrous " occurrences, 
 unless they can be shown to have been wrought under 
 the dominance of spiritual laws — laws which necessitate, 
 and, at the same time, condition them. The way, there- 
 fore, to make the miraculous birth of Jesus credible 
 lies along another plane of thought than that which 
 demonstrates its physiological possibility. The real 
 question may be thus put — was it essential that it 
 should have taken place in the way it did, and not in 
 another ? In other words, what is the relation between 
 the doctrine of the Incarnation and the fact of the 
 Virgin Birth ? Is the one a help to the acceptance of 
 the other? That this is so will, we think, be clear if 
 the following considerations are borne in mind : — 
 
 I. The ordinary process of generation inevitably 
 suggests the beginning of a new personality. Ex 
 hypothesis this was not so with the Saviour ; for any 
 real doctrine of the Incarnation postulates that prior 
 existence which, according to St. John, He Himself 
 distinctly claimed on more than one occasion,^ and 
 which is clearly implied, as we have seen, in the 
 writings of St Paul. That the Divine Word might 
 have been incarnated along the full line of human 
 * John viii. 58, xvii. 5, 24. 
 
264 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 generation is, of course, obvious. " With God all things 
 are possible." But should we in that case have been 
 able to grasp, as a living truth, the fact that there was 
 in the Man Christ Jesus an enribodiment of the Eternal 
 Nature sui generis ^ altogether different in kind from 
 the process by which God revealed Himself through 
 good men ? Have those who would spare this marvel 
 from the Evangelic narrative, while clinging still to a 
 real doctrine of the Incarnation, rightly gauged their 
 indebtedness to the narrative for their belief in the 
 doctrine ? That the unique method of the Incarnation 
 harmonises with its unique character as the most 
 marvellous as well as the most beautiful fact in human 
 history is surely most clear ; the one is the natural 
 complement of the other. By way of illustrating this 
 fact, it may be pointed out that a denial of the physical 
 fact almost always results, either in a denial of the 
 truth of which it is the counterpart, or in a theory of 
 the Incarnation which is partial and halting ; and, 
 conversely, it is to be noted that, as a rule, where the 
 Incarnation is heartily believed in, the Virgin Birth 
 presents no particular difficulty, but, on the other hand, 
 becomes full of meaning. It is significant that among 
 the earliest Christian writers there are no believers 
 in the Incarnation who are not also believers in 
 the Virgin Birth ; and this, with certain striking 
 exceptions, is also true of the latest writers on the 
 subject. It is, for instance, impossible not to be im- 
 pressed with this in Keim's treatment of the question, 
 and to note how the almost scornful attitude he takes 
 up towards the doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ 
 colours his whole outlook on the narrative of the Birth,^ 
 and it would be easy to point out the same fact in 
 the case of other thinkers. 
 
 » "Jesus of Nazara," II. 55-57. 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 265 
 
 2. The Virgin Birth also fits in with the doctrine of 
 the sinlessness of Jesus Christ. There are certain recent 
 writers, chiefest among whom perhaps is the fine thinker 
 just mentioned^ (following here, as he so often does, 
 Schleiermacher,^ and in turn being followed by Dr. E. 
 A. Abbott^), who cling to the moral miracle while 
 rejecting the physical. Schleiermacher, for instance, 
 says that the birth from a virgin is of no importance 
 to faith, but is at most a matter of fact depending on 
 the trustworthiness of the Gospels. This view is 
 opposed to the angel's message to Mary, who brings 
 the two ideas into their logical relation in the words 
 of the Annunciation : " The Holy Ghost shall come 
 upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall over- 
 shadow thee : WHEREFORE also that which is to be born 
 SHALL BE CALLED HOLY." * And it is equally opposed 
 to the laws of heredity that any one born into the full 
 solidarity of the race should be free from the initial 
 taint of evil ; and though the moral miracle of the 
 Incarnation might have been consummated in spite of 
 these or any other natural laws, it is more than doubtful 
 if it would have been believable to the human under- 
 standing. It is not without significance that Dr. 
 Martineau, in clear opposition to his own earlier view 
 and to that of the older Socinians, began by first deny- 
 ing the Virgin Birth, afterwards surrendering his belief 
 in the sinless life.^ Here again the doctrine and the 
 fact prove their close and essential kinship. 
 
 3. Once more, the Virgin Birth harmonises with the 
 
 ^ Keim, "Jesus of Nazara," II. 63. 
 
 * "Der Christliche Glaube," II., pp. 67, 84, 85 : cf. Bruce's "Mira- 
 culous Element in the Gospels," p. 352. 
 
 ' " Onesimus," Book HI., § 7. 
 
 * Luke i. 35. 
 
 * "Seat of Authority in Religion," p. 651 : ct. Bruce's "Apolo- 
 getics," p. 410. 
 
266 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 unquestionable fact that the person and work of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ was a new departure in human life and 
 history. He is called the Second Adam, i.e. the start- 
 ing-point, as has already been suggested, of the New 
 Humanity, whose differentia is a spiritual vitality before 
 undreamt of, and a power of victory over evil hitherto 
 unparalleled. Just as the race on its lower side is bound 
 in a mysterious kinship of evil with the First Parent 
 of the race, so is the New Humanity bound into a 
 spiritual kinship of holiness with the New Man from 
 heaven, who gives to such as receive of His Spirit a 
 profound " moral reconstruction " which is but the trans- 
 mitted quality of His own life. St. Paul's exposition 
 of this truth inevitably suggests that the same creative 
 power which started the first law of solidarity was 
 similarly at work in the second, and that in the relation- 
 ship of Christ and His people we have a counterpart 
 of that by which we are linked with " Adam," who in 
 his argument stands for the principle of moral solidarity 
 in the race. That this fresh beginning in the career of 
 humanity has been made is in itself a miracle. There 
 were no indications that such a fact was possible by 
 means of the " resident forces " of the human heart — 
 using the word " resident " in the restricted sense ; such 
 an impulse must come from the spiritual environment 
 acting on the soul, that is, by the descent of " power 
 from on high." The Incarnation was the channel along 
 which this power broke into the exhausted soil of 
 humanity, and fructified it, and " made all things new." 
 It was in keeping with the miraculous character of this 
 process that it should have a counterpart in the physical 
 sphere which was equally miraculous ; and as both facts 
 equally demand a belief in the supernatural, if the 
 spiritual miracle be conceded, enough has been said to 
 make the physical not only credible in itself, but truly 
 
Chap. I Some Modern Difficulties 267 
 
 helpful though of course not essential to the full 
 apprehension of the other. 
 
 4. There is still another aspect from which the Virgin 
 Birth gives help to faith. One of the ever-recurrent diffi- 
 culties felt in forming a theory of the Person of Christ 
 arises from what is called the "union of natures." In 
 what manner were the Divine and human elements inter- 
 woven in the " Person " of the Saviour ? Did the fact 
 involve a " double consciousness " ? How was the unity of 
 the Person maintained in spite of the union of natures ? 
 
 On the basis of a completely human birth, we do not 
 seem able to throw much light on this difficulty. It 
 gives us no help, but rather imposes a barrier, to its 
 elucidation. How, and when, and where, and in what 
 sense the Divine element was joined with the already 
 perfect human personality must, on the hypothesis of 
 His ordinary generation, remain an insoluble mystery ; 
 and just as we have seen that there is a tendency on 
 the part of those who deny the Virgin Birth to lose 
 their belief in the sinlessness of Jesus, so there is a 
 marked tendency on their part to drift into using the 
 word " divinity " as applied to Him in a purely figurative 
 sense, and to mean by it only that Jesus was filled 
 perfectly with the sense of the Divine Fatherhood — as 
 we all ought to be, but are not. For on this hypothesis, 
 the Divine element in Him was either something super- 
 added to the already complete human personality, or it 
 consisted merely in a heightening of the ordinary human 
 consciousness of God, and a more perfect fellowship of 
 spirit with Him. In the first case it is hard to retain a 
 clear and consistent belief in the essential unity of His 
 Person ; a tertium quid seems ever to slip in to perplex 
 us in our thought of Him. In the second case, His 
 Divinity is in peril, for it would consist simply in a 
 more perfect spiritual humanity than we possess. 
 
268 The Ascent through Christ Bookll 
 
 On the basis, however, of the supernatural birth, this 
 difficulty is minimised, and we are freed from both 
 horns of the dilemma. According to this, the individual 
 life of Jesus began by a special act of God : His 
 humanity was as miraculously brought about as His 
 Divinity. The human nature, in other words, was the 
 mould in which the Divine nature historically appeared ; 
 the pre-existent Logos took shape in a human person, 
 realised itself under the limitation of human faculties 
 and relations, and submitted itself to the narrow re- 
 strictions of physical conditions. Jesus was thus in- 
 finitely remote from us, in that the essence of His 
 personality was Divine ; He was infinitely near to us, 
 in that He lived our life, fought our spiritual battles, 
 bore our sins and our sorrows, was a Man in all that 
 makes human experience and suffering, and died our 
 death. He was " God manifest in the flesh." This 
 view makes it easier for us to avoid the confusion of 
 thought and feeling in which the union of the Divine 
 and Human in Christ has ever tended to involve all 
 theological speculations as to the Person of the Redeemer. 
 Such a view chimes in with the Scriptural account of 
 His birth ; while on the contrary theory we are left 
 in perpetual uncertainty as to the reality and extent 
 of His difference from us, as well as His identity with 
 us, as human beings.^ 
 
 ^ This point is ably worked out in Clarke's " Outline of Christian 
 Theology," where the position is thus summarised : " This view 
 avoids all questions about double consciousness and will : it shows 
 a single personality, neither wholly divine nor wholly human in con- 
 sciousness and will, but partaking in both qualities ; it shows why 
 Jesus differed in consciousness from ordinary men, and why from 
 God unincarnate ; it relieves us of all question about His acting 
 now as God and now as man ; it makes His sinlessness seem 
 reasonable. It does not solve all the difficulties of the case, but 
 it solves more than other views, and corresponds reasonably well 
 to the conditions that we find in the Scriptures " (page 273). 
 
Chap. I Some Modem Difficulties 269 
 
 The right understanding of this great problem is thus 
 seen to depend on that " principle of accommodation " 
 which solves so many of the difficulties of Scripture. 
 We are accustomed to believe that the Incarnation was 
 for our sakes ; it would save us much trouble and self- 
 imposed difficulty if we remembered that ih^ method of 
 its accomplishment was also determined by our needs and 
 limitations. There are, indeed, many accessory and non- 
 essential elements in the method of Incarnation which 
 are due to the historical environment of the age in 
 which the event took place. The whole story is steeped 
 in Jewish ideas and preconceptions, through which, 
 however, the universal aspects of the mystery glow 
 with unmistakable radiance. That Jesus came into the 
 world as a Jew, bearing in every lineament the marks 
 of His race and time, may seem to us hard of compre- 
 hension when we think of Him as the Saviour of the 
 world, and the Son of the Highest ; still more so the 
 fact that He seemed to share in certain racial limitations 
 both in His ideas and in His conception of His ministry.^ 
 All these facts, however, when approached from the 
 point of view here suggested, only serve to show how 
 completely the Saviour entered into the historical con- 
 ditions of His mission, " descending into the lower parts 
 of the earth," and ensphering Himself completely, for 
 the better completion of His saving work, in the en- 
 vironal elements of His life on earth. For us all He 
 was " born of a woman " ; for the sake of His own 
 generation He was " born under the law, that He might 
 redeem them which were under the law, that we might 
 receive the adoption of sons." ^ It is of supreme import- 
 ance in studying any aspect of the Saviour's work on 
 
 ' John iv. 22 ; Matt. xv. 24. With these passages may be linked 
 those that suggest Jewish modes of thought, e.g. Luke vii. 9. 
 ? Gal. iv. 4, 5. 
 
270 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 earth to remember all this.^ It is only when we realise 
 the local and temporary side of that saving mission with 
 vividness, that we are able to rise through it into the 
 universal side which concerns all men of all lands and 
 ages. Those who do so are saved from much of the 
 perplexity felt at what may be termed the accidental 
 and non-essential conditions of the historical Incarnation. 
 
 ^ The account given in Acts i. 9- 11 of the Ascension becomes 
 historically credible from the same standpoint. It was of the 
 utmost importance that the Apostles and the infant Church should 
 be fully persuaded that the Lord Jesus had finally vanished into the 
 Unseen, and would no more visit His people, except through the 
 influence and power of His Holy Spirit. If He had simply dis- 
 appeared, as He had temporarily done before (Luke xxiv. 31), it 
 would have been hard for them to believe that He might not come 
 to them again, as He had to the disciples on their way to Emmaus 
 (Luke xxiv. 13-35) ^"^ on the shores of Gennesaret (Johnxxi, 1-24). 
 There would be imminent peril lest they should be interfered with 
 in the accomplishment of their proper work by such natural 
 longings and expectations. A visible Ascension into the clouds 
 unquestionably savours of the notion of a materialistic heaven 
 beyond the blue, and, so far, is entirely out of keeping with our 
 present conception of the spirit-world. It is difficult, however, if 
 not impossible, to imagine how the disciples could have been con- 
 vinced of His final and irrevocable disappearance from the scenes 
 of His earthly labours in any other way. Such an act of accom- 
 modation to the limited ideas of the time would at least be entirely 
 in keeping with His gentle and sympathetic dealings with the 
 mental limitations of His followers, and disposes of most of the 
 objections raised against the story of the Ascension. 
 
BOOK 11: EVOLUTION 
 AND THE INCARNATION 
 
 ^^ He was manifested to take away sins.' 
 (I John iii. 5.) 
 
 Chapter IL — The Purpose of the Incarnation 
 
 Two Views of the Incarnation — Incarnation antecedently probable 
 whether Evolutionary or Redemptive — Christ the Operative Power as 
 well as Archetype in Creation — The Incarnation historically a Redemptive 
 Process — Cur Deus Homo ? answered by John iii. 16 — Social as well as 
 Individual Salvation involved. 
 
 I 
 
 THERE are two views held as regards the Divine 
 motive behind the Incarnation, which may be 
 briefly termed (i) the Evolutionary, and (2) the 
 Redemptive or Soteriological. The former does not 
 exclude the latter ; the latter may, though not neces- 
 sarily, exclude the former. According to the first, 
 the Incarnation would have taken place apart from 
 the Fall, being in the direct line of God's eternal 
 purpose ; Man's true development depending on a 
 fuller and completer apprehension of, and communion 
 with, his Maker, which could be truly and finally gained 
 only through the medium of an Incarnation, According 
 to the latter view, the Incarnation was conditioned by 
 the Fall and by the Fall alone. 
 
 In one of his most striking sermons the late Dr. Dale 
 of Birmingham proclaims his faith in the former position 
 in these words : " The Incarnation was no afterthought ; 
 and that we should have eternal life and blessedness 
 in Christ — and not in ourselves — was no afterthought. 
 The Incarnation was no mere Divine expedient for 
 recovering us from the loss and ruin which had come 
 
 371 
 
272 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 upon us through our sin." ^ Elsewhere he says : " I 
 suppose that the consummate union between Man and 
 the Son of God would not have been possible apart 
 from the consummate union effected in the Incarnation 
 between the Son of God and Man." ^ The idea behind 
 these words is manifestly this — that had Man retained 
 his innocence when he arrived at the point of moral 
 and spiritual responsibility, he would not have been 
 able to realise the full possibilities of his nature without 
 some such manifestation of God as was given in the 
 coming of Christ to the world. Man being finite ; 
 his spiritual affinities being weak and in a sense 
 embryonic ; his soul being sense-bound, struggling 
 slowly upward, and unable to reach forth to God 
 without larger help than was furnished by the ordinary 
 channels of communication between him and his 
 Maker ; — all this made it necessary that the Incarnation 
 should take place at some time or other. For only 
 so could Man rise into a clear notion of God ; into 
 an intelligent apprehension of his relations to His 
 Maker ; into a spiritual grasp of the Universe as the 
 revelation not only of Law and Order but of the Divine 
 Character as well. It is not Man's sinfulness alone 
 that hinders this higher vision, but the natural limitation, 
 as well as the imperfect development, of his spiritual 
 faculties. There is in truth no reason for thinking that, 
 had he not sinned, he would have been able, by the 
 mere natural evolution of the powers implied in the 
 possession of a spiritual personality, to come to a 
 i complete knowledge of God. There was need, surely, 
 in the further development of a being of Man's nature, 
 for the stooping of God's heart in order to aid him, 
 as well as for the upward striving of the human towards 
 
 * " Fellowship with Christ, and other Sermons/' p. lo. 
 > Ibid., pp. 352, 353, 
 
Chap. II The Purpose of the Incarnation 273 
 
 the Divine. And as Man is the first created being 
 who has the faculty of forming and then aiming at 
 an ideal of conduct, it is in the line of probability that 
 God would in his case do that which He had not done 
 elsewhere — provide him with a concrete Ideal to 
 which he might conform.^ 
 
 This conception of the Incarnation finds a certain 
 support in the Christology of the New Testament, 
 especially in the writings of Paul and John. Both these 
 writers speak of the Son as the operative power in 
 Creation, as well as the Archetype of all things. "In 
 the beginning was the Word. . . . All things were made 
 by Him ; and without Him was not anything made that 
 hath been made." ^ " All things are from the Father, 
 and we unto Him ; all things are through the Son, and 
 we through Him." ^ The Father is the one and universal 
 source and end ; the Son is the one and universal 
 medium and actuating cause. Since creation is the 
 revelation of the eternal power and order of God 
 actualising itself in Time and Space, it was, in a sense, 
 an Incarnation of God through the Son. But it 
 was an impersonal Incarnation, if such a term is allow- 
 able ; and when Man appeared on earth, himself a 
 person, the process of Incarnation must rise into the 
 level of the new conditions, otherwise it would stop 
 short of its natural completion. From this point of 
 view, it is almost if not quite inconceivable that the 
 revealing process, started in the creation of matter, and 
 progressively carried on to ever higher results in the 
 ascending grades of life on earth, should have stopped 
 at Man. It is in him that the final possibilities of this 
 process are for the first time suggested ; he is a person, 
 
 1 See " The Nature of Christ," by William Marshall, pp. 30, 33, 
 with references to Calvin, Dale, and Fairbairn. 
 * John i. 1-3. * I Cor. viii. 6 (sense of passage). % 
 
 18 
 
274 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 he is self-conscious, he is a spiritual creature. There- 
 fore we might have expected that there would be a 
 higher Incarnation of God in Man than in; the lower 
 orders of creation, in accordance with the superior 
 possibilities of his nature. This Incarnation is of course 
 in one sense already existent in the very fact of Man's 
 presence on earth. He is in himself a revelation of 
 God. But his higher nature yearns for a more perfect 
 form of this revelation ; he cannot realise it for himself ; 
 he needs a revelation which shall be a communion of 
 spirit with spirit, of person with person. Thus, con- 
 verging from the two sides — the human and the Divine 
 — we find reasons for believing that the Incarnation is 
 a fact antecedently probable, even had no sin come 
 into the world. It would in that case have been 
 necessary in order to fill out and complete the imperfect 
 process of God's self-revelation, as well as the process of 
 Man's self-realisation. The impersonal revelation of law 
 is seen in its fulness in the broad fields of inorganic 
 and organic creation ; the perfect revelation of person- 
 ality is not seen till God appears in outward incarnate 
 form, and the Word is made flesh. And so we may say 
 with Dr. Fairbairn^ in his great work on "The Place 
 of Christ in Modern Theology " : — 
 
 " The Incarnation may be said to be the counterpart 
 in the field of history of the Godhead in the field of 
 thought. Through the Godhead we conceive Deity 
 as so existing and conditioned that the Incarnation 
 is possible ; through the Incarnation we conceive an 
 historical Person as so placed that He realises the 
 affinities of God and Man, and so constituted that He 
 brings them into organic relations." 
 
 » " God as interpreted by Christ the Determinative Principle in 
 Theology": see Div. III., chap, ii., § i (p. 471). 
 
Chap. II The Purpose of the Incarnation 275 
 
 II 
 
 But whether this be so or not, it is unquestionable that, 
 speaking from a historical and actual point of view, 
 the Incarnation took the form of a Redemptive process.^ 
 It is at least a thoroughly consistent and tenable view 
 that if Sin had not come into the world, God would 
 have become incarnate in the person of His Son. Even 
 though Man had continued to develop along the lines of 
 his highest nature, we may consistently believe that 
 Christ would have appeared in the flesh, in order that this 
 evolution might be made more sure and perfect. But as 
 Man did sin, it was inevitable that the fact of Incarnation 
 should affiliate itself to the notion of a renewal rather 
 than of a development of his nature. What might have 
 taken place if the Fall had not happened we have a 
 right at least to speculate. But when we have done 
 that, we have to fall back on the actual course of 
 events for our final and determinating position ; and, 
 when we do so, we cannot help seeing that the actual 
 and operative purpose of Christ's appearing was to 
 rescue Man from the power and consequences of his 
 sinfulness.* 
 
 ^ For an able treatment ot this question in its various bearings 
 see Orr's " Christian Conception of God and the World," pp. 319 if. 
 Dr. Orr says : " The Incarnation has, indeed, immediate reference 
 to Redemption ; but it has at the same time a wider scope " (p. 327). 
 It may be pointed out that among those who take the view advocated 
 by the present writer are Westcott (" The Gospel of Creation " 
 in his Commentary on the Epistles of John), Archbishop Trench 
 (•'University Sermons"), Rothe, Lange, Oosterzee, Martensen, 
 Ebrard, etc. 
 
 ' The following striking passage from Dr. Dale's " Fellowship with 
 Christ" illustrates the same truth: "It is true, indeed, that the 
 Incarnation itself is a Gospel, and a Gospel of infinite power and 
 glory. I suppose that the eternal Son of God would have become 
 man if man had never sinned, and had needed no redemption. A 
 theologian, therefore, who is constructing a theory of the ideal 
 relations between God and the human race — I might say between 
 
276 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 The Incarnation from this point of view is necessi- 
 tated by the very being and character of God. To 
 allow Man to miss the mark of his creation, to fall 
 short of his destiny, without doing what might be done 
 to ensure that this destiny be attained, would be a 
 confession of defeat on the part of God Himself; it 
 would mean either that He was not omnipotent, or 
 that He was morally indifferent to the highest interests 
 of His highest creature — neither of which alternatives 
 is credible. The whole creation would become a vast 
 anomaly and enigma if Man were to be hopelessly and 
 finally lost : for the Universe only becomes intelligible 
 in Man ; he is its coping-stone, its goal ; without him, 
 the whole history of the Past would lose its cohesion 
 and rational sequence. In order, therefore, that the 
 general system of things might not prove to be a 
 wreck, instead of a drama which has its developing 
 plot and its gradual culmination in a glorious and con- 
 vincing spiritual climax ; in order, if we may reverently 
 express it so, that the reasonableness of God's method 
 should be vindicated, — it was necessary that an out- 
 pouring of redemptive power should take place through 
 
 God and the Universe — will begin with the Incarnation ; and the 
 sufferings and death of Christ will appear in such a theory to be 
 among those incidents of the Incarnation which have resulted from 
 the actual condition of mankind. But the Christian Gospel is not 
 a theory of God's ideal relations either to the universe or to the 
 human race, though it discloses the foundations on which such 
 a theory may be constructed. It finds man where he is. It is not 
 a philosophy, but a Divine appeal to man in his guilt and weakness 
 and misery. And, therefore, as I have said, Paul's Gospel began 
 with the sufferings and death of Christ; and Peter found the very 
 substance of the Gospel in the declaration of the sufferings of 
 Christ and the glories which followed them. Whether we are 
 preaching the Christian Gospel in foreign lands, or to our fellow- 
 countrymen who have not yet received it, we shall do well to be 
 faithful to the apostolic tradition. We should tell them that Christ 
 died for all men, and died for the sins of all men ; and that His 
 sufferings and death are the ground of the actual relations between 
 all men and God " (pp. 63, 64). 
 
Chap. II The Purpose of the Incarnation 277 
 
 the same agency as that by which the Universe came 
 into being at the first. 
 
 But it is not merely as a means of vindicating the 
 Divine Power and Reason that the Incarnation took 
 place. There are other attributes than these in the 
 Divine Nature. God is in the essence of His being 
 something deeper than Reason, something higher than 
 Power. God is Love — He is the Infinite Father. 
 '* By the ethical necessities of His Nature," therefore, 
 "He becomes the Saviour." As in creation He 
 " emptied Himself," i.e. worked under conditions, in 
 order that He might bring about ends to be attained 
 in no other way, so in grace the Son " emptied 
 Himself" — made Himself of no account, in order that 
 He might redeem and renew humanity. The process 
 by which He does this is of course in strict accord 
 with the nature of Man as well as that of God. Any 
 method which forced salvation on him would make 
 salvation in an ethical sense impossible. Man is 
 constituted a free being, and though God were to use 
 all His moral influence on him, he would still be able 
 to resist His will if he so chose. No compulsion could 
 save a soul from death, though compulsion may often 
 preserve a body from destruction. But by appealing 
 as a Free Being to a free creature, salvation depends 
 rather on the quality of the appeal than on its force ; 
 its force indeed depends entirely on its quality. The 
 problem was to bring Man back to allegiance, to expel 
 sin, and fill him again with God's fellowship and life ; 
 or, in the New Testament language, " to reconcile him " 
 — and with him " all things — to Himself" ^ And so the 
 redemptive process issues in a salvation not only of 
 persons, but of all things, everything within and 
 without being made new. 
 
 * 2 Cor. V. 18, 19. 
 
278 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 III 
 
 The first and foremost motive and purpose of the 
 Incarnation in our sinful world was, therefore, to save 
 the soul from personal, and the race from collective, sin. 
 The answer to the old question " Cur Deus Homo ? " is 
 to be found in the still older verse, " God so loved the 
 world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but 
 have everlasting life." ^ It is everywhere the dominant 
 thought of the New Testament writers, that Man is 
 lost without God, and that God is brought within Man's 
 reach through the revelation of Divine love in Christ. 
 It is indeed so dominant that hardly any other aspect 
 is clearly and ostensibly put forth in the Scriptures. 
 Even a superficial reading of the Gospels and of the 
 Epistles tells us unmistakably that this is the determin- 
 ing aspect of Christ's work for Man. 
 
 At the same time, a more careful and thorough 
 examination of passages bearing on this subject will 
 reveal another aspect of the Divine purpose in the 
 Incarnation, and it is this that we have already dwelt 
 on under the title of the Evolutionary Theory. Merely 
 to check the downward process in human nature would 
 not be a complete salvation. To stop that is only 
 to bring Man back to the point at which he diverged 
 from the true line of his spiritual development. Scarcely 
 is it even that ; for the consciousness of failure and of 
 lost opportunity lies heavy on Man's mind and con- 
 science, and he yearns for that which will enable him to 
 turn this sense of defeat and bafflement into a sense of 
 victory. He has also in him an instinct of develop- 
 ment. He is not satisfied, once the remedial process 
 
 ^ John iii. i6. 
 
^^hap. II The Purpose of the Incarnation 279 
 
 is commenced, merely to go back to the point at which 
 he parted with his higher evolution ; his face is towards 
 . the future, and not the past ; and having cast off the 
 " brute inheritance," and the fallen nature, he looks for 
 the perfect redemption of his whole being. And there 
 are abundant passages in the New Testament, more 
 particularly in the writings of St. Paul, which speak of 
 the New Life as a growth, a true development, in both 
 the individual and the race. The old sin-consciousness 
 having been erased through the atoning sacrifice of 
 Christ, and the believer having accepted that as the 
 ground of his justification before God, he is henceforth 
 under the dominance of the Holy Spirit, who not only 
 leads him into all truth, but is a vital atmosphere around 
 his soul, cherishing all its upward tendencies, helping 
 it to wrestle with all hindering evil influences, and 
 drawing forth the slumbering forces of his nature that 
 make for righteousness and holiness of life. This truth 
 is put in many ways, and all of them may be easily 
 translated into the modern Evolutionary phraseology. 
 The Divine Life is in him so interwoven with the 
 faculties and affinities of his nature, that he even loses 
 his sense of separateness from its gentle but constrain- 
 ing influence. " I have been crucified with Christ ; 
 yet I live ; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in 
 me • and that life which I now live in the flesh I 
 live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who 
 loved me, and gave Himself up for me." ^ This life of 
 God in the soul is elsewhere described as " Christ in 
 us, the hope of glory." * Other passages illustrating 
 the same idea are the following : " Wherefore let us 
 cease to speak of the first principles of Christ, and 
 press on unto perfection " ' — here the development is 
 conceived as a higher and larger hold of God's truth, 
 1 Gal. ii. 20. » Col. i. 27. ^ Heb. vi. I. 
 
28o The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 growing from more to more ; " Not that I have already 
 obtained, or am already made perfect : but I press on, 
 if so be that I may apprehend that for which also I 
 was apprehended by Christ Jesus "^ — here the idea is 
 that of a moral and spiritual fulness of life, the Divine 
 ideal floating like a vision on the horizon which the 
 hard-bested runner is earnestly striving to reach — 
 "the goal of the prize of the high calling of God in 
 Christ Jesus."* Besides these there are many other 
 passages which bring before us the social end towards 
 which the Divine Life in Man is tending. Among 
 these, first and foremost we must place the discourses 
 of our Lord in which He speaks of the Kingdom of 
 God. It is only of recent years, under the pressure 
 of the perplexing social and political problems of our 
 times, as well as through a more scientific treatment and 
 classification of the teaching of Christ, that this sublime 
 Idea has been rescued from the oblivion or semi-oblivion 
 into which it had fallen during the period of Scholastic 
 and Puritan Theology, which was juridical rather than 
 Scriptural — a fact that illustrates John Robinson's 
 dictum, that " God has much light hidden in His word, 
 to break forth some day," i.e. as men were able and 
 fitted to bear it. During the last half-century some 
 of the finest works on the teaching of Christ have been 
 based on His doctrine of the Kingdom, showing that 
 His purpose in coming into the world was by no means 
 fully accomplished in the salvation of individual souls, 
 but that He came as much for the establishing of a 
 Society which should embody the principles of the 
 Divine life, as for the rescue of each believer from the 
 grasp of sin. The latter purpose indeed was only a 
 step towards the former, preparing the way for it, but 
 incomplete without it. So close is the connection in 
 * Phil. ill. 12. » Ibid., verse 14. 
 
Chap. II The Purpose of the Incarnation 281 
 
 the mind of our Lord between the individual and 
 social aspects of His regenerative work, that in one 
 of His most characteristic sayings it is not easy to say 
 on which He laid most stress, nor whether He meant 
 the one or the other. " The Kingdom of Heaven is 
 ivithin you " may with equal correctness be read " The 
 Kingdom of Heaven is among you,"^ i.e. it is either 
 within the heart of the individual as an unawakened 
 possibility of character, or latent among the community 
 as a social order. And though there is no manner of 
 doubt that He viewed individual salvation as the prior 
 and in a sense the more important fact, it is just as 
 clear that He had it in His mind to found a Kingdom 
 which should be a community of redeemed men and 
 women linked in voluntary association for the sociai 
 redemption of Man. This Kingdom was to be spiritual, 
 not temporal ; and it was to pervade all human institu- 
 tions, without interfering with their free development 
 and working. In its inception it was to be like a 
 seed, enlarging from the most insignificant beginnings 
 into a worldwide power ; ' in the principle of its growth 
 it was to be like leaven;^ spreading not by means of 
 external aids, but by its own permeative influence and 
 contagion ; in the method of its growth it was not to 
 follow the will and intention of those who work in 
 it and who love it, but has secret laws of its own, 
 which fulfil themselves in a mysterious manner and 
 at their own times and seasons.* 
 
 It is clear that the apostolic writers had a similar 
 conception of the work of Christ. He was not only 
 to be the Saviour of individual believers, but also of 
 mankind as a whole ; and the development of His 
 truth was to take a social as well as an individualistic 
 
 ^ Luke xvii. 21. ' Ibid.^ verse 33. 
 
 ' Matt. xiii. 31, 32, * Mark iv. 26, 27. 
 
282 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 form. There were to be not only new men and women, 
 but a " new heaven and a new earth " ; ^ " all things are " 
 to " become new " ; ^ there is to be final restitution and 
 rehabilitation of the creation under the universal and 
 unbroken sway of the Father — " And when all things 
 have been subjected unto Him," i.e. the Son, "then 
 shall the Son also Himself be subjected to Him that did 
 subject all things unto Him, that God may be all in 
 alli'^ in which it is suggested that the mission of the 
 Son in coming to earth on His redemptive journey 
 will at last be fully accomplished, and the victory 
 of good over evil be final and complete. 
 
 We thus see that, even though the redemption wrought 
 through Christ be in its first purpose simply restorative, 
 it at last becomes a great world-process of a spiritually 
 evolutionary kind, which not only aims at the restoration 
 of Man to his primal position, but at a complete and 
 perfect development of all his spiritual possibilities. 
 
 » Rev. xxi. I. '2 Cor. v. I7. ' i Cor. xv. 28. 
 
BOOK n : EVOLUTION 
 AND THE INCARNATION 
 
 " If Christ took our Nature upon Him 
 (as we believe) by an act of love, it was 
 not that of one but of all. He was not 
 one man only among men, but in Him 
 all humanity was gathered up. And 
 thus now as at all time mankind are 
 (so to speak) organically united with 
 Him. His acts are in a true sense our 
 acts, so far as we realise the union : 
 His death is our death: His Resurrec- 
 tion, our Resurrection." 
 
 Westcott. 
 
 Chapter III. — The Mystery of the Cross 
 
 Correlation of Incarnation and the Cross — A Sacrifice that involves 
 the whole Godhead — Sidelights of Science on Mystery of Vicarious 
 Sacrifice — How the Cross bridges the Chasm between Man and God. 
 
 I 
 
 IN most theological textbooks, the Incarnation and 
 the Atonement of Christ are usually dealt with 
 as separate dogmas ; but there is a point of view from 
 which they melt into one larger generalisation, both 
 being the manifestation of the redeeming love and 
 purpose of God. And there is a distinct danger in 
 dealing with them too much apart ; for the Incarna- 
 tion involves the Atonement as its supreme end, and 
 the Atonement would be meaningless were the Incarna- 
 tion not previously assumed and acknowledged. It 
 is the fact that in Christ God was made manifest in 
 the flesh that makes His sacrifice on Calvary a saving 
 power and gives His death a redemptive significance. 
 And it is the shallowest sciolism to speak as though 
 the sacrifice involved in the death of our Lord on the 
 Cross summed up the full extent of the application of 
 that idea to His work. There was a special significance 
 
 a83 
 
284 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 in the sacrificial aspects of His sufferings "without the 
 gate " ; it was, we believe, something more than the 
 crowning act of Obedience in a perfect life of service. 
 But the sacrifice of the Son of God began with His 
 coming into the world ; and His whole life was an 
 offering to God for the sins of the human race. 
 
 In saying this of course we assume the doctrine of the 
 Incarnation to be a true account of the mystery hidden 
 within the earthly life of Jesus Christ ; if indeed that is 
 not so, the whole of our inquiry falls to the ground. 
 And what we have said is clearly according to the mean- 
 ing of the New Testament teaching. To the Apostle 
 Paul there was nothing more near or dear than the 
 thought of the self-sacrifice of His Master in descending 
 into the realm of human life and limitation, and in 
 several passages he characteristically urges the Divine 
 example as a pattern, on the infinite scale, of what God 
 expects from men in the finite channels of their daily 
 duty. In inculcating the duty of sharing their worldly 
 goods with their poorer brethren, he reminds the 
 Corinthians thus : " For ye know the grace of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your 
 sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might 
 become rich."^ In the Philippians, he presses on his 
 readers the vast importance of humility, and enforces 
 his appeal by again bringing before them the ideal 
 spirit of self-sacrifice exhibited in Jesus Christ : " Have 
 this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus : 
 who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to 
 be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking 
 the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men ; 
 and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Him- 
 self, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death 
 of the cross." ^ In both these passages and in many 
 » 2 Cor. viii. 9. ' Phil. ii. 5-8. 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 285 
 
 others the fundamental idea is that the sacrifice of Jesus 
 Christ began, not with the sufferings consummated in 
 His death on Calvary, but with the assumption of our 
 nature. He became poor for our sakes ; He emptied 
 Himself; He took the form of a servant ; He humbled 
 Himself. What do these strong and significant terms 
 mean ? They clearly refer to the prenatal glory of 
 Christ, — " the Glory which I had with Thee before the 
 world was " ^ is an expression used by Himself concerning 
 the same fact, — and they imply that the assumption of 
 an inferior nature was a part of the sacrifice which He 
 underwent on our behalf And if indeed He be what 
 the Christian consciousness has conceived Him to be, the 
 Second Person in the Trinity, does it not necessarily 
 follow that in thus humbling Himself, and emptying 
 Himself of all His wealth of resources. He did undergo 
 a loss such as we can only dimly figure in the strongest 
 language at our command ? Think of it for a moment. 
 What was the wealth that He gave up in order to 
 become poor ? The wealth of creative energy ; the 
 wealth of perfect unbroken communion with the Father 
 and with the Spirit ; the wealth of boundless power 
 which was also boundless repose, of unceasing activity 
 yet fathomless peace. Think of the beauty of the 
 Divine idea of the ordered Universe, and of the deep 
 joy of seeing that idea fulfilling itself — everywhere but 
 in this insignificant planet ? — in unbroken harmony and 
 faultless progression ; new worlds scattering like sparks 
 from the central fires of Deity, and slowly but surely 
 evolving from stage to stage till they reached their 
 climax. If we fail to enter into such supernal notions, 
 let us try to think of our own moments of highest 
 spiritual joy when we have felt our soul in deepest 
 communion with God, and then let us intensify that 
 * John xvii. 5. 
 
286 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 experience a million-fold. Let us think of the delight 
 of a duty which is also a supreme pleasure, of work 
 which is the spontaneous attainment of our highest 
 ideal, in which the sense of effort is lost in that of easy 
 performance ; and let us then enlarge that conscious- 
 ness till it enfolds the Universe in its mighty embrace.^ 
 We shall still have but a dim figure of what our Lord 
 gave up when He took upon Him to become man, and 
 " did not abhor the virgin's womb " ; but we shall think 
 with a new sense of the range and beauty of that 
 sacrifice which the Son of God underwent when He 
 became the Son of Man. There may be, there un- 
 doubtedly is, something unique in the nature of the 
 specific sacrifice for sin offered on Calvary, — this has 
 in all ages been felt and acknowledged by Christian 
 thinkers. But it does not annul, and it ought not to 
 obscure, the wider fact that the saving sacrifice of the 
 Lord Jesus began, not with the on-coming of the throes 
 of death, but with the manger of Bethlehem, where the 
 mystery of His human life began. 
 
 We shall not realise the full force of the Incarnation 
 idea as a Divine sacrifice till we go even deeper than 
 that, and accept the fact that it involved the sacrifice 
 of the whole Godhead as well. " Theology has no 
 falser idea," says Dr. Fairbairn, "than that of the 
 impassibility of God. If He is capable of sorrow, He is 
 capable of suffering ; and were He without the capacity 
 for either. He would be without any feeling of the evil 
 of sin or the misery of man. The very truth that came 
 by Jesus Christ may be said to be summed up in the 
 passibility of God. But ... to be passible is to be 
 capable of sacrifice ; and in the presence of sin the 
 capability could not but become the reality. To confine 
 
 * See a striking discourse by Principal Caird in his volume of 
 " Sermons," on the "Loneliness of Christ's Sufferings " (1858). 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 287 
 
 the idea of sacrifice to the Son is to be unjust to His 
 representation of the Father. There is a sense in which 
 the Patripassian theory is right ; the Father did suffer, 
 though it was not as the Son that He suffered, but in 
 modes distinct and different. The being of evil in the 
 universe was to His moral nature an offence and a pain, 
 and through His pity the misery of man became His 
 sorrow. But this sense of man's evil and misery became 
 the impulse to speak and to help ; and what did this 
 mean but the disclosure of His suffering by the surrender 
 of the Son ? But this surrender, as it was the act, repre- 
 sented the sacrifice and the passion of the whole Godhead. 
 Here degree and proportion are out of place ; were it 
 not, we might say the Father suffered more in giving than 
 the Son in being given. He who gave to duty had not 
 the reward of Him who rejoiced to do it. Though we 
 speak but in the limited language of our own conditions, 
 yet, may we not ask, must not the act by which the 
 Son emptied Himself have affected and, as it were, 
 impoverished the Godhead? The two things are co- 
 incident and inseparable ; here, pre-eminently, one 
 member could not suffer without all suffering. The 
 humiliation of the Son involved the visible passion and 
 death, but the surrender by the Father involved the 
 sorrow that was the invisible sacrifice." ^ We must try 
 to realise the meaning of this element of sacrifice as 
 applying to the Godhead, otherwise we shall miss one 
 of the most quickening thoughts in the Bible, and lose 
 the beauty of some of its central declarations. For 
 instance, we are told that this principle is the measure of 
 the Divine love. " God so loved the world, that He 
 gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth 
 on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." 
 
 ^ " The Place of Christ in Modern Theology," pp. 483, 484. 
 ^ John iii. 16. 
 
288 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 '' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He 
 loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for 
 our sins." ^ What do these words mean if not that 
 the essence and act of sacrifice was the surrender of the 
 Son by the Father? It is this faith that makes the 
 Incarnation and the Sacrifice of Christ so elevating and 
 quickening as a renewing power over human character. 
 An act of power on the part of the Divine might appal 
 us, it might create awe and admiration, but it could not 
 have any regenerating influence. All truths must take a 
 moral aspect in order to sway our moral nature ; and the 
 moral side of this truth is that it cost God the Father 
 pangs and sufferings whose depths we cannot even 
 dimly divine, in order that the Son might descend into 
 our nature and appear in the flesh. No exposition of 
 the doctrine of the Incarnation can be complete there- 
 fore until this its highest and divinest side is realised 
 and accepted. Without it, it is a mere portent ; with it, 
 it is a saving truth. 
 
 II 
 
 The root-idea in the Atonement has been expressed 
 for the main part in legal and juridical language. The 
 payment of a " debt," the " satisfaction of justice," the 
 " bearing of a penalty," — these are but a few typical 
 phrases in immemorial use in stating the nature of the 
 Divine sacrifice offered for us on Calvary by the Eternal 
 Son. They are expressions which receive their justi- 
 fication from the language of Scripture itself. The 
 earlier revelation of the Old Testament provided the 
 moulds into which the mystery of the Passion naturally 
 embodied itself, and unless we are prepared to deny 
 
 * I John iv. lo. 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 289 
 
 that there is a Divine element in the form as well 
 as the substance of that preliminary unfolding of the 
 truth, we must not put away the symbols made use 
 of in it as though they were outworn and useless for 
 our purpose. At the same time, since in every age 
 the Christian consciousness has endeavoured to restate 
 the truth in the language of the time, so as to make 
 its central meaning more intelligible and impressive, 
 the question is thoroughly pertinent, whether the 
 moulds of thought that characterise the present furnish 
 a fresh channel for the presentation of the same funda- 
 mental Fact There are not wanting serious signs 
 that the old juridical language fails to appeal as it 
 once did to the spiritual consciousness of a large section 
 of Christian believers. It sounds artificial ; it stands 
 aloof from the dominant ideas of the time ; there is 
 not a little in it which shocks the moral sense of many 
 devout minds that are earnestly desirous of arriving at 
 something like a consistent theory of the Atonement. 
 The result is widespread unrest and unhappiness, loss 
 of conviction and emphasis in speaking and thinking 
 on this great theme, and failure to lay hold with 
 vivid conviction of the fact itself, that in virtue of 
 what Christ did for men on the Cross, we attain to 
 forgiveness of sin, and the right to enter on the higher 
 privileges of the Christian life. And so the question 
 presses vehemently for solution — can we co-ordinate 
 the idea of a Redemptive Sacrifice for sin, as it is 
 everywhere assumed and emphasised in the Christian 
 Revelation, with the great cosmic process of Evolution 
 which in all other departments dominates the thought 
 of the present ? 
 
 It would perhaps be well to acknowledge at the outset 
 that so far the time does not seem to have come for a 
 complete restatement of the doctrine of the Atonement 
 
 19 
 
190 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 on Evolutionary lines. On this ultimate mystery, we 
 " see as in a mirror, darkly," and the day is not yet. 
 But we believe we can at least suggest a few thoughts 
 which indicate in what direction we are to look for 
 a clearer outlook. 
 
 The principle of Vicarious Sacrifice has received 
 a powerful exposition in three directions through the 
 development of scientific thought. 
 
 I. Beginning on the lowest plane, there has been a 
 remarkable unfolding of the law in organic nature 
 whereby the weak have to suffer for the benefit of the 
 strong. 
 
 We have already dwelt somewhat fully on the extent 
 and intensity of suffering which we find in the organic 
 world, and have shown how Evolutionary Science for 
 the first time has thrown a vivid ray of light on the 
 problem, by demonstrating the beneficent purpose of 
 this suffering. There is no aimless pain or agony in 
 the world of life. This deeply rooted fact always 
 works for good. So far as the individual is concerned, 
 we cannot say that the suffering it has to undergo 
 always, or even frequently, brings a compensatory 
 benefit in its train. Its pains are predominantly for 
 others ; it suffers for the good of its kind. According 
 to the law of natural selection, more creatures are born 
 than can live out their lives : probably only the 
 minority can do so ; the majority are pushed off from 
 the plane of existence before they can procreate their 
 kind. Now it follows from the conditions of the case 
 that those who survive are the strongest, the healthiest, 
 the best fitted to live a full and happy life, and to 
 carry their species to perfection. And so the individual 
 perishes not only that the species may survive^ but 
 that it may progress. The lower species, again, hold 
 their tenure of being only in so far as they do not 
 
Chap. HI The Mystery of the Cross ^9^ 
 
 interfere with, or rather, perhaps, in so far as they help 
 the higher to an adequate opportunity to live and to 
 develop. And so when Tennyson, in a moment of 
 despondency, accuses Nature of aimless cruelty for 
 bringing so many children to the birth, and then 
 crushing them ruthlessly under foot, — 
 
 "Are God and Nature then at strife, j 
 That Nature lends such evil dreams? 
 So careful of the type she seems, 
 So careless of the single life. 
 
 •' * So careful of the type ? ' but no. 
 
 From scarped cliff and quarried stone 
 She cries, * A thousand types are gone : 
 I care for nothing, all shall go,'" — 
 
 he gives utterance to a pessimism which in his own 
 truer mood of faith he leaves behind, when he affirms, 
 what is unquestionably true, — 
 
 "That nothing walks with aimless feet; 
 That not one life shall be destroy d, 
 Or cast as rubbish to the void. 
 When God hath made the pile complete; 
 
 " That not a worm is cloven in vain ; 
 That not a moth with vain desire 
 Is shrivel'd in a fruitless fire, 
 Or but subserves another's gain." 
 
 When Tennyson wrote these fine lines he gave utter- 
 ance to what could then only be a matter of faith 
 in the goodness of God. Now they are a matter of 
 knowledge, for the insight of the prophet has become 
 the irrefutable dictum of the scientist, who has not 
 only shown how^ but why, there is so much " undeserved 
 suffering" in the teeming fields of life. It is all that 
 life, working under the conditions necessarily, as we 
 must believe, laid down in the constitution of the 
 
^9^ *rhc Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 universe, may climb up higher and ever higher along 
 the pathway that leads from the star-mist of primeval 
 chaos to the aureole of the saint in the heavenly places. 
 That pathway is crimsoned with the blood of countless 
 generations of lives that have been sacrificed on the 
 way ; but there is no doubt that it leads to a Divine 
 and splendid goal. 
 
 2. Let us rise a step higher. There is a second and 
 higher form of vicarious suffering in the world — that 
 of the strong for the weak. 
 
 Prof. Drummond in his " Ascent of Man " has 
 shown that in Nature there is another struggle than the 
 struggle for existence which dates from the beginning 
 of creation ; that there are two struggles going on 
 contemporaneously — the struggle for others, as he 
 rightly calls it, and the struggle for self; and the 
 development of life is due to the combined struggle, 
 the selfish and the unselfish, the struggle for self and 
 the struggle for others than self. " Creation," he 
 writes, " is a drama, and no drama was ever put on 
 the stage with only one actor. The struggle for life 
 is the * villain * of the play no more ; and like * Villain ' 
 in the play, its chief function is to react on the other 
 players for higher ends. There is in fact a second 
 factor, which we might venture to call the struggle for 
 the life of others, which plays an equally prominent part. 
 Even in the early stages ... its contribution is real ; 
 while in the world's later progress — under the name 
 of Altruism — it assumes a sovereignty before which 
 the earlier struggle pales into insignificance."^ 
 
 This second form of sacrificial suffering is seen best 
 in the great principle of parentage. There are some 
 male creatures who die in the act of procreation, and 
 
 * "Ascent of Man," p. 13. See also «' The Theology of an 
 Evolutionist," by Lyman Abbott, pp. 94 ff. 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 293 
 
 some females who perish at the moment of giving birth 
 to their offspring. There we have this principle in its 
 automatic and most uncompromising form ; the parent's 
 life is literally given for the child's. As we rise in the 
 scale of life, however, it takes other and less drastic 
 forms. The mother-bird surrenders herself entirely to 
 her young during the earlier stages of their existence, 
 imprisoning herself in the nest, that she may hatch her 
 eggs and shelter her birdlings ; while the father-bird 
 becomes a forager, and grows lean and weak in the 
 effort to provide food for the " family at home." " The 
 struggle of the bird in the forest is for the birdling — 
 the struggle of father and mother for children. So 
 even the wild beasts forget their savagery, and instead 
 of devouring their young, they hunt for them and carry 
 home the spoil." And in this beautiful effort there 
 is real sacrifice, real suffering. The instinct is rooted 
 deep in Nature that the strong should suffer for the 
 weak, and should give up personal pleasures and 
 indulgences in order to defend and cherish that young 
 life which as yet cannot struggle for itself. Sometimes 
 birds and beasts will even give their lives in defence 
 of their little ones — the lioness for her whelps, the wolf 
 for her suckling, the stork for her burning young in 
 the flaming chimney. And the higher the order of 
 life, the greater is the demand made on the sacrifice 
 of the parents. As we rise in the scale, we find that 
 the young are born more and more helpless, so that 
 the call on the parents for the ministries of love becomes 
 more and more imperious. In man, the principle comes 
 to its perfect earthly fruit. We come into the world more 
 dependent than any other order of creatures, and all 
 through the long years of infancy and childhood we lean 
 altogether on the love and care of our parents. First 
 there is the call for physical shelter and nourishment j 
 
494 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 later on the call for discipline, training, and education, 
 intellectual, moral, and spiritual. This is the glory of 
 the home — the willing sacrifice of the strong for the 
 weak, the surrender by the mature of privileges for the 
 undeveloped, a Divine outpouring of pity and help 
 for those who as yet are weak in will and ignorant 
 of the tragic issues of life. Indeed, an incalculable 
 share of the so-called human struggle for existence 
 is simply the struggle of parents in this sense for their 
 children. The two forms of effort are inextricably 
 intertwined, and in the world of business the higher 
 element largely hallows and redeems the lov/er from 
 what would otherwise be a pitiless selfishness. Even 
 the " competitions " of city life are largely due to the 
 passionate desire of men and women to provide the 
 opportunity of a full and noble life for those dependent 
 on them ; it is the strong fighting each other, not for 
 an undue share of the good things of life for them- 
 selves, but for those " little ones at home " who cannot 
 as yet fight for their own hand. 
 
 3. And so we come in sight of the third, and highest, 
 form of vicarious sacrifice to be found in the world — 
 tJiat of the good for the bady the just for the unjust, 
 which is perfectly embodied in the sacrificial death of 
 Christ on the Cross. 
 
 Just as the higher sacrifices of motherhood and father- 
 hood for childhood are found in prophetic form among 
 beings lower than Man, so is this highest form of all 
 found in germ in human life, and is truly prophetic 
 of the Divine sacrifice. History is full of stirring 
 evidence of the fact that the life of mankind can be 
 raised to a higher intellectual and spiritual plane only 
 through the sacrifice of the noble for the ignoble, the 
 learned for the ignorant, the holy for the corrupt. " Life 
 can only come from life," and the lower can be lifted 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 295 
 
 to the plane of the higher only at the expense of the 
 higher as it stoops to lift the lower to its own level. 
 The bridge that spans the gap between these planes 
 of being is sympathy ; the motive power that puts the 
 treasures of the higher life at the disposal of the lower 
 for its good is love. The life that stoops must in one 
 sense be identical with that which it would uplift, other- 
 wise it cannot touch the springs of response and fill 
 the enfeebled will with its own victorious energy ; in 
 another sense, it must be far removed from it, higher 
 in quality, fuller in resources, uncontaminated by the 
 disabilities which keep the lower down, and make it 
 incapable of rising by its unassisted efforts. Granted 
 these conditions, there is scarcely a limit to the law 
 whereby the many may be uplifted by the efforts of the 
 few. The choice personalities of the world are able 
 to inundate average humanity with their enthusiasm, 
 and fill them with the pulse of their own higher life. 
 We are made spiritually inflammable, and at the touch 
 of genius, virtue, holiness, we are raised out of our 
 narrow limitations, and fired into the faith that all 
 things are possible to us. 
 
 History is largely the narrative of how the few thus 
 impregnate the many with their thought and their 
 ideals. And history on every page reveals the heavy 
 penalty involved in the process. For by some 
 mysterious law all life-giving is costly ; and it is pre- 
 dominantly true of the highest form of life. Heroes 
 must become martyrs ere they can persuade the world 
 of their heroism. Till the prophet has sealed his 
 testimony with his blood, his message is almost always 
 rejected. Had the Saviour not died. His revelation of 
 the Divine forgiveness would never have been credible 
 to a sinful world. It is not holiness that impresses men, 
 but holiness suffering becayse it is holy ; it is not Iqvq 
 
296 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 that wins them, but love " pouring itself out unto death " 
 for their sakes ; it is not the Incarnate Son of God who 
 persuades them to obedience, but the Son dying for the 
 sins of the world. This is the third principle of sacri- 
 ficial suffering which is rooted into the constitution 
 of the universe — the good for the bad, " the just for the 
 unjust," the fit for the unfit, that the unfit may become 
 fit, and just, and holy. Were it not for the corruption 
 that has poisoned the springs of our life, the necessity 
 for this law would not have arisen ; as it is, we know 
 that " without shedding of blood is no remission of sins," 
 and that only as Christ became obedient unto death, 
 yea, the death of the Cross, was He able to bring many 
 sons unto glory. So far at least are we carried towards 
 an apprehension of the Atonement by the facts of life 
 itself, as revealed in every line of history, and engraven 
 on the very pillars of the world.^ 
 
 Ill 
 
 The Incarnation, as we have seen, includes the notion 
 of sacrifice in the largest sense, not only during the 
 death on the Cross, but during the whole of our Lord's 
 life on earth ; and not of the Son only, but of the 
 whole Godhead also. But there was a special sacrificial 
 element in the Son's work to which reference is made 
 on almost every page of the New Testament, and we 
 must concentrate our minds for a short time on that. 
 
 Jesus lived and died in order that the breach caused 
 by sin might be healed, and the union that is essential 
 to the spiritual development of Man between him and 
 his God might be renewed. In what way and in what 
 sense did His sacrifice realise this sublime end ? 
 
 Let us consider for a moment the effects of sin, the 
 
 ^ See on this whole subject Lyman Abbott's "Theology of an 
 Dvplutionist," especially chaps, vi. — viii., for useful suggestions, 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 297 
 
 disease, in order that we may the better understand 
 Atonement, the remedy. 
 
 In our consciousness of personal sin there are three 
 irreducible factors. 
 
 I. The first is the sense of Guilt} 
 
 Viewed objectively, guilt is ill-desert. It means that 
 a man has transgressed a Divine law, and that he 
 deserves that the full penalty of the violation of that 
 law ought to fall upon him. This penalty implies the 
 anger and disfavour of God ; the moral deterioration 
 which always accompanies a state of sin ; the evil con- 
 sequences affecting soul and body which accompany 
 spiritual deterioration ; the tendency to grow ever 
 harder and more depraved and identified with the 
 evil thing ; and those deeper and more mysterious 
 visitations of Divine wrath which are ever revealed in 
 the Bible as hanging over the head of the sinner, both 
 in this world and in that which is to come : all these 
 are elements in the penalty of transgression. If a man 
 has sinned, he deserves that these penalties should fall 
 upon him ; and they should ex hypothesi fall upon him 
 personally, as the one who has transgressed. 
 
 Viewed subjectively, guilt involves the recognition 
 of a Moral Order which commands obedience, and, in 
 the Christian sense, it also involves the recognition of 
 a Moral Lawgiver of whose personal holy will this 
 moral order is the perfect expression. The Prodigal's 
 confession, " I have sinned against heaven [here is the 
 moral order], and in Thy sight [here is the Personal 
 Lawgiver], and am no more worthy," ^ is a perfect 
 expression of the subjective aspect of guilt. Sin is 
 revealed as disobedience, from the standpoint of the 
 Creator; and as wilful and wicked self-assertion, from 
 
 * For the distinction between moral and " theological " guilt see 
 p. 198 (^nte\ 2 Lyi^e XV. 18, 19. 
 
298 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 the standpoint of the creature ; and as implying a 
 feeling of blameworthiness from the standpoint of 
 conscience, which is the voice of both. 
 
 2. Allied to, but not quite synonymous with, this 
 feeling of guilt is the sense of alienation which is caused 
 by sin from the face and favour of God. 
 
 It has been said that the chief end of Man is to 
 " know God and to enjoy Him for ever." The sense of 
 sin implies, and in a way deepens, the consciousness 
 of God, and makes it more vivid ; but it quite destroys 
 the joy that ought to accompany that consciousness. 
 Man, if he had remained sinless, would have rejoiced in 
 the very thought of God. But because he has sinned 
 and fallen short of the glory of God, this is no longer so. 
 His confession, as part and parcel of his sin, is " I 
 remembered God, and was troubled." ^ " Therefore am 
 I troubled at His presence ; when I consider, I am 
 afraid of Him."^ A feeling of the distance to which 
 sin has removed him from God's presence and favour 
 haunts and pursues him ; and while he cannot forget 
 God, at least in the earlier stages of the evil process, 
 the thought of God brings no peace and bestows no 
 blessing. Like a cloud rising from a miasmatic soil, 
 and hiding the brightness of the sun, so has this cursed 
 thing hidden the brightness of the Divine countenance ; 
 and so disabling is it in its effects that not even God 
 Himself can undo the evil so long as the union between 
 the sinner and his sin remains unbroken. " Behold, the 
 Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save ; 
 neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear : but your 
 iniquities have separated between you and your God, 
 and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will 
 not hear."^ And so while Man continues sinful in 
 
 * Psalm Ixxvii. 3. ' Job xxiii. 1$. 
 
 ? Isaiah |ix. 1,3, 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 299 
 
 thought and fact, he is cut off from the fountain of his 
 highest life and happiness. 
 
 3. There is in the sinful human consciousness another 
 factor. It is the sense of utter inability on the part of 
 Man to remedy the condition into which he has fallen. 
 
 In every age and in every land, there has been an 
 attempt on the part of Man to bridge over the chasm 
 between him and his God. By sacrifice and penance, 
 by humiliation and contrition, by long prayers and 
 elaborate ritual, in a thousand ways and by a thousand 
 subterfuges, he has endeavoured to set right the bitter 
 past, and wash out his guilty stains. Whatever may be 
 the inefficacy of heathen sacrifices, they are at least an 
 effectual witness to the earnest desire of those who 
 have offered them to atone for sin. But in spite of all 
 there has been no real sense that they are effectual. 
 " Who shall tell whether the gods be truly propitiated by 
 our sacrifices ? " was the cry of the heathen poet. " And 
 it was so . . . that they prophesied until the time of the 
 offering of the evening oblation ; but there was neither 
 voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded." ^ 
 This is really the inward impression that has been 
 left on the mind of humanity by all its efforts to " feel 
 after God, if haply it may find Him." The desire to 
 be forgiven has been there ; the willinghood to do 
 anything that would appease Divine wrath, and the 
 subtle voice telling that the way of reconciliation is the 
 way of sacrifice. But when the practical question has 
 then been asked, " How and in what way shall we 
 offer an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord ? " no satis- 
 factory reply has been found. The deepest intuitions 
 of the heart have always told us that of ourselves we 
 can do nothing that will merit acceptance at the hands 
 of the Most High as an atonement for sin. In view 
 * \ Kings 3cviii. 29. 
 
300 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 of the All-holy Will, we can at our highest and best 
 only say when we have done all, we are " unprofitable 
 servants, we have done that which it was our duty 
 to do."^ How then can anything that we do, since 
 we can never do more than perform our present duty) 
 atone for the past? It is impossible ; there is no way 
 of atonement on the human side. 
 
 Now the Christian revelation of the Incarnation meets 
 these three elements in the human consciousness of 
 sin, and provides a remedy for them all. As our 
 Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ provides that which 
 both honours the Divine Law and satisfies the demands 
 of justice. By His revelation of God as seen in the 
 whole of His teaching and life. He helps to persuade 
 Man, in a way that is authoritative and winsome, of 
 the Divine Love and Goodness, and so to bridge over 
 that chasm which was made by sin between the Divine 
 Father and the earthly child ; and by the peculiar 
 relationship which He bears to God and Man, He has 
 solved the problem of how a sacrifice apparently 
 objective has a subjective value and power. 
 
 The whole subject is focussed in the last point. 
 When it is asked in what way can an offering made 
 on behalf of others be efficacious in the sight of God, 
 it is easy to reply in the negative, and pour scorn on 
 the notion that the death of Christ can have had any 
 propitiatory effect on the mind of God, and can remove 
 from the human conscience the load of its heavy guilt ; 
 but this arises from a defective notion of our Lord's 
 Person. He was not, in one sense, an objective sacrifice 
 at all. By His mystic union with our humanity. He 
 was " Another who was not another." He manifested 
 the holiness of God in a human life which was typical, 
 perfect, complete ; and He did so in the form of an 
 ^ i-uke xvii. lo, 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 301 
 
 obedience that was absolutely unique and without 
 " spot or wrinkle or any such thing." And this He 
 did as One in organic union with our nature, who was 
 the " representative Man," the " Alter Ego " of every one, 
 the higher " Self " which is latent in all men, the 
 " Federal Head " of the race. Therefore, when we read 
 of Him as bearing our sins " in His own body on the 
 tree," it does not simply mean that He took them on Him 
 in the way of sympathy and sorrowed over them as those 
 of other people's ; He bore them as One who Himself 
 was a true Man, and who as a Man felt the sad and 
 bitter shame they involved to that nature which He had 
 taken upon Him, and He offered up a perfect repentance 
 for them, and by His repentance condemned them, as 
 our repentance could never have done. This is what is 
 meant by that expression " For what the law could 
 not do, in that it was weak through the flesh [i.e. 
 because of the sinfulness of the flesh], God, sending His 
 Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for 
 sin, condemned sin in the flesh." ^ And as the essence 
 of the true sacrifice was always the offering not of the 
 dead body of a victim, but of the life ^ of the victim as 
 representative of the life of the offerer, so in the great 
 Sacrifice of which all the Levitical sacrifices were but 
 types and shadows, the essence of the propitiation was 
 in the offering of a life of perfect obedience to the 
 Divine will as the representative of our humanity. He 
 became " obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the 
 cross."' This does not mean that we have here ex- 
 hausted the meaning of that mystic fact — the death of 
 the Son of God on the Cross of shame and suffering ; we 
 are not in a position to tell all, nor indeed more than a 
 
 * Rom. viii. 3. 
 
 2 '• For the life [soul] of the flesh is in the blood (Lev. xvii. 11). 
 
 » Phil. ii. 8. 
 
302 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 small part, of its Godward significance. That there is 
 something unique in that death, and in the very fact of its 
 being the death of Christ, is perfectly clear from a score 
 of passages in the New Testament.^ There will always 
 be a residuum of intractable mystery in the atoning 
 work of Christ, which will elude the understanding and 
 put to scorn every theory by which we attempt fully 
 to account for it. 
 
 Leaving that ultimate question aside, let us see in 
 what way the revelation of a suffering Saviour has 
 helped to undo the effects of Sin on the human soul. 
 
 1. It helps to do so by throwing light on the character 
 of God. 
 
 For it shows that He was not an angry tyrant to be 
 appeased by that which Man had not in his power to 
 give, but a Holy Father who was Himself willing and 
 anxious to do that which was necessary in order to 
 undo the evil. That this is a truth quite peculiar to 
 Christianity, he who runs through the elements of 
 " Comparative Religions " may read ; and it has always 
 been the initial motive power that Christianity has 
 exercised on the heart of men, disposing them to 
 repentance and hatred of sin. It draws forth the 
 noblest form of gratitude to believe that " while we were 
 yet sinners Christ died for us " ; and it does that which 
 no other sentiment, such as the mere fear of punishment, 
 or the dread of eternal consequences, could ever do ; for 
 it raises us into a higher plane of feeling and action than 
 is possible through either of these sentiments.^ 
 
 2. It throws light on the nature of Man, sinful though 
 he be, by linking it with that of God. 
 
 * On this perplexing subject see " Lux Mundi," pp. 293, 294. 
 
 * This is the true meaning of 2 Cor. v. 14, where the genitive is 
 objective, not subjective ; it is " the love of Christ to us " that " con- 
 strains " us, not our love to Him. See Meyer's Commentary in loco. 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 3^3 
 
 The fact that our nature was capable of receiving 
 a Divine visitor, and of incarnating God in a new and 
 unparalleled sense, is proof of our high place in the 
 Universe, if such proof were needed in addition to 
 that which is furnished so unequivocally by Science 
 But Science can only show our superiority in creation 
 by comparing us with that which is beneath us ; the 
 Incarnation, on the other hand, reveals our dignity by 
 unfolding our relationship to One above us. " The 
 Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we 
 beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of 
 the Father,) full of grace and truth " ^ — this is the highest 
 charter of our greatness as a race we have ever received, 
 or ever can receive. It is but the concrete and authori- 
 tative expression of the ancient dictum, " The true 
 Shekinah is Man!" It proves that Man is potentially 
 God's son, or God's greater Son could not have revealed 
 Himself in our nature.^ If Man had not been made 
 " in God's image," the Only Begotten could not have 
 appeared "in the flesh," ^ and His death would have 
 been a mere illusion. 
 
 ^ John i. 14. 
 
 ' Fairbairn, Lc, p. 473, says : " The natures are not contradictory 
 or mutually exclusive, but their affinity or kinship expresses their 
 reciprocal susceptibility. God is, as it were, the eternal possibility 
 of being incarnated, man the permanent capability of incarnation." 
 (See also Milligan, " On the Resurrection," pp. 164, 165.) 
 
 ^ Ibid. : " The natures, if He is to be qualified for Hislvvork, must 
 be distinct. Only their integrity must not be developed into 
 antagonism or incompatibility. The union within the Person is 
 not a u'ork of mere omnipotence, but expresses a real affinity, 
 ethically mediated, though personally realised " (pp. 478, 479). 
 Under this point consider the following words from Mr. Gladstone's 
 "Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture" (close of chap. i.). He 
 is speaking of the essential distinction between the human and 
 the Divine natures : " Besides being anterior. He is separate. 
 Should we find in the pages of the Old Testament a story of dei- 
 fication, we should at once know it to be spurious, because in 
 contradiction alike as to letter and as to spirit of the entire context. 
 ... It is, I hope, not presumptuous to proceed a step further, and 
 
304 The Ascent through Christ Book 11 
 
 But if the Incarnation links us in nature with God, 
 it also shows in another sense that we are essentially- 
 different in nature from Him. For that Man was made 
 in the image of God cannot mean that he is Divine in 
 essence, otherwise the Incarnation and sacrifice of Jesus 
 Christ would not be events out of the common. The 
 only supposition on which that mystery can have its 
 true place in our thoughts is that there is a gap, wide 
 and deep, between the two natures. In other words, 
 the Incarnation was an act of condescension. Man 
 could not look at it as a right. The condescension 
 of God in taking on Him the form of a Man was the 
 crowning proof of His ineffable love to our race. This 
 is its spiritual rationale^ and the flower of its beauty. 
 " Great is the mystery of godliness [which means here, 
 not a rule of life but the fact of the Incarnation] ; He 
 was manifested in the flesh." ^ 
 
 3. The Incarnation under its form of sacrifice also 
 throws a lurid light on the nature of sin as an essentially 
 evil thing which had separated God and Man, and had 
 made the unspeakable sacrifice necessary implied in 
 Christ's Incarnation and Atonement. We have already 
 
 to say that this broad and effectual severance was necessary, not 
 only for the old dispensation, but for the new; not only for the 
 exclusion of idolatry in all its forms, but for the establishment of 
 the Incarnation. A marriage would be no marriage unless the 
 individuality of the parties to it were determinate and invincible. 
 The Christian dogma of the two natures in one person would be 
 in no sense distinctive if it had been habitual in the preparatory 
 dispensation, as in some of the religions outside, for man properly 
 so called to pass into proper Deity. Reunion was to be effected 
 between the Almighty and His prime earthly creature by the bridge 
 to be constructed over that flood, the flood of sin, which parted 
 them ; to sustain that bridge it was needful that the natures to be 
 brought into union should stand apart like piers perfectly defined 
 each on its own separate and solid foundation. And the firm 
 foundations of those piers were laid to endure through all time by 
 the creation story." 
 ^ I Tim. iii. i6. 
 
Chap. Ill The Mystery of the Cross 305 
 
 discussed the question whether the Incarnation found 
 its need simply and solely in the Fall. Here we would 
 only point out that, whether this be so or not, the In- 
 carnation does exhibit the sinfulness of humanity in an 
 appalling light ; and if the bare fact of Incarnation itself 
 shows that, how much more emphatically does it do so 
 when crowned by the Atonement ! We can only see our 
 wrongdoing aright in the blaze of the Divine redemp- 
 tion. That which could blight and destroy God's fairest 
 blossom on the tree of life must be a dreadful and horrible 
 canker. And that which made it necessary for God's 
 Son to suffer and die in order to undo our shame and 
 ruin, and stem the tide of destructive vengeance, must 
 be an evil whose hidden potencies of wrong are beyond 
 our deepest and highest imagination to conceive in their 
 fulness. God would not descend from the serene heights 
 of His blessed peace to stoop so low, were there no 
 supreme and overmastering necessity. We have 
 incidentally touched upon this aspect of the Atonement.^ 
 
 We can now see a little more clearly how it is that 
 the incarnate sacrifice of Jesus Christ helps to bring 
 Man back to his true relationship to God, and start 
 him once more on the path of upward Evolution. 
 It was quite necessary that this should be done — that 
 the lost relationship of filial union and love should be 
 restored. For if with God is the fountain of life, if 
 His loving presence is the soul's true atmosphere 
 and environment, in which alone it can breathe and 
 develop, then no real growth can take place without 
 bringing Man back to God that His Spirit may energise 
 within his heart. Without God Humanity is in the 
 " winter of its discontent " ; with Him, summer visits 
 the soul, and he grows in grace like a flower in the 
 » Cf. p. 132. 
 
 20 
 
3o6 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 sunshine. It is in the light of the idea of the Incarnation 
 as thus bringing God and Man together, and restoring 
 the Fatherly and filial relationship which is the condition 
 of Spiritual Evolution, that the Atonement as a part of 
 the process falls into line with the rest. Still, the 
 Atonement only makes Spiritual Evolution possible. 
 We must go to another aspect of Christ's work for the 
 element that continues and completes this higher growth, 
 which is to be found in His perfect example and His 
 spiritual presence in the heart of the believer. To 
 these questions let us next address ourselves. 
 
BOOK II: EVOLUTION 
 AND THE INCARNATION 
 
 "// was reserved for Christianity to 
 present to the world an ideal character, 
 which, through all the changes oj 
 eighteen centuries, has filled the hearts 
 of men with an impassioTied love, and 
 has shown itself capable oj acting on 
 all ages, nations, temperainents, con- 
 ditions ; has not only been the highest 
 pattern of virtue but the highest in- 
 centive to its ■bractice.^^ 
 
 Lecky 
 
 Chapter IV —The Ideal Man 
 
 Christ eludes all Human Categories — But He is the Ideal Man — Can 
 the Claim be established ? — Some Testimonies — The Universal, Ideal, and 
 Perfect Type of Humanity — Realised in the " Fulness of the Times " — The 
 " Embryonic Christ " of the Old Testament — Christ may be Divine and 
 yet truly Human. 
 
 WE have considered the bearing of the Evolutionary 
 Theory on the doctrine of the Atonement. 
 Briefly, the mystery of the Cross of Christ restores that 
 relationship between God and humanity which had been 
 broken by the Fall. Our next task is to consider the 
 further question how, the interrupted process of 
 Spiritual Evolution being resumed, the Incarnation 
 furnishes the type and the power whereby this may 
 be carried to perfection. Where, in other words, are 
 we to place the Man Christ Jesus in an Evolutionary 
 Scheme of Theology ? 
 
 It would be as well here frankly to state that in 
 our view the Lord Jesus Christ is not to be classed 
 in any human category. He stands aloof from all 
 human classfications, unique and solitary in the perfect 
 sinlessness and spiritual beauty of His life. This 
 fact is often taken as proof that it is impossible to 
 articulate the Person of Christ into any form of 
 
 307 
 
3o8 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 evolutionary thought. He represents an impassable 
 break in the continuity of human life, and brings 
 intellectual confusion on those who would retain a 
 belief in His moral perfection and Divine nature, and 
 at the same time bring their thinking into line with the 
 evolutionary tendencies of the time. 
 
 Our reply to this frequently asserted position is 
 twofold. 
 
 First, it remains as a fact in the history of religious 
 thought, that no one has succeeded in accounting for 
 our Lord's life and character on the supposition that 
 He was only the most perfect Man the world has 
 hitherto seen, without doing hopeless violence to the 
 facts of the case. Every attempt to bring Him into 
 the category of human life pure and simple has failed 
 to satisfy the conditions of the case. When the 
 historians and the psychologists, the critics and the 
 philosophers, have expended all their learning and 
 their acumen on this task, the testimony of those who 
 by faith have entered into the secret privileges of His 
 communion and love, as well as the unique impression 
 left by His personality on the minds of candid inquirers, 
 remains unaccounted for. Jesus was either more than 
 a man, or He was less than a good man. Here, again, 
 there is an intractable element, which eludes all human 
 theories, and baffles every attempt to bring it into line 
 with a purely naturalistic scheme of thought. 
 
 Secondly, we affirm once more that the presence of 
 a fresh factor in any series of evolutionary phenomena 
 which cannot be expressed in terms of previous factors 
 does not necessarily involve an impassable breach of 
 continuity in the natural order. The reader is referred 
 to pp. 26-34 of the Introduction for the elucidation of 
 this point. We found there that there are several 
 so-called "breaks" in the line of Evolution involving 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 309 
 
 the intrusion of fresh factors, which cannot, on the 
 confession of all reputable thinkers, be analysed into 
 the elements lying latent in the preceding facts. Life 
 is irreducible into chemical formulae, consciousness into 
 the consituents of vitality, self-consciousness into the 
 psychological phenomena of consciousness, will into 
 the resultant of conflicting motives. None the less 
 are they facts, which, once they appear in germ, take 
 their place in the enriched stream of Evolution without 
 interfering with the perfect continuity of the order 
 into which they have entered. Similarly, the fact that 
 there was in the Person of our Lord a new element, 
 which in Him for the first time mingled with the 
 turbid current of human life, and started a fresh and 
 higher line of Evolution, does not clash with the accepted 
 canons of scientific thought, which has had to acknow- 
 ledge similar " breaks " in the ascending series without 
 being able to account for them, and which must accept 
 Christ in all His uniqueness whether it can account 
 for Him or not. The point for us here is to consider 
 the function performed in the spiritual development of 
 the race by Jesus Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 Let us first consider Him as the Ideal Man — t"he 
 Crown and Goal of our perfected Humanity. 
 
 It was one of Plato's maxims that before the World 
 came into being as a fact, it had a prior existence in the 
 Divine Mind as an Idea. This Idea was no empty form, 
 but a shaping principle. It was rather a creative Ideal 
 than an Idea, and ensured its own fulfilment. The 
 existent world is the bodying forth of this Primal Ideal 
 in forms of matter under the conditions of space and 
 time. But the embodiment of the Idea in actuality 
 
3io iThc Ascent through Christ fiook II 
 
 is not a perfect, but only a partial embodiment of it. 
 
 Matter is dead, lifeless ; it makes no contribution of its 
 
 own to the process of development for which it furnishes 
 
 the material. It is the same even with the organic 
 
 world of plants and animals. They have no part in 
 
 the evolving process which makes them what they 
 
 are, except as passive instruments in the hands of 
 
 their Maker, as He shapes them to His slowly realised 
 
 purpose. But when we come to Man, we arrive for 
 
 the first time at a being who can as it were take a 
 
 share in his own development. In a word, he can 
 
 conceive, and he can within limits objectify^ an idea^ 
 
 and even to some ^^\&xi\, fulfil an ideal. This distinction 
 
 is of so radical a nature that it involves an entirely 
 
 new start in Evolution. Formerly the developing force 
 
 acted as it were from behind ; it was a pushing upward 
 
 and onward. But with Man there is a new factor. 
 
 He is released from the law of necessity, he is free to 
 
 choose, he is no longer merely pushed, but is drawn 
 
 upward by the attractive power of the ideal that he 
 
 sees before him. The centre of evolutionary influence 
 
 is no longer simply without him ; it is also above him. 
 
 This power of forming and striving after an ideal, 
 does not necessarily tend, let us remember, to the higher 
 life of Man. For it is just as easy, and for a fallen and 
 sinful being it is surely easier, to choose a false and 
 unlovely ideal, than a high and holy one. And as a 
 matter of fact, we do find that there is in men a 
 tendency to shape out courses of conduct, and set 
 before themselves objects of desire, of so destructive a 
 nature, that when these are followed blindly they result 
 in a degradation not so much bestial (for no beast 
 can be so false to the true laws of its nature) as infra- 
 bestial. The saddest and most tragic events in history 
 have been due to the blind, foolish, and criminal following 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 311 
 
 of false ideals, for the accomplishment of which all 
 considerations, however holy and tender and sacred, 
 have been ruthlessly spurned or hopelessly forgotten. 
 Taken in its widest significance, we may venture the 
 assertion that there is nothing more important for the 
 turning of the world back into the channels of its true 
 development, than to imbue it with a high and worthy 
 ideal, and to fill it with a holy love of that ideal. 
 
 There is no way so effectual of reaching this end as to 
 present the world with a concrete ideal. The abstract 
 notion of beauty is attractive only to the few, and 
 holiness and love are often but a weariness to the flesh 
 and the spirit, if viewed for long in their merely ideal 
 relations, and dissociated from a personality. But a 
 truly beautiful face never palls ; a loving deed never 
 grows stale ; a holy character never becomes common- 
 place. When beautiful faces do pall, it is because some 
 flaw is discovered which obtrudes itself more and more 
 on the eye till it destroys the impression of the beauty ; 
 when a loving deed ceases to attract, it is because the 
 hidden canker of selfishness is seen lurking within the 
 heart of it, destroying its charm ; and if a good man 
 fails to commend his goodness to those around him, it 
 is because it is lacking in some of the most attractive 
 qualities of goodness, and so is not goodness unadul- 
 terated. It is of the very nature of perfect goodness, 
 perfect beauty — physical or moral, and the physical 
 is but a type and parable of the moral — and perfect 
 love, to attach the mind and heart to themselves in 
 glad and entire allegiance. Men are only too glad to 
 worship when the Divinity appears. But most men, 
 and all but the best men, cannot worship a Deity in 
 the clouds ; an abstract faith is impossible to them ; 
 their God must touch them with the warm breath of 
 reality, and fill them with the sense of a personal 
 
3 1 2 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 presence ; then unless they are hopelessly given over to 
 evil, they will respond more or less eagerly, and, falling 
 at His feet, cry, " My Lord and my God." George Eliot 
 says in one of her earlier books : " Ideas are often poor 
 ghosts ; our sun-filled eyes cannot discern them ; they 
 pass athwart us in their vapour, and cannot make 
 themselves felt. But sometimes they are made flesh ; 
 they breathe upon us with warm breath, they touch us 
 with soft responsive hands, they look at us with sad 
 sincere eyes, and speak to us in appealing tones ; they 
 are clothed in a living human soul, with all its conflicts, 
 its faith, and its love. Then their presence is a power, 
 then they shake us like a passion, and we are drawn 
 after them with gentle compulsion, as flame is drawn to 
 flame." ^ 
 
 III 
 
 The cry of the human heart has thus ever been, in 
 thinking of the Ideal Man, " Oh that I might know 
 where I might find Him ! " — and the answer of 
 Christianity is, that in Jesus Christ this Ideal is found. 
 Whatever else He is, He is Man as God meant Man 
 to be. 
 
 This is a great claim : can it be established ? 
 
 One thing at least is quite clear and evident — this is 
 the only claim that has ever won the serious assent 
 of thoughtful and virtuous minds throughout all genera- 
 tions since His appearance on earth. There have been 
 noble and heroic characters whose presence in the world 
 has been a living fountain of inspiration in the direction 
 of all that is high and good, and there have been a few 
 whose personal presence has seemed to linger in the 
 world long after their bodies have mouldered into dust. 
 
 - " Scenes of Clerical Life." 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 3^3 
 
 But as men's point of view has shifted, and their ideals 
 have changed with the altered demands of the social 
 and spiritual environment, the influence of one after 
 another of the heroes and saints of the past has waned, 
 their personalities have become obsolete, and, as Emerson 
 once said, " every Hero becomes a bore at last" In one 
 case only has this not been so. There is One who has 
 never failed to hold His own in the minds of men, and 
 when we remember that that place has ever been the 
 supreme place, and that His demands on the allegiance 
 of His followers have been as absolute as they could 
 have been made, the wonder of this fact increases. 
 Since He lived— an obscure and almost unknown Man 
 in a provincial district, and surrounded by a narrow and 
 parochial environment — almost everything has changed. 
 But "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever " ; amidst the flux of the ages He stands 
 supreme, and He has succeeded in establishing, appar- 
 ently for ever, the final type of Manhood and Woman 
 hood in one. 
 
 This is not a matter of opinion, asserted by those who 
 call themselves by His name, while it is disallowed 
 by all others. Listen to a few of the tributes that have 
 been uttered by those who do not make or allow any 
 claim to be called Christians. Renan, among many 
 recurrent eulogies that are scattered over his perfumed 
 pages, evidently springing as involuntary exclamations 
 of admiration out of his very heart, says, "Whatever 
 may be the unlooked-for phenomena of the future, Jesus 
 will not be surpassed." Strauss, in assailing the authen- 
 ticity of the Gospels, yet bows reverently before Him 
 "in whom the Divine Wisdom first developed itself, 
 as a power determining His whole life and being." 
 Rathbone Greg confesses Jesus to have been " the wisest 
 and noblest of the Sons of men whom God has raised 
 
314 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 up with special gifts and for special work." Goethe 
 says concerning Christ : " If I am asked whether it is in 
 my nature to pay Him reverence, I say certainly ! I 
 bow before Him as a Divine manifestation of the highest 
 principle of morality." Theodore Parker, the Unitarian, 
 says : " In Him as in a mirror we may see the image 
 of God, and go on from glory to glory, till we are 
 changed into the same image." Lecky, in his ablest 
 book, refers to " that ideal character presented to the 
 world in Christianity, which, through all the changes of 
 eighteen centuries, has filled the hearts of men with 
 an impassioned love." And Carlyle speaks of Him 
 as " Our highest Orpheus, whose Sphere-melody, flowing 
 in wild, native tones, took captive the ravished souls 
 of men, and still modulates and Divinely leads them." 
 Schiller declares holiness to be the supreme thing for 
 Man, and that it stands incarnate for all time in Christ. 
 Finally — though these testimonies might be indefinitely 
 multiplied — Jean Paul Richter hails Him as " the 
 mightiest among the holy, and the holiest among the 
 mighty, who lifted with His pierced hands empires off 
 their hinges, turned the stream of time into new 
 channels, and still governs all the ages." 
 
 The life of Jesus is thus the paradox of history. It 
 may briefly be described in these three antitheses. 
 
 I. It is the presentation of a character universal in its 
 type, and yet appealing irresistibly to individual men 
 as their own example. 
 
 This is a marvel which becomes greater the more we 
 consider it. It is the natural result of a widening 
 generalisation that it loses definition and clearness of 
 outline the more its scope enlarges. The more abstract 
 an idea, the less affinity it has with particulars. And 
 we might have expected that as an ideal character 
 became universal in its scope, the less would it appeal to 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 315 
 
 individuals. We need a local element in our heroes in 
 order to feel the full fascination of their call to a higher 
 life. And speaking from an a priori point of view, we 
 should confidently say that to ask for a Man who would 
 become the universal type of Manhood for all men in all 
 parts of the earth, and in all ages, would be to ask for 
 an impossibility. Amid the many differences that 
 exist among men, there are some so divergent and 
 incompatible with one another, that we should at once 
 declare the demand to be an absurd and unphilosophical 
 one. " No single man could ever be a pattern for all 
 men " would surely be our final dictum. 
 
 But what are the facts regarding the place of Jesus in 
 the world's estimation ? It is unquestionable that He 
 has appealed to the whole of the civilised world, and 
 indeed to all the ^^/^civilised world in so far as His 
 claims have been brought before it, as the One Man 
 who combines in Himself the essential qualities of 
 Manhood. As it has been well put by a recent writer : 
 " Here then is the central unquestionable miracle — 
 Jesus Himself — that is, one from the cradle to the 
 grave, walking in spotless purity, through all temptation 
 wearing a conscience without a stain. His personality 
 free from every element that is either Jewish, or Greek, 
 or Roman, embracing every type of manhood, and not 
 only of manhood, but also of womanhood ; equally at 
 home with the saints on the Mount of Transfiguration 
 or with the sinners bowed at the base ; manifesting 
 every characteristic of the True and the Beautiful and 
 the Good ; charged with unfaltering wisdom, yet full of 
 the healing mercies that pass no sorrow by ; elect to 
 wipe away the tears of humanity, and to place it 
 redeemed and enfranchised among the sanctities of 
 Heaven."^ The character of Jesus reminds one of a 
 » "Pillars of the Faith," p. 189. 
 
3i6 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 saying concerning Helen of Troy, whose beauty was of 
 so universal a type that all men who looked at her felt 
 as though they were related to her. So do men feel 
 related to Jesus, for He combines in Himself all those 
 universal qualities which they instinctively recognise as 
 the contents of their better self 
 
 2. Another antithesis may be put thus : Jesus has 
 achieved the miracle of actualising the Ideal 
 
 We speak loosely sometimes of having seen an " ideal 
 picture," or having read an "ideal poem," or having 
 looked at an "ideal face," but this only covers our 
 conviction that the Ideal is something that can never 
 be actually realised in time and space. It is the 
 language of compliment, and not of sincere conviction, 
 when our eulogies take the above shape. There is no 
 painter or poet or sculptor or musician but will freely 
 confess that his conceptions far and away exceed his 
 power of performance. What he dreams of in his 
 inspired moments is a very different thing from what he 
 actually achieves in his working hours. The poet's fine 
 frenzy is already dying into ashes before his lines take 
 shape, and the painter's colours will never limn for us the 
 " light that never was on land or sea " which he has 
 seen in his hours of rapt inspiration, nor will his hand 
 perform the perfect curves that his mind can conceive. 
 If this is so with the artistic faculty, we may be sure 
 it is far more true of the moral Ideal, and its capacity 
 of being embodied in human life. " The good which 
 I would I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that 
 I do," is the sorrowful confession of the complete inability 
 of our common clay to rise into the region of the ideal 
 life as witnessed to by one of the best of men. 
 
 Here again the unique place of Jesus is recognised. 
 It is in itself a fact that has never been fairly faced 
 by those who refuse to acknowledge His claims to 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 3^7 
 
 Divine honours, that in spite of the otherwise universal 
 fact of imperfection, here is one who does not seem 
 ever to have realised the sense of sin, who yet com- 
 mands the complete admiration and homage of all true 
 men. Epictetus was once asked if it were possible to 
 be faultless, and he answered, " No, it is impossible ; 
 this only is possible, to endeavour to be faultless." In 
 this saying the philosopher revealed his own greatness 
 and humility. But what shall we say to the Christ, 
 as He stands before the ages, and, in tones that would 
 be unspeakably arrogant did they not carry conviction 
 with them, boldly asks, " Which of you convinceth Me 
 of sin ? " He stands thus before us as the Ideal Man 
 made actual — a miracle indeed ! 
 
 3. Once more : the character of Christ combines the 
 otherwise incompatible qualities of being both perfect 
 and imitahle. 
 
 The nearer to our own level the character of our 
 favourite is, the easier it must be to imitate and re- 
 embody. Conversely, the higher above us our ideal 
 looms, the harder it must be to attain to it. And the 
 great difficulty one feels in choosing his models in every 
 department of life lies in this, that the more perfect they 
 are, the more impossible c^ realisation they must be, 
 while the more easy it is to reach them, the less is it 
 worth our while to do so. Perfection and imitability 
 are seen thus to be antipodal qualities. 
 
 If, on the other hand, we look into the story of 
 Christian heroism and achievement in every direction, 
 we shall be struck with the strange fact that the One 
 who has fired men to the highest holiness of character, 
 is just the One of all others who has impressed the world 
 with His own unapproachable grandeur and perfection 
 of nature. No one has ever reached the height at which 
 He stfinds and yet the best men have tried to do so 
 
3 1 8 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 for the very reason that He is so high and so holy. 
 His beauty of character is so convincing that it has 
 charmed the word "impossible" out of the Christian 
 vocabulary. When lole was asked how it was that she 
 knew that Hercules was a god, she replied : " Because 
 I was satisfied with him the moment my eyes fell on 
 him. When I beheld Theseus and the other heroes, I 
 desired that they might engage in a chariot-race, or at 
 least in a foot-race, that I might see which of them 
 was the doughtiest ; but when I beheld Hercules, he 
 conquered whether he walked, or sat, or whatever else he 
 did, and so I knew him for a god." Even so has the 
 vision of the Christ made men feel that here was one 
 who was God in His perfection of character, and who 
 yet has brought perfection so near to us, and made it so 
 fascinating and winsome in its gentle compulsion, that 
 we are drawn into an involuntary emulation of the 
 impossible, and an earnest pursuit of the inimitable. 
 
 The question may well be asked. Whence came 
 this unique and astonishing personality? Is it an 
 ideal conception which had no objective existence 
 outside the fond imaginations of His adoring followers ? 
 On this point we have the frank admissions of John 
 Stuart Mill and others, whose testimony is all the more 
 valuable in that it did not come from the pens of 
 professed followers. The former says, speaking of the 
 portrait of Christ in the Gospels, that the inventor 
 would be even more wonderful than the hero. And 
 with that candour that was one of the most remarkable 
 of his many noble qualities he says : " Who among 
 His disciples, or among their proselytes, was capable 
 of inventing the sayings attributed to Jesus, or of 
 imagining the life and character revealed in the 
 Gospels ? Certainly not the fishermen of Galilee ; as 
 certainly not St. Paul, whose character and idio- 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 3^9 
 
 syncrasies were of a totally different sort ; still less the 
 early Christian writers, in whom nothing is more evident 
 than that all the good which was in them was all 
 derived, as they always professed that it was derived — 
 from the higher source " ^ The only explanation of this 
 miraculous character in history is that it actually 
 existed. "THE WORD WAS MADE FLESH." 
 
 IV 
 
 Christ therefore was the Ideal Man made known 
 to the world in the course of history, in order that 
 men might see for themselves the possibilities of their 
 nature realised in a concrete and most lovable person- 
 ality. But a pertinent question rises here, suggested 
 as it is by the analogies of Nature's Evolutionary pro- 
 cesses — Ought not the Ideal to be realised at the end and 
 not during the course of the Evolution ? 
 
 In the organic world, it is quite true that the ideal 
 could not come anywhere but at the end of the path- 
 way of development. The material universe works 
 up to a goal that cannot by any possibility be attained 
 except through the gradual accumulation of small 
 differences that are in the true line of Evolution, these 
 differences being so many microscopic steps towards 
 the attainment of the ultimate goal. The pathway, as 
 we have seen, is a narrow one, and few there be that 
 find it. It can indeed only be reached by the fortunate 
 creature in which are added the final touches, not by its 
 own virtue and effort, but because it happens to be 
 the instrument of Nature's final triumph. It is thus a 
 purely mechanical fact, encompassed by the iron band of 
 physical necessity. 
 
 1 "Essays on Religion," by J. S. Mill. 
 
320 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 But there is a different law of Evolution in the mental 
 and moral, from that which obtains in the physical, 
 world. Here the presiding Mind that directs the course 
 of ascending life is capable of receiving assistance from, 
 or of being hindered by, the creature that is being evolved. 
 In other words, there is a new factor present, which is 
 "the conscious, voluntary co-operation of the human 
 spirit in the work of its own evolution." In the case 
 of organic Evolution the animal is at the mercy of 
 spontaneous internal changes, and of mechanical outward, 
 or environal, changes. In human Evolution the creature 
 is in a sense a part of its own environment. The animal 
 knows not whither it is tending, nor whether it be 
 tending anywhere. Man knows not only his past 
 course, but can imagine his future. That is to say, he 
 can conceive an ideal, can feel its attractive power, can 
 strive to attain to it. It is thus a real part of his progress 
 that he should have the true Ideal before his eyes. 
 Only thus will he be able to evolve as he ought. Just 
 as truly, therefore, as we should naturally expect that 
 the ideal in the organic world should come at the end 
 of the process, so may we expect that, in the case 
 of a creature like Man, the fit place for the revelation 
 of an Ideal that shall be the goal of all spiritual 
 endeavour in the future must come during the course 
 of the process. 
 
 But does not this suggest that it ought to come at the 
 very beginning of the process of distinctively human 
 Evolution ? 
 
 No. For the power of conceiving, and still more of 
 being attracted by, an ideal is not the feature that 
 appears, or could appear, early in the story of humanity. 
 There was much unconscious mental, and more un- 
 conscious moral. Evolution to be got through before 
 Man could gain anything from the contemplation of 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 321 
 
 the Christ as the Ideal Man. It argues a nature that 
 kas reached a considerable elevation in the scale of 
 mental development to be able to recognise so high 
 a fact; and it argues a moral receptivity not to be 
 attained without long and trying discipline. To bring 
 the Ideal into the world therefore before the time — that 
 is, the moment when Man would be ripe to receive and 
 profit by so Divine a gift — would be to cast pearls before 
 swine. The Messiah must come " in the fulness of 
 time," if His work was to be well and effectually done. 
 He must become a part of History, and take His 
 place in the line of human development as an integral 
 part thereof; and so by an impression of reality that 
 could be gained in no other way, make Himself One 
 with the humanity whom He came to redeem and 
 sanctify.^ "At the end, the whole human race, drawn 
 upward by this ideal, must reach the fulness of the 
 stature of Christ." ^ 
 
 Assuming that Christ is the Ideal in question, we 
 can now better understand why it was that He appeared 
 in the world just when He did, and not earlier or later 
 in the history of the race. It was simply because then 
 was the " appointed time " — appointed, that is, not by 
 the arbitrary will of an irresponsible Deity, but by the 
 conditions essential to the successful performance of 
 His gracious mission. The world was ready for Him 
 when He came : if He had come sooner there would 
 be lacking one of the most striking features of His 
 earthly career — the sense He gives of having arrived 
 at the exact moment when His presence was most 
 to be desired ; if He had come later, the more we 
 study history, the more clearly we shall feel that the 
 
 See A. B. Bruce's "Apologetics, or Christianity Defensively 
 Considered," p. 412. 
 
 ' Ullmann, '• Die Sundlosigkeit Jesu," p. 159 quoted by Bruce). 
 
 21 
 
322 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 golden hour would have been missed. " So we also, 
 when we were children, were held in bondage under 
 the elements of the world : but when the fulness of the 
 time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a 
 woman, born under the law, that He might redeem them 
 which were under the law, that we might receive the 
 adoption of sons."^ 
 
 There is another fact connected with the appearance 
 of the Son of God as the Ideal of humanity that 
 deserves our attention. Though He did not appear 
 in the world till the fulness of the ages, He had been 
 expected for many centuries, and His coming had been 
 heralded in many ways. In the earliest pages of Inspired 
 Writ, we find that the pronouncing of the curse over 
 doomed humanity was brightened by the mysterious 
 promise of the seed that should bruise the serpent's 
 head ; ^ and whether we look at this as the fruit of an 
 early or a late period of the Old Testament religious 
 consciousness, it was at any rate sufficiently remote 
 from the time of Christ's appearance to be a true 
 prophetic indication of Some One to come who should 
 undo the grievous consequences of sin. But right 
 through the Old Testament there are premonitory 
 symptoms of the same fact. Abraham in some dim 
 and perhaps feeble way saw the day of Christ and 
 " rejoiced." ^ " Others of the world's grey fathers com- 
 mune or wrestle with an unknown shade, the prophetic 
 semblance of the coming One who should tread the 
 Judaean hills. Anon the great Levitical system, with 
 its wealth of type and shadow, all relating to the 
 Redeemer, rolls in cloud-like majesty before us ; while 
 * Gal. iv. 3-5. * Gen. iii. 15. ' John viii. 56. 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 3'^3 
 
 the inspired prophets pour forth those marvellous 
 predictions concerning Him which are the perpetual 
 miracle of history. Then the sufferings and glory of 
 the expected Messiah are set to more than mortal music 
 in the Psalms ; and, finally, the records of the Old 
 Testament are closed with a series of predictions so 
 clear and so definite that they declare the pen of the 
 seer to be God-guided."^ 
 
 This wonderful and quite unique fact deserves more 
 than a passing notice from us, since we are considering 
 the bearings of the law of Evolution on Christian 
 Theology, for here if anywhere their spheres intersect. 
 The coming Christ is so plainly to be foreseen in the 
 Old Testament dreams and prophecies and visions, that 
 those who reject the belief that Christ came in order 
 that Scripture might be fulfilled, i.e. in order that the 
 plan of salvation forecasted in that book or rather series 
 of books might be fulfilled, have yet to give a satisfac- 
 tory explanation of the phenomenon of prophecy. The 
 reader will perhaps permit us to quote here two passages 
 from the writings of thinkers who in many respects 
 represent antithetic schools of thought, but who in 
 this point are absolutely at one. 
 
 Bishop Alexander, in a recent volume of sermons, 
 speaking as he does for the advanced Anglicans, writes 
 as follows : " Line by line that lengthened epic, of 
 which the Messiah was the subject, was written. 
 Believers in their zeal may have occasionally written 
 their own meaning in, and forced a Christian reference 
 where it was not designed. But, after all deductions, 
 the poem remains complete, and the image of the Hero 
 can never be volatilised away by the ingenuity of 
 critical objection. Here and there the hints may be 
 ambiguous, and the interpretation obscure ; but, ever 
 1 " Pillars of the Faith," p. 198. 
 
 \ 
 
3^4 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 and anon, some one arises and 'teaches in song what 
 he has learned in sorrow.' David wails forth some 
 anguish in the twenty-second Psalm, the like of which 
 in its fulness none but One has ever known. Isaiah 
 describes in vision the form which John saw on Calvary. 
 Or, varying the figure, we may call prophecy a picture 
 growing on the canvas stroke by stroke. Sometimes 
 centuries elapse between one touch and the next, which 
 could only have been given by the hand of a heaven- 
 born painter. Slowly, but surely, was the picture drawn, 
 the crucifixion depicted : yet not the mere crucifixion 
 as a single painting. High over the Cross is a living 
 form that floats in glory. Round the representation of 
 the Crucified are the likenesses of the Ascension and 
 the Judge upon His throne. And all this was shaped 
 out, not on canvas or in stone, but in deathless words, 
 and then expressed by the living God in human flesh and 
 in a human life. ' All the things that are written by the 
 prophets shall be accomplished unto the Son of Man.' " ^ 
 The other writer referred to is Dr. R. F. Horton, who 
 speaks as the representative of the liberal wing of the 
 Nonconformists, in his work on "Revelation and the 
 Bible " : " The broad historic development of Israel 
 very obviously leads up to Christ, and all the institutions 
 of the Law and of the Congregation point to that 
 marvellous spiritual completion ; the modes of thought, 
 the expectations, the aspirations of Israel's thinkers 
 and prophets no less clearly prognosticate the great 
 Person that is to be ; these historical and spiritual 
 elements of Revelation even a careless reader will find 
 it difficult to miss if he studies the Old Testament in 
 the light of the New. But there is something more 
 curious still : how comes it that one story after another 
 in the narrative parts of the Old Testament lends itself 
 1 <• Verbum Crucis," pp. 95, 96. (See Luke xviii. 31.) 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 325 
 
 to a typological treatment, so that the events are, as 
 St. Paul would say, aXXrjyopovfMeva — allegories of things 
 which were realised centuries later? . . . And when 
 this typical significance of events and names and persons 
 is carried on through century after century of a national 
 literature, in ways which no human foresight or wisdom 
 could possibly have devised, so that a Christian taking 
 up the Old Testament with Christ as the key finds in 
 his hands a series of pictures, as it were, all representing 
 with outline more or less distinct, and with colours more 
 or less harmonised, the Lord whom he has learnt to 
 know, is it not plain that we are face to face with a 
 mysterious element of Revelation which we must con- 
 stantly bear in mind and honestly seek to explain ? " ^ 
 
 We are persuaded that no Science will account for 
 this apart from a belief that here is something which is 
 not of earth but of heaven. But for all that, it is not 
 incapable of being expressed in Evolutionary terms 
 The whole phenomena of prophecy and typology may 
 be classed or at least compared with those of lower 
 Sciences in this way. The foreshadowings of the 
 Coming Redeemer are a kind of Embryonic Christ, 
 heralding and giving pledge of what shall in the fulness 
 of time appear in the flesh. The very centuries were in 
 labour and travail with the Son of God who was also the 
 Son of Man, and when the period of gestation was 
 complete, the womb of Time brought forth the " First- 
 born of every creature." 
 
 VI 
 
 But it will perhaps be objected that the Ideal Man 
 as seen in Jesus Christ is not a true example for us, 
 
 ^ " Revelation and the Bible," pp. 2022. Julia Wedgwood's 
 chapter on •' The Unity of a Type " in her " Message of Israel " finely 
 illustrates the same truth (q.v.). 
 
3'2.6 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 because He is more than Man, being also the Son of 
 God. 
 
 This is a difficulty which has been present in the 
 minds of Christians from the beginning ; but it is felt 
 now as never before, because a more vivid impression 
 of the actual personality of our Saviour has come home 
 to the devout Christian consciousness than in any other 
 age. It would seem that in order to be an Ideal for us, 
 He must not only be Man, but that He must be only 
 a Man. The Deity of Christ seems to take away from 
 us just what is most precious in His Humanity — His 
 example. 
 
 But this difficulty is only formidable when a theory 
 of the relations between His Divine and Human Nature 
 is formed a priori. This is just what has been done 
 by most thinkers who have held the ear of the world 
 throughout the centuries. But in these latter days we 
 are beginning to look at this, like other subjects, from an 
 a posteriori point of view. And then the worst elements 
 of the difficulty pass away. 
 
 Whatever may be the substratum of mystery that 
 looms beyond the reach of analysis in the mental and 
 spiritual conditions of our Lord's life on earth, it is 
 clear that the New Testament writers did not feel this 
 difficulty as we do.^ They all seem to be completely 
 unconscious of it. The author of the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews speaks of Him as in all essential matters on a 
 level with us. " Wherefore it behoved Him in all things 
 to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a 
 merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to 
 God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 
 
 * Cf. Fairbairn, however ("Christ in Modern Theology," p. 354): 
 " To the Evangelists the most miraculous thing in Christ was His 
 determination not to be miraculous, but to live our ordinary life 
 amidst struggles and in the face of temptations that never 
 ceased." 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 3^7 
 
 For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, 
 He is able to succour them that are tempted." ^ Else- 
 where the same writer says, " For we have not a high 
 priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
 infirmities ; but one that hath been in all points tempted 
 like as we are, yet without sin." ^ Peter in one of the 
 most impressive passages of his First Epistle puts the 
 same thought a little less clearly, but it is the same 
 in substance : " For hereunto were ye called : because 
 Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, 
 that ye should follow His steps : who did no sin, 
 neither was guile found in His mouth," ^ etc. In these 
 and many other passages there is clearly no sense of 
 the difficulty which we so often feel and express, and it 
 is manifest that we have in some way imported it into 
 the facts rather than found it there. 
 
 It would be well then to ask, what were the conditions 
 under which our Lord was able to become a true example 
 to us who are real men and women, and no more ? 
 
 We shall, we think, find the solution of this difficulty 
 in a more frank acceptance of the Humanity of our 
 Lord. He became MaUy and He submitted Himself to 
 the limitations of our Humanity in a far truer sense 
 than many of us, in our mistaken desire to defend His 
 Divinity, are willing to allow. When Christ laid aside 
 His Divine Majesty, and "humbled Himself," He did so 
 in a real, and not merely in a metaphorical sense. He 
 subjected Himself to the conditions of finite and temporal 
 existence as truly from freewill as we have to do from 
 necessity. We have all been accustomed to think of Him 
 as being pent up in a body, moving about in the same 
 way as we do, undergoing the common experiences of the 
 body, such as hunger and thirst, weariness and depression, 
 elation and restfulness. Except on certain occasions 
 * Heb. ii. 17, 1 8. » Ibid., iv. 15. 3 i Peter ii. 31, 22. 
 
328 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 when He had some kind and unselfish purpose to 
 perform, He never took advantage of His superhuman 
 powers to release Himself from the ordinary restrictions 
 and fatigues of our physical condition. All this has 
 always been acknowledged, as indeed must be done unless 
 the most wanton violence be done to the meaning of 
 the Gospels. 
 
 But when we approach the higher question of mental 
 limitations, most readers of the New Testament act as 
 though its language really meant something different 
 from what it seems to mean. The expressions used to 
 describe the mental and spiritual conditions of our 
 Saviour's human life are understood in a non-natural 
 manner ; all suggestion of any real limitation that may 
 be found in His modes of thought, and any hint that 
 He was subject to the same spiritual restrictions as 
 ourselves, are discounted, and the texts denoting such 
 ideas explained in a way that would never be applied to 
 other texts without taking out the marrow from the 
 Gospel. This is a relic of mediaeval Theology which it 
 is time to discard. In its over-anxiety to secure the 
 Divine nature of Christ from being half-acknowledged, 
 it lost hold of His real Humanity. Jesus could not have 
 been ignorant of anything, for He was God ; He could 
 therefore never have come to know what He did not 
 know before ; He could never have experienced a break 
 in His realisation of the Divine presence : and when 
 athwart the course of such abstract argument certain 
 isolated texts threw their awkward shadow, such as " Of 
 that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not even the 
 Son " ^ — " He grew in wisdom " ^ — " He cried, My God, 
 My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me ? " ^ — alternative 
 explanations were suggested which did not interpret the 
 mystery, but simply contradicted each other. What shall 
 * Matt. xxiv. 36. 2 Luke ii. 52. ' Matt, xxvii. 46. 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 3^9 
 
 we say of men who thought that they were honouring 
 God by asserting that in these expressions it is not 
 meant that He really grew in wisdom, but that He only 
 seemed to grow ; that when He said He did not know, 
 He meant only that He would not tell ; that when He 
 cried out that He was desolate, He was never really 
 deprived of the consolations of His Father's presence ? 
 
 The passages which state or imply that there were 
 real limitations to the earthly personality of our Lord 
 are too numerous to be explained away ; and to do so 
 is to lose, in our opinion, one of the most fruitful sources 
 of consolation in the Gospel. It is clearly revealed that 
 as a child He grew, not only physically, but mentally 
 and spiritually. He received the Baptism of the Holy 
 Ghost at the Jordan.^ He was " led up of the Spirit 
 into the wilderness." ^ His miraculous power was clearly 
 held in fief from the Father, and depended, at times at 
 any rate, on conditions beyond His own control. John 
 teaches that at least in some of His miracles His power 
 was dependent on a direct answer to prayer.^ Then we 
 are told that He expressed surprise, e.g. at the conduct 
 of His parents, at the unbelief as well as at the unusual 
 faith of certain men, at the barrenness of the fig-tree, 
 at the slowness of His disciples' spiritual perception and 
 trust.* At times He asked for information and acknow- 
 ledged its receipt.^ And when we come to the closing 
 scenes of His passion and death, we are irresistibly 
 struck with the strange mingling of a Divine loftiness 
 of mind with the saddest and most human grief, and 
 woe, and weakness, that have ever been limned before 
 the eyes of men. It was only because the future was 
 
 ^ Matt. iii. i6. 
 
 3 Ibid., iv. I. 
 
 ' John xi. 41 : cf. Matt. xiv. 19. 
 
 * Luke ii. 49; Mark vi. 6, iv. 40, viii. 18, viii. 21, xiv. 37. 
 
 « John xi. 34, xxi. 5, etc., etc. 
 
33^ The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 not clear that He could pray : " Father, if it be possible, 
 let this cup pass away from Me."^ Boldly simple is 
 the language of the inspired commentator on this scene 
 of agony : " Christ," he says, " in the days of His flesh, 
 having offered up prayers and supplications with strong 
 crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him 
 from death, and having been heard for His godly fear, 
 though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by the things 
 which He suffered." ^ No language less than this would 
 correspond with the historic narrative, but it is language 
 that very clearly expresses the exercise of human faith 
 in our Lord's case ; nor is it possible that He could 
 have cried with real meaning on the cross, " Why hast 
 Thou forsaken Me ? " unless He had really entered into 
 the experience which prompted the cry of the Psalmist, 
 into the trial of the soul from whom God hides His 
 face, the trial of the righteous man forsaken.^ 
 
 Without dwelling longer on the evidence of this 
 undoubted fact, — explain it as we may, — let us try to 
 gather up from our own special point of view the broad 
 lines of limitation to which, in a very real sense, our 
 Lord subjected Himself while on earth, in order that 
 He might not only be a faithful high priest, but also 
 a perfect exemplar to us. 
 
 He was subject to all the restrictions of mind 
 
 and body that were necessary to the full bearing of 
 
 the burden of our human probation and the educative 
 
 influence of the earthly environment of human life. 
 
 His mission dawned on Him slowly and gradually ; 
 
 He was capable of being tempted to be unfaithful to it ; 
 
 human and bodily weakness sometimes made the 
 
 burden of His mission an almost intolerable pain to 
 
 * Matt. xxvi. 39. 
 3 Heb. V. 7. 8. 
 
 ' See Gore's Bampton Lecture on this whole subject, esp pp. 147- 
 150; also " Studies of the Mind in Christ," by T. Adamsoa, B.A. 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 33 1 
 
 Him ; and as a means of solving His many hard trials, 
 He depended on just the sources of strength and conso- 
 lation that are open to us who are His followers. It 
 is true that there was behind all this human sense of 
 weakness — at least at times, for the consciousness of 
 Deity was apparently an intermittent, or, at least, a 
 variable factor in His experience — an occasional con- 
 viction that He might have drawn on infinite resources 
 of succour and help had He chosen so to do,^ but He 
 never exercised this ; and it would scarcely be argued 
 by any one that the knowledge of His Divinity in 
 this way was any bar to the perfect action of His 
 humanity, for it was realised only in order to refuse 
 to use it, so making His self-abnegation more complete 
 and touching. There was no trial to which we are 
 prone that He was not also open to feel and measure 
 in all its fulness. And above all, the way in which 
 He overcame all temptations, all trials, all weaknesses, 
 all the heritage of frailty which He received with His 
 human body, was the simple and yet often — to us — 
 hard method of depending wholly on the presence 
 and succour and strength of His Heavenly Father. 
 " He Himself says, that He accomplishes whatsoever 
 the Father taught Him ; that He does what He sees 
 the Father doing; that the Father makes to Him a 
 progressive revelation [cf. " He shall show Him greater 
 works than these "] ; that the Father * gave Him ' the 
 Divine name, i.e. the positive revelation of Himself, to 
 communicate to the Apostles ; that He has made known 
 to them all things that He had heard of the Father, or 
 the words which the Father had given Him."^ And 
 in all tne crises of His earthly career, we find that He 
 turned to His Father for guidance, for refreshment, 
 and for the power to heal and work miracles, just as 
 ^ Matt. xxvi. 53. ' Gore, p. 49. 
 
33 2 The Ascent through Christ Book II 
 
 naturally as a flower turns to the sunlight. He lived 
 « in the Father," as the Father lived " in Him " ; and 
 this flawless friendship and perfect understanding was 
 meant not merely to illustrate a mystic union between 
 the first and second Persons in the Trinity which is 
 far above our own attainment, but that relation of 
 perfect sympathy between humanity on earth and the 
 Fatherhood in heaven, which is open to all who will 
 avail themselves of the unfathomable resources of 
 redeeming grace.^ 
 
 Viewed then as the typical perfect and sinless Man, 
 Jesus Christ was none the less human because He was 
 Divine. For in order to present us with the vision of 
 what we ought to be, He verily became Man. In 
 the fulness of time the Ideal was made manifest ; 
 the " Word was made flesh " ; He dwelt among us ; we 
 beheld His glory, "the glory as of the only begotten 
 of the Father, full of grace and truth." And He grew. 
 This is the point at which our inquiry takes a vital 
 hold of the doctrine of His Person. He Himself was 
 
 • On this most difficult but all-important matter, the following 
 words from one of our foremost theologians will commend them- 
 selves : " If Christ in His historical life be conceived as a conscious 
 God who lives and speaks like a limited man, then the worst of all 
 forms of docetism is affirmed. For it is one that dissolves Him into 
 infinite unreality. If He knows as God while He speaks as man, 
 then His speech is not true to His knowledge. ... If He had such 
 knowledge, how could He remain silent as He faced human ignor- 
 ance and saw reason wearied with the burden of all its unintelligible 
 mysteries ? If men could believe that once there lived upon this 
 earth One who had all the knowledge of God, yet declined to 
 turn any part of it into science for man, would they not feel their 
 faith in His goodness taxed beyond endurance ? Is not much of the 
 modern impatience of theology a just Nemesis upon systems that 
 have in this matter wronged Him they professed to interpret ? " 
 Then in a footnote : " Christ recognises the limitations of His own 
 knowledge (Mark xiii. 32 : cf. xiv. 35, 36)." Again, " The physical 
 limitations really represent the transcendent obligations imposed 
 by His work upon His will " (Fairbairn's " Christ in Modern 
 Theology," p. 353). 
 
Chap. IV The Ideal Man 333 
 
 the subject of a spiritual Evolution. Just as we are 
 told that the embryo recapitulates in the preliminary 
 stages of the individual life the whole history of its 
 race, so we may reverently say that, in the stages of 
 growth of the perfect life as seen in Jesus from the 
 cradle to the cross, we see the pathway that would 
 have been followed by the race if, instead of falling 
 into sin, it had retained its innocence and gone on 
 to perfection. In that case there would have been 
 limitations ; there would have been growth ; there 
 would have been a gradual Evolution from a partial 
 and incomplete life to a glorious and perfect one, like 
 the growth of the bud into the flower. But there would 
 have been no sin ; and in that wide difference we have 
 the whole story of the actual as opposed to the ideal 
 course of Man. If we study the childhood of Christ as 
 it is scantily sketched out for us, we have a picture of 
 the true pathway that ought to have been followed by 
 humanity in its earlier and prehistoric career ; and if 
 we study His later life, we shall see not only what 
 we ourselves ought to be individually, but also what 
 the race might be in its relations to God and to its 
 constituent members. 
 
Book III: Evolution 
 and the Resurrection 
 
 3SS 
 
•• A belief in the Resurrection of our Lord is not indeed 
 the solution (for that we cannot gain), but the illumina- 
 tion of the mysteries of life : in this fact the apparent 
 contradictions of the immensity and insignificance of the 
 individual are harmonised : in this lies an end to which 
 pre-Christian history converged, a spring from which post- 
 Christian history flows : in this man finds the only perfect 
 consecration of his entire nature : in this there is con- 
 tained a promise for the future which removes, so far 
 as may be, the sense of isolation which belongs to our 
 finite nature, and unites the world to the absolute and 
 eternal : in this, to sum up all briefly, we may con- 
 template Christianity in relation to history, to man, and 
 to the future, not as a vague idea, or as a set of dogmas, 
 or even as a system, but as a witness to actual events 
 in the substantial reality of which lies all its power 
 and all its hope." 
 
 Westcott, The Gospel of the Resurrection. 
 
 336 
 
* Christ's Resurrection was not a temporary 
 reversal of the laws of sin and death, but 
 a permanent supersession of them by a higher 
 law in which mortality was swallowed up 
 of life.'' 
 
 D. W. Forrest, 
 
 BOOK III 
 EVOLUTION AND THE RESURRECTION 
 
 Chapter L — The Risen Christ 
 
 How the Incarnation is transformed by the Resurrection — The latter 
 an Objective Historical Fact — The Reward of the Perfect Obedience of 
 the Son — The Type of the Glorified Humanity — The Pledge of Personal 
 Immortality for Believers. 
 
 I 
 
 SO far we have dealt with that aspect of the Incar- 
 nation which is centred in the earthly life of Jesus 
 Christ, and bounded by His atoning death on the 
 Cross. We now come to a more universal aspect, and, 
 leaving behind us the merely temporary aspects of the 
 earthly appearing of the Son of God, we rise to a 
 point of view from which the Incarnation is seen as 
 a spiritual world-process which is in the highest sense 
 Evolutionary in its character. 
 
 Those who would limit the life and work of our Lord 
 to the power of His example as the typical Man, to the 
 wonderful elevation and universality of His teaching, 
 to the inspiring influence of His ideas of Man, of God, 
 and of social progress through the law of Love and 
 Goodwill among Men, and who bring the sinless life 
 He led to an end at the grave of Joseph of Arimathea, 
 part company here with the distinctively Christian 
 conception, and with the faith of Eighteen Centuries. 
 It is as far wide of the mark to say that this makes no 
 practical difference, as it is to say that it altogether 
 
 337 22 
 
33 S The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 removes all the truth revealed to the world through 
 
 Christ from the grasp of mankind. There is a sense in 
 
 which the work of our Lord is entirely independent of 
 
 the consciousness of men. The Godward aspect of the 
 
 Atonement would be as fully operative without the faith 
 
 and acceptance of mankind. It concerns the internal 
 
 relations that exist within the Blessed Trinity. As a 
 
 matter of fact we know nothing positive as to its nature ; 
 
 it seems impossible to come to a common consent as 
 
 to its meaning ; what we seem able to say about it 
 
 is mostly of a negative character ; we can tell what 
 
 it does not mean, and reject the crude generalisations 
 
 that have been made concerning it by one theological 
 
 school and another ; but the theory of the Atonement 
 
 which is able to commend itself to all thoughtful 
 
 Christians as reasonable and satisfactory has yet to 
 
 be discovered. And this shows that clear thinking 
 
 about this mystery was not meant to be attained in 
 
 order to realise that practical side of the subject which 
 
 is turned to our human vision. A man may be largely 
 
 at sea on this point, and yet be a devout and earnest 
 
 Christian. For he may be unable to explain the 
 
 bearings of the Sacrifice on the Cross on the mind 
 
 and heart of God, and yet by faith and love lay hold 
 
 of Christ as his personal Saviour.^ The love of Christ 
 
 may constrain him ; he may feel the ineffable truth 
 
 that in Him his sins are all atoned for and pardoned, 
 
 thus reaching peace and joy in believing ; he may live 
 
 in Him and for Him ; and still be unable to give 
 
 anything like a consistent and intelligible notion of 
 
 what Christ did on Calvary in order to make it possible 
 
 * To affirm the contrary is to make a purely rationalistic state- 
 ment ; though this is often done by some extreme representatives 
 of the "orthodox" Evangelical school, who practically make an 
 acceptance of the substitutionary and " legal " theory of the Atone- 
 ment a condition of salvation. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 339 
 
 for God to forgive sin. All that many are able to 
 do in this matter is to fall back on the words of 
 Scripture, and, basing their faith on what is there said, 
 accept the fact that " While we were yet sinners, Christ 
 died for us." And if it is non-essential that we should 
 be able to give a clear definition to this doctrine or 
 article of faith in order to enter into its fruits, it follows, 
 conversely, that though we did not know anything of 
 the fact at all, we should not for that reason be alto- 
 gether debarred from the benefits of it. "The very 
 substance of the Christian Gospel is la declaration that 
 the reason of God's forgiveness of human sin is in God 
 Himself, not in Man; in Christ the Eternal Son of 
 God, not in ourselves ; it is a declaration, not merely 
 of the infinite love of God, for there may be love where 
 moral resentment remains, and where moral resentment 
 is active ; but, as Paul puts it, the preachers of the 
 Gospel are the heralds of God sent to proclaim to 
 nations in revolt that God is at peace with them ; at 
 peace with them that are afar off ; at peace with them 
 that are nigh ; at peace, not with the penitent merely, 
 but with the impenitent ; not with the devout Christian 
 merely, but with those who do not yet believe in Christ ; 
 at peace with all mankind."^ 
 
 Is there then no need that this redemption be known 
 in order that its benefits be realised ? Not that some 
 of its benefits be realised ; but it is necessary that it 
 be known in order that all the incalculable benefits 
 dependent on faith be appropriated. The atheist does 
 not lose all the benefits of the being of God, for he is 
 in possession of life and all its blessings ; but he loses 
 all the benefits of a knowledge of and a belief in God.^ 
 
 * Dale, " Fellowship with Christ, and other Sermons," p. 332. 
 
 * See a suggestive essay by R. H. Hutton in his Theological 
 Essays, on " The Moral Significance of Atheism." 
 
340 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 And it is ordained that, in order that the Atonement 
 should do its saving work on the soul, men should 
 believe. For salvation in the fullest sense is a process 
 depending on the relations between Man and his 
 Saviour ; and in order that it may come to perfection, 
 the two must enter consciously into these relations. 
 
 In what then do these relations consist? Is it 
 enough that we should know that Christ came into the 
 worldj lived an ideal life, died an atoning death, and 
 was buried ? Is it enough to know through the Gospel 
 story that God is willing, because of what Christ did 
 on Calvary, to forgive sin, and that now we have 
 nothing to do save to believe that and follow Him as 
 our great Type and Exemplar ? 
 
 If this were all, then it would after all amount to 
 but little. We should still be left to our own resources 
 in endeavouring to live out the Divine Life ; and 
 hampered as we are by our common heritage of evil, 
 and by our constitutional weaknesses and "besetting 
 sins," we should not be able to attain even to the 
 fringe of the pure and holy ideal. In looking at the 
 fair outlines of that gracious and beautiful life, and 
 comparing with it our own attainments at their best, 
 our cry must be that of the poet, — 
 
 " O snows so pure, O peaks so high ! 
 I shall not reach you till I die ! " 
 
 What men need is not only a Saviour who shall make 
 it possible for God to forgive sin, and who shall leave 
 behind Him as He passes into the dark portal of 
 death the fragrance of Divinest purity and holiness, 
 saying, as the echo of His voice dies in the far-off ages, 
 " This is the Way, walk ye therein ! " but a Saviour 
 who shall be a present friend and brother, infusing into 
 His followers His own grace and beauty and holiness 
 
Chap. 1 The Risen Christ 341 
 
 by direct contact and the breath of spirit on spirit. 
 If we have to look back into the gathering shadows 
 of so many centuries for our Christ, and find Him only 
 in Galilee and Jerusalem, we shall miss the inmost 
 heart of the Gospel. Those who lived with Him and 
 came into the vitalising atmosphere of His presence 
 might have been able to catch the inspiration needful to 
 follow the high path ; but who is there who can depend 
 on such far-off stimulus for the power that shall transform 
 him into the likeness of the Son of God ? 
 
 Let those who can supply the answer. For ourselves 
 we believe that the Man who lived and passed away is 
 not the Saviour whom we know and love. The Christ 
 of History is not merely the Christ of Calvary and the 
 Grave in the Garden. He IS THE RISEN AND 
 Regnant Christ. 
 
 II 
 
 Once more, we must decline to enter into the question 
 of Christian Evidences. We assume the act of the 
 Resurrection of our Lord to be a historic fact substan- 
 tially as it is given in the Gospels and the Acts of the 
 Apostles. It is our business to view it in relation to 
 the Theory of Evolution ; or, rather, to show its 
 unquestionable Evolutionary significance. 
 
 And first, let us consider the Resurrection of Christ 
 as an objective fact. 
 
 Our Lord is distinctly spoken of as having risen from 
 the dead in a real objective sense. He did not appear 
 to His disciples as a disembodied spirit. " A spirit hath 
 not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have," were His own 
 significant words on this point as He spoke with His 
 disciples.* " Reach hither thy finger, and see My hands ; 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 39. 
 
342 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 and reach hither thy hand, and put it in My side : and 
 be not faithless, but believing," was His appeal to a 
 sceptical follower, in proof at once of His personal 
 identity and of His " corporeal " reality.^ The body 
 which He had after His resurrection was the same as 
 that with which He walked about the streets of 
 Jerusalem and trod the vales of Galilee. " The Lord is 
 risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon." ^ There 
 is abundant evidence of the impression of both identity 
 and " corporeality " in the Resurrection Body of Jesus ; 
 so that His disciples, i.e. those who knew Him best, and 
 could not possibly be deceived by any fancied re- 
 semblance between Him and a pretender who might 
 have personified Him, were left in no manner of doubt 
 that He was the Jesus whom they had known and loved 
 during His earthly life. 
 
 This being clearly understood, it must be as clearly 
 noted that the Resurrection Body of our Lord was in 
 some striking respects different from that which He had 
 before His death on Calvary. Identical in a sense 
 it undoubtedly was, and equally certain is it that it 
 was different in some of its qualities. In the Gospel 
 of John there is a remarkable passage in which these 
 two points are illustrated. It is that to which notice 
 is drawn above.^ A verse or two before our Lord is 
 represented as asking Thomas to reach forth his hand 
 and his fingers for the purpose of testing His identity, 
 it is said, " Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood 
 in the midst,"* which is the second time that express 
 mention is made of this fact.^ The difference is so 
 great that in one case, at least, those who had known 
 Him well during His former life failed to know Him 
 
 * John XX. 27, * John xx. 26. 
 
 « Luke xxiv. 34. » Ibid., verse 19. 
 
 » John XX. 27. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 343 
 
 till He had revealed Himself through a characteristic 
 act, — that of blessing the bread which the disciples 
 were about to eat/ — and this though He had been 
 walking and talking with them for some time. He seems 
 to have exercised the power of appearing to, and dis- 
 appearing from, His disciples at will,^ and to be able 
 to pass from one place to another in a more rapid 
 manner than by the ordinary means of locomotion. He 
 is never spoken of as being subject to bodily feelings 
 of fatigue and weariness, or of hunger and thirst ; 
 though He is, strangely enough, represented, on one 
 occasion at least, as eating before (not with) His 
 disciples.^ The bearing of the Master with His followers 
 is also quite different from the old familiar though 
 dignified manner of His earthly intercourse. He refuses 
 the caress offered to Him by Mary Magdalene in her 
 wild joy at finding that He was really alive ; * and 
 though He acts differently with Thomas, it is for a 
 special reason which is distinctly stated. " He no 
 longer accompanied His disciples, as He had been wont 
 to do, on their journeys, but sent them forth alone, 
 and met them at the close ; . . . and when He came in 
 contact with them, there was a mysteriousness in His 
 bearing, and a reserve in His manifestations of Himself, 
 very different from what had been exhibited by Him 
 during His previous life." ^ 
 
 In a word, we are made to feel as we read the strange 
 story that the body of our Lord after His resurrection 
 was a " glorified " or " spiritual " body, and that while 
 it was as real as ours, it was possessed of certain 
 
 * Luke xxiv. 30, 31. 
 ^ Luke xxiv. 31. 
 
 ' Luke xxiv. 42 : ct. John xxi. 13, where it is said that He gave 
 them the bread and the fish, but not that He Himself ate any. 
 
 * John XX. 17. 
 
 * MilHgan, '^The Resurrection of our Lord," pp. 13, 14. 
 
344 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 attributes which we cannot predicate of our own. It 
 was not matter grave-bound, nor enslaved by the laws 
 of gravitation, nor hedged in by the ordinary limitations 
 which hamper the movement and restrain the capacities 
 of our bodies ; it was matter as it were refined and 
 sublimated of its grosser qualities, and so made abso- 
 lutely subordinate to the spirit that used it as its 
 medium. It was a body such as we can easily conceive 
 ours would be if it were released from the laws of decay 
 and death, and the trammels of locality and infirmity. 
 It was indeed a type of the " spiritual body " which 
 is the heavenly heritage of those who die in faith. 
 " For our citizenship is in heaven ; from whence also we 
 wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ : who shall 
 fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may 
 be conformed to the body of His glory, according to 
 the working whereby He is able even to subject all 
 things unto Himself"^ 
 
 III 
 
 We may look at this fact in one of two ways. In the 
 first place, it may be regarded as the consummation 
 of our Lord's human glory and triumph over death, 
 achieved by Him as the reward of His perfect obedi- 
 ence ; or, as the representative of the glorified humanity 
 of which He was the type and crown. That is to say, 
 it has a reference that is exclusively personal to Him- 
 self; and it has a significant bearing on the doctrine 
 of our own immortality. 
 
 I. In the Resurrection Body our Lord received the 
 seal of the Divine satisfaction with His work as the 
 Redeemer of Man. It was at once the completion of 
 
 * Phil. iii. 20, 21. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 345 
 
 His offering to God on behalf of humanity, and the 
 reward of the life of perfect obedience which He had 
 lived on earth. 
 
 The former aspect of the fact will be best realised 
 in the light of the Levitical Laws relating to sacrifice. 
 We have already touched on this point in dealing with 
 the Atonement as such. It was not the death of the 
 victim which symbolised the essential part of the 
 sacrifice. " For the life of the flesh is in the blood : and 
 I have given it to you upon the altar to make atone- 
 ment for your souls " ; ^ i.e. it is the blood as life, not 
 as poured out in death, that is there given on the altar ; 
 and the blood is conceived as being as much alive 
 during the whole of the period when the offering is 
 being made, as before it was drawn forth from the dying 
 animal. What then was the meaning of the death of 
 the creature being offered ? It symbolised the law that 
 the "soul that sinneth, it shall surely die." And the 
 sprinkling of the blood on the sacrificer symbolised his 
 life saved in death and through death, and now offered 
 to God, no longer as a dead thing through the law, but 
 as a living thing through the mercy of God. In turning 
 from the type to the Antitype, how does this apply ? 
 It can apply only in the light of the Resurrection and 
 the Ascension of our Lord. In the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, indeed, it is clearly shown that, in the view 
 of the writer, the work of Christ on earth was not 
 complete till He rose and ascended to the Father. As 
 Dr. Milligan puts it, very briefly and graphically : — 
 
 ** The meaning of our Lord's presentation of Himself 
 in Heaven is thus different from that of His death upon 
 the Cross. Both are indeed parts of one whole ; but 
 they are not on that account to be confounded with one 
 another, or to be regarded as the expression, in different 
 ^ Lev. xvii. ii. 
 
34^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 ways, of one and the same thought. There is a distinct 
 difference between them. In the one our great Repre- 
 sentative bears the penalty of our sins, submitting 
 Himself to death, the first demand of the Divine law 
 upon the sinner, — yet doing this, not simply that He 
 may die, but that He may pass through death to life. In 
 the other. He who is still our Representative presents 
 Himself to His Heavenly Father, as One who has 
 passed through death to life, and whose life, redeemed 
 from the power of death, is now to be presented for 
 ever to the Father, in joyful gratitude and praise. Were 
 it not for the first act, our Lord, and we in Him, would 
 approach into the Divine presence without that free 
 acceptance of penalty which must be the very first step 
 in our return from evil. Were it not for the second, 
 actual return to God would not take place. Without 
 the former, that death would be wanting out of which 
 alone the corn of wheat can spring up into life. 
 Without the latter, there would be no springing up of 
 the corn of wheat at all. Neither act is sufficient 
 without the other ; and both must be accomplished 
 before the sacrifice of the Heavenly High Priest can be 
 regarded as complete." ^ 
 
 But there is something more than this in the personal 
 aspects of the Resurrection. In it our Lord received 
 the pledge that His work was acceptable to His Father. 
 It was an assurance that it had been perfectly done. 
 In the passage which we have already quoted from 
 the Philippians we have this clearly taught. After 
 describing the humiliation of the Saviour, the Apostle 
 goes on to say, " Wherefore also God highly exalted 
 Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every 
 name." ^ He Himself brings this aspect of His work 
 
 * Milligan, '•The Resurrection of our Lord," pp. 140, 141. 
 > Phil. ii. 9. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 347 
 
 before us : " Therefore doth the Father love Me, because 
 I lay down My life, that I may take it again." ^ And 
 there are many passages which we need not now dwell 
 upon in which the same thought is suggested.'^ 
 
 2. Let us now go to the more universal aspect. 
 Christ is the Representative Man, and in the picture 
 of His exalted condition after His resurrection we 
 see a type of perfect Manhood in its glorified condition. 
 
 The differences which we have noted as existing 
 between our Lord's corporeal attributes after and before 
 His being raised from the dead, are from this point of 
 view no mere portents or isolated phenomena, but 
 are full of significance for those who are His followers. 
 The Resurrection-state was in His case an advance 
 on that state which preceded it ; it was a truly glorified 
 state. Before this His body had been the body of our 
 humiliation. He being made in all respects like unto 
 us. He was made of the "seed of David according 
 to the flesh," and we are told that, " since then the 
 children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself 
 in like manner partook of the same." ^ But if the 
 pre-resurrection body was a " carnal " body ( i.e. a truly 
 human, fleshly, though not sinful body), the post- 
 resurrection body was a " spiritual " body. It is true 
 that the Spirit dwelt in fulness in Him from the time 
 of His baptism ; but He (the Spirit) was not in a 
 position to act with entire freedom in " producing His 
 natural effects upon His [Christ's] bodily frame." He 
 must work out the full work of redemption, and achieve 
 the victory of love in the very nature that had sinned. 
 " Had His body been changed before this was done, 
 
 * John X. 17. 
 
 ' See Acts iii. 13 (cf. iv. 10, 11); Rom, viii. 34; Eph. i. 20; 
 I Peter i. 21 ; Rev. i. 18. 
 ' Heb. ii. 14. 
 
34^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 He would have failed to be our Representative at the 
 very moment when that love had reached its point of 
 highest intensity ; ^ when it was most pleasing to the 
 Father ; '^ and when it had achieved its most glorious 
 results. ^ At the Resurrection it was different. The 
 suffering for our sake to which love led Him to submit 
 had culminated in death ; the sacrifice rendered 
 necessary by the relations between a holy God and 
 sinful Man had been presented ; the corn of wheat, 
 having fallen into the ground and died, was ready to 
 produce much fruit. No hindrance existed now to 
 the passing onward of our Lord's body to its perfection ; 
 and in such a body — a distinct advance upon that with 
 which He had formerly lived and died — Jesus rose." * 
 
 And in rising He took, in a representative sense, our 
 own nature with Him. The teaching of the New 
 Testament is that He is organically related to us in 
 a way so intimate that no earthly relationship can be 
 compared with it for closeness and intimacy. He is 
 Man as none of us are men ; and we are related to Him 
 (in the life of faith) as we cannot be related to one 
 another. When the work of faith is realised in us in its 
 fulness, we become one with Him in a manner so close 
 that the distinctions drawn between one personality and 
 another do not apply. " Abide in Me, and I in you. . . . 
 I am the Vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth 
 in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit : 
 for apart from Me ye can do nothing." ^ This intimacy 
 is such that Paul actually speaks of it thus : — Our 
 " bodies are members of Christ." * "I have been 
 crucified with Christ." ^ " If we died with Christ, we 
 
 * John xiii. i, ^ John xv. 4, 5. 
 
 * John X. 17. • I Cor. vi. 15. 
 » John xii. 32. ' Gal. ii. 20. 
 
 * Milligan, I.e., p. 131. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 349 
 
 believe that we shall also live with Him. . . . Reckon ye 
 also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God 
 in Christ Jesus." ^ And again, " When we were dead 
 through our trespasses, [God] quickened us together with 
 Christ, . . . and raised us up with Him, and made us to 
 sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus." ^ 
 "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision 
 not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of 
 the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ ; having been 
 buried with Him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised 
 with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised 
 Him from the dead." ' It is in this sense that the 
 Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the assurance and type 
 of the resurrection of His saints. The ground of it is 
 that of spiritual union. And in thus carrying our 
 nature with Him into the heavenly places. He has 
 given us assurance that we too shall be raised at the 
 last day. 
 
 From the Evolutionary point of view the stages in 
 our Lord's perfected Person are full of significance. He 
 passed in a manner quite in accordance with the laws 
 of development from the one condition to the other, 
 " Howbeit," says Paul, as he reasons on the subject, 
 " that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is 
 natural [physical or earthly] ; then that which is 
 spiritual." * This is in accord with the law that the 
 higher follows on after the lower, and rises out of it, and 
 takes the lower up with it, causing it to share in the 
 glory of the higher. And the progress of our Saviour 
 was made in this gradual way, till the moment came 
 when like the chrysalis rising out of its surrounding 
 shell (to use a crude but familiar figure). He suddenly 
 rose and appeared in the glory " of His Father." And 
 
 * Rom. vi. 8, II. 3 Coj ^^ u^ ^^ 
 
 " Eph. ii. 5, 6. < I Cor. xv. 46. 
 
350 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 when this was accomplished, the long process which had 
 commenced with the first beginnings of life in the far- 
 off ages of which no record exists, and which had been 
 going on through aeons upon aeons, rising slowly upwards 
 till man appeared at last, reaching this point of vantage 
 only to find its development upwards checked and 
 ruined by the Fall — this process was at last completed 
 in Christ Jesus. Through humiliation and suffering, 
 through much toil and tribulation, through many a lapse 
 and recovery, in spite of sin and death and hell, the 
 victory was at last accomplished ; and Christ, the First- 
 born of every creature, rose at last conqueror of the last 
 enemy, taking our nature with Him into the presence 
 of the Father, and presenting it a pure and blameless 
 sacrifice, there to be the Intercessor of the race in its 
 imperfect condition on earth. First that which is natural, 
 then that which is spiritual. When He was taken 
 into the Unseen from which He emerged, He did not 
 go back as pure and naked Divinity ; He did not lay 
 aside the Manhood which He had made His own, and 
 perfected by His Incarnation : but as Man He rose, as 
 Man He ascended ; as Man He now sits at the right 
 hand of the Majesty, and pleads our cause ; as Man 
 He watches the mystic process of development in 
 those who are joined with Him in spiritual union, who 
 look at Him as their great Exemplar, and strive to 
 follow in His steps ; and it is as Man that He sends 
 forth the Comforter, to lead His people into all truth, 
 and to strengthen them for reaching the hard but 
 splendid goal which He has put before them in His 
 life and Truth. It is this fact of a continued Heavenly 
 Incarnation that gives its abiding beauty to the thought 
 that the " Word " was once made " Flesh," and it is 
 one of the chief sources of comfort and joy for all who 
 believe in His Name. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 35 1 
 
 IV 
 
 The Resurrection of our Lord may be viewed in the 
 light which it throws on the problem of personal 
 immortality. 
 
 " To the question, * What has Science to say to Man's 
 survival after death ? ' the chief spokesmen of modern 
 science are inclined to answer, * Nothing at all.' The 
 affirmative answer she holds as unproved, and the 
 negative as unprovable."^ 
 
 This agnostic attitude regarding the future life is 
 unquestionably a feature of present-day science, taking 
 that word in its narrower sense. Now on such a matter 
 suspension of judgment is equivalent to disbelief; for 
 what Science fails to prove, she tends in some sort to 
 disprove. As a result there is a widespread tendency, 
 among such educated people as are accustomed to guide 
 their lives according to the positive dictates of scientific 
 thought, to let the question go by default, and to think 
 and act as though death ended the conscious life of the 
 soul. The natural outcome of this attitude is seen 
 in the widespread and alarming Pessimism which has 
 spread over the literature of the Continent, in France, 
 Germany, and Russia, which on its higher side takes 
 shape in a picturesque despair, and on its lower in a 
 horrible and infra-bestial sensuality, and in a political 
 Nihilism which holds nothing sacred except license, and 
 nothing to be desired except the reduction of the present 
 order of society into chaos. 
 
 At the same time there are not wanting indications 
 that the nadir of agnostic indifference and negation has 
 been passed. There is a general turning of the mind 
 with longing towards a more positive faith ; and though 
 
 * '• Science and a Future Life," by F. W. H. Myers, p. i. 
 
35^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 many look in strange directions for the reinforcement 
 of their tottering hopes, the fact that they long and look 
 at all is proof that the human soul can never for long 
 be satisfied with the thought of extinction as the 
 ultimate goal of all the strivings and the aspirations 
 of this little span of life. " He hath set eternity in 
 their heart." ^ 
 
 Let us briefly consider how the problem stands. 
 I. It is very clear that recent investigations into the 
 relations between mind and brain have tended to 
 emphasise their interdependence to a remarkable extent. 
 Whatever be the ultimate difference between thought 
 and the molecular movements of the brain-substance, 
 it is certain that in the human organism the process 
 of thinking intimately depends on the condition of its 
 physical vehicle, and so far as we know is normally 
 impossible apart from it. The phenomena of disease 
 tend to reinforce this inference by indicating that 
 abnormal conditions of body greatly affect the intel- 
 lectual functions, and occasionally reduce them to a 
 state of absolute and permanent chaos. Lastly, the 
 partial removal or atrophy of the brain-substance results 
 in a profound disturbance of the mental activities. The 
 apparent inference, on the physical side, from these facts, 
 is that total destruction of the brain as such results 
 in the annihilation of conscious life. And this is the 
 practical conclusion to which many of our leading 
 scientists have come, even when they carefully refrain 
 from dogmatising on the subject. 
 j This argument, however, may, and often is, carried 
 too far. The fact that under present conditions brain- 
 function is necessary to the performance of our mental 
 operations, does not prove that there may not be other 
 conditions under which the mind is independent of 
 * Eccles. iii. 1 1 (marginal reading). 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ Hi 
 
 physical organism as we know it. The phenomena of 
 telepathy and thought-transference, which have been 
 so abundantly proved of recent years, constitute a 
 standing puzzle to the physiologist and even the psycho- 
 logist, and are preparing the way for the reopening of 
 the whole subject. 
 
 " Star to star vibrates light ; may not soul to soul 
 Strike thro' some finer element of her own ? " 
 
 So deeply are Mr. F. W. H. Myers, and his colleagues 
 of the Psychical Research Society, persuaded of the 
 importance of these residual facts, as to build them 
 into a presumptive argument for the survival of the 
 human personality after death ; and many who have 
 lost hold of the religious argument are being brought 
 round to the same point by the force of these facts. The 
 amount of real relief and comfort to be gained in this 
 way, however, is not likely to be very great. The facts 
 are valuable from our point of view mainly in so far as 
 they break down prejudice and open the mind to 
 considerations of a higher kind. 
 
 2. The inference that death ends Man's personal 
 existence, drawn from the dependence of mind on body, 
 is reinforced by another tendency in the dominant 
 philosophy — that which makes consciousness the mere 
 effect of material conditions, and mind " the efflorescence 
 and not the substratum " of the Universe. The Cosmos 
 is not the outcome of infinite wisdom and love, but of 
 the blind clash of atoms moving in mechanical combina- 
 tion according to fixed laws, to which " no human soul 
 or will can add any fresh energy of its own " ; so that 
 consciousness, even in its highest human form, is but 
 a kind of ignis fatuus hovering over the weltering swirl of 
 material forces, which follow their rigid course in total 
 oblivion of the evanescent splendour that plays over 
 
 23 
 
354 The Ascent through Christ Book HI 
 
 them, and which vanishes with the delicate but unstable 
 conditions that bring it forth. We cannot here go into 
 the considerations that prove this view to be illusory ; 
 it is enough to say that it is a phase of philosophic 
 thought that is passing away, and that a healthier and 
 more robust treatment of the problem is coming 
 rapidly to the fore.^ 
 
 3. The science of human origins, linking Man with 
 the brute creation by much closer lines of connection 
 than was formerly thought to be the case, has, however 
 illogically, made a new difficulty in the way of belief 
 in a future life. The mortality of the lower orders is 
 everywhere taken for granted,— possibly rightly so, — 
 and the question arises, Have we any right to believe 
 that it is different with Man, the last link in the 
 genetic series? It is clear that this argument has 
 validity only on the supposition that there is no essential 
 difference in nature between Man and brute — a question 
 which we have in an earlier chapter dealt with fully,^ 
 and which we need not further recapitulate here. We 
 shall presently bring forward some additional considera- 
 tions that bear on this point. 
 
 Let us glance at the other and brighter side of 
 scientific thought on the problem of Immortality. 
 
 I. Premising that physical science has nothing really 
 relevant to say about the subject, we turn in the first 
 place hopefully to the ethical nature of Man, and ask 
 if it throws any light on our darkness. Nor is our hope 
 disappointed. It is the differentia of Man that he can 
 enter into truly ethical relations. These relations are in- 
 dependent of time and place ; they belong to an eternal 
 
 * For an able exposure of the fallacy underlying the argument 
 against Immortality drawn from the supposed causal relation 
 between brain and mind, see Prof. William James's little book 
 on "Human ImmortaUty " (Ingersoll Lecture for 1898). 
 
 ' Introd., chap, iii. 
 
Ghap. I The Risen Christ 355 
 
 order ; old age and decay have no bearing upon them ; 
 
 as a subject in this august kingdom, Man partakes of 
 
 their supersensuous and fadeless character. The ideals 
 
 they impose on him are not of the earth, but of heaven ; 
 
 the sanctions by which they work are drawn from the 
 
 Unseen ; their laws cannot be analysed into mere 
 
 temporary, much less physical, constituents, but sweep 
 
 onward in a curve that vanishes into but is not broken 
 
 by the mists of death. It may be " irrational " to speak 
 
 of love and virtue, moral beauty and holiness, as 
 
 immortal ; but the seers and the poets of the world, 
 
 with their deep insight into the heart of things, have 
 
 ever clung passionately to the faith that the soul capable 
 
 of these high attributes and altitudes cannot perish 
 
 with the bodily life where for the time their symmetries 
 
 are enshrined and their promise is unfolded. The 
 
 finest expression of this creed of the soul was given to 
 
 us half a century ago in " In Memoriam," a poem 
 
 which, in all its range of thought and emotion, contains 
 
 nothing " which the newest Science can condemn or the 
 
 truest Religion find lacking."^ Its burden throughout 
 
 is the inconceivability of the idea that creatures capable 
 
 of bringing to its fine flower the seed of an undying 
 
 love can perish. This faith in the survival of the soul, 
 
 as the necessary corollary to the harmonies and hopes 
 
 of the ethical nature, is one that has existed in all ages, 
 
 and is borne witness to by all the world's greatest 
 
 thinkers. The miasma of philosophic doubt may at 
 
 times cause the belief to droop under its dark shadow ; 
 
 but the soul's hope asserts itself with unconquerable 
 
 buoyancy whenever the pressure is removed, and its 
 
 instincts are permitted to assert themselves in their 
 
 native right. 
 
 ^ Myers on " Tennyson as a Prophet "in " Science and a Futur* 
 Life," p. 135. 
 
35^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 2. When we consider Man in relation to the order of 
 which he is the crown and goal, the hope born of 
 our ethical possibilities is reinforced. The course of 
 Evolution, with its slow but inevitable march upwards 
 and onwards, has brought forth Man, the " flower of the 
 ages." There have been unspeakable tragedies of pain 
 and sorrow, failure and apparent waste, wrought on the 
 way. The expenditure of energy, the sacrifice of life, 
 in the individual and in the species, the manifold 
 tentative efforts, as it were, made in all directions, before 
 Man appeared, have been incalculable, inconceivable. 
 All through, the organic energies of Nature seemed 
 ever directed towards a far point on the horizon which 
 gradually came nearer and nearer, till at last Man, 
 
 "The heir of hopes too fair to turn out false," 
 
 came within sight. As we look back along the path of 
 organic Evolution, it is impossible to help being im- 
 pressed with the " dramatic movement " that character- 
 ises it, and with the fact that the whole finds its 
 consummation in him. He is the keystone of the arch 
 of physical development, the final issue of all the 
 groaning and travailing of creation until now. There 
 is to be no more physical Evolution ; there is to be no 
 higher earthly being than Man. But in the very fact 
 that he is the consummation of this earthly process, 
 Man has acquired certain secondary peculiarities which 
 suggest that he is himself an unfinished result. Looking 
 back at the path that leads up to him, we recognise 
 that he is the complement of creation, its finishing 
 touch. But looking within himself, and forward to 
 the ends that shape themselves dimly before him, he 
 recognises that he is still inchoate, still germinal — or 
 shall we say an unfinished, nay, a maimed torso, whose 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 357 
 
 fine colossal lines suggest the splendid outline of what 
 Man would be if he had a vaster theatre than this earth, 
 for the completion of his designs and the perfecting of 
 his nature, affords ? ^ 
 
 All these " intimations of immortality," however, 
 drawn from the promptings of faith and the natural 
 longings and expectations of the soul in its highest 
 moods, are purely presumptive in their force, and do 
 not amount to a logical argument. Faith faints in 
 the thin air of speculation, and longs for more sub- 
 stantial spiritual nurture than comes from this 
 direction. And so we have to fall back on the Re- 
 surrection of our Lord as being, after all, the chief 
 pledge and assurance, for believers^ of their personal 
 immortality. 
 
 This is the position that was taken up by the apostles 
 of the Lord Jesus after the event took place. If the 
 discourses of these men that were delivered after the 
 descent of the Spirit at Pentecost be examined, they 
 will be found to place emphasis on the Resurrection 
 far more than on the sacrifice of the Cross.^ It was 
 the fact that God had raised up His Son from the grave 
 that transformed them into missionaries and gave them 
 their first great converting power over the minds of 
 their contemporaries. And even in the case of the 
 Apostle Paul we have but to examine his Epistles to 
 find how entirely he based his faith on the doctrine 
 of a Risen Saviour. It is on this fact at least that he 
 builds up his famous argument of the Resurrection 
 of believers. " If the Spirit of Him that raised up 
 
 ^ On this subject see Newman Smyth's " The Place of Death in 
 Evolution," Geo. A. Gordon's '• Immortality and the New Theodicy " 
 (both published by James Clarke & Co.), and Welldon's " The Hope 
 of Immortality." 
 
 ^ See the following passages: Acts ii. 24, 32; iii. 15, 26' iv, 
 10; V. 30; X. 40; xiii. 30, 33, 34; xvii. 31. etc., etc. 
 
35^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised 
 up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also 
 your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth 
 in you." ^ " If we died with Christ, we believe that 
 we shall also live with Him ; knowing that Christ 
 being raised from the dead dieth no more ; death no 
 more hath dominion over Him."^ "For as in Adam 
 all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." ^ " And 
 if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching 
 vain, your faith also is vain."* In these words, as 
 it has been well said, there is something more than 
 the hope of immortality set before us. " There is the 
 hope that we, with our present powers and faculties 
 and affections, with our present complex nature, with 
 our bodies as well as our souls, shall pass, like Israel 
 of old, through the swellings of Jordan into the land 
 of promise." 
 
 And as a matter bearing vitally on our special in- 
 quiry, it should be noticed that it is not taught us in the 
 analogy of our Lord's Resurrection that the future life 
 is a disembodied state. The future life is not to be 
 one of pure spirit. We are to be like our Lord, and 
 He ascended into the Unseen in possession of a body 
 like ours, only glorified, and made free from the law 
 of sin and death. Though this does not make a belief 
 in a future life more easy in itself, it does take away 
 that difficulty which is felt by many who cannot realise 
 how the soul can exist without some kind of an organism 
 with which to act. It helps us to look forward to a 
 time when we shall not be pent up in a body which 
 is but an imperfect medium for our will to work with, 
 as the present body is. Now it is, according to the 
 Apostle's statement, a body of death ; it is under the 
 
 * Rom. viii. ii. ^ i Cor. xv. 22. 
 
 * Rom. vi. 8, Q. * /did., verse 14. 
 
Chap. I The Risen Christ 359 
 
 law of gravitation ; it is limited to place and time ; it is 
 full of disease and corruption, and pain and various ills. 
 In this life it hampers the growth of the soul ; it stands 
 in our way when we would spend and be spent in the 
 service of our God ; weariness and fatigue limit our 
 powers of service ; our senses are dull, and we are 
 bound in a narrow round of impressions and physical 
 phenomena, which are not the environment with which 
 our better natures are in deepest sympathy. The 
 "brute inheritance" hinders and retards our develop- 
 ment in a thousand ways. But the Resurrection of our 
 Lord is an earnest that a time will come, to those who 
 do their part in this life faithfully, when the dualism 
 that now makes life a constant struggle will be resolved 
 into a glorious harmony, when the diverse parts of our 
 nature will be working in perfect friendship. And 
 what a splendid outlook does this open up to those 
 who are now struggling painfully towards the light and 
 the truth, amid much discouragement and frequent 
 lapses, and but partial victories at the best ! It 
 whispers of a time when our development will be easy 
 and not difficult ; and when the body will join with 
 the soul in that Evolution which will mean that we shall 
 be " transformed into the same image from glory to 
 glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." ^ 
 
 » 2 Cor. iii. i8. 
 
BOOK III: EVOLUTION 
 AND THE RESURRECTION 
 
 " Step by step since time began 
 We see the steady gain of man ; 
 For still ike new transcends the old. 
 In signs and tokens ma?iifold. 
 Slaves rise up men ; the olive waves 
 With roots deep-sst in battle graves." 
 
 Chapter IL — The Resurrection a New 
 Evolutionary Departure 
 
 The Release of Spiritual Force at Pentecost — This a New Phase of the 
 Incarnation — Means whereby this was effected — Justification by Faith 
 — Life of the Spirit — In Individuals — In the Church — In the World at 
 large— Summary. 
 
 WE are as yet far from exhausting the full 
 Evolutionary significance of the Resurrection 
 of our Lord. Hitherto we have dealt with it from the 
 personal point of view, as giving a pledge of individual 
 immortality, and as suggesting the higher conditions 
 under which the spiritual body will live and develop 
 in the world to come, also as putting the seal of the 
 Divine favour on the perfect obedience and the atoning 
 passion of the Saviour. All this is most interesting as 
 a subject for study, as an object-lesson for our faith, as 
 giving us a glimpse into the great unknown future into 
 which we shall all soon have to disappear. But again 
 we say, if the Gospel does not afford us a new source 
 of strength, and reveal to us a new motive power, all 
 this does not amount to much ; and in what way it 
 does afford such a prospect and assurance, we shall now 
 make it our endeavour to explain. 
 
 Jesus Christ in one of His last discourses makes the 
 astonishing statement that it is expedient for His 
 disciples that He should go away from them, meaning 
 by th^t Hjs disappearance from the world. If we put 
 
 369 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 361 
 
 ourselves into the position of these simple men, we 
 shall easily understand that this remark must have 
 perplexed and pained them beyond measure. To lose 
 Him from their sight was surely the last thing they 
 could desire. It meant a loss that they could only 
 dimly divine. From Him they had received all that 
 made their life worthy and noble. In His presence 
 alone they felt that they truly lived ; from Him they 
 derived all their confidence in God, and their power 
 to work for Man. Apart from Him, as they well knew, 
 they could do nothing. Round them, they knew, were 
 fierce and implacable enemies, who thirsted for the 
 blood of their Master ; and although, so far, all the fury 
 of these enemies had been directed against Him, they 
 felt sure that, when He had disappeared, they too would 
 be persecuted and slain. And so when He said, " It 
 is expedient for you that I go away," they could only 
 look on in bewilderment, and ask hesitating and 
 irrelevant questions. 
 
 And yet we have only to take up the story of these 
 men a few weeks later to find the answer to this 
 perplexity. After the Ascension they soon became 
 different men. Up till the period of the descent of the 
 Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, they were weak, 
 hesitating, uncertain creatures, depending upon their 
 Master for all their stimulus and enthusiasm. But 
 what a change took place at the Day of Pentecost ! 
 The unstable, resourceless disciples become, suddenly, 
 men charged with a burning message, and full of earnest 
 and quenchless enthusiasm ; and those who could do 
 nothing for a personally present Master, except as they 
 were inspired by His voice and look, were able to " turn 
 the world upside-down " for Him, once He disappeared 
 from the circle of which He had been the centre and 
 was seen no more. There is nothing in history like 
 
362 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 this sudden transformation of commonplace men into 
 heroes and saints and martyrs, and from the naturalistic 
 point of view, we have no hesitation in saying that it 
 was something not only unparalleled, but inexplicable. 
 
 What was the secret of this remarkable change ? It 
 is given in the fulfilment of the promise of the Holy 
 Spirit : " If I go not away, the Comforter will not come 
 unto you ; but if I go, I will send Him unto you." ^ 
 " And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you 
 another Comforter, that He may be with you for 
 ever, even the Spirit of Truth : whom the world 
 cannot receive ; for it beholdeth Him not, neither 
 knoweth Him : ye know Him ; for He abideth with 
 you, and shall be in you."^ Such was the Master's 
 promise. And the fulfilment is found described in a 
 remarkable statement by Peter in the Acts : " This 
 Jesus did God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. 
 Being therefore by the right hand of God exalted, and 
 having received of the Father the promise of the 
 Holy Ghost, He hath poured forth this, which ye see 
 and hear."^ And not only here but in many other 
 passages, it is taught that when our Lord ascended on 
 high, He sent forth the Spirit, in such a way that 
 the unspeakable loss which His followers experienced 
 through His departure was not merely mitigated, but 
 far more than replaced by the greater blessing which 
 that departure entailed. It was thus with a fine instinct 
 that the Church consecrated the First Day of the week 
 on the basis not of the Crucifixion, but of the Resurrec- 
 tion of her Lord, as dating the real beginning of her 
 life and the source of her strength. It is a question 
 that may well be asked why the Incarnation and the 
 Vicarious Sacrifice of our Lord were not made the 
 ground of that perpetual commemoration. The answer 
 
 * John xvi. 7. * John xiv. 16, 17. ' Acts ii. 32, 33. 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 3^3 
 
 is simple. It was not till His Resurrection that the 
 work of Christ was so completed that it could be made 
 a true part of the life of humanity. Then He became 
 the Second Adam — a life-giving Spirit from heaven. 
 Then it was that He was able to enter into that more 
 intimate and helpful relationship to His people which 
 surpassed the relationship He held to them on earth, inas- 
 much as it was for the future an internal energy instead 
 of an external companionship. Formerly He abode 
 with them ; henceforth, through the operation of His 
 Spirit, He would be in them. During His corporeal 
 life on earth He was limited, in His intercourse with 
 them, to the ordinary sources of communication. He 
 was hemmed in by the restrictions of bodily existence ; 
 He could only inspire them as He was personally 
 present with them, and He could be personally present 
 with them only as we are able to be present with one 
 another — that is, through the medium of the senses. 
 But with His uplifting from the earth, all this limitation 
 became a thing of the past; He was now glorified 
 not only in that He Himself was released from the 
 trammels of the bodily condition, but in that He could 
 henceforth communicate Himself universally to those 
 who believed in His name. Formerly He was with 
 His people only in a partial local sense ; now He could 
 be with all who were willing to join themselves to Him 
 spiritually, in all lands and in all places at the same 
 time ; He would be with them " alway, even unto the 
 end of the days."^ 
 
 This was to be the fruit of His sore travail and 
 sorrows ; to this He had been looking forward from 
 the beginning as the "flying point of bliss remote" 
 for which He had suffered and agonised. He was no 
 more to be with His people ; He would be in them, 
 * M?itt, xxviii, 20, 
 
3^4 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 And with this consummation there would naturally 
 come an expansion of His redeeming work which would 
 alter its whole aspect, and bring about the distinctive 
 phenomena of Christianity as it has been realised 
 in history. The reign of isolated believers, dependent 
 on the visible presence of the Master, was now over ; 
 the reign of the Church had come. 
 
 From this time forth, therefore, the Incarnation changed 
 its character. It was not any more a thing of the past ; 
 rather, it entered on another and more glorious phase. 
 A new conception of human life had been revealed in 
 the earthly life of our Lord ; " the Word " had been 
 made " Flesh " ; now this life was to be incorporated into 
 the life of humanity at large through a kind of heredity 
 which had not been at work in the same sense before. 
 The ideal had hitherto been an Ideal, a Dream of the 
 future; henceforth it would be a factor in the Higher 
 Evolution of the Human Race. Slowly and by stages 
 that demonstrate how thoroughly the lower principle of 
 heredity — that of sinful tendency and desire — had been 
 inwoven into the very tissues of our human nature, the 
 New Life began its course in the unfolding drama of 
 History ; often obscured, often almost lost amid the 
 resurgent corruptions that stain the records of the 
 Church, but always winning its way, from little to more, 
 into power, till it has become the most diffused and 
 universal influence in the progress of Man. It is possible 
 to minimise the part that Christianity has played in the 
 story of the last nineteen centuries, and in the measure 
 that historians have been prejudiced against it, they have 
 given to other forces and influences the credit due to 
 the religion of Jesus Christ ; but an impartial observer 
 cannot but see that there came into the world at that 
 time a New Conception of Character, and a New 
 Rej^lisation of the Higher Virtues, 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 365 
 
 II 
 
 When we ask what was the means by which the New 
 Life was made an effective force in the world's history, 
 the answer comes to us in the old phraseology, in these 
 two phrases — " Justification by Faith " and " The Life 
 of the Spirit." 
 
 I. Justification by Faith. 
 
 This is a term which has often become rather a 
 watchword of conflict than a means of grace. Without 
 entering into the controversial phases of the question, let 
 us see how this doctrine can be expressed in the terms 
 of modern Evolutionary Science. 
 
 Let us say at once that faith is but a name for a 
 process in the soul, or rather it is the means by which 
 a latent and hidden process becomes overt and active. 
 
 Back of all consciousness in the soul, there is the fact 
 that our life is borrowed from that of Another. We do 
 not live by our own right ; we no more exist independently 
 in a spiritual sense than we exist physically in independ- 
 ence of our environment. There is an impenetrable back- 
 ground from which we derive all that we essentially are 
 and have. This sense of dependence cannot be denied 
 when once we bring our minds to consider the conditions 
 of our being. There is no man who can say that he 
 lives mentally, morally, or spiritually in virtue of self- 
 sustained resources. Just as physically life " comes " 
 to us, and all we have to do with the fact is to fulfil the 
 conditions of its continuance and development, so 
 spiritually does our life " come " to us, and all we have 
 to do with it is to see that the channel along which the 
 stream is fed and replenished is kept free and open 
 Now the basis of all spiritual life is the relation of 
 Fatherhood and Sonship that exists between the Divine 
 
3^6 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 and the Human. All men are the sons of God by- 
 nature, having in them a doorway open to the incoming 
 and a chamber for the indwelling of the Spirit of the 
 Most High. There is no finer statement of this, the 
 central mystery of life, in English nor perhaps in any 
 literature, than in Emerson's Essay on the " Over-soul " : 
 " From within and from behind, a light shines through 
 us upon things, and makes us aware that we are nothing, 
 but the light is all." ^ ..." Of this pure nature every 
 man is at some time sensible. Language cannot paint 
 it with its colours. It is too subtle. It is undefinable, 
 unmeasurable, but we know that it pervades and contains 
 us. We know that all spiritual being is in Man. A 
 wise old proverb says, * God comes to us without belj ' ; 
 that is, as there is no screen or ceiling between our heads 
 and the infinite heavens, so there is no bar or wall in the 
 soul where man, the effect, ends, and God, the cause, begins. 
 The walls are taken away. We lie open on that side of 
 our nature which is directed to the deeps of spiritual 
 nature, to the attributes of God." ^ . . . " With each 
 divine impulse the mind rends the thin rinds of the 
 visible and finite, and comes out into eternity, and in- 
 spires and expires its air." ^ This Sonship is thus not a 
 matter of voluntary effort to attain, so far at least as its 
 essence is concerned. But it must emerge into conscious- 
 ness in order to be fully developed ; and by persistent 
 neglect, or by wilful sin, the channel of communication 
 between the soul and God may be entirely closed, and 
 a spiritual atrophy may set in which at last ends in 
 death. Now Faith is " the active instinct of that inner 
 Sonship ; it is the point at which that essential Sonship 
 emerges into consciousness ; it is the disclosure to the 
 
 » Emerson's Works (Bohn's Edition), Vol. I., p. H2. 
 » /did., p. 112. 
 » /did., p 115. 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 3^7 
 
 self of its own vital secret ; it is the thrill of our inherent 
 childhood, as it makes itself felt within the central 
 recesses of the life ; it is the flame which shoots into 
 consciousness at the recognition of the touch of our 
 Divine Fatherhood ; it is the immediate response of the 
 Sonship in us to its discovered origin." ^ 
 
 In the moral consciousness of every man, however, 
 there is a stubborn sense that, while its basis of this 
 relationship remains, the channel whereby it is main- 
 tained has been tampered with, and its claim forfeited. 
 We have no power and no right to claim our Sonship 
 and enter into its privileges. By what means shall a 
 man be justified before God, so that the lost relationship 
 may be restored? How may the Higher Life be 
 regained and carried on to perfection ? 
 
 By the free mercy of God as shown in the Gospel of 
 Jesus Christ His Son. By a Divine act, in other words, 
 and not a human. The way has been opened through 
 the humiliation and sacrifice and death and resurrection 
 of the Son of God, who is also the Son of Man. And 
 as it is perfectly plain that we cannot do anything to 
 put ourselves right with God, the only resource at our 
 disposal is to accept the offer of mercy, and being unable 
 to attain justification by works, attain it through appro- 
 priating the life of the Son of God. And faith is the 
 faculty whereby this is done. 
 
 But what exactly is meant by this faith ? Not 
 simply a verbal or intellectual acceptance of the fact 
 that Jesus died for our sins. That could no more 
 achieve this great result than would the acceptance of any 
 other fact of history. After it had been accepted, we 
 should be just where we were before. The statement 
 of Scripture is not that we are justified by the fact of 
 Christ's death. That glorious act of sacrifice made 
 I ''Lux Mundi," p. 15. 
 
368 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 the justification possible, but it did not consummate it. 
 Christ died for our sins, and rose again " for our justi- 
 fication."^ That is to say, it is through His Rising 
 from the dead that He was able to come into that 
 relationship with the believer which restores the 
 Sonship that was lost or interrupted. By a spiritual 
 union with Him, we are brought back to the filial mood 
 and attitude towards the Father. We are made one 
 with God ; we are accepted " in the Beloved." ^ And 
 the Resurrection was the means whereby this was 
 brought within our reach. 
 
 2. The Life of the Spirit. 
 
 This is the consummation which is achieved by a 
 saving faith, — it brings us into touch with the Living 
 Spirit of God, so that we make our home and environ- 
 ment in God. Henceforth our natural limitations are 
 no longer our prison-house; they have lost their 
 absolute character, and become relative only ; and our 
 spiritual nature receives an access of power, and a 
 possibility of expansion, which is limited only by our 
 willingness and receptivity. As the future development 
 of mankind is to be in the direction of its spiritual 
 nature, we can see how this doctrine of the Spirit has 
 a vital relation with our special inquiry. Every real act 
 of prayer, every genuine achievement in character, every 
 fresh realisation of the deeper things of the Spirit, every 
 earnest, honest aspiration, every lowly deed of unselfish 
 kindness, in short every desire and every effort upwards 
 and onwards in the higher directions that are opened 
 out before us in the Christian Conception of Life, is 
 but another step in that ladder of attainment which 
 begins here on earth, and climbs at last to the throne 
 of God in Heaven. 
 
 This life of the Spirit manifests itself in three ways. 
 * Rom. iv. 25. * Eph. i. 6. 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 3^9 
 
 {a) In the experience and perfecting of the character of 
 individual believers. This is the germinal point of all 
 its manifestations in the world. The starting-point of 
 all fresh evolutions in the lower as well as in the higher 
 creation of God is in individuals. In the lower orders 
 every new species has had its start in the fortunate 
 variations embodied in one individual who stands 
 genetically at the head of the new series, and the method 
 of transmission is by direct heredity. The function 
 of that individual is exhausted in procreation, and the 
 process is then carried on by ordinary vital channels. 
 In the higher and spiritual order the secret is again by 
 generation, but by a different method. We all derive 
 our life from the Individual who started the new Type ; 
 but as in the former case the medium was indirect, in 
 this case it is direct. In the case of bodily transmission 
 we come in a series ; in the case of spiritual evolution 
 we are no longer bound by such mechanical rule, 
 and we all derive our new life, without any inter- 
 mediary, by the immediate act of the same Spirit, and 
 being free creatures, we are freely regenerated by the 
 overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, and made in the 
 likeness of the Son of God. Thus is the type renewed, 
 and the heritage of the fulness of God passed on from 
 generation to generation. But without this New Birth 
 the type cannot be preserved. " Verily I say unto thee. 
 Except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom 
 of God."^ And when the New Birth has been con- 
 summated in the soul of the believer, he has but to 
 continue faithfully in touch with the Spirit, and 
 earnestly striving to do the Divine will, to find his 
 nature filling out into the measure of the stature of the 
 fulness of Christ. He will grow in grace and in the 
 knowledge of Christ, i.e. not the mere knowledge that 
 * John iii. 3. 
 
 24 
 
370 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 is objective and outward, but in that knowledge which 
 comes of inward communion and progressive appropria- 
 tion of the Divine Life.j 
 
 (b) In the Church, which is the Body of Christ. 
 
 The Church is composed of believers in Christ who 
 combine for the purpose of mutual help and the up- 
 building of each other in all holy living and thought, 
 and for the realisation of the social side of the work 
 and Ideal of Christ. For if He is the type according 
 to which individuals are to model their life and character, 
 so does He reveal the type according to which all 
 communities of men who believe in His name are to 
 shape their social ideals. The Church was founded by 
 the express command of its Lord ; and He promised 
 to be with His people in a sense in which it is im- 
 possible for the individual believer to realise His 
 presence alone and in solitude.^ The Church is His 
 " Body," ^ the means by and through which He works 
 on the world, and brings His influence ostensibly to 
 bear on the world outside. The Church is the Lord's 
 witness, the visible channel of His power, the instru- 
 ment whereby He puts forth His claim over all things, 
 and demands the allegiance of the race for whom He 
 died and rose again. It was instituted by the Risen 
 Saviour Himself; it was started on its long and 
 chequered career at the outpouring on the Day of 
 Pentecost. The marks of the true Church are the 
 following : — 
 
 (i) Spirituality. That is to say, the Church, as we 
 have already incidentally suggested, is composed of 
 believers, and of believers only. It is not conterminous 
 with the world, nor with the nation, nor with the 
 community in which it has its being. It is composed 
 of those who have separated themselves from the world 
 * Matt, xviii. 18-20. ' Eph. i. 23, 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 371 
 
 for the purpose of bearing witness to their faith in 
 Christ, and to their intention to live the life of faith, 
 in communion with Him. Therefore it cannot be " the 
 nation in its religious capacity," as it is put sometimes, 
 nor can it be conterminous with the " parish " ; both 
 these contain many who are in no sense a part of the 
 Body of Christ, and are in no organic union with Him, 
 so that to include them in the definition of the Church 
 is to do violence to the first principle of its Divine 
 constitution. Nor is the Church through its Sacraments 
 the origin of eternal life to those who belong to it. All 
 life must come direct from the One Source of life, which 
 is the Holy Spirit of God acting on the willing mind of 
 the recipient ; and though the Church is the usual means 
 whereby this influence is brought to bear on the soul, 
 those who would restrict the action of God's Spirit within 
 the narrow limits of an organised society contradict alike 
 the spirit and genius of the Gospel, and the facts of 
 history. The Church is God's cultivated field, His 
 garden, but the sunshine that draws forth its fruitfulness 
 shines also on the wilderness and the hedgerow ; the 
 Spirit's breath blows " where it listeth," cherishing many 
 a wild flower, and fructifying many an unnoticed herb 
 and tree, out in the waste places of the earth. But 
 though there may be true believers who are not con- 
 nected actually with the visible Church, but who live 
 in the Saviour who is the Spirit of which the Church 
 is the Body, the converse of this proposition is not true ; 
 there are no persons who rightly belong to the Church 
 unless they are first of all in real and vital union with 
 the Saviour. To be related to the only true fountain 
 of life is the first essential, then comes the union with 
 the rest of His Body. 
 
 (ii) This brings us to the second mark of the Church, 
 and that is Unity of the Spirit^ with diversity of parts 
 
372 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 and gifts. It is animated by "the same Spirit," but 
 there are " diversities of gifts." ^ All believers are to be 
 vivified by the same principle of life, but in the great 
 Body there is room for many diverse organs, each with 
 its special function and work to do. This bond of 
 unity is one that transcends every possible difference 
 between the members in other directions. " For in one 
 Spirit were we all baptised into one body, whether Jews 
 or Greeks, whether bond or free ; and were all made 
 to drink of one Spirit." * The one final condition of 
 membership in this Body is that which lies behind all 
 dividing lines. We cannot expect that we shall ever 
 come to think alike, where uniformity of thinking 
 depends on so many elements that are never joined in 
 similar measure in any two personalities ; but as we 
 have a common humanity, we can be brought to feel 
 alike, granted only that we have a common object of 
 love, and a single uniting bond of affection. Thus it is 
 that while a certain emphasis is laid on right thinking 
 in the New Testament, and a general basis of belief is 
 needful for fellowship to be harmonious and effective, 
 the final stress is laid not on definite articles of creed, 
 but on Love as the animating sentiment that runs below 
 and around and through every divergence of opinion and 
 every distinction of race, and station, and nationality. 
 This bond of union allows abundant freedom of action, 
 and a wide liberty of thought. It is " the better way " 
 ot whose grand possibilities Paul sings so gloriously 
 in the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians. 
 
 (iii) Following this test comes another as its corollary 
 
 — mutual dependence of the members on one another, as 
 
 well as a common dependence of all upon the great 
 
 Head. Being an organic union both on the human 
 
 I Cor, xii, 4, ' Jbid,, verse 13, 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure jf 3 
 
 and the Divine side, it follows that the parts or organs 
 have no completely independent life apart from that 
 which feeds and sustains them all, and they cannot 
 perform their functions properly without acting in a 
 loving union. However there may be differences of 
 thought and opinion, these will in no wise affect the 
 interworking of the parts, provided that the divergences 
 do not interfere with the true union of all with the 
 Head, for the spirit of love will run through all of them 
 as a solvent, and harmonise all that savours of division 
 and discord. As a certain poet has aptly though 
 somewhat unconventionally expressed it, — 
 
 *' Then by strange art she mingled fire and snow 
 Together, tempering the repugnant mass 
 With liquid love, — all things together grow 
 
 Through which the mystery of love can pass." ' 
 
 *' Love suffereth long, and is kind ; love envieth not ; 
 love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not 
 behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not 
 provoked, taketh not account of evil ; rejoiceth not in 
 unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth ; beareth 
 all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, en- 
 dureth all things. Love never faileth: but whether 
 there be prophecies, they shall be done away ; whether 
 there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be 
 knowledge, it shall be done away." ^ 
 
 If all these tests of the Church be examined in the 
 light of what Evolution says about life and the conditions 
 of its continuance, it will be easily seen that they 
 contain a guarantee of permanence and healthfulness 
 while the world lasts. So long as the Church preserves 
 its spirituality, and keeps the channel of communication 
 
 » Shelley's '• Witch of Atlas." 
 * See I Cor. xiii. passim. 
 
3*74 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 with the Master uncontaminated, depending on His 
 presence for its life and on His grace for its preserva- 
 tion, it is sure of the first essential condition of con- 
 tinuance. So long as it opens its arms to receive new 
 members from the world, absorbing them by the 
 assimilative power which is the mark of a healthy 
 organism, it is assured of new materials wherewith to 
 nourish its life and extend the range of its activities. 
 And so long as it continues to show the spirit of mutual 
 love and forbearance within its organisation, it is assured 
 of the certainty that it will be not only able to survive 
 all attacks from the outside, but also all disintegrating 
 processes from within. " Love never faileth." 
 
 This is the condition in which the Church would 
 be if it fulfilled its true law of growth. But we have, 
 in stating these conditions of its life, spoken of the ideal 
 Church. This is not the Church of History, nor the 
 Church of to-day. From almost the beginning, it has 
 but imperfectly fulfilled the conditions. It has often 
 been more worldly than spiritual ; it has in many ways 
 been disunited, and is now more disunited in outward 
 organisation, though happily not in sympathy, than ever 
 before, to the unspeakable detriment of its highest 
 interests. And it has not unfrequently been as exclusive 
 as it ought to be hospitable, becoming fossilised in creed, 
 narrow in sympathies — a religious club rather than a 
 spiritual City of God with its twelve gates open to the 
 incoming of the nations. And therefore the life of the 
 Church has never been what it ought to be, and History 
 speaks with no uncertain voice of the corruptions and 
 sins of the Church, both against its Master, and against 
 tHe world for which, like its Master, it ought to be living 
 and working. But in so far as it has lived and done 
 something for the amelioration of Society, and for the 
 salvation of the world, this has been in virtue of the 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 375 
 
 partial fulfilment of these conditions of which we have 
 been speaking ; and in the exact measure that it has 
 been spiritual, open-hearted, and keenly interested in the 
 welfare of the world, and full of love and peace within 
 its own borders, just so far and no further has it been 
 successful and aggressive in its work and life. 
 
 (c) But the presence and the life of the Spirit can 
 be confined in its operations neither to the life of the 
 individuals who have received Him into their hearts, 
 nor to the Church which is the Body of Christ. There 
 is a sphere in which Christ has been and is working 
 without the aid of believers, either viewed singly as 
 individuals, or viewed in their corporate capacity as a 
 Church— and that is in the world itself. It is impossible 
 to ignore the fact that He is at work among many who 
 do not know Him or acknowledge His authority ; that 
 He is energising among the institutions of Society, 
 guiding the pathway of thought, and generally pre- 
 paring the world for the receipt of the spiritual truth 
 which He came to reveal, and the eternal life He brought 
 as His gift to all who would accept of it. In the world 
 of politics, in the world of literature, in the world of 
 business, in the world of labour, He has shown the 
 power of His Spirit ; and though men are slow indeed 
 to acknowledge His authority, and slower still to 
 connect His name with the good influences which they 
 feci in their hearts and around them, those of us who 
 believe in Him as the Word are equally bound by our 
 affection for His name, and by the logical consequences 
 of our faith, to trace all these upward tendencies to the 
 diffused activity of His Spirit among men, and the 
 process by which He is preparing the whole world for 
 the final acceptance of His Truth. Indeed, to limit 
 His activity to the narrow channels of influence that 
 are connected with His Church, would be to give Him 
 
37^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 but a small place among the moulding forces of 
 humanity ; for the Church comprehends but an insigni- 
 ficant minority of the whole population even of the 
 countries which are called Christian. But far and wide 
 the vital energies of the truth that was revealed in 
 Jesus has scattered its flying seeds ; the air is impreg- 
 nated with them, and as they come in contact with good 
 soil, with impressionable hearts, with minds that are 
 not closed to the light, these seeds spring up, and do 
 not fail to come to some kind of fruitage. It is, however, 
 in the nature of things that, as these influences are 
 mingled with all kinds of hostile forces, and have to 
 take their place according to the welcome they get 
 from human hearts, the result they produce is not in 
 accordance with the nobility of their origin, and they 
 sometimes lose all sign of that origin through the 
 contamination of secular and unholy influences reacting 
 on them. It is thus impossible for us always to 
 disentangle the spiritual forces of life from their environ- 
 ment and trace them to their true source, or even to 
 measure them according to their quality. The path of 
 goodness is disguised in many ways, and in the mudd}'- 
 stream of history it is hard to trace the pure waters of 
 the fountain of life, for it is mingled with that which 
 has flowed from the pit that is bottomless, as well as 
 those rivulets that have had their rise in the forest lands 
 and waste places of human lawlessness and self-will. 
 Thus it is hard to get those who have written the 
 world's histories to give Christianity its proper place 
 amid the moulding influences of mankind ; and the 
 difficulty has been increased, on the one side, by the 
 jealousy with which the ecclesiastical party has viewed 
 all attempts to call any influence good or in any sense 
 derived from Christ which has flowed through any but 
 the so-called orthodox channels ; and, on the other 
 
Chap. II A New Evolutionary Departure 377 
 
 hand, by the purblind obstinacy of unbelieving thinkers 
 in refusing to accept the abundant evidence of history 
 to the pervasive and quickening influences that have 
 flowed in ever-increasing measure from the Person and 
 Cross of Christ. But for all that, the Spirit of Christ 
 has been and is moving over the troubled waters of 
 human history, has moulded much of the course of the 
 ages, and has been preparing the way for the time when 
 every knee shall bow to Him, and every tongue shall 
 call His name blessed. 
 
 To sum up the Scriptural Teaching of the Resurrection. 
 
 The rising of our Lord from the dead, and His 
 ascension to Heaven, there to be our Advocate and our 
 High Priest — that is to say, the close of the period of 
 humiliation in His history — was not the end of the 
 process of Incarnation, but only of its initial stage. Or, 
 we should be more correct perhaps in saying that it was 
 an episode — in a sense the most important episode in 
 the whole process, but by no means the completion. 
 He was in the world before, and He has been in the 
 world since. In prophecy He was as it were embryoni- 
 cally incarnated ; in His human life, the type which He 
 revealed was embodied so that all might see it; since 
 the Resurrection, that type has, through the influence 
 of His Spirit on the human soul, been multiplied and 
 enlarged so as to partially lift up humanity to its august 
 level. But it is all one process, and we cannot under- 
 stand any part in the line of development of the spiritual 
 life of Man without taking the whole into our purview. 
 As Bishop Westcott says : " The promise of redemption, 
 symbolised by the deliverance from Egypt, prefigured 
 by the types of the Law, illustrated by the teaching of 
 the prophets, was the vital bond of the people of Israel ; 
 and no less the accomplishment of Redemption, shown 
 
37^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 in the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the consequent 
 Mission of the Comforter, is the Spring of life in the 
 Christian Body. In the Church the fact of the 
 Resurrection so to speak is perpetuated ; and the Idea 
 of the Resurrection is realised. On the one hand, the 
 development of the Church witnesses to the consecration 
 of every power of Man to a Divine use, and marks the 
 potential transfiguration of every variety of individual 
 or national character, as parts of a sublimer whole ; and 
 on the other hand it claims the possession of this trans- 
 forming energy in virtue of the working of a Risen 
 Saviour through its outward institutions. Briefly it 
 is inherently historical " — i.e. it follows the laws and 
 has to conform to the limitations of an Evolutionary 
 process.^ 
 
 ^ " Gospel of the Resurrection," p. 192, 
 
BOOK III: EVOLUTION 
 AND THE RESURRECTION 
 
 ' ' Red of the Dawn ! 
 Is it turning a fainter red f So he it, but when shall we lay 
 
 The ghost of the brute that is walking and haunting us yet, and be free f 
 In a hundred, a thousand winters f Ah I what will our children be. 
 The men of a hundred thousand, a million summers away ? " 
 
 Tennyson. 
 
 Chapter IIL— The Man that Is to Be 
 
 The Humanity of the Future — The Coming Evolution Mental, not 
 Physical — Social and Moral, not Individualistic— Religious, not Agnostic 
 or Materialistic — What of "Reversed Cosmic Evolution"? — ^No Cause 
 for Fear. 
 
 WE have now come to the final stage of our 
 inquiry into the bearings of Evolutionary 
 Science on Christian Theology, as affecting, that is, 
 the question of the future Human Destiny, first in this 
 world, and secondly in the world to come. In one 
 sense, this is the most hypothetical branch of the 
 problem, in that it deals with matters of probability, 
 and therefore of uncertainty. At the same time it is 
 far and away the most important, because it refers, 
 not to the past which cannot be changed, but to the 
 future, which concerns every man vitally, and which 
 is to some extent under the control of human will and 
 action. It behoves us, therefore, to take heed to our 
 ways, and to proceed with cautious and reverent steps. 
 Our path is already strewn with the ruins of many an 
 exploded theory, for prophets of good and ill are many, 
 and of these few have the prophet's mantle, fewer 
 still the seer's authentic vision. For ourselves, our 
 way is safeguarded by the fact that, while we would 
 fearlessly accept all the new light that has been granted 
 through the expansion of recent thought, we are 
 anchored in the faith that our final source of light on 
 the future of humanity is contained in the Christian 
 
 379 
 
380 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 Revelation, and that the speculations of human science 
 are valuable to us as they serve to a better and a more 
 thorough understanding of the truths there held in 
 solution, which are crystallised and brought into their 
 true perspective only as we come to a better under- 
 standing of our own nature, and of the world in which 
 we live. 
 
 Truly it is with a sense of deep and stirring expect- 
 ancy that we remove our eyes from the troubled past, 
 with its story of struggle and waste and wrong, its 
 tragedies of woe, its sad moral arrest, and ask ourselves 
 what are our prospects under the glow of the new 
 sunrise that brightens frem behind the Cross and the 
 Empty Grave. We now know the outline of the 
 pathway along which Man has arrived at his present 
 vantage-ground of physical development and spiritual 
 opportunity ; we have studied the forces that are at his 
 disposal for further growth and progress ; it therefore 
 remains for us to complete our survey with an earnest 
 glance at the untrodden future which stretches its aeons 
 before him, and ask ourselves what are the possibilities 
 of his course, what the limitations that yet bar his way, 
 what the Destiny which he can work out for himself, 
 under the inspiration and through the ministries of 
 the glorious Gospel of the Blessed God. Man in the 
 Making, and Man in the Marring, we have seen : what 
 of Man in the Re-making ? 
 
 I 
 
 It will be well first to realise the limitations which bar the 
 way. The future Evolution of Man, so far as the forces 
 at work in the world are understood, will not, it is clear, 
 be a physical evolution. It will be, first, a mental one, 
 and that probably within strictly defined limits. 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 381 
 
 We have already suggested the lines of evidence 
 which seem to foreclose this question. Man has reached 
 his final form, so far as his bodily organisation is 
 concerned. Even his brain, the " organ of mentality," 
 has almost if not quite reached its limit of development, 
 at least so far as size is concerned. Prof. Clelland shows 
 that the cephalic cavity has reached its superior limits, 
 and will never alter in shape materially from what 
 it is now. This indeed is no barrier to a finer brain- 
 capacity, for there is one way in which the development 
 of the brain may be carried on without increasing its 
 bulk or weight. The brains of great men, in such cases 
 as have been examined after death, are found to differ 
 quite as much in quality as in quantity from those of 
 ordinary men, and, still more, in the number of convo- 
 lutions characteristic of the grey matter that is most 
 nearly associated with the act of thinking. When 
 therefore we say that Man has come to his final 
 allowance of brain, we do not mean to say that the 
 average brain of the race may not be greatly improved 
 in quality, both by education and other stimulating 
 factors in the environment acting through untold ages, 
 and by better means of " selection," voluntarily followed, 
 under the direction of an improved science and the 
 inspiration of finer altruistic motives. Hitherto, however, 
 there is not the slightest ground for supposing that this 
 process will take place. So far as we can gather 
 reliable evidence from the tiny historical arc within our 
 past horizon, the average physical and brain endowment 
 of the earliest cave-men was not far if any behind that 
 of the ordinary man of to-day ; and as regards the 
 comparatively recent case of the Greeks, Romans, and 
 some other " ancient " nations, they seem to have been 
 as highly endowed physically as any of us, and to have 
 possessed as fine if not finer brains, It is in any 
 
382 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 case quite certain that there are no new physical organs 
 being developed in the race. We shall never possess a 
 new sense, such as hearing, or sight, or smell ; there are 
 no dawning faculties shaping themselves within us ; and 
 if our present equipment of body and so of mind is far 
 from being developed out in the direction of its ultimate 
 possibilities, it will at least be all the capital of physical 
 energy and organisation we shall ever possess in this 
 life. 
 
 Indeed, there are not wanting ominous signs that our 
 present possessions are held on an insecure tenure. 
 Many Evolutionists are busily sounding a note of 
 warning as to the evil effects of the supersession of the 
 law of " natural selection " in the life of Man. The 
 function of this law is to conserve " favourable variations," 
 to correct the result of free intermarriage (which always 
 tends towards lowering the average effectiveness of the 
 senses and organs of the body), and to prevent, by killing 
 off the unfit, the perpetuation of their otherwise disastrous 
 peculiarities or weaknesses. In the animal world this 
 law has acted with magnificent results, being the chief 
 if not (as some say) the only means whereby the various 
 orders of life have been improved, and Evolution has 
 been carried forward till the advent of Man. During 
 the earlier career of our own race also, while it was in 
 a state of almost incessant warfare against the brute 
 conditions of survival, and individuals had even to prove 
 their right to exist by being able to hold their own 
 against all rivals, this law tended towards the develop- 
 ment of all that was favourable to life and vigour in the 
 physical constitution. But with the dawn of civilisation, 
 the rigour of this law was at once modified, through the 
 fact that the weak were under the protection of the 
 strong ; and with the awakening of the finer emotions 
 of sympathy and mutual helpfulness, uncorrected by 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 383 
 
 the application of the idea of " artificial selection " 
 which Man has applied with such astonishing results in 
 the case of domestic animals, there has been an inevit- 
 able tendency towards lowering the general average of 
 physical efficiency in the civilised races. As an instance 
 of this tendency may be mentioned the alarming increase 
 of short-sightedness. In earlier and ruder times, when 
 every man had to fight for his place in the world, those 
 whose eyesight was defective would tend to be overtaken 
 and slain unawares, while the keen-sighted would escape, 
 and not only " live to fight another day," but to perpetuate 
 their fine vision in their descendants, as is well 
 exemplified in the case of the North American Indians. 
 Under present conditions, however, the man of short 
 vision is not incapacitated from the struggle for exist- 
 ence ; for not only is such a defect not vitally dis- 
 qualifying, but mechanical corrections are within the 
 reach of all who suffer from it. Such individuals there- 
 fore freely intermarry with those of normal sight, and 
 according to the reading of this law that prevails at 
 present, it tends to a slow but sure degeneration of the 
 average keenness of human vision. The tendency is 
 aggravated by the trying conditions and customs of 
 modern times, which put an increasing strain on such 
 vision as we possess, and so still further hasten the 
 degenerative effects of free intermarriage. 
 
 The same law, it is affirmed, is slowly affecting even 
 the longevity of the race. This is a startling statement 
 in view of the fact that the average lease of life is so 
 rapidly extending, according to the vital statistics of 
 all civilised nations. And yet a closer examination of 
 the tables of the Registrar-General brings to light a 
 curious and disquieting fact. The immense comparative 
 increase in the average duration of life is due, we are 
 told, to the lessened rate of infant mortality rather 
 
384 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 than to the extending longevity of grown-up people. 
 On the contrary, while the total rate is rising, yet if we 
 eliminate the infant section — those under seven years 
 old— and attend only to those who are left, we shall 
 find that the average, instead of being maintained, 
 is actually lessened, even during the comparatively brief 
 period for which statistics are available. In spite, 
 therefore, of the extraordinary precautions that are 
 taken against disease and infection nowadays ; in 
 spite also of the rise of a profession which was unknown 
 a century ago — that of Preventive Medicine — we seem 
 to be defeating our own purpose, or at least to be 
 affected by causes which defeat us all the more surely 
 because we have drafted off a particular profession for 
 the sole purpose of conserving and improving the health 
 of the race. Here, again, we are told, the same cause 
 is at work. It is because we are interfering with the 
 law of " natural selection," whose function is to prevent 
 those with vital endowment below the average from 
 perpetuating their own weakness, that we are losing 
 instead of gaining ground against the assaults of 
 disease and death. Unless we discover and rigorously 
 apply some corrective principle, therefore, we shall find 
 that the very influences which, morally speaking, would 
 tend to the advancement of the race, will result in a 
 physical deterioration of the most disastrous kind.^ 
 
 We may, however, venture to assert that there will 
 be a real and marked mental evolution of Humanity. 
 As yet, indeed, we can hardly say that Man has begun 
 
 ^ See, however, Weismann's " Heredity," II., pp.'22, 23, where he 
 endeavours to point out the limits within which this deterioration 
 can take place without once more calling out the renewed action 
 of the law of Natural Selection. It is doubtful also whether the 
 prophets of ill in this matter have given due weight to the law of 
 'persistence of type," which tends to the preservation of all 
 physical characteristics once firmly fixed in the constitution of the 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 3^5 
 
 as a race to use the peculiar faculties that have been 
 granted him. There is a vast store of mentality even 
 in the higher animals which has not yet been brought 
 to perfection. Some domestic creatures have been 
 taught the rudiments of reason, which they possess 
 to an extent of which in their wild state they showed 
 no signs ; the wild horse, dog, cat, etc., are scarcely 
 the same beings as those of their species that have 
 been so profoundly modified by the education of man- 
 kind ; and certain domestic pets, such as canaries, 
 parrots, and even mice, show an astonishing sensitiveness 
 to the touch of human companionship and training. 
 With all these, however, there are strict and final limits 
 to the capacity for mental evolution ; there is a point 
 beyond which all further efforts to raise them are 
 fruitless. But with Man it is not so. He is furnished 
 with an equipment of faculty ample for the developing 
 processes of a million years. His real mental education 
 is only beginning. If we cannot affirm that the high- 
 water mark of mental power is more advanced to-day 
 than in the age of Pericles, we can safely claim that 
 in those countries where popular education has been 
 at work for one generation, the average intelligence is 
 vastly higher than it has ever been in the history of the 
 human race. Knowledge, for long centuries the mono- 
 poly of a class, is becoming the heritage of the many ; 
 and with knowledge, those secondary benefits which 
 ever follow in its pathway. Suspension of judgment, 
 the faculty for concentrated attention, that inestimable 
 
 species. It is a well-known fact that when civilised man is trained 
 to physical exercises, he is quite the equal, if not the superior, of 
 most savage races, even in those arts of war in which the savage 
 is being continually exercised. In any case the process of degenera- 
 tion spoken of above would take an immense period to act to the 
 real detriment of the race. Apparently, however, it would be bound 
 to tell in the end. 
 
 25 
 
j86 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 result of expanding mental vision which we call 
 *' common-sense," the power of generalisation from 
 particulars to universals, mental balance and proportion 
 — all these are the fruit of expanding education among 
 the masses. High also among intellectual qualities 
 which flower into the moral life is to be placed foresight, 
 which may be called the peculiar property of the 
 civilised man. All this is the result of a wider mental 
 culture, and as that process goes on, if only it is 
 directed under the control of still higher safeguards, 
 its benefits ought to increase in geometric, rather than 
 arithmetic, ratio. And whether there be such a thing 
 as the inheritance of acquired aptitudes or not, there 
 are at least the facts that each generation builds largely 
 on the mental acquirements of its predecessors, that the 
 discoveries of one age become the commonplaces of the 
 next, and that no effective advance in knowledge is ever 
 likely to be lost from the grasp of humanity now that 
 the art of printing has made every recorded conquest 
 of the individual mind the permanent possession of the 
 race. And thus, even though the average abilities of 
 the race may not materially increase as time goes on, 
 we may look forward to a real increase of mastery over 
 the faculties which we possess, and this will result in 
 their better use and more effective development. 
 
 This mental development will issue in a vast extension 
 of Man's control over the physical universe. The 
 advance made during the last century in this direction 
 is so great that, as we have seen, it has altogether 
 revolutionised the conditions of human life. Immense 
 forces are now harnessed in the service of the race which 
 up till then were either inimical or neutral in their 
 action. Time has been economised to such an extent 
 by better methods of carrying on business, and by the 
 acceleration of industrial processes, that the narrow 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 3^7 
 
 limits of a lifetime now hold possibilities of work and 
 experience which could not be contained formerly 
 within the scope of generations of hard toil. The 
 tyranny of distance has been reduced to a minimum by 
 mechanical means of travel ; the planet for purposes 
 of intercourse has been reduced to a fraction of its 
 previous size ; the " ends of the earth " are now almost 
 within speaking and hearing distance of all of us. 
 Wonderful as are the triumphs that have hitherto been 
 accomplished by these discoveries and inventions, they 
 are probably only a beginning of a process which will 
 end no one knows where. Man's power to transform 
 his environment is so rapidly extending, that the very 
 globe is becoming plastic under his hand ; and at last 
 he is entering on that "dominion over the works of" 
 God's " hands " of which the Psalmist spoke as having 
 been given to him so long ago.^ 
 
 Another result of Man's mental expansion is a 
 deepened and clarified knowledge of his own nature. 
 The records of human thought, of Man's wild guesses 
 at the riddle of existence, of his painful efforts to come 
 to a better understanding of his own inner life, have not 
 been made in vain. The systems of philosophy grow 
 old and are elaborated only to be discarded as insufficient 
 to account for the totality of his being. But each 
 leaves its traces, contributes something to the onward 
 march of thought ; and if one and all prove insufficient 
 to bring being and thought to the unity which is the 
 terminus ad quern of all philosophic thinking, they have 
 done splendid service in shedding light on the strange 
 world within on which Man's consciousness ever plays 
 like an uncertain and fitful glow-worm. Both the 
 possibilities and the limitations of human personality 
 are now beyond measure clearer than when Aristotle 
 ^ Psalm viii. 
 
388 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 wrote, and Plato walked the Academe at Athens. 
 The history of the conception of personality successively 
 arrived at by great thinkers is thus something more 
 than a matter of intellectual interest ; it is part of 
 the record whereby we have come to a deeper grasp 
 of our own nature, and to a truer control of our own 
 powers. The development of thought works hand in 
 hand with the struggles of experience, and the hard- 
 ships of spiritual conflict, to bring Man to that mastery 
 of his own wayward nature which is one of the con- 
 ditions of mastery over the universe without. In this 
 sense it is idle to deny that Man has " evolved " greatly, 
 even within the short period of which the records 
 remain to us : his being is enriched by the knowledge 
 which he has accumulated ; that knowledge has reacted 
 on his life, and made it different from what it was, 
 and from what it would have been had there been no 
 thinkers to perplex him with questions, and to illuminate 
 him with their earnest if insufficient answers. How 
 far Christianity has stirred and carried forward this 
 factor in the intellectual growth of the race is a fruit- 
 ful and stimulating inquiry ; but we have no space 
 here to do more than just hint at the extraordinary 
 impulse it gave to philosophic thought, and the ever- 
 new material it has furnished for further inquiry, by 
 enriching the spiritual nature of Man.^ 
 
 II 
 
 But, as we have already seen at an earlier stage of 
 our inquiry, intellectual development does not in itself 
 contain sufficient safeguards against its own abuse. 
 The best educated people are not necessarily the best 
 
 ^ On this subject see Illingworth's Bampton Lecture on 
 " Personality, Human and Divine," passim. 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 389 
 
 men ; they may be among the worst. Knowledge is 
 power ; but power may be misused ; in the hands of 
 selfish and unprincipled individuals, it may be trans- 
 formed into an unmitigated scourge. Unless therefore 
 we have some guarantee that, in the future evolution 
 of the race, there will be other factors at work which 
 will ensure that intellectual advancement will be turned 
 to the benefits of the race, the present swift expansion 
 of knowledge and culture may end in a curse instead 
 of a blessing. Is there any hope or sign that such 
 regulative factors are being developed pari passu with 
 education and enlightenment? 
 
 Unquestionably there is ; and one of them is to be 
 found in the quickening of the social sense. Comparing 
 past with present, and drawing from present facts the 
 deductions that seem obviously warranted, we come to 
 the conclusion that the future Evolution of Humanity 
 will be predominantly a social and moral evolution. 
 
 Not that we are to look forward to anything like a 
 neglect of the individual in the ages to come. There 
 are not wanting indications indeed in certain directions, 
 and for the time being, that the interests of the individual 
 are in peril of being lost sight of under the tyranny of 
 the new social instinct. In that passionate reaction 
 against an era of exaggerated individualism which 
 characterises modern social movements, it was only 
 to be expected that something of this kind should 
 take place. It is the penalty of a too rapid advance that 
 it should contain reactionary elements. Unquestion- 
 ably, there is a tendency in the latest developments 
 of industrial organisation to sit too hard on individual 
 initiative and spontaneous exhibitions of energy. This 
 is one of the secondary and regrettable effects of 
 Tradesunionism, and of the crude Socialism which is 
 advocated in certain quarters. But this tendency is 
 
390 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 temporary, and in time it will inevitably tend to correct 
 itself. That emphasis on the infinite value of the 
 individual life and soul which is one of the priceless 
 gifts of Christianity to the world is really at the root 
 of all the social movements of the time. But for the 
 growing conviction that the meanest man has his 
 inalienable rights, — the right to live a life unburdened 
 by intolerable disabilities of poverty and ignorance 
 and filthy surroundings, the right to live his own life, 
 and not the life imposed upon him by foolish and 
 cramping limitations of his personal liberties, the right 
 to live the best and freest life possible to him with due 
 regard to the rights of others, — the vast and complicated 
 organisations that are rapidly transforming the social 
 world would lose their prime impulse. 
 
 Now it is growing clear that the individual can 
 never live such a life unless present social conditions 
 are made more adaptable and sensitive to the needs 
 of the individual. To improve the social environment, 
 therefore, is one of the pressing tasks of the future. 
 This does not mean that we should aim at a static 
 social condition. A perfect environment can never be 
 static for a society of developing individuals. As 
 men grow, they will ever call for new conditions, 
 and as they get to understand each other and to 
 realise that the interests of each are really the interests 
 of all, they will join more and more amicably to work 
 together for their common end. Reforms and fresh 
 adjustments will be constantly called for, and they 
 will be constantly easier to attain. 
 
 The Social Evolution of earlier times was directed 
 mainly (though not of course exclusively) towards 
 easing and bettering the relations between communities 
 as great aggregates ; internal adjustments were made 
 mainly that the community or nation might be better 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 39 1 
 
 capable of preserving itself against attacks from outside. 
 But with the rise of modern industrialism, and the 
 turning men's minds away from the conflicts of nations 
 towards the competitions of commerce, the changing 
 relations of master and man, employer and employed, 
 introduced a new era of social and moral development. 
 Domestic legislation has gradually taken the first place 
 formerly held by international diplomacy ; external 
 treaties being more or less stably arranged, government 
 is predominantly concerned with internal reforms ; and 
 the channel of development in future is seen to lie in 
 the relationships within the social organism itself. Not 
 too soon has the attention of statesmen and political 
 reformers been turned in this direction, for with the 
 invention of machinery, and the consequent enormous 
 and revolutionary acceleration of manufacturing pro- 
 cesses, new and vital problems were rapidly emerging, 
 and perils to the well-being of society loomed up, 
 vague and vast, calling for immediate treatment. These 
 industrial changes have radically altered the conditions 
 of social life, involving as they do altogether new 
 relationships between man and man, letting loose fresh 
 forces of development, and calling for an extraordinary 
 sensitising of the higher social instincts. One of the 
 marked results of this change has been an entire 
 redistribution and concentration of the population in 
 great and ever-increasing cities, with the pressing 
 problems of poverty and overcrowding which this 
 implies. Another has been a loosening and at the same 
 time an accentuation of the relations between employers 
 and employed. Master and man nowadays do not feel 
 the personal bond as in days of old ; the relation tends 
 more and more to become merely a " business " relation ; 
 and with deepening need for close co-operation, there 
 is an ever-increasing tendency towards alienation and 
 
392 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 irritation. A third vital result of the industrial change 
 is the merging of private enterprises into limited liability 
 companies, whose shareholders are scattered throughout 
 the community, and who never come into personal 
 relations at all with the men who make their wealth. 
 In these and many other subtle ways modern society 
 is being brought face to face with entirely new problems, 
 so different in kind from any that have hitherto existed 
 that almost no light is shed on them by the past course 
 of human history, so that they have to be met and 
 mastered in new ways and by adjustments that only 
 patient thought and a high spirit of social reform can 
 devise and carry out. 
 
 Is there any message of comfort and encouragement 
 to be uttered in view of these unfamiliar and pressing 
 social perils ? Have we any guarantee that the future 
 evolution of communities and races will run along safe 
 and progressive lines, and not into some yawning gulf 
 of confusion and ruin? 
 
 Were it not for the light that streams from one 
 direction, we should have no effective guarantee that the 
 fierce competitions that everywhere rage and fume 
 might not end in an era of steady and fatal social decline. 
 Long before a deepening and uplifting of the social 
 sense was called for by the new conditions, Christianity, 
 they had been softening and refining our national 
 ideals, quickening the sentiment of pity for the fallen and 
 the forsaken, and vastly deepening and broadening the 
 channels of human sympathy In earlier times much 
 of this growing pitifulness and sympathy was directed 
 into mischievous channels ; almsgiving seemed to be 
 the only, or at least the chief, way open of ameliorating 
 the evils of society ; and an enormous outgrowth of 
 social parasitism was the result. But while these 
 temporary evils have with better organisation passed 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 393 
 
 largely into the background, the sentiments of which 
 they were the exciting causes as well as the result have 
 remained, and are to-day available for a better and a 
 saner use. Even now we have scarcely tapped the vast 
 resources of human sympathy as a means of realising 
 the possibilities of social progress. Just as there are 
 untold treasures of music in the air, and of colour in the 
 sunshine, and of power among the untutored forces 
 of Nature, waiting to be released at the touch of genius, 
 that they may take their place in the service and for 
 the solace of Man, so there are in the impalpable but 
 electric atmosphere of our social nature potentialities 
 of mutual helpfulness which may yet surprise the 
 pessimists who croak over the rapidly approaching 
 disintegration of society. All that is wanted is some 
 great educative influence that shall call forth and 
 organise these potentialities, that they may be ready 
 and available when wanted. 
 
 This we have in Christianity. Hitherto it has been 
 too much identified with the institutions which it has 
 produced, and the channels of individual salvation in 
 which it has mainly energised, for its true social power 
 to be adequately realised. Latterly, however, it has been 
 clear that, great as has been the influence of the Christian 
 revelation in the past in softening the hard relations of 
 men towards one another, it has scarcely begun its true 
 career of social regeneration. A glance at the way 
 in which the teachings of the Gospel are pervading 
 personal and industrial relationships will make this 
 sufficiently clear. 
 
 I. The modern development of the family ideal is 
 entirely the fruit of Christianity. The emancipation 
 of the wife from a slave or a plaything into a helpmeet 
 and a companion whose very weakness entitles her 
 to a kindlier consideration and a more genuine regard ; 
 
394 The Ascent through Christ Booklll 
 
 the hallowing of the marriage tie into a religious bond, 
 whose ideal is a life-long union between two souls that 
 are to be all in all to one another ; the enthronement 
 of the Child into the supreme place in the affections and 
 service of its elders, — all these great results are the 
 outcome of that religion which has spoken its tenderest 
 messages in the language of home, and has embodied 
 its highest revelation of the Divine nature in the concep- 
 tion of the Divine Fatherhood. 
 
 2. The mitigation of the horrors of war, and the slow 
 but sure substitution of other and humaner methods 
 of settling international controversies, is another result 
 of Christian training. The Christian law regarding 
 personal controversies is, first, for the two parties to 
 seek reconciliation between themselves ; if one of the 
 parties declines this, to call in the help of a third party 
 to mediate ; if this fails, to seek the arbitrament of the 
 organised law of society ; and in the last resort nothing 
 more militant is permitted than a cessation of friendly 
 relations.^ This indeed is the Christian model for the 
 settlement of all human disputes. First, reconciliation, 
 involving if necessary that the aggrieved party should 
 be the first to offer it ; secondly, conciliation ; thirdly, 
 arbitration by a legally constituted tribunal ; and lastly, 
 if all else fails, an attitude of neutrality, ever open 
 to renewal of friendly relationships on the basis of a 
 free forgiveness. Irreconcilable enmity is unknown to 
 Christ. High above us as this ideal floats, it is 
 astonishing how widely it has already been incorporated, 
 not only in the social sentiment relating to personal 
 affronts, but in the settlement of industrial relations, 
 and even in the relations that bind civilised nations 
 together. It is impossible for us here to go into the 
 matter more fully ; the reader who is anxious to do so 
 ' Matt. xvii. 15-17. 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 395 
 
 will find a suggestive guide in Dr. Lyman Abbott's 
 recent work on " Christianity and Social Problems." ^ 
 
 3. The law of chastity is also one of the distinctive 
 and priceless boons conferred on the race by Jesus Christ. 
 Most ancient nations were finally shipwrecked on the 
 rock of sensual passion ; and it is certain that there 
 is nothing more disastrous in its effects on both the 
 physical and moral stamina of the race than promiscuous 
 and unregulated sexual intercourse. Now apart from 
 the influence of Christianity, there is no prospect that 
 this evil will ever be really kept in check ; at present 
 even this influence hardly suffices to restrain it within 
 the bounds of decency ; and were our faith not 
 deep that it will succeed, in the end, in imposing its 
 august ideal of chastity upon the unmarried, and of 
 absolute faithfulness to one another on the wedded, 
 we should utterly despair of the continuance and 
 development of modern civilisation. 
 
 4. Another result of Christian influence is seen in 
 the new attitude taken towards the lapsed and the 
 criminal. The retributive notion of punishment has 
 given way to the remedial. Off"enders against the law 
 are neither tortured nor visited with disproportionate 
 penalties. Youthful criminals are treated as capable of 
 social redemption. The children of criminals are cared 
 for by those who endeavour to bring them up in a clean 
 and civilised manner. Various philanthropic institutions 
 aim at the prevention of crime by teaching and 
 sheltering and uplifting those in peril of falling, whether 
 through the stress of inherited tendencies, or through 
 the pressure of an evil environment. In a thousand 
 ways attempts are being made to deal with the social 
 evils that afflict the civilised world, both the evils that 
 are the heritage of the immemorial past, and those 
 
 * James Clarke & Co., 1896, especially chaps, ii. — i. 
 
39^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 which are the direct result of the new social conditions 
 of the times. 
 
 There is here abundant call for thankfulness and 
 hope. But there is also a threatening peril. It is one 
 which we have already touched on in another con- 
 nection — that of so conserving the undesirable and 
 unfit elements in human society, without providing 
 checks against their perpetuation, as permanently to 
 lower the average quality of the race. This peril is 
 indeed real and even imminent, and it calls for a new 
 development of social honour. A public opinion will 
 have to be created against marriages that can only 
 result in unhealthy, vicious, and depraved offspring ; 
 and in the case of those who are beyond the reach of 
 such a refined sentiment, and are physically and morally 
 unfit to be parents, effective means must be found of 
 preventing them from continuing their species. This 
 we fear is an ideal still distant. At present indeed the 
 laws of healthy physical generation are so obscure to 
 the eye of science, that it would be folly to attempt 
 any formal interference with the impulses of nature 
 in the choice of partners ; and it may be long before 
 the needful light will arise. But in the end some such 
 regulation of sexual relations in doubtful cases will 
 have to come, if the race is not to deteriorate in soul 
 and mind as well as body. 
 
 Ill 
 
 We thus come naturally to our third and last point 
 as regards the future evolution of Man on earth. // 
 will be pre-eminently a religious or spiritual one. 
 
 We are aware that there are prominent writers who 
 affirm confidently that the very reverse of this will 
 be the case. Looking at religion as a passing stage 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 397 
 
 in the development of the race, they teach that it must 
 lose its hold as the conditions which brought it into 
 being pass away. Were religion and superstition 
 synonymous terms, this would be the case ; and the 
 result would equally follow if it were true that science 
 had sounded the death-knell of a belief in the super- 
 natural element which is one of the inalienable factors 
 in religion. We hold that neither of these passing 
 hypotheses are true. Christianity is demonstrably 
 separable from the superstitions with which it has from 
 time to time been weighted ; but it is clearer than 
 ever that its witness to the supernatural is incapable 
 of being explained away. It is equally clear that it 
 is deepening rather than slackening its hold on the best 
 life of the world ; and that the religious instincts of the 
 race, so far from being in their dotage, are really as yet 
 in their early stage of Evolution. If indeed we find 
 reason to think that Man, as mental, has reached in 
 a sense his stature, and looks forward now to a develop- 
 ment that is mainly elaborative of the faculties which 
 he has, rather than to the acquisition of new faculties, 
 and if he is in a state of half-evolved stature as social, 
 it is we believe unquestionable that, as religious, he is 
 still in a state of infancy. 
 
 And how is he as a creature to develop spiritually ? 
 It must and can only be, first, by receiving larger 
 stores of vitality, and secondly, by getting more in touch 
 with the true environment in which his life is nourished. 
 And, as we have seen, the true source and the true 
 environment of the soul of Man are in God.^ To be in 
 ever-closer touch with the Father of Lights ; to develop 
 and multiply those intimate relationships with Him 
 which are the soul's breath and joy ; to come to know 
 Him, and to love Him, and love what He loves ; to 
 ^ Acts xvii. 28. 
 
39^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 make His will our will, and find our meat and our drink 
 in the doing of that will which is holy and righteous 
 and good, — this is to be spiritually minded, and it is this 
 which not only gives the richest and fullest sense of life 
 in every way, but is the only assurance we can possibly 
 have of a blessed immortality in the world to come. 
 How then to come into these Divine intimacies is the 
 great question. And the answer is to be found, if at all, 
 only in the practical acceptance of Christianity. Here is 
 the authentic message of God to Man, and Christ is the 
 embodiment of that message. Son of God — Incarnate 
 Word — Himself, He brought the principle of spiritual life 
 within the reach of all, and showed the way whereby 
 the breach between Man and his Maker might be 
 reconciled, the process of degeneration not only arrested 
 but reversed, and a new evolution started which will 
 undo the work of the Fall. This He gave assurance of 
 by His own Resurrection and Ascension. Though He 
 has disappeared so far as bodily presence is concerned. 
 He is still energising the world by His Spirit, first in the 
 hearts of individual believers, then in the Church which 
 He established, and thirdly in the diffused influence 
 which He exercises over the minds of men and the 
 progress of the world. He revealed a new type of 
 character, which a foremost Evolutionist, speaking not 
 as a believer in Revelation, but purely as a scientific 
 man, shows to be the very kind of character which is 
 approved by the trend of Evolution as the future type 
 of development in human relations both in the individual 
 and in society. He pointed out the need for a New 
 Birth into the " kingdom of God " as the condition of 
 the beginning of this higher life ; and He promised the 
 gift of the Holy Spirit to all those who are willing to 
 give themselves up to His guidance, and to accept the 
 illumination and uplifting of His presence in their soul. 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 399 
 
 It would be an interesting line of inquiry to follow 
 out the development of this " Christ-influence " in the 
 history of the ages, and to measure its range and depth 
 in the life of to-day. To do this adequately, however, 
 would require the scope of a large volume, and only a 
 suggestive and final word can here be said. From the 
 time when the Risen Lord said to His disciples at the 
 hour of His departure from them, " All power is given 
 to Me in heaven and on earth," to the present day, all 
 that has been most heroic in life, all that has been most 
 progressive in thought, all that has told best for social 
 and political emancipation, all that is sweetest and 
 most beautiful in character, has been the direct or in- 
 direct fruit of that blessed influence. Far beyond the 
 circumference of His Church and the conscious effect of 
 His teaching and Person, that influence has swept ; like 
 the viewless wind it has penetrated into the most 
 unsuspected places, bearing on its wings the seeds of a 
 loftier thinking, the potencies of a Diviner life. Modern 
 civilisation, in so far as it is distinctive and vital, is 
 so in virtue of the fact that it has incorporated within 
 its vast activities and varied institutions some of the 
 Christ- Idea, and taken on some of the impress of the 
 Christ-heart. We cannot, if we would, get away from 
 Jesus Christ, any more than we can get away from 
 the light that filters through the air we breathe and 
 makes beautiful the soil on which we tread. He has 
 impregnated the life of Humanity with the quality of 
 His own. Not yet, alas ! has He come to His own ; 
 not yet is He King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. But 
 His kingdom is coming, " without observation " except 
 in cyclic changes, and with many a temporary lapse 
 and ebb which sadden the hearts of those who love Him 
 best ; it is coming, and that none the less surely because 
 it seldom moves along the paths we would mark out 
 
400 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 for Him, or in ways that we can at the time recognise. 
 As when the image of the descended sun remains on 
 the eye, so " Christ has once for all fixed the attention 
 of the world on Himself, and henceforth it can never 
 get His Divine form out of His vision. He is imprinted 
 for ever upon the mental retina of the race, and one 
 must continue to look upon the soul, and human 
 society, and God Himself, with eyes that have Christ 
 burned into their substance." ^ The fidelities of Science, 
 the glories of Art, the expanding ideals of national life, 
 the inspirations of conduct, the hopes that fill the heart 
 in the hour of its most ecstatic visions — all bear the 
 impress, and partake of the quality, of the quiet Figure 
 whose voice was not lifted in the streets, but whose 
 Presence is fast filling the earth with its perfume and 
 its joy. Whatever may or may not be prophesied 
 with confidence in this uncertain world, this at least 
 is safe to say, that the empire of Jesus is swiftly 
 extending, and that the one hope of Humanity is that 
 it may become universal and complete. 
 
 IV 
 
 But here, at the very ridge of this outlook on a glorious 
 future for Humanity in this world, we are met with a 
 chill wind that blows out of the very gates of the sunrise 
 into which we are so eagerly gazing, and a cloud, at 
 first small as a man's hand, begins rapidly to spread 
 over the heavens. We have been so far dealing with 
 that future as though it had no limit, or at least as 
 though the horizon which bounds it melted into a rich 
 and pearly heaven, on which the cloud-battlements of the 
 New Jerusalem, the City of God, hang in unspeakable 
 
 ^ " The Christ of To-day," by George A. Gordon, Minister of the 
 Old South Church, Boston, U.S.A., pp. 52, 53. 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 4<^i 
 
 splendours of colour and form. This has ever been 
 the normal horizon of the Christian consciousness. 
 There is to be a New Heaven and a New Earth, in 
 which dwelleth righteousness ; and after that, a glorified 
 and beauteous Society of the Redeemed in the spiritual 
 presence of God, after the physical heaven and earth 
 are rolled up like a scroll, their function done and their 
 work accomplished in the plans of the Eternal. 
 
 And now, at the very zenith of our hopes, comes the 
 voice of physical Science with a cheerless foreboding, 
 and a confident prophecy of ill things to come. The 
 fate of the material universe, according to the specu- 
 lations of inspired writers, was that it should be burnt 
 up in a great catastrophic cataclysm, when the drama 
 of human life had been brought to its climax. Just as 
 once in the course of history the order of nature had 
 been interrupted in order to mark the Divine displeasure 
 against the wickedness of the human race, so in the fulness 
 of time it would be finally destroyed by fire, because its 
 function was completed as the theatre for the spiritual 
 evolution of the race. " There were heavens from of 
 old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst 
 water, by the word of God ; by which means the world 
 that then was, being overflowed with water, perished : 
 but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the 
 same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved 
 against the day of judgment and destruction of un- 
 godly men. . . . But the day of the Lord will come as 
 a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with 
 a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with 
 fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein 
 shall be burned up." ^ The progress of science has, 
 
 * 2 Peter iii. 5-7, 10. We quote these words as being significant 
 not because we lay stress on the particular form which this cata- 
 strophic event takes in the imagination of the writer, but as indicating 
 
 26 
 
40i The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 however, opened up a very different vista of the future 
 of the physical universe. If, so far, we may reasonably 
 hold that Man is the moral climax of creation, and that 
 we shall never see another and loftier race of beings 
 usurping his position of supremacy on the earth, we are 
 debarred from believing any longer that his reign is to 
 last " while the earth endureth." The appearance of the 
 human race on the planet is not so much the denouement 
 of Evolution, as a highly interesting and splendid episode 
 in that Evolution. Long as has been the career of Man, 
 there was an inconceivably longer period when he was 
 not, because the conditions for his existence had not yet 
 arrived ; and long as may be the period of development 
 yet to be accomplished in him, the time will assuredly 
 come when he is not on the earth, because the conditions 
 favourable to his existence will have passed away. The 
 whole physical universe, according to the physicist, is 
 undergoing a process of cooling : from the fiery star-mist 
 of the illimitable past, it was a long step to the temperate 
 conditions of the present ; it may take a still longer 
 time ere the further process of cooling will have made 
 the physical climate too cold to maintain life ; but 
 that time will inevitably come. Slowly the stores of 
 the earth's heat will be dissipated into the vast spaces 
 around ; as this goes on, a glacial cold will gradually 
 freeze into the heart of the planet ; the higher orders of 
 life will gradually be weeded off by the unfavourable 
 environment, and will be succeeded by lower orders, till 
 at last, by a kind of reversed process of Evolution, all life 
 will die out again, and the earth be given up to a 
 gloomy solitude and icy barrenness. The friction of the 
 
 a belief which has ever been the boundary-line of the Christian 
 outlook on the future of the planet — the behef, that is, that the 
 physical world existed for Man, and that when Man's moral 
 probation is at an end, it will be resolved into its elements and 
 turned to other uses 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 4^3 
 
 tides will, little by little, retard the earth's motion round 
 her own axis, till, like the moon, she swings idly in the 
 void, ever turning only one side to the sun, while the 
 other is wrapped in a perpetual night. The very sun will, 
 later on, come to a similar fate, his stores of heat giving 
 out completely by slow radiation ; and finally the whole 
 solar system will be a collection of dead worlds, 
 wheeling in the depths of utter darkness through 
 trackless wastes of sky. 
 
 It may be urged that this picture of the distant future 
 is one that need not give us any disquiet, just because 
 it is so immeasurably distant. It may also be urged 
 that it is hypothetical, and that with a deeper insight 
 into the hidden forces of the universe we shall come 
 on a principle of renewal which has not yet been un- 
 folded to the eye of the physicist. This is unquestionably 
 possible. In the meantime we have to deal with the 
 problem as it presents itself to us, and the prospect 
 is one that is not without a distinctly chilling influence 
 on the imagination. We do not like to lose hold on the 
 future, or think of a time when the earth that has been 
 given to us for our home and our empire will be once 
 more handed over to brute forces out of whose grasp 
 we have wrested, and in a sense redeemed, it to our 
 service. And from the side of scientific speculation, 
 no light seems possible, except to a modified extent, 
 and in one direction. Our empire over matter and 
 force has been extending in such a startling manner 
 of recent years, and the possibilities of further develop- 
 ments are so immense and dazzling, that we know not 
 where they may end. We have already changed the 
 climate of many a country, and altered the face of the 
 planet, by our manipulation of natural forces. It is well 
 within the reach of possibility that we may come upon 
 secrets which will vastly increase this power, and so by 
 
404 The Ascent through Christ Book 111 
 
 a wise economy of, and prudent interference with, the 
 wasteful processes of nature be able to conserve for our 
 own purposes the forces that are now being dissipated. 
 If so, we may look forward to a great extension of the 
 period during which the race shall exist on the planet. 
 But even so, there must be a limit to the presence and 
 reign of Man on the earth, and a time will come when 
 his course will be run, and the universe as we know 
 it be handed over to the forces of decay and death. 
 
 To the Christian believer, however, this need be no 
 matter of concern or regret. He believes that there is 
 a Personal and Ever-blessed God who is at the helm of 
 the universe, and that " He who made it will guide." 
 To him it must ever be inconceivable that the drama 
 of creation, having so clearly a moral and spiritual goal 
 to it, should ever end in an anti-climax so futile as that 
 which the physicist seems forced to believe in. Those 
 spacious heavens and this "blossoming world" were 
 not brought out of the womb of nothingness in order 
 to be swallowed up once more in a pitchy and eternal 
 night, in which there shall be no eye to see their glory, 
 no heart to pulse in response to their order and beauty. 
 As the present order certainly had a beginning, so it 
 may well come to an end. But that end will be a great 
 and a glorious end, commensurate with the Mind that 
 planned, and the Will that accomplished, and the Love 
 that has brooded over all its troubled but splendid 
 history. If the present physical order ever becomes 
 unnecessary to the further completion of the Divine 
 purpose, then we who believe that we shall remain 
 because God remains, and live because Christ lives, 
 can afford without any loss of hope or faith or activity 
 to look forward to the passing away of all outward 
 things. When we are attaining " other heights in other 
 lives," in the fulness of the Presence, and in unbroken 
 
Chap. Ill The Man that Is to Be 405 
 
 communion with all that is permanently fair and good, 
 we shall ever think with fondness of the Old Home 
 in which we first came to birth, and had our first 
 childish trials and struggles, and wrestled with the 
 powers of darkness and sin, and rose to victory through 
 the love that redeemed us, — even though that Home 
 be fallen into ruin and decay. Surely no perfected 
 spirit which once walked the ways of this green earth 
 will ever forget the wandering star made sacred by the 
 footsteps of the Son of God, nor the " green hill far away " 
 on which the " dear Lord was crucified, and died to save 
 us all." But God is greater than the universe, and it is 
 "in Him we live, and move, and have our true being." 
 Whether it be the fate of the earth and the stars, 
 according to the old faith, to be burnt up, or according 
 to the new, to be frozen up, we believe that He who 
 made them can, and if needful for His gracious purposes 
 will, remake out of their worn-out materials other worlds 
 for fairer ends. As for us, we shall have had our day 
 here, and our children, and our children's children, to 
 uncountable ages yet to come ; and out of this life, we 
 shall have been raised up into the more glorious life 
 above. If that is sure, nothing else matters ; God rules, 
 and of His empire there shall be no end. " Seeing that 
 these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of 
 persons ought we to be in all holy living and godliness, 
 looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the 
 Day of God?"^ 
 
 The refuge from Pessimism, in view of the perishable 
 nature of human life and of the certain dissolution of 
 the present order of things, is thus found in a clearer 
 view of the issues of created existence, and the certainty 
 offered to faith that nothing worthy of eternal continuance 
 can ever perish so long as " God and the Soul endure." 
 * 2 Peter iii. ii. 
 
BOOK III: EVOLUTION 
 AND THE RESUKREOTIOM 
 
 *' And so, beside the Silent Sea, 
 I wait the muffled oar ; 
 * No harm from Him can come to me 
 
 On ocean or on shore. 
 
 *• / ktiow not where His islands lift 
 Their Jronded palms in air ; 
 I only know I cannot drift 
 Beyond His love and care.'" 
 
 Whittier. 
 
 Chapter IV*— Behind the Veil 
 
 Does Death end Probation always and for all ? — Reasons for reopen- 
 ing the Question — What does the Bible teach ? — Conditions of an 
 Adequate Moral Probation — Subjective and Objective Conditions of the 
 Future Life. 
 
 I 
 
 GRANTED that an acceptance of the Theory of 
 Evolution does not imperil faith in the Christian 
 doctrine of immortality, we have yet to ask whether 
 it modifies our views of future destiny. And, first, as 
 to the vexed problem whether Death ends Human 
 Probation. 
 
 Up till recently it seems to have been taken for 
 granted by the vast majority of Christian believers that 
 this question must be answered in the affirmative. This 
 life was believed to be the only theatre of moral probation 
 for the race. Our future destiny was to be entirely 
 determined by the manner in which we lived in this 
 short span of life. No second chance would be given 
 to any one. Eternal blessedness for the good, eternal 
 woe for the wicked — this was the doom of all ; and 
 that doom was contingent on the state of the soul in 
 the solemn hour of the dissolution of the bodily life. 
 
 It is useless to deny that there has been a slow and 
 widespread change of late years in the Protestant 
 attitude on this vital matter. So far it has been an 
 
 406 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 407 
 
 alteration of mood rather than of conviction ; the 
 change has scarcely passed into the self-conscious, much 
 less the rational, stage of thought. None the less has 
 it been real and far-reaching ; and it is beginning to 
 have profound influence on the temper and bearing of 
 believers towards those who have not yet accepted the 
 Christian faith, or who have taken up an attitude 
 of hostility towards it, or who have not yet had an 
 opportunity of accepting it. To what are we to 
 attribute this drift of sentiment and feeling ? 
 
 It is doubtless explained by some of those who cling 
 strenuously to older views as the direct outcome of 
 unbelief and a neglect of the teaching of the Scriptures. 
 Granted that this may be so in the case of those who 
 have lost their faith in the authority of the Sacred Book, 
 and have gone after other lights, it does not explain 
 the fact that there is a no less obvious change in the 
 attitude of many of the most devout and earnest 
 believers in the Christian revelation, and that we are 
 all more or less affected by it. The question, indeed, is 
 being asked all round. Does Scripture really teach that 
 death ends all probation? and it is asked by thinkers 
 who are in no way tainted by the spirit of scepticism. 
 They feel the problem with a new emphasis, and the 
 old solution weighs with the gloom of a nightmare on 
 their hearts. Let us try to account for this fact. 
 
 I. To begin with, there has recently been an extra- 
 ordinary expansion in our outlook on the past career 
 of humanity on this planet. Instead of a vista of six 
 thousand years since the first man appeared, we now look 
 back to a point so remote that we cannot possibly call 
 up a mental picture corresponding to it. For untold 
 ages our race has been here, fighting with the brute 
 conditions of existence in the earliest stages of all, 
 slowly reaching out to a rudimentary civilisation and a 
 
4o8 The Ascent through Christ Book 111 
 
 dawning spiritual life, leaving traces of its weapons and 
 its habits and its worship in the tombs of its dead and 
 the ruins of its habitations ; and all this in times so far 
 removed from the limits which we dignify by the name 
 " historic," that we can only calculate their distance and 
 their duration by geologic measurements. That word 
 " historic," also, has been expanded into meanings which 
 make our paltry centuries seem but as yesterday. 
 When we hear that there are certain proofs of a civilisa- 
 tion of a high order existing in Egypt long before the 
 time when Adam, according to the old chronology, was 
 supposed to be eating of the forbidden fruit in Eden, 
 and that indications are not wanting that this civilisation 
 was built up on the ruins of another which must have 
 been almost inconceivably ancient, the sense of our 
 racial continuity becomes oppressive in its magnitude 
 and weight. Side by side with this we have to place 
 the fact that the stream of historic revelation which 
 culminates in Jesus Christ does not, so far as our 
 information goes, carry us back appreciably beyond 
 the limits hitherto accepted ; and we are faced by the 
 searching question. In what sense can we speak of 
 death as having determined the final destiny of this 
 vast multitude of men and women who lived without any 
 knowledge of the standard to which they must conform, 
 or of the Saviour whose life was to be their ideal and 
 whose cross was to be their hope? It is scarcely an 
 answer to be told that they will all be judged " according 
 to their light " ; for in the face of the lofty ideal of the 
 New Testament, what kind of light can we call that 
 which shone on Palaeolithic and Neolithic Man ? and 
 if that light was enough for them, what need was there 
 for so much more for us, " on whom the ends of the 
 ages have come " ? Does it not seem that they needed 
 more, since we often feel as though we scarcely have 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 409 
 
 enough ? And does not this imply that if God is good, 
 and if Christ is to be the judge of the whole earth, these 
 shadowy multitudes of the past must have some further 
 chance of coming into the full light, and of making the 
 Great Choice ? 
 
 2. The same idea is forced on our consideration by 
 the broadening sense of a contemporary humanity which 
 has been brought home to us of late years. Only a short 
 while ago, comparatively speaking, Christian peoples 
 were in almost total ignorance of the greater world out- 
 side. What a contrast has been brought to light by the 
 results of missionary enterprise, of adventure and travel, 
 of commercial and political intercourse, of scholarly 
 study into the civilisation, the religions, the languages, 
 and the philosophies of " heathen " nations ! and how 
 mean the crude classifications of earlier and simpler 
 times strike us in the light of the rich and varied moral 
 and spiritual life of many non-Christian people ! True, 
 it is being proved experimentally and beyond doubt 
 that till these races accept Christ they will never come 
 to their rightful spiritual heritage, and that the civilisa- 
 tions of which they boast are non-progressive till their 
 sleeping enthusiasms and their hidden potentialities are 
 awakened by the quickening touch of the Christian faith. 
 The future of the whole race is indissolubly bound up 
 with its willingness to receive the Gospel, and will be 
 determined in this life as well as in the world to come 
 by this supreme test. But this very fact suggests that 
 these outside peoples, not having hitherto had the chance 
 to accept the Saviour who alone can redeem them, cannot 
 have their eternal destinies settled apart from the offer 
 of that salvation ; and as regards those who as yet are 
 in that position, we are driven by what seems the 
 sheerest moral logic to believe that some means will 
 be found in the eternal world which has not been given 
 
41 o The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 to them here whereby the opportunity of acceptance 
 or rejection will be offered to each and all. 
 
 3. By way of carrying home this conviction, there is 
 the ever-deepening sensitising of the humanitarian 
 sympathies that is going on in the Christian conscious- 
 ness. The feeling of moral solidarity which links us to 
 the savage and the alien in race and religion is becoming 
 more and more accentuated. The better men know 
 each other under the inspiration of religious ideals, the 
 more is the unity of all mankind borne in on them. The 
 middle wall of partition is breaking down which divided 
 the races and the peoples of the earth. The distinctions 
 of blood, of caste, of civilisation, of education, and of 
 culture are seen to be accidental ; they do not run to 
 the roots of human life ; there is a point in human 
 intercourse beyond which they do not count. When 
 everything has been said, we are after all men^ and as 
 such we all have a right to the same chance in those 
 supreme matters which concern our eternal destiny. 
 And as this chance demonstrably does not come to all 
 alike in this life, can it be that there is any inequality 
 Here which is not rectified Hereafter? 
 
 4. When we turn our eyes from the differences that 
 meet us in a general survey of human life to those that 
 exist among individuals, with their diverse temperaments 
 and varying opportunities, the difficulty attacks us from 
 a new side, and comes home to us with keener edge. 
 Not even in Christian countries, under similar conditions 
 of social and educational environment, not even under 
 the same roof-tree, are we placed under an absolutely 
 equal regime of spiritual training and discipline. When 
 we consider the subtle differences that divide us as 
 regards our hereditary tendencies, our unconscious re- 
 sponse to influence, the impress left upon us by the 
 same presentation of truth, the same outward guidance ; 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 411 
 
 when we remember what, humanly speaking, we may 
 call the haphazard way in which the determining factors 
 of life take their place in the stream of experience, and 
 how the best of us has to feel half blindly for the 
 solution of the most vital problems ; when we look back 
 at the critical moments in our own past, and realise how 
 in some of them the final "push" was given to our 
 choices by seemingly accidental events and influences, — 
 then the difficulty of spiritual classification becomes 
 immeasurably intensified. Some of us appear to have 
 all needful opportunity to come to a knowledge of the 
 truth ; we can hardly conceive circumstances more 
 favourable to a deliberate and final moral choice. 
 Others seem to be followed by a perpetual disqualifica- 
 tion ; they do not have a fair chance ; their environment, 
 or the drag of a congenial quality, or the bafflement of a 
 thwarting circumstance, continually interferes with their 
 moral development, and turns their life into failure and 
 ruin. Without for a moment allowing that there is not 
 a margin of moral choice left to the most unfortunate 
 and degraded, which is a true sphere of probation, it is 
 difficult to believe that difference of temperament and 
 environment does not handicap some to an extent that 
 makes effective and final moral choice a matter of 
 extreme difficulty. 
 
 5. The peculiarly uncertain incidence of death, coming 
 on men at all stages of moral development, and age, 
 and circumstance, presents another difficulty to believing 
 this life to be the only arena of probation. Some are 
 gathered in at a ripe old age, with the full circle of their 
 human experience and relationships completed ; others 
 are cut off in early youth, or in the midst of their days. 
 Some have come into the fullest light, and have had 
 the largest opportunity to face the alternatives of the 
 spiritual life ; to others the call comes when their 
 
412 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 character is in an inchoate condition and the deter- 
 mining factors of life are in solution. A long illness 
 precedes the end in the case of many ; but large 
 multitudes are hurried into eternity without a moment's 
 warning. It is a natural and pressing question, Can 
 the eternal destiny of the soul be always determined by 
 an event whose law is so hidden, and which comes in 
 a manner so entirely out of relation to the condition 
 of the soul at the time of its occurrence ? 
 
 6. And what, on the theory we are considering, is 
 to become of the untold multitudes of those who die 
 in infancy? Setting aside as a worn-out superstition 
 the theory of the eternal loss of those who are un- 
 baptised, can we with any real conviction believe that 
 little children who pass into the unseen before they 
 have come to years of discretion are really fixed in 
 that condition for ever ? It has been calculated that 
 at least one-third of the total population of the world 
 die in this undeveloped state. This is true of the 
 present ; in times past the proportion must have been 
 vastly larger, especially in the prehistoric period, when 
 infanticide was common, and the chances of survival 
 were in all cases far poorer than now. An immense 
 portion of the race therefore has never had a chance 
 of choosing between good and evil in this life. This 
 is not a question of surmise, but of absolute certainty. 
 And yet each of this countless host had in him the 
 capacity of moral character, which can only be gained 
 by free choice of good and free rejection of evil. How 
 are we to conceive of the future for these little ones, 
 of whom it was said by the Saviour, " Suffer little 
 children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom 
 of Heaven " ? ^ As a recent writer on this subject says : 
 " If those who die in infancy are immortal, it is plain 
 * Matt. xix. 14. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 4^3 
 
 that the undeveloped state in which they enter the 
 other life cannot be permanent. Infants must come 
 to maturity, character must be attained, and life must 
 have its moral significance ; but all this must come to 
 pass in the other world. For infants, if they are im- 
 mortal, the future life is the only sphere of moral action, 
 responsibility, and spiritual growth. We thus come to 
 the startling fact that for perhaps one-third of mankind 
 the entire life of conscious and developed personality 
 is lived in the other world, and that there alone is any 
 conscious experience of the grace of God possible to 
 them."^ We seem driven to this conclusion without 
 any alternative. If so, are we not also driven farther ? 
 If in one case there is no choice but to believe that 
 where no chance at all has been given here for moral 
 probation there must be one Yonder, what of those 
 other innumerable instances where the chance here is 
 so demonstrably incomplete and imperfect ? We can 
 hardly stop at the first concession. 
 
 For these and other reasons, the enlarged outlook 
 of modern times on the Providential Order of life is 
 slowly but surely sapping the foundation of the old 
 belief that Death must in all cases determine the final 
 and eternal destiny of the soul of Man. As we have 
 already suggested, it is a change that so far has been 
 instinctive rather than rational ; the former belief is 
 being unconsciously even when not openly given up, 
 and many would shrink from confessing their disbelief 
 whose whole attitude is inconsistent with the position 
 in which they were brought up. The reason for this diffi- 
 dence is probably a rooted suspicion that the Christian 
 Scriptures teach openly that all human probation ends 
 with this life. 
 
 1 " An Outline of Christian Theology " (W. N. Clarke), p. 419. 
 
414 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 II 
 
 The question then becomes a burning one, Does the 
 New Testament really teach this doctrine in an un- 
 mistakable way ? It has hitherto been taken for 
 granted by most people that it does. But a great many 
 old views once thought to be based purely on Scriptural 
 authority are now seen to have been really built up 
 on shallow preconceptions and imperfect exegesis. 
 Every generation brings its ignorance as well as its 
 knowledge to bear on all Biblical questions, and solves 
 them according to its light. Especially does the 
 emphasis placed on this text or the other affect the 
 conclusions to which we may come ; and emphasis is 
 a factor in interpretation which has never yet been 
 reduced to a science, being really a matter of predis- 
 position rather than of rational thought, even with the 
 best minds. In view therefore of the constant develop- 
 ments and readjustments of thought, and of the immense 
 expansions of outlook that have been granted to this 
 generation in all directions, it is needful that we should 
 reopen this matter without prejudice. Have we there- 
 fore any warrant for thinking that Scripture teaches 
 this life to be equally for all the only theatre of moral 
 probation ? 
 
 In approaching this question, we should also re- 
 member that the way in which this and all other 
 problems is dealt with in Scripture is governed largely 
 by the circumstances and outlooks of the times. Those 
 who were the channels of revelation were troubled by 
 problems that have lost all meaning for us ; and they 
 knew nothing of many others that are a cause of deep 
 perplexity and pain to the present generation. While 
 thus the Gospel is for all time, and contains all the 
 light and truth needful for the illumination of every 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 415 
 
 age and land, it is only gradually, as new conditions 
 arise, that we are able to appropriate this light and 
 truth and make it fully our own. Wider horizons 
 call for ampler interpretations. In all other directions 
 this is being done. On this question we must expect 
 no less. 
 
 In the first place, we have to consider the problem 
 whether an adequate probation is possible apart from 
 a full knowledge of the Gospel. On this question con- 
 siderable diversity of opinion exists. Many prominent 
 writers maintain that men are capable of effective and 
 final moral choice without such knowledge, and suggest 
 that in the darkest heathen consciousness there is 
 enough moral light to give the soul permanent bent 
 towards good or evil. There is one passage of Scripture 
 to which appeal is made in proof of this position. St. 
 Paul, in dealing with the difference of opportunity 
 between Jew and Gentile, says : " As many as have 
 sinned without law shall also perish without law : 
 and as many as have sinned under law shall be judged 
 by law ; for not the hearers of a law are just before 
 God, but the doers of a law shall be justified : for when 
 Gentiles which have no law do by nature the things 
 of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto them- 
 selves ; in that they show the work of the law written 
 in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness there- 
 with, and their thoughts one with another accusing or 
 else excusing them ; in the day when God shall judge 
 the secrets of men, according to my Gospel, by Jesus 
 Christ."^ Prof Agar Beet, in commenting on this 
 passage, affirms that here " we have a standard other than 
 the Gospel by which will be determined the awards of 
 the Judgment Day " ; ^ and goes on to say : " If, as Paul 
 implies, there is for each one in the present life an 
 
 * Rom. ii. 12-16. > "The Last Things," p. 222. 
 
41 6 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 adequate probation, i.e, a sufficient test of his loyalty to 
 that which he knows to be right and good, we have no 
 need or right to expect a probation after death." It is 
 more than doubtful if so large and sweeping an inter- 
 pretation can be put on this utterance. Principal 
 Moule, in his luminous exposition on the Epistle to the 
 Romans, says with more moderation : " The main import 
 of the paragraph is plain. It is to enforce the fact of 
 the accountability of the Jew and the Gentile alike, from 
 the point of view of law. The Gentile possesses as man 
 that moral consciousness without which the revealed code 
 itself would be futile, for it would correspond to nothing. 
 Made in the image of God, he has the mysterious sense 
 which sees, feels, handles moral obligation. He is aware 
 of the fact of duty. Not living up to what he is thus 
 aware of, he is guilty." ^ Dealing with the fourteenth 
 verse, he says that, " read in the whole connection, it only 
 asserts that the pagan acts as a moral being ; that he 
 knows what it is to obey, and to resist, the sense of 
 duty." The passage does not affirm nor does it deny 
 the possibility of probation after death to some of the 
 human race ; St. Paul, indeed, seems to have in his mind 
 the enlightened Greek, with his highly developed moral 
 sense and educated intellect, rather than the heathen 
 races as a whole. The contrast is drawn, at any rate, 
 between Jew and Gentile, and not between Christian 
 and Heathen, and should be read in the light of this 
 limitation. 
 
 Arguing from practically the same standpoint as 
 Prof Beet, Prof. Salmond in his masterly work on the 
 future life says : " The probation on which the judgment 
 proceeds is not necessarily of one kind or measure. The 
 probation which lies in opportunities of conscious accept- 
 ance or rejection of the revelation of God's grace in 
 ^ "Expositor's Bible," pp. 65, 66. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 41? 
 
 Christ may be its highest form. But it need not be the 
 only form. Probation, the testing of life and disposition, 
 exists wherever moral law exists." ^ This passage 
 seems to us ambiguous. If it means that there are 
 grades of efficiency in various kinds of probation, it is 
 reduced to the level of a self-evident proposition. If, on 
 the other hand, it means, e.g.^ that the kind of probation 
 enjoyed by a South Sea cannibal is sufficient to enable 
 him to make a final choice between good and evil in the 
 sense revealed in the Gospel, and that his eternal destiny 
 after death must be determined according to his attitude 
 towards a code of ethics which makes a virtue of murder 
 and adultery, and accords the successful liar the highest 
 place in the "moral" judgment of his fellows, — this is 
 an affirmation from which we should warmly dissent. 
 Such a position seems to go perilously near to erasing 
 the fundamental nature of the distinction between right 
 and wrong, while it derogates from the dignity of the 
 moral law, and emasculates the missionary motive of its 
 extreme urgency. To affirm that every human being is 
 truly a subject for moral probation of a kind is one 
 thing ; to say that this probation is in every case a 
 sufficient test of character by which to adjudicate the 
 final place of men in the eternal world is quite another. 
 We may consistently hold the former view, while 
 rejecting the latter. 
 
 The problem, then, reduces itself to this : In what 
 does adequate moral probation consist ? We hold, with 
 Dr. Clemance, in opposition with Prof Beet, that " no 
 human spirit reaches the crucial point of its probation 
 till it has come into contact with the claims of Jesus 
 Christ for acceptance or rejection." ^ That is to say, 
 there can be no final and ultimate test of character till 
 
 ^ " The Christian Doctrine of Immortality," p. 669. 
 ' "Future Punishment," p. 16. 
 
 27 
 
4i8 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 the full implications of the spiritual life are realised by 
 the soul, and this can never be till the highest revelation 
 of God and Man in their mutual relations is brought to 
 bear on the moral sense, and adequately presented to 
 the will for acceptance or rejection. It was the purpose 
 of the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the Resurrection 
 of our Lord to do this. Christ revealed God to Man as 
 the Eternal and All-holy Father, who loves His children 
 and would redeem them from sin and death ; He 
 revealed Man to himself in all his actual sinfulness and 
 his ideal possibilities ; and He revealed the way by 
 which Man may become reconciled to God, and so enter 
 on the full privileges of the Perfect Life. Dr. Beet 
 asserts that the supposition " that none will be saved 
 except those who by conscious faith accept the Gospel 
 of Christ . . . has no foundation in the teaching of Christ 
 and His apostles." ^ Granted that it receives no 
 distinct statement in the Gospel records, — is it not 
 rather the assumption on which the whole revelation 
 depends as its rationale and foundation ? And are 
 there not words here and there which more than suggest 
 such a postulate ? We are told that God " willeth that 
 all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of 
 the truth" ;2 that "he that believeth on the Son hath 
 eternal life ; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not 
 see life, but the wrath of God abideth on Him " ; ' and 
 that " the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal 
 life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son 
 hath the life ; he that hath not the Son of God hath 
 not the life." * Conscious acceptance of the Saviour is 
 everywhere assumed as being the condition of salvation 
 in the New Testament sense : " with the heart Man 
 
 » " The Last Things," p. 222. » John iii. 36. 
 
 * I Tim. ii.4. * i John v. 11, 12. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 4^9 
 
 believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth con- 
 fession is made unto salvation " ; ^ " in none other is 
 there salvation : for neither is there any other name 
 under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must 
 be saved " ; * " believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt 
 be saved." ' To present Christ to men, indeed, is the 
 one foundation of preaching and all spiritual instruction 
 as unfolded in the New Testament. The same truth is 
 implied in the very meaning of the word " salvation," 
 which refers to a condition of character in which the 
 Highest Good, i.e. holiness in Christ, is appropriated. 
 " Unless," therefore, " salvation is to be a magical 
 process, a sovereign act of God outside the human 
 will altogether, we cannot imagine the Lord Jesus 
 Christ saving men irrespectively of their attitude to- 
 wards Himself, nor can we think that a salvation which 
 in its deepest elements means moral and spiritual 
 regeneration of the heart, a salvation, in a word, that 
 is profoundly ethical in its fruit, can come to any man 
 independently of his attitude towards Christ. Repen- 
 tance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are 
 not accidental conditions which are appended to the 
 offer of mercy, and which may or may not be insisted 
 upon ; they are the necessary moral and spiritual con- 
 ditions on which the bestowal of the Divine gift itself 
 depends, and without which Jesus Christ Himself cannot 
 save the soul." * 
 
 When we approach the Scriptural teaching on the 
 question of future probation from this point of view, 
 we are at once struck with the paucity of material for 
 
 * Rom. X. lo (7/. whole passage). 
 
 * Acts Iv. 12: cf. X. 43. 
 ' Acts xvi. 3 1 . 
 
 * " The Intermediate State," by Dr. Geo. S. Barrett, p. 84. Dr. 
 Barrett's treatment of this question is worthy of careful consideration 
 (pp. 80-97). 
 
4^0 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 the formation of a positive judgment. The alleged 
 parables of judgment, for instance, do not lend them- 
 selves to this purpose in the way taken for granted 
 by the older exegetes, who found an eschatological 
 element in all of them. They present us rather with 
 the laws at work in the Kingdom of God, whether here 
 or in the great future. They unfold the conditions of 
 entrance into this Kingdom which Jesus came to estab- 
 lish, with the call to service, the quality of motives, 
 the use of opportunities, the perils of neglect, the need 
 for diligence and watchfulness and humility. Each 
 of them, it is true, closes with a word of warning, or a 
 pronouncement of a punishment for the transgression 
 of the particular aspect of duty enforced in the parable ; 
 but the theory that the close of opportunity in each 
 case is the hour of death has been imported into them, 
 and is not fairly deducible from them. In no case is 
 there a clear suggestion that the " coming of the Son 
 of Man," or any of the equivalent phrases, really refers 
 to the death of the body. It is either the "second 
 coming" or the "final judgment" which is clearly 
 referred to ; and neither of these events must be con- 
 founded with the close of our individual lives on earth. 
 
 There is, we believe, only one seeming exception to 
 this statement, and it is worth considering a little more 
 in detail. In the parable of Lazarus and Dives there 
 is an apparently clear reference to death as a dividing 
 line, in some sense or other, between the periods of 
 opportunity and retribution. The Rich man earnestly 
 desires to return to earth that he may warn his brethren 
 of the terrible punishment of sin in the life to come, 
 and the Poor man is represented as having been taken 
 at once into the bosom of Abraham. But there is no 
 hint given to us that the parable is meant to affirm 
 this to be true of all men. Every parable must be inter- 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 421 
 
 preted in accordance with the central motive which 
 governs it. In this case the truth to be emphasised 
 is quite other than the finality of death as regards 
 human probation. It is a far more terrible doctrine 
 than that. The parable teaches us that long before 
 death the final doom of some people may be already 
 settled. They have arrived at that state in which no 
 further revelation of the will of God and of the solemnity 
 of life's choices, even though these be emphasised by 
 the rising of a near relative from the dead by way of 
 warning, would be of any avail.^ These five brothers 
 of Dives had already passed the crisis of moral choice. 
 In face of the full and sufficient light granted to them 
 they had rejected the better part. The Divine resources 
 of appeal had in their case been exhausted ; not death 
 had settled their doom, but life ; the only function of 
 death in their case would be to unfold their hidden 
 condition, and bring the retributive process to a head. 
 
 This brings us to a statement of what seems to us 
 the real Scriptural doctrine of finality. Right through 
 we are taught that life is a real probation, and that 
 a judgment is passed on the earthly life of all men in 
 so far as they are awake to moral distinctions. It is 
 also distinctly implied that all men must in the 
 end come to a final determination between the alterna- 
 tives of moral choice. To every son of Adam the 
 crucial moment will come at last, when, in the full light 
 of the Divine truth, he must decide for "blessing or 
 cursing, life or death." That hour must be when he 
 is face to face with an effective presentation of the 
 revelation of God in Jesus Christ, who is to be his 
 Judge.^ If so, this may be with many — nay, it may well 
 
 ^ Luke xvi. 27, 31. 
 
 ' The impasse into which the contrary doctrine leads us is well 
 stated in Dahle's " Life after Death," pp. 184, 185. 
 
422 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 be so with all who have come into the full radiance of 
 the Gospel — in this life. We have no guarantee that 
 future conditions of existence will for these contain any 
 clearer light, any more potent motives for repentance, 
 than have been brought to bear upon them here and 
 now. The probabilities are all the other way. It is 
 not easy to imagine a more complete chance than is 
 given to multitudes in the life that now is. But just 
 as hard is it to believe that this is so with vast multi- 
 tudes who have never heard of Christ, and who die in a 
 spiritual darkness that may be felt ; and with all those 
 on whom death comes when they are in a state of 
 moral flux and uncertainty. There does not appear to be 
 anything in the nature of death as such which negatives 
 the possibility of a moral change ; it is not like the 
 character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ to put an 
 artificial barrier in the way of repentance, if change be 
 possible in the nature of the case ; the final opposition 
 must be on our side, and not on His ; and till that 
 point has been reached we cannot but think that the 
 way of life is open on His side. The doctrine of Divine 
 love would seem to carry on its face the corollary that 
 it is eternal, and that its privileges and saving power will 
 never be withdrawn except by the voluntary and final 
 refusal of those who have chosen evil as their everlasting 
 portion. 
 
 So much seems fairly deducible from the general 
 implications as well as the silences of Scripture on the 
 question of human destiny. It is not easy, however, to 
 deduce either from the words of the Bible or from 
 the constitution of human nature the doctrine of final 
 salvation for all mankind. There are, it is true, some 
 passages which seem to tell in that direction.^ Against 
 
 » John xii. 32; Rom. v. 12-21; Phil. ii. 9-1 1 ; Eph. i. 9-10; 
 Col. i. 19-26. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil ^23 
 
 these, however, must be placed other passages almost 
 equally decisive,^ which dwell on the finality of moral 
 choices, and suggest no gleam of hope that all will 
 finally accept the offer of salvation made in Christ. 
 There are two final barriers to the acceptance of the 
 doctrine of final restoration, — at least to the present 
 writer. They are, first, the nature of freewill ; and, 
 secondly, the destructive effects of sin on the soul that 
 is fully given over to its power. 
 
 In Dr. George Gordon's able and stimulating little 
 work on "Immortality and the New Theodicy" both 
 these central facts of human life are dealt with in the 
 interests of the theory of Final Restoration. He says 
 that the movement of the race from potential into 
 actual and perfected manhood ** is possible only on 
 three assumptions : first, that God is Infinite Reason ; 
 secondly, that men are essentially and permanently 
 reasonable beings ; thirdly, that the goal of the Divine 
 purpose is the highest good of the race."^ The first 
 assumption, according to this writer, assumes the doctrine 
 that " freedom is the same as rational necessity," ^ and 
 that " determinism is nothing other than the victorious 
 march of the Divine persuasions in behalf of the highest 
 good of mankind." " Certainly," he says, " as a matter 
 of fact, the power to resist temporarily the Divine 
 persuasions is lodged in man ; but this is in consequence 
 of the irrationality that he has brought up with him 
 
 from the animal world The power to resist the 
 
 immediate realisation of the best wisdom of the world 
 cannot surely be defined as the essence of freedom. 
 This is simply the defect of man, the irrationality out 
 
 * Dan. xii. 2; Mark ix. 43, 48; Matt, xxv, 41, 46; Rev, xiv, n, 
 xxii. 1 1 ; etc. 
 ' Page 100. 
 
4^4 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 of which come all the retarding forces of human 
 society." As regards the second of the above proposi- 
 tions, he says : " The question on hand is the nature of 
 freedom as related to determinism. And it must be 
 repeated that determinism simply means that, inasmuch 
 as God is a reasonable Being, and proposes for man a 
 reasonable good, and inasmuch as man is essentially 
 and permanently a reasonable creature, it would appear 
 that the Divine persuasions must be finally availing.**^ 
 The fallacy here appears to lie in this second assump- 
 tion, — that man is essentially and permanently a rational 
 creature, in the sense that he is sure in the end to choose 
 the highest moral good revealed to him. The author 
 offers no proof of this ; he simply affirms it. If the 
 choice of goodness depended ultimately on man's 
 rational nature, it would be a matter of illumination, 
 not of persuasion. The use of the latter term suggests 
 rather that this choice depends on other than rational 
 elements, as is undoubtedly the case. It depends on 
 the will, not on the reason, as is seen in the fact that 
 many of the worst men have been thoroughly "illu- 
 minated " intellectually and spiritually, and yet, because 
 of their depraved will, this illumination has but deepened 
 both their inward depravity and their objective power 
 for evil. There has indeed been no loss of rationality 
 in them ; but a thorough debasement of this faculty 
 under the bias of a deliberate propensity towards wrong- 
 doing. They have sinned against " light," i.e, against 
 the full knowledge of good and evil. And there is 
 no guarantee in the nature of the case that they will 
 ever turn away from evil with advancing knowledge 
 of God. The tendency is all the other way, so far 
 as we can see. The very momentum and drift of their 
 character carries them on in the same direction as that 
 * " Immortality and the New Theodicy," p. loj. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 4^5 
 
 in which they have been travelling, and there is every 
 likelihood that this process will go on for ever. 
 
 The same tendency is emphasised by the effect of 
 sin itself on the human heart. Its power is cumulative. 
 It eats into the very capacity of resistance against it, 
 in which alone lies any hope of betterment. The more 
 it is indulged in, the weaker grows the will, the stronger 
 grow the propensities which urge the will to its com- 
 mittal. After a certain point in the lives of thoroughly 
 confirmed sinners, we instinctively lose all hope of 
 their redemption. We have no guarantee that the 
 incidence of death will in any way alter this fact. All 
 the analogies of life urge us to the belief that such 
 persons will hereafter continue in their rebellion so long 
 as they continue to exist. These two arguments will 
 for ever make the doctrine of Universalism at best a 
 dim and questionable hope. 
 
 With this qualification, we believe that it may be 
 said that the best Christian thought " is tending, more 
 or less consciously, toward enlargement of hope for the 
 spiritual welfare of humanity, and that this tendency 
 springs largely from the conception of God towards 
 which the faith of the age has come." ^ Nor need there 
 be any fear that this drift of thought will in the end tend 
 to the confusion of moral distinctions, or a loss of the 
 sense of the supreme issues of life. Those who might 
 tend to indulge in unspiritual hopes because we can no 
 longer teach them that death ends all probation must 
 be warned that this does not make the solemn choices 
 
 * Clarke's " Outline of Christian Theology," p. 428. It is to be 
 borne in mind, however, that this rapidly extending conclusion, 
 '* however logical and intelligible it may seem to be, has not by any 
 means the same validity as a direct Scripture testimony " (Dahle, 
 "Life after Death," p. 186). It is a spiritual presumption, and 
 nothing more, however warmly it may be held. It is, at all events, 
 the only form of the "Larger Hope" that seems tenable ip the 
 light of Scripture, 
 
4^6 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 of life less significant, or that retribution is less certain. 
 No real lightening of the shadows that lie in the path 
 of the sinner can remove that certainty, or lessen its 
 awfulness and grandeur. It is just as true as ever that 
 the " soul that sinneth " must " die " ; that continuance 
 in evil ways tends to make reformation more and more 
 difficult as time goes on ; and that for the man who 
 wilfully and knowingly perseveres in wrongdoing the 
 hope of rescue is an ever-vanishing quantity. " Admit 
 the possibility of returning to God hereafter, and even 
 then the case is this : a man goes into the other life 
 loving and choosing evil, to live there in sin, and to take 
 the consequences ; he thereby plans for nothing but to 
 go on losing, dwarfing himself, hungering, thirsting, 
 chafing, choosing to be as he is, and yet unsatisfied, 
 loving his evil, and hating its fruit, growing away from 
 the good, or else driven back to it from uttermost anguish 
 of soul, — he can expect nothing but this till such a time 
 as he is ready to take the step of penitence, faith, and 
 loyalty to God, to which Christ is already calling him, 
 and do, after perhaps ages of bitter experience, what 
 he ought to do to-day. This is the brightest hope that 
 any doctrine of future opportunity can hold out to a 
 man who leaves this world rejecting grace in Christ 
 and choosing a life of sin."^ 
 
 Ill 
 
 We have now climbed up the last ridge of our Journey. 
 Standing on the vantage-ground we have gained, and 
 shading our eyes as we gaze into the mist that overhangs 
 the great future beyond the grave, we ask ourselves, 
 What lies behind that curtain ? Do the vague surmises 
 and premonitions of our moral nature, the hopes and 
 * " Outlines of Christian Theology," p. 429. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 4^7 
 
 fears which ever cast their shadow-pictures upon its 
 dusky folds, give us any clue as to the real conditions 
 of human life in the eternal world ? We gain all our 
 available ideas of the future state from our knowledge 
 of our own nature and of God, under the guidance of 
 the Bible, which defines the content of our faith on all 
 matters dealing with the Unseen. But the references 
 to the future state in the Bible are couched in highly 
 figurative terms ; the picture is painted with a very free 
 hand ; it is clearly intended to be suggestive rather 
 than descriptive. And now that the old pragmatic 
 methods of interpretation are out of date, there is need 
 that this subject be dealt with from a point of view 
 in keeping with the rest of our faith. The ordinary 
 devout believer does not know what to think of Biblical 
 teaching concerning the life after death, and consequently 
 takes refuge in vague generalities or a pietistic trust. 
 The vision of actual streets of gold and gates of pearl 
 and walls of jasper have been consigned to the region 
 of child-like imagination, and no one talks of physical 
 torments and lakes of brimstone as the reward of the 
 wicked ; but nothing better has taken the place of these 
 vivid if crude conceptions. The passage that best 
 describes the sentiment of most Christians regarding 
 this subject is this, "It doth not yet appear what we 
 shall be : but we know that, when He shall appear, we 
 shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him as He is." ^ 
 There is a certain gain in this attitude ; it is at least 
 honest, reverent, and dignified ; and it is full of a noble 
 trust. But there is also a great loss in it ; for it leaves 
 the mind in vacuo^ and the heart liungering for a clearer 
 vision. This results in a painful loss of that motive- 
 power which we are clearly meant to draw from the 
 contemplation of the future life ; otherwise would it be 
 ' I John iii. 2, 
 
428 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 so often emphasised in Scripture ? It is indeed one of 
 the crying needs of Theology just now that a more 
 positive theory of the conditions of the life to come 
 should be formulated out of the teaching of our Lord 
 and of His apostles. The soul cannot be permanently 
 satisfied with a faith in solution. The eye loves land- 
 marks in its vision ; and the spiritual imagination 
 requires at least some definite outlines on which it may 
 rest. Without professing to do more than supply a few 
 leading thoughts by way of help, let us make an attempt 
 in this direction. 
 
 We begin with the subjective conditions as they are 
 suggested in Scripture, interpreting its imagery in 
 accordance with the freer exegesis of the present day, 
 and by the aid of such light as is afforded by Evolutionary 
 principles. 
 
 I. The Future Life must, in the first place, be one 
 in which the moral gains and losses of this life are 
 conserved, and made into the permanent possession of 
 the soul. This is but another way of stating that the 
 life to come is to be a true continuance of this. We 
 shall preserve not only our bare identity but the full 
 contents of personality after death. The New Testament 
 everywhere appeals to us on this assumption. Death 
 is spoken of there as a great change, but it is every- 
 where taken for granted that we shall take our whole 
 self with us. We must leave behind the conditions of 
 our physical life, but we shall not bury in the grave 
 anything that is not physical. Our character, our 
 moral achievements and failures, the sedimentary results 
 of our experiences in T:his world, will follow us into the 
 next. This is a fair inference from the Scriptural teaching. 
 And it receives abundant reinforcement from that law 
 of conservation which it is one of the great achievements 
 of modern science to havQ established. The universe 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 4^9 
 
 to-day is the sum-total of the changes of the past. No 
 force or energy is ever lost ; it is being continuously 
 transformed, and at the same time rigidly preserved. 
 Similarly, the soul at every point of its career is the 
 resultant of all the influences that have been acting 
 on it from without, and all the reactions that have arisen 
 from within. There is no reason in the nature of things 
 why it should be otherwise after the incidence of the 
 great change we call death. All analogy therefore con- 
 firms the assumption of Scripture that we shall begin the 
 next life, so far as character is concerned, just where we 
 leave off here. 
 
 2. The Future Life will carry on to their legitimate issue 
 the moral processes of this life. Starting there where we 
 leave off here, we shall continue to develop in a truly 
 moral sense. There will be genuine responsibility and 
 growth of character. At this point we seem to be touching 
 fresh ground as compared with the faith of the past. 
 The popular conception of the future, at least among 
 Protestants, practically denies this position. As it has 
 been put, — " On the one hand, the popular idea of 
 heaven does not include the idea of genuine moral 
 activity, with perpetual motive, volition, and responsi- 
 bility ; there is no thought of moral effort, but all is 
 conceived as easy, and virtue as almost automatic. 
 Moral strain has been endured once for all on earth ; 
 and heaven is a state in which the reward of successful 
 endurance is enjoyed, in endless release from pressure 
 and responsibility. On the other hand, the popular idea 
 of hell equally excludes the idea of genuine moral 
 activity. In that state all is conceived as retribution 
 for sin already committed ; there is no new action for 
 which a man is responsible as he was in the earthly 
 life, the period of genuine moral action with full results 
 having ended, and given way to the period of retributive 
 
430 The Ascent through Christ Book 111 
 
 consequences." ^ This really amounts to a denial of 
 freewill in the life to come ; and to deny this to humanity 
 is to unmake it The element of truth in the old view 
 seems to be this : there will be in the life to come more 
 effective safeguards for the preservation of virtue, a 
 nearer vision of the Divine, with all the reinforcement 
 of soul that this must bring with it, on the one hand ; 
 and on the other, there will not, so far as we know, be 
 so many checks and hindrances, social and govern- 
 mental, against the commission of sin, for the soul that 
 chooses to make its home with evil. But we have no 
 warrant for believing that the state of the redeemed 
 will be one of absolute fixity, with no necessity 
 for the exercise of moral conflict and heroism, nor that 
 the condition of the rejected will be one of absolute 
 fixity in evil ; much less that there will be no spiritual 
 battles and victories to win by those who pass into 
 the other world in an unripe and undecided state of 
 moral character. The self-directive element in the 
 soul in virtue of which it is what it is, must be preserved 
 for it, since it is of the very essence of personality. 
 Obedience and disobedience to the Divine will must 
 necessarily be voluntary in order to be real ; if it is 
 voluntary, there must be at least the possibility of with- 
 holding the one and committing the other. The only 
 alternative is to hold that both in heaven and hell Man 
 is unmoral ; that is, he is no longer Man at all. 
 
 3. This, however, does not mean that there will be 
 a perpetual flux in character. Even here there is a 
 constantly increasing tendency to develop along fixed 
 lines of conduct ; in the future state we may well 
 believe that this tendency will become emphasised. 
 Holiness means, in ever-increasing measure, a happy 
 acceptance of the Divine will, and a more perfect ability 
 » Clarke's " Outline of Christian Theology," p. 418. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 43 1 
 
 to fulfil it. Moral depravity, on the other hand, implies 
 a progressive alienation from the Divine will, and an 
 increasing tendency to shirk its demands. This doctrine 
 does not necessarily imply that in the next life, any 
 more than in this, there will not, in some cases at least 
 (we might hope in an immense number of cases), be 
 a real transformation of character. But it does seem 
 to carry with it, both here and yonder, a possibility of 
 reaching a state of fixity so absolute at last that further 
 change is almost inconceivable. Of some good men 
 we say that they are utterly incapable of certain forms 
 of wrongdoing ; they have finally eradicated any 
 tendency in that direction ; and the converse also seems 
 true. Character tends to develop a momentum, which, 
 after a certain point, carries the will irresistibly with 
 it in certain directions ; beyond that point, there is no 
 change to be expected unless it be progress in the same 
 direction. When a certain stage has been reached, 
 we may well believe that the solemn verdict " He that 
 is unrighteous, let him be unrighteous still ; he that 
 is filthy, let him be filthy still "^ — is the simple, stern 
 statement of a doom as final as it is self-chosen. 
 
 4. There is a sense in which our environment in 
 this world is fixed for us. We are born into definite 
 surroundings for which we are not responsible ; and our 
 life is spent under conditions of outward circumstance 
 that are determined by forces largely independent of 
 our will. But there is another sense in which we are 
 creators of our environment. As we have already seen,^ 
 it is one of man's differentiae that he can to a very 
 large extent alter the conditions of his physical and 
 social life Civilisation is but another name for the 
 growth of a vast artificial environment into which 
 the primitive conditions of life have been gradually 
 * Rev. xxii. 1 1. » Sec above, p. 52, etc. 
 
43^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 transformed. Individually, we have a still larger power 
 of making our own environment out of the materials 
 furnished by this larger one. We can choose our 
 friends ; we can surround ourselves with objects of 
 beauty and opportunities of culture ; we can create 
 a home-life which contains a true foretaste of heaven. 
 Mentally we can make our home with what is noble 
 and true and stimulating to the highest faculties. Or 
 we may reverse the process. Spiritually we have 
 almost unbounded power to clothe the soul in its own 
 atmosphere of good or evil, and to make ourselves 
 centres of heavenly or demoniacal influence. The 
 philosopher who lives among the lofty abstractions of 
 the intellect ; the poet who revels in a paradise of his 
 own imagining ; the statesman whose life is a tissue 
 of worldwide ambitions and projects ; the saint who 
 is at home with all things fair and holy : these, equally 
 with the rogue and the villain, the sensualist and the 
 debauchee, are instances of the way in which men even 
 here can live in a world of their own creation. Character 
 indeed is, in the last resort, the spiritual vesture which 
 the soul weaves round itself from within, out of materials 
 provided from without ; a fair and stately garment of 
 splendour and praise, or a fiery Nessus-shirt of degrada- 
 tion and torment. 
 
 This inner, self-wrought environment we shall take 
 with us into the next world ; and there, we may presume, 
 this faculty for a self-created environment will come to 
 its full exercise. Both the restraints and difficulties 
 that limit our control over our environment here will 
 be removed yonder. We shall go " to our own place " ^ 
 — that is, the place or condition appropriate to the state 
 of the soul. That environment will partly be our 
 inheritance from this world ; partly it will be the result 
 ^ Cf. Acts i. 25. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 433 
 
 of fresh and to us unknown conditions. This thought 
 brings home with fresh emphasis the solemn issues of 
 our life on earth, and the incalculable importance of 
 enfolding the soul in a spiritual vesture of thought and 
 feeling and will that shall tend ever more and more 
 to eternal blessedness and endless growth in holiness. 
 
 This brings us to ask — Have we any light on the 
 objective conditions of the Future Life ? 
 
 I. We are taught in the New Testament that the 
 future state will be one of righteous retribution, of 
 reward and punishment. 
 
 There is of course a true element of retribution in 
 this life also. The laws of the world work on the side 
 of righteousness, and no man can transgress them 
 without sure and terrible loss. It is undeniable, how- 
 ever, that in the New Testament special prominence 
 is given to the retributory element in the future life. 
 And this retributory factor has distinct reference to the 
 moral character which we have gained or missed in this 
 life. "We must all be made manifest before the 
 judgment-seat of Christ ; that each one may receive 
 the things done in the body, according to what he 
 hath done, whether it be good or bad."^ There is 
 nothing said in Scripture about the question whether 
 the moral life on the other side will be visited with 
 reward or punishment on its own account ; this however 
 is consistent with the principle everywhere followed to 
 reveal nothing of that life except in its particular 
 bearings on our conduct and character here. And there 
 is no fact more clearly and constantly emphasised than 
 this — that there will be a closer connection between 
 * 2 Cor. V. lo, 
 
 28 
 
434 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 goodness and reward, evil and punishment, than exists 
 here. This is one of the safeguards of faith. In this 
 world, good and evil do not apparently come to their 
 own. The wicked man seems to escape many of the 
 consequences of his misdeeds ; his punishment is largely 
 privative at best ; the objective results are veiled under 
 a confused mass of extraneous accident. And the 
 good man is often treated with terrible injustice ; his 
 plans are defeated, his highest purposes come to naught, 
 he is martyred for the truth to which he bears heroic 
 witness. When faced with this problem, we sometimes 
 comfort ourselves with the trite remark that goodness 
 is its own reward ; but that does not do away with an 
 instinctive inward conviction that the moral laws of the 
 universe ought in the nature of things to be objectively 
 as well as subjectively vindicated. And so, while our 
 Lord and His apostles do not give any warrant to the 
 crude idea that Heaven and Hell are mere contrivances 
 for trimming the balance of this life, nor teach us that 
 there is not a real punishment for sin, and a sure 
 recompense for virtue, on this side of the grave, they 
 do teach us unmistakably that there will be a more 
 obvious and objective relation between moral acts and 
 their issues there than we find here. This is only 
 another way of saying that there will be a complete 
 adjustment of the subjective and objective results of 
 character in the life to come. All that is confusing and 
 baffling to our faith in the present life will be cleared 
 away ; God's righteousness will be vindicated, man's 
 deservings will be brought home to him, each in an 
 unmistakable and convincing manner. This is the 
 teaching of the great Parable of Judgment.^ 
 
 2. The same fact is sometimes put another way. It 
 is revealed in Scripture that in the future state means 
 * Matt. XXV. 31-46. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 435 
 
 will be provided which confer blessedness on the good 
 and misery on the wicked. 
 
 In other words, the issues of character will be vindi- 
 cated not only to the moral sense, but to the spiritual 
 sensibilities. For the soul that has craved for the 
 highest good, that has striven after the highest ideal, 
 that has sought its rest and peace in God, that has 
 fought earnestly on behalf of the Divine Will and Truth, 
 there will be satisfaction and joy beyond the capacity 
 of our present faculties to measure or imagine.^ The 
 New Testament is rich in suggestions, in images, in 
 allusions, in ecstatic climaxes of feeling, having for 
 their subject this blessedness of the saints in Heaven. 
 Their lot is one of unspeakable felicity. It is described 
 as a " shining forth as the sun " ' ; as a manifestation " in 
 glory with Christ " ^ ; as a " crown of life," * of " right- 
 eousness,"^ of "glory"®; as a "treasure in heaven "'^; 
 as an entering into the " joy of the Lord " * and unto 
 the " spirits of just men made perfect " * ; finally, it is 
 to be a transformation into the image and character 
 of the Saviour who has " brought life and immortality 
 to light by His Gospel," ^° "who shall fashion anew 
 the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed 
 to the body of His glory," ^^ and the vision of whom 
 " as He is " will cause us " to be like Him " ^^ who is the 
 " Firstborn of all creation." ^^ There is thus an abundant 
 compensation for the storm and stress through which 
 those have had to pass who have striven to do the will 
 of God in sincerity.^* For this end Jesus has "gone 
 
 1 I Cor. ii. 9. 8 Matt. XXV. 21. 
 
 « Matt. xiii. 43. » Heb. xxi. 23. 
 
 ' Rom. viii. 17; Col. iii. 4; 2 Thess. i. 10. 
 
 * James i. 12 ; Rev. ii. 10. i" 2 Tim. i. 10. 
 
 « 2 Tim. iv. 8. " Phil. iii. 21. 
 
 « I Peter V. 4. " i John iii. 2. 
 
 y Matt. vi. 20. " Col. i. 15. 
 ** Rom. viii, 18 ; 2 Cor. iv, 17, 
 
43^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 to prepare a place for them," ^ that there may be 
 ** exceeding joy " " before the presence of His glory " ^ ; 
 at which prospect the tried and distressed saints of 
 God are invited "to rejoice with exceeding joy."^ All 
 these and many other passages which might be cited^ 
 warrant the faith that in Heaven the unsatisfied hunger 
 of the soul in this life will be fully met, and that the 
 happiness and felicity of the redeemed will be something 
 of which we can but dimly conceive here in terms of the 
 highest earthly experiences, such as " song," " triumph," 
 " victory," " peace," " light," and " abundance of life." 
 
 Equally unmistakable are the hints thrown out in 
 the New Testament of the misery of those who are 
 " lost " because they have finally rejected the offer 
 of salvation in Christ. Their state is described as one 
 of banishment from the presence of God,* as perdition,® 
 as an existence spent in " blackness of darkness," • in 
 the company " of the devil and his angels," ^ in " the 
 lake of fire." ^ They are to " drink of the wine of the 
 wrath of God," * are to be delivered over to " wrath 
 and tribulation and anguish," ^® and to pass their exist- 
 ence under the eternal condemnation of God." Nothing 
 can be imagined more terrible than the array of 
 passages dealing with the misery and anguish of those 
 who are finally impenitent ; their doom is not only to 
 be deprived of the good which is the portion of the 
 redeemed, but to be visited with positive inflictions of 
 sorrow and shame that leave earthly language far 
 behind in its attempt to describe them. We may tone 
 down these expressions to the utmost limit ; there yet 
 
 * John xiv. 2, 3. « 2 Peter ii. 17 ; Jude 13. 
 ' Jude 24: cf. Psalm xvi. u. ' Matt. xxv. 41. 
 
 » I Peter iv. 13. » Rev. xx. 15. 
 
 * 2 Thess. i. 9. » Rev. xiv. 10. 
 » Phil. iii. 19. 10 Rom. ii. 9. 
 
 " Mark iii. 29 ; John v. 29: cf. James ii. 13 and Jude 6. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 437 
 
 remain enough suggestions of conscious retribution to 
 warrant the most pressing appeals to sinful men to " flee 
 the wrath to come." 
 
 3. Finally, the life to come is revealed as a state of 
 reward and punishment in exact accordance with personal 
 merit. 
 
 It is to be one of carefully adjusted reward for the 
 good. This is a feature of the future state that has not 
 been sufficiently brought out in the text-books of theology 
 and in the preaching of the Gospel. The result is that 
 most Christian believers have fallen into the notion 
 that, once Heaven is won, it will be the same Heaven 
 for all, and that there is to be no difference in the 
 felicity of the redeemed. If this were so, then the 
 carefully graded estimates of character we instinctively 
 form of one another in this life would have no applica- 
 tion in the great Hereafter, and a great fund of 
 incentives to strive ever more and more after perfection 
 would be taken out of the working motives of the 
 Christian life. If all the good are to be equally blessed 
 in Heaven, does it not tend to make all but the very 
 finest types of character satisfied with a poor standard 
 of Christian living ? This crude idea, however, is not 
 according to the teaching of the Bible. The notion has 
 arisen partly out of a failure to distinguish between 
 salvation and reward. We are saved, according to 
 the New Testament, not by our merits or "works," 
 but by the " free grace " of God as revealed in Jesus 
 Christ. We appropriate this salvation by " faith," ^ 
 which as an act of spiritual receptivity is the same in 
 all, and brings the same benefit for all. But we are 
 rewarded according to our works? In the Kingdom 
 
 » Eph. ii. 8. 
 
 ' 2 Cor. V. 10, where Paul is speaking to those already within 
 the Kingdom of God. 
 
43^ The Ascent through Christ Book HI 
 
 of Heaven, whether in this life or the next, our place 
 is settled by the quality of our service. In the 
 " money parables " of our Lord are given the principles 
 according to which this apportionment is to be made. 
 There are three sources of inequality among men — 
 that of endowment, that of industry, that of oppor- 
 tunity. The first problem is dealt with in the parable 
 of the " talents." ^ Here the servants start with unequal 
 endowments, and two of them do their best with their 
 capital, with the result that each exactly doubles it, 
 while the third makes no attempt to do anything at all 
 with his. In the award, the first two have an equal 
 recompense, while, the third is banished from the 
 presence of his master. The second problem is 
 dealt with in the parable of the " pounds," * in which 
 with the same initial capital there is a difference in the 
 results attained, the first doubling the earnings of the 
 second, while the third once more does nothing. Here 
 the third is again rejected, and his pound is given to 
 the first as being the most deserving ; whose reward is 
 made double that of the second, because of his extra 
 diligence in service.' The third problem is dealt with 
 in the parable of the " pennies," * commonly called that 
 of the " husbandmen in the vineyard." Here the key to 
 the situation is to be found in verse 7 (" because no man 
 hath hired us," and " whatsoever is right, that shall ye 
 receive "). This case is clearly one of unequal opportunity. 
 Those who had been " all the day idle " were so through 
 no fault of their own, having had no call for their 
 services. As soon as they were hired, they accepted 
 service, and did their best. In the issue they had an 
 equal reward with those who had had a better oppor- 
 
 > Matt. XXV. 14-30, w. 21, 23. 8 Verses 16, 18, 20. 
 
 » Luke xix. 12-27. * Matt. xx. 1-16. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 439 
 
 tunity.^ The triplet of parables thus contain a guarantee 
 that no initial disqualification, whether of gifts or of 
 opportunity, will stand in the way of a just apportion- 
 ment of reward in the Divine Kingdom, but that unequal 
 diligence and conscientiousness in God's service will 
 vitally affect the amount of that reward. Our work 
 will be weighed "according as a man hath, not as he 
 hath not." The same principle shows itself incidentally 
 in other sayings of our Lord, and reappears elsewhere 
 in the Epistles. We are in the hands of a just Master, 
 who will do that which is right with all in His service, 
 and has a watchful eye for all purity of motive and 
 earnestness of spirit. 
 
 Similarly, it is taught that there will be gradation 
 in the punishment of the lost. The notion that those 
 who fail to attain the redemption offered to all in 
 Christ will be plunged into a common depth of woe 
 is as foreign to the teaching of Christ and His apostles 
 as the idea that the reward of all grades of His people 
 will be identical. "It is often alleged against the 
 doctrine of Eternal Judgment," writes Prof. Salmond 
 in his work on the " Christian Doctrine of Immortality," 
 " that while sins differ through all possible grades of 
 difference, it seems in the end at least to represent 
 them as punished alike. But it is the very burden 
 of a large part of the teaching of Christ and that of the 
 apostles, that this final retribution will not be the same 
 for all." ^ He tells us, for instance, that it will be more 
 " tolerable in the day of judgment " for Sodom and 
 Gomorrah, for Tyre and Sidon, than for Chorazin and 
 Bethsaida and Capernaum, in view of their difference 
 in enlightenment.^ In another discourse, He tells us 
 
 * Matt. XX. lo: cf. verse 15. 
 
 * Page 670. 
 
 * Matt. xi. 20 24. 
 
440 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 that some of the disobedient will be punished with few, 
 some with many stripes ^ ; which means that penalty 
 will be in exact accordance with opportunity and desert. 
 All that Jesus says about the Judgment implies that 
 the same even-handed justice will be seen in the 
 punishment of wrongdoers, as in the reward of the 
 righteous ; and that if it is a " fearful thing to fall 
 into the hands of the living God," and that all sin must 
 be punished as it deserves, God is to be as just in 
 His dealings with the wicked as He is with the good. 
 
 These, we believe, are the lines along which we are 
 led by the teachings of Scripture on the great question 
 of Human Destiny. It is true that the picture lacks 
 definiteness ; only the broadest outlines are given us. 
 But it is a picture full of scope, and inspiration, and 
 warning. It justifies us in giving a larger place than 
 is customary nowadays to the Future Life as a source 
 of motive-power in this life. And when we read the 
 imagery of the Bible in the light of the Evolutionary 
 science of human nature which has made such rapid 
 strides of late years, we find nothing which is not 
 capable of being translated into the moulds of modern 
 thought. It all harmonises with the idea that Man 
 in this state of existence is still a being " in the 
 making." If he is the crown of Nature's vital processes 
 so far as his physical constitution is concerned, he bears 
 in his organisation infallible marks that he is meant for 
 higher things than can be attained within the narrow 
 margin of existence permitted to him here. His highest 
 powers are incipient. His spiritual affinities reach out 
 towards the unseen ; there is nothing in this world that 
 can adequately satisfy them. He has a hunger for 
 righteousness, an ideal of goodness, a deep-seated craving 
 for holiness, in violent contrast with his present oppor- 
 I.uke xii. d7. 
 
Chap. IV Behind the Veil 44 1 
 
 tunities of attaining these objects of desire. Apart from a 
 further opening for moral effort and victory, his spiritual 
 career is a drama that ends in an anticlimax. Weary 
 with the struggle against evil, tormented with a perpetual 
 sense of failure, eager to take up on a higher plane the 
 spiritual endeavours which here bring so little sense 
 of triumph, his eye turns with unspeakable longing to 
 the land beyond the grave for the scope denied him in 
 this life. And what he dimly sees there under the 
 revealing light of the Gospel is enough to quicken his 
 pulses to a " lively hope " that he has but to trust in 
 God and do his best in order to attain a sure and 
 everlasting reward. In this higher state the moral 
 tangle of this life will be unravelled, the issues of 
 character will be unfolded, the brightest dreams of the 
 soul will be realised. There will be rest, victory, fellow- 
 ship, service, progress, and attainment in all that is 
 most desirable and noble ; the " open vision " will take 
 the place of surmise and cloudy uncertainty ; and all 
 the germinal powers of the soul will be expanded to 
 their full capacity. In view of what we have said in 
 this study of the Future Life, we are able to rest on 
 the thought that before us lie unimaginable glories if 
 we live the life, and walk in the Way, and do the Will 
 of God humbly in this world ; and that behind the 
 curtain of death there are " things which eye saw not, 
 and ear heard not, and which have not entered the 
 heart of man, whatsoever things God hath prepared for 
 them that love Him." 
 
BOOK III: EVOLUTION 
 
 AND THE RESUREECTION ** Far and wide, though all unkrunoing. 
 
 Pants for Him each human breast , 
 Mortal tears for Him are flowing, 
 
 Human hearts in Him would rest : 
 Thirsting, as for dews of even. 
 
 As the new-mown grass for rain, 
 
 Him they seek as King of Heaven, 
 
 Him, as Man for sinners slain." 
 
 Chapter V. — Some Final Problems 
 
 Some " Residual Facts " — Why was Line of Revealed Truth so narrow ? 
 — At least this was consistent with Law of Evolution — Relation between 
 Christianity and Ethnic Faiths — The Missionary Motive — Three Reasons 
 for Evangelising the whole World — Conclusion. 
 
 LET US gather up the fragments that remain. 
 There are one or two recurrent and obstinate 
 difficulties in theological thought which, we believe, if 
 not altogether resolved, are at least much mitigated, 
 when the subject is viewed from an Evolutionary stand- 
 point. They are " residual phenomena " that lie outside 
 the scope of current religious formulae ; " awkward 
 facts" which the orthodox thinker can only meet by 
 an appeal to unquestioning faith, where he does not 
 judicially ignore them as insoluble problems. Such 
 inconvenient facts exist for scientific as well as religious 
 thinkers, though scientists often talk as though they were 
 the exclusive heritage of theology ; and it is generally 
 through the persistent pressure of these facts that 
 scientists have been forced to revise their theories, so 
 paving the way to some larger generalisation which has 
 marked a real advance in thought. It is not impossible 
 that the pressure of these residual difficulties may 
 similarly open the way to a wider and truer outlook on 
 the facts of the religious life, and so accelerate the 
 emergence of the troubled soul out of the murky twilight 
 into the light of the " perfect day." 
 
 442 
 
Chap. V Some Final Problems 443 
 
 I 
 
 One of these perplexing facts is the apparently narrow 
 channel which has marked the course of revealed truth 
 through the ages, and the very circumscribed area 
 covered by its light at the present day. 
 
 It is one of the fundamental postulates of the Gospel 
 that it is meant for the salvation not of a few chosen 
 individuals, or of a select nation, but of the whole 
 world. Whatever may have been the case with Judaism, 
 Christianity is a Universal Religion ; it is for Mankind 
 as a whole. The purpose of the Incarnation embraced 
 the world within its scope ; the type of manhood revealed 
 in Jesus is universal ; the laws of the Kingdom of God 
 are all-commanding, and are equally applicable to men 
 of all races, stages of civilisation, and grades of culture ; 
 the sacrifice of the Redeemer is efficacious for sinners 
 of every condition ; there is no let or hindrance to the 
 ample invitation of the Cross. " Go ye therefore, and 
 make disciples of all the nations, baptising them into 
 the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
 Ghost," ^ is the final command laid by the departing 
 Christ upon His followers. "The times of ignorance 
 therefore God overlooked ; but now He commandeth 
 men that they should all everywhere repent : inasmuch 
 as He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge 
 the world in righteousness by the Man whom He hath 
 ordained ; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, 
 in that He hath raised Him from the dead" ^ — this is the 
 principle that lay at the very heart of the great " apostle 
 of the Gentiles," and passed like a fire from him into 
 the lives of all the primitive preachers of the Gospel. It 
 is this burning conviction, reawakened in modern times, 
 that is at the root of all missionary effort. There is 
 * Matt, xxviii. 19. « Acts xvii. 30, 31. 
 
444 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 salvation for all in Christ; there is true salvation in 
 no one else ; " for neither is there any other name under 
 heaven wherein we must be saved." ^ 
 
 This being the position forced, by the clear and 
 unmistakable will of its Founder, on all who accept 
 the Gospel, the question recurs with ever-increasing 
 emphasis, how is it that the knowledge of this great 
 message has been kept within such narrow limits? 
 Arguing from the probabilities of the case, we might 
 have expected that a full opportunity of making the 
 Great choice would be granted to all men. Souls, qua 
 souls, surely have a right to know that which is the one 
 channel of eternal life for all. It would seem but reason- 
 able that no one of the men for whom Christ died should 
 be in a position to say at the close of his life : " I have 
 not had a chance to accept the Gospel ; no one has 
 preached the Word of Life to me. I die, and so far as 
 this life at least is concerned, I have had no opportunity 
 of knowing and loving my Saviour." Instead of this, 
 what has been the course of revealed truth, and how 
 far has it been proclaimed to the race for whose universal 
 salvation it was unfolded ? It has been, not an all- 
 embracing atmosphere for all men to breathe, nor even 
 a broad river of influence flowing through every land, 
 but a narrow and contracted stream running athwart 
 the centuries. Instead of the universal morning, 
 breaking simultaneously over wide spaces of the earth, 
 and beating for entrance at the window of every soul, 
 there has been a fitful and uncertain breaking of the 
 clouds of spiritual ignorance and sin, here and there, 
 only to close back again for long intervals into a 
 shadowy and uncertain twilight ; instead of a complete 
 and convincing revelation, given in the early ages of the 
 world, and preserved from eclipse and deadly error, we 
 * Acts iv. 12. 
 
Chap. V Some Final Problems 445 
 
 look back upon a slow, age-long process of fragmentary 
 revelation, " by divers portions and in divers manners," 
 given to patriarch, poet, prophet, and priest ; and it was 
 not till the world had been groaning and travailing for 
 countless generations for the great boon, that the fulness 
 of the light burst upon men in Jesus Christ, and the 
 Blessed Word came and "tabernacled" in the flesh. 
 Since then the spread of the Gospel has been left to the 
 ordinary channels of intercommunication between man 
 and man. There has been no directly supernatural 
 means employed to bring the light of truth to all eyes, 
 and the message of the mercy of God to all ears. Only 
 according as the followers of Jesus Christ have been 
 fitfully faithful to His last command have the treasures 
 of the faith been placed within reach of the heathen. 
 The mystery is all the greater when we remember that 
 there has been a real outpouring of spiritual energy 
 from the Unseen along the narrow line that marks the 
 historical pathway of the truth, and a rich upspringing 
 of the " fruit of the Spirit " in lands where the Gospel 
 was known. 
 
 Perhaps we are not even yet in a position to give a 
 complete account of this difficult problem. We know 
 how, in other ages, it was attacked, and a solution 
 attempted. The doctrine of the Divine Sovereignty, 
 combined with that of Election, settled the question in 
 the eyes of such as were in a position to accept such a 
 rough and ready answer. There are, however, few if 
 any thoughtful minds who are any longer satisfied to 
 believe that God's arbitrary selection of individuals and 
 nations here and there is the last word to be said about 
 the mystery of redemption. Such an explanation seems 
 to us to take away more than it gives. It seriously 
 interferes with the notion of God as a Moral Being, 
 and emasculates His character of the finest attributes 
 
446 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 accorded to Him in the Gospel. The Christian con- 
 science has outgrown the possibility of ever falling back 
 on the old Calvinistic position ; to state that, nowadays, 
 is to reject it. 
 
 Without professing completely to dispel the darkness 
 in which the subject is enshrouded, we can at least say 
 that the actual method of revelation as presented in the 
 Bible is exactly what we might have expected on an 
 Evolutionary theory of Religion. The story there 
 unfolded follows a strictly Evolutionary method. The 
 line of spiritual, like that of physical development, began 
 with small and almost imperceptible beginnings. Both 
 proceeded from little to more by gradual and insensible 
 stages. From the germ to the blade, from the blade 
 to the flower, from the flower to the ripe fruit — this has 
 been the story. In both processes the Creator seems 
 to have had little care as to the amount of time taken 
 by the intermediate stages. The course of each has 
 been intermittent so far as the steps of visible advance 
 were concerned. The line of Evolution in both has 
 been a " narrow one." Its course has been fettered by 
 all manner of hindrances. Its final triumph was secured 
 only in virtue of a selective process of elimination by 
 which the most worthy elements were preserved, and 
 the temporary integuments of error were gradually 
 sloughed away as the ages went on. There have been 
 " back-eddies " in the stream of Revelation as in the 
 stream of life ; but the line of ** progress of the whole " 
 has been jealously guarded and rigidly preserved. Just 
 as the first germ of life, coming we know not whence 
 (unless it be from some other more fortunate and more 
 advanced planet), implanted itself in the soil of this 
 earth, and forthwith set about transforming its new 
 habitat, turning the fields of death into an ever-advanc- 
 ing kingdom of life, till at last the wilderness blossomed 
 
Chap. V Some Final Problems 447 
 
 as the rose, and the desert became a fruitful garden ; 
 so the first faint spark of Divine truth and life was 
 dropped into the uncongenial soil of humanity, and 
 forthwith began that course of troubled but glorious 
 life which issued at last in the Perfect Man, and gave 
 promise of a " new earth and a new heaven wherein 
 dwelleth righteousness." It is the same story, with 
 a difference ; " first the natural, then the spiritual " — the 
 lower but prophesying in the humbler fields of organic 
 life the lines of expansion and the glorious vistas of 
 progress fulfilled by the higher in the tangled but 
 teeming subsoil of the human heart. 
 
 It has been said that Nature, in her Evolutionary 
 processes, has expended her chief care, as it were, on 
 the perfection of the species, and has recked little " of 
 the single life." Individuals have been allowed to perish 
 in countless millions in order to provide a sufficiently 
 broad platform for the advance of the race. The course 
 of Revelation would seem to suggest that this is so 
 also in the spiritual sphere. Its course has been so 
 slow, so local, so intermittent, that the interests of the 
 unnumbered generations who have come and gone in 
 the meantime seem to have been forgotten. Even the 
 Chosen Race, at any given time in its history, had only 
 a fragmentary glimpse of the vast ranges of saving 
 truth. And at the present time, only a fraction of the 
 race has any knowledge of the Christian Faith. How 
 is the balance of inequality to be trimmed ? How are 
 the rights of individual souls to an equal chance of 
 redemption to be safeguarded? What we have said 
 about the probability of a future probation for those 
 whose opportunity has been incomplete in this life 
 meets, we think, the pressure of this problem ; and apart 
 from some such compensating theory, we do not see 
 how that pressure can be lifted at all. 
 
448 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 II 
 
 There is a second problem which has been pressing 
 increasingly on the consciousness^ of Christendom, and 
 calls for some kind of solution, even if it be but a 
 tentative one. In what relation does Christianity stand 
 to the great Ethnic Religions ? 
 
 The old sure and short way, of relegating them to 
 the limbo of outworn and ignorant inventions, no longer 
 satisfies us. The more we study them, the more we 
 find proof that they are a genuine outgrowth of spiritual 
 life, the result of earnest and persistent attempts to 
 answer the riddle of the Universe. No great religion 
 was ever founded by a Pretender. The Ethnic Prophets 
 were men of real and in many cases exalted spiritual 
 genius. They were akin to Moses, and David, and 
 Isaiah, and John the Baptist. Many were characterised 
 by a saintliness and beauty of life that fills us with 
 admiration. And whatever may be said of the 
 grievous errors with which their presentation of the 
 truth has been intermingled, no one who accepts the 
 Christian Faith can fail to realise that in the great 
 religions of the world there is much ground in common 
 with that Faith. Much of the teaching of Jesus 
 Himself is to be found imbedded in the religious systems 
 of the Orient. And those who live among the civilised 
 heathen tell us that they come with a shock of surprise 
 occasionally upon types of character of rare elevation 
 and beauty among the followers of Buddha, and Lao- 
 Tse, and Confucius. What are we to think of this 
 common ground of truth enjoyed by these religions ? 
 How are we to class these exalted characters that meet 
 us here and there among the low and degraded types 
 of heathen life? 
 
 It is still held by some thinkers that the residuum ot 
 
Chap. V Some Final Problems 449 
 
 truth lying hidden beneath the puerilities and moral 
 refuse of the Ethnic faiths are the true survival of a 
 Primitive Revelation granted to the undivided human 
 race in the earliest stages of its career. Mr. Andrew 
 Lang's recent work on the " Making of Religion " opens 
 up a possibility that this theory, long discredited even 
 among theologians, may yet prove of real scientific 
 value.^ There is, however, another not unlikely explana- 
 tion, to which we may briefly call the reader's attention. 
 It would seem that the forces of spiritual life have 
 been always and everywhere at work in the hard and 
 unyielding soil of humanity. God has not been far 
 from any of His creatures, if haply they might find Him. 
 But the conditions favourable to the emergence of the 
 truth have not obtained everywhere, and thus it has 
 been caught only in flying glimpses and isolated flashes 
 of light. In all religious systems there have been such 
 glimpses, and they have been none the less Divine 
 because they have been afterwards obscured and 
 almost quenched by all manner of evil accretions. But 
 in one and another of these religions the element of 
 error has overbalanced that of the truth, and made it 
 impotent to fulfil its saving work. They have thus 
 sunk gradually under the weight of accumulated super- 
 stitions and immoralities, and become either lifeless and 
 stationary systems, or mere landmarks registering the 
 failures of the human soul to attain the knowledge 
 and life of God. But in one line of religious thought 
 and aspiration there has been so much Divine vitality, and 
 so favourable a soil for the growth of religious ideas and 
 life, that in spite of all the contrary forces — the story of 
 which has been unfolded in the Old Testament — there 
 has been an ever-widening stream of revealed truth, which, 
 growing more and more spiritual as the ages went on, 
 ' See esp. p. 331, footnote. 
 
 29 
 
450 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 gradually provided the conditions for the embodiment 
 of the sinless life, and for the unfolding of the saving 
 purpose of God, in His Son Jesus Christ. The story of 
 Christianity is, from this point of view, the story of the 
 survival of the fittest among religions. It is not necessary, 
 in order to honour it as Divine, to deny all Divine ele- 
 ments in every other religion. Whatever was or is true 
 in them is of God, for all truth is of and from Him. The 
 reason why He revealed Himself so much more perfectly 
 in the Hebrew religion and race, is simply that the 
 necessary conditions were not provided along any other 
 line of historical and ethnic evolution. There was 
 something in the constitution of these " God-intoxicated " 
 Hebrews which made them a suitable channel for the 
 unfolding of the perfect will of God. This is why, we 
 may be sure, they were the favoured or " chosen " nation, 
 instead of the Greeks, or the Romans — so superior to 
 them in other directions. Just as the Greeks showed 
 a matchless aptitude for embodying the principle of 
 beauty in undying forms, and so became the medium 
 whereby the finest artistic and intellectual possibilities 
 of the human mind were brought to perfect expression ; 
 just as the Romans were gifted with the faculty for 
 government, and so developed the most wonderful 
 system of laws the world has ever seen, which are still 
 studied by legislators as containing the finest concrete 
 embodiment of their science, — so the Hebrews were 
 the medium of the noblest spiritual religion the world 
 has ever seen. There was no arbitrary element in 
 the choice of this people for the supreme honour of 
 furnishing the channels of revelation. They were 
 chosen because their national temperament was speci- 
 ally sensitive, and their spirit peculiarly plastic to the 
 touch of the Most High; they had the religious 
 genius ; and so, in spite of their perpetual lapses into 
 
thap. V Some Final Problems 45 1 
 
 sin and shame, they responded more and more to the 
 severe discipline to which they were subjected as the 
 instrument of the revealing Spirit of truth and grace. 
 To them, therefore, the world turns still for the satisfac- 
 tion of its spiritual cravings, the embodiment of its 
 ideals, the fulfilment of its immemorial hopes. For it 
 was from among them that the Light to lighten the 
 Gentiles first burst forth upon the world, whose re- 
 deeming truth will shine like the "lightning which 
 cometh forth from the East and is seen in the West." 
 So shall it be in " the coming of the Son of Man." 
 
 There is another aspect from which the ethnic religions 
 may be viewed in relation to Christianity. Whether 
 they contain the disjecta membra of a primitive revelation 
 once given to the race as a whole, or are the results 
 of sporadic efforts to penetrate into the spiritual laws 
 and mysteries of existence, it is unquestionable that 
 they constitute a great process of preparation for 
 Christianity, both historically and spiritually. Unreason- 
 ing zeal has sometimes spoken of heathen religions 
 as though they were an unmitigated hindrance to the 
 work of the missionary and the evangelist. There are 
 at least two ways in which these mixed faiths contribute 
 to the extension of the universal faith. First, in their 
 subjective effects on the spiritual nature, in the sensi- 
 tising of the soul to the touch of religious ideas, in the 
 awakening of the whole man to the influences of the 
 unseen order. It matters not, so far as this point is 
 concerned, that any particular form of belief is of a low 
 and degraded type, and that it has become associated 
 with immoral habits : the soul that has become sensitive 
 enough to hold even an erroneous view of religion 
 is by that very fact equipped with spiritual aptitude 
 for the truth ; the rest is a matter of education and 
 enlightenment. Secondly, as there is confessedly sonw 
 
452 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 relic or germ of truth in all the ethnic religions, this 
 is enough to furnish a foothold for the first principles 
 of the Gospel, a pou sto on which to rest the lever of 
 persuasion and lift the whole man into the light and joy 
 of the truth. However great may be the inertiae of 
 heathen religions as systems against the impact of 
 Christianity, and the difficulty of getting their professors 
 to give up a low for the highest form of religion, there 
 no doubt of their value as educators of the soul, in 
 the sense just mentioned, as the subject of redemption. 
 Perhaps in days gone by this aspect of the case has 
 not been sufficiently appreciated by most pioneers in 
 missionary endeavour, but it is now largely acknowledged 
 and acted upon, greatly to the advantage of both 
 teachers and taught.^ 
 
 Ill 
 
 And this brings us to the last difficulty on which the 
 train of thought we have been following throughout 
 this book helps to throw some light. It relates to the 
 question how far it is in accordance with the enlarged 
 outlook of modern times on the world that we should 
 attempt to convert heathen peoples to faith in Christ. 
 
 There is one point of view from which all missionary 
 effort seems to be inconsistent with the Evolutionary 
 theory. It looks like an interference with the laws and 
 constitution of things. The fact that every nation has 
 
 ^ See Andrew Lang's " Making of Religion," especially chapter on 
 " High Gods of Low Races " (pp. 187 ff.). "It is certain," he says 
 in an earlier chapter, "that savages, when first approached by 
 curious travellers and by missionaries, have again and again recog- 
 nised our God in theirs" (p. 183). Livingstone bears a testimony 
 corroborated by most missionaries to the existence of the principles 
 of what is called " Natural Religion " among savage tribes. *' There 
 is no necessity to tell even the most degraded of these people of 
 the existence of God, or of a future state, the facts being universally 
 admitted (" Missionary Travels," p. 158). 
 
Chap. V Some Final Problems 453 
 
 a religion of its own, which is the outgrowth of its very 
 life, and has been an integral part of its historical 
 development, would suggest that it must suit its con- 
 stitution and temperament better than another and 
 alien religion, however superior this may be ; nay, its 
 very superiority must make it to that extent unsuitable 
 to the needs of a less evolved and more primitive people. 
 It is an attempt to interfere with the natural course 
 of ethical and religious evolution. If indeed a long 
 and painful historical preparation was needful for the 
 emergence of Christianity as a complete and perfect 
 faith, — a preparation that reaches far back into the 
 dim dawn of human life and thought, — does not this 
 suggest, ex hypothesis that a similar preparation is 
 necessary for its proper acceptance by the nations which 
 have been outside the current of historical Chris- 
 tianity ? It looks like a violent effort to override the 
 order of Nature that we should try to impose so high 
 and elevated a faith on those who (i) have historic 
 faiths of their own, and (2) are by that very fact 
 disqualified to profit by a form of religious belief thrust 
 upon them from outside. 
 
 Our reply is threefold. 
 
 I. We cannot leave these nations to themselves, to 
 develop according to the laws that have hitherto 
 governed their life and growth. The nations called 
 Christian are everywhere pressing hard upon all other 
 nations ; Western civilisation in all directions is disin- 
 tegrating both the customs of savage nations and the 
 more stable civilisations of the East ; and it is every- 
 where being shown that in this general break-up of old 
 and effete orders there is an imminent peril. For where 
 our civilisation penetrates without our religion, it is 
 invariably disastrous in its effects. It never fails to 
 destroy the confidence of subject races in their own 
 
454 The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 creeds and customs, without furnishing anything in place 
 of their sanctions and restraints. The result is every- 
 where to be seen in the way in which heathen nations 
 neglect our virtues and emulate our vices. The advice 
 sometimes given to the missionary, therefore, to leave 
 the people to whom he ministers to their simpler 
 faiths, is beside the mark. These faiths are inevitably 
 going ; soon they will be gone ; and the question 
 presses — What then ? If history proves anything, it 
 proves that a nation without a faith is a doomed nation ; 
 that it cannot hold together ; that it inevitably decays 
 and dies. From this point of view alone, then, there 
 is a tremendous responsibility laid upon us. The 
 impact of our civilisation is breaking up the fabric, 
 and undermining the foundations, of the ethnic religions. 
 Without religion of some sort, nations must perish. 
 Therefore we must see to it that we give something 
 in the place of what we take away ; and that something 
 must be the Christian Faith, or it will be nothing. 
 
 2. The objection that the less evolved peoples require 
 a long historical training in order to fit them to receive 
 the Christian religion, is one that has been already put 
 to a sufficiently crucial test to enable us to estimate its 
 value. Solvitiir ambulando. It is unquestionably true 
 that the first contact of missionary influence with certain 
 types of savage life has been disastrous, where it has 
 not been absolutely unfruitful. It is also true that, in 
 the case of some converts to the faith, there has been 
 a tendency to part company with certain elemental 
 virtues, such as truthfulness, obedience, and industry. 
 An inordinate self-conceit occasionally does duty for 
 self-respect, and a tendency to elaborate an effusive 
 pietism replaces the simple moralities. This was surely 
 inevitable ; it would be a miracle were it otherwise : 
 do we not, indeed, still find abundant samples of such 
 
Chap. V Some Final Problems 455 
 
 types even in civilised religious circles? Taking, how- 
 ever, the broad results of missionary effort all over the 
 world, we have conclusive proof that Christianity can 
 lay hold of men in all stages of savagery and animalism 
 and transform them into new creatures ; that there is 
 no kind or quality of civilisation which it is not capable 
 of permeating and ennobling ; and that when older 
 faiths and social systems are tottering to their fall, 
 it is the one thing which can preserve and redeem 
 individuals and races from certain decay and dissolution. 
 From the wilds of Africa and Canada, from among the 
 teeming millions of India and China, from the hordes 
 of " primitive " savages in the islands of the sea and 
 the deserts of Central Australia, from New Guinea and 
 Labrador, comes consentient testimony that Christ can 
 lay hold of men's hearts, renew their lives, and save them 
 unto eternal life. The calendar of the saints has been 
 enriched during the last century with names drawn from 
 every land and clime and type of humanity. It has been 
 proved, indeed, that wherever we can find a man^ be he 
 ever so degraded and sinful and bestial, we see a possible 
 subject of the Kingdom of Heaven, who has but to open 
 his heart to the message of the Cross to find himself 
 capable of escaping from the bondage of sin, and of 
 entering into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 
 In a word, Christianity has abundantly proved during 
 this last century that it is, in the strictest sense of the 
 term, a Universal Religion. It is therefore the bounden 
 duty of those who have proved its efficacy to redeem 
 them in their personal lives, to send it forth in all 
 directions to fulfil its redeeming work in the world. 
 
 3. Even this does not sum up the whole argument. 
 The offer of Christ to sinful men wherever they can be 
 found is not the offer of an alternative religion to them, 
 in the sense in which Hinduism and Taoism and 
 
45^ The Ascent through Christ Book III 
 
 Confucianism are religions. It is the offer to men of 
 the secret of life^ of something that will cleanse them 
 from all that hinders and defeats their spiritual natures, of 
 something that will enable them to realise their true selves, 
 and become men in the true and full sense of the word. 
 We do our Master little honour when we place Him 
 among a group of Teachers competing for the accept- 
 ance of men. He is not one of many Founders of 
 religions. He is the source and fountain of all, in so far 
 as they have caught a prophetic glimpse of His truth, 
 and anticipated something of His spirit, and given a 
 scattered hint here and there of His secret. He is the 
 truth, the type, the saving grace of which they faintly 
 and vaguely dreamed ; the Desire of all Nations, the 
 Crown and Essence of Humanity ; the Saviour of the 
 World, who by the loftiness of His Teaching, the 
 beauty of His Character, the sufficiency of His Atoning 
 Sacrifice, is able to save to the uttermost all who will 
 come to Him and trust in Him. He has thus com- 
 missioned His followers to go and " teach all nations, 
 baptising them into the name of the Father and of the 
 Son and of the Holy Ghost." It is the Great Com- 
 mission, the Marching Orders of the Church, the Magna 
 Charta of Humanity ; and in the due performance of 
 this commission lies the hope of the whole world, and 
 the guarantee that, instead of falling deeper into the 
 pit of Evil over the edge of which Man toppled in 
 the Fall, Man will find his way back into the half- 
 forgotten pathway towards the ideal life, and make the 
 " Ascent through Christ " to Heaven and God. 
 
 FINIS 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 
 Abbott's, Dr. Lyman, 
 " Christianity and Social 
 Prbblems" . . -395 
 
 " The Theology of an 
 
 Evolutionist" . . . 292 
 
 Abiogenesis, theory of, con- 
 sistent with Evolution . 27 
 
 Adam, the, of Genesis and 
 of " Paradise Lost " . .140 
 
 Christ the Second . 363 
 
 Alexander's, Bishop, "Ver- 
 bum Crucis " . . . 324 
 
 Allen, Grant, on degenera- 
 tion of plants . . .152 
 
 Altruism, how it differs from 
 social instinct . . -54 
 
 Angelic appearances in the 
 New Testament . .257 
 
 Angels, the fall of the . iii, 114 
 
 Animal world, degeneration 
 in the . . . .153 
 
 Anthropological and theo- 
 logical questions inter- 
 dependent ... 9 
 
 Anthropology and the Fall 
 
 138-168 
 
 Arrested development in or- 
 ganic life, a type of sin . 202 
 
 characteristic of 
 
 whole races of men . . 204 
 
 Page 
 
 Ascension, the story of the . 270 
 
 "Ascent of Man, The," the 
 account of Social Evolu- 
 tion in . . . .63 
 
 Primitive Man 
 
 described in . . . 1 59 
 
 Astronomical physics, and 
 Genesis . . . .86 
 
 a difficulty in 
 
 the way of the Incar- 
 nation . . . .251 
 
 Atonement, a rational theory 
 of, not necessary for sal- 
 vation .... 338 
 
 old and new theories 
 
 of the . . . . 288 
 
 the necessity of the . 132 
 
 is it consistent with 
 
 Evolution? . . . 289 
 
 by man impossible . 299 
 
 the character of God 
 
 revealed by the . . 302 
 
 inseparably related to 
 
 the Incarnation . . 283 
 
 made by Christ, the . 300 
 
 the Godward aspect 
 
 of the .... 338 
 
 Babel, the Tower of, one 
 of the "Fall-Myths" . .112 
 
 457 
 
4S8 
 
 Index 
 
 Page 
 
 Babylonian Fragment 
 
 quoted . . . .104 
 Barrett's, Dr. G. S., "The 
 
 Intermediate State 'V«^^'«'^ 4^9 
 
 Barry's "Manifold Witness 
 to Christ" quoted . .121 
 
 *' Some Lights of 
 
 Science on the Faith " 
 quoted . . .140 
 
 Bateson's •' Materials for 
 the Study of Variation" 
 quoted . . . 42, 215 
 
 Beecher, H. W., " Evolution 
 and Religion," quoted on 
 Rom. vii. and viii. . 189 
 
 Beet's, Prof. Agar, "The 
 Last Things " ^w^/^^ .415 
 
 "Behind the Veil " . 406-441 
 
 Bible, the, does not teach 
 science . . . .81 
 
 Biblical account of the Crea- 
 tion of Man, the . . 73 
 
 interpretation, impor- 
 tance of understanding 
 literary aspects of Bible 
 for rightly interpreting its 
 message . . . .86 
 
 Biogenesis, the theory of . 26 
 
 Bradford's, Dr. Amory, 
 "Heredity and Christian 
 Problems" . . . 200 
 
 Brain and Mind, the inter- 
 dependence of . . 352 
 
 of Man, the, has it 
 
 reached its limits of 
 development?. . .381 
 
 Bruce's, A. B., "Apolo- 
 getics" . . . .321 
 
 Bushnell's " Dignity of Hu- 
 man Nature shown from 
 its Ruins " quoted . .166 
 
 FMge 
 
 108 
 
 51 
 
 37 
 395 
 
 Cain, the Fall of. 
 
 Calderwood's " Evolution 
 and Man's Place in Nature" 
 quoted . . .60, 
 
 Carlyle on Jesus Christ 
 
 Causation, importance of an 
 adequate theory of . 
 
 Chastity, the law of, a dis- 
 tinctively Christian virtue 
 
 Christ, the Divine and the 
 human . . . 267, 326 
 
 the pre-existence of . 263 
 
 the purpose of His 
 
 coming . . . 275, 278 
 
 prophetic references to 322 
 
 the time of His ap- 
 pearing . 
 
 the genealogies of 
 
 the birth of 
 
 the Virgin birth of 
 
 the subject of a spirit- 
 ual Evolution . 
 
 the Person of, a new 
 
 element in human life 
 
 the human nature of . 
 
 the human limitations 
 
 of . . . 
 
 the sinlessness of 
 
 265, 
 
 in what sense a true 
 
 example for us 
 
 the Ideal Man 309, 
 
 the final type of Man- 
 hood . . . 313, 
 
 the Atonement pro- 
 vided by . . . 294, 300 
 
 the self-sacrifice of, 
 
 in the Incarnation . . 284 
 
 His conception of sin 128 
 
 His message of release 
 
 from sin . . . . 226 
 
 321 
 257 
 234 
 
 255 
 
 • 333 
 
 309 
 329 
 
 • 327 
 
 317 
 
 327 
 312 
 
 315 
 
Index 
 
 459 
 
 Page 
 337 
 
 363 
 
 357 
 342 
 184 
 270 
 
 313 
 399 
 456 
 
 307 
 
 Christ, the Resurrection of . 
 
 His Resurrection, the 
 
 effect of . 
 
 His Resurrection the 
 
 pledge of Man's 
 
 His Resurrection body 
 
 His victory over death 
 
 the Ascension of 
 
 tributes of unbelievers 
 
 to 
 
 the influence of, in 
 
 the world at large . 
 
 the source of all true 
 
 religion .... 
 
 Christ's place in Evolu- 
 tion 
 
 Christian Revelation, the, 
 as affected by the theory 
 of Evolution ... 9 
 
 Christianity a Universal Re- 
 ligion . . . 443» 455 
 
 in relation to the great 
 
 Ethnic Religions 
 
 the distinctive fruits of 
 
 Church instituted by Christ, 
 the .... 
 
 marks of the true 
 
 the place of, in the 
 
 Evolution of Christianity 363 
 
 Civilisation the outcome of 
 an Intellectual Evolution 160 
 
 Clarke's, W. N., "Outline 
 of Christian Theology " 
 quoted 65, 167, 197, 268, 
 
 413, 425, 429 
 
 Clemance's, Dr., " Future 
 Punishment " quoted .417 
 
 Cobbe's, Frances Power, 
 " Dawning Lights " quoted liif^ 
 
 Coleridge's "Aids to Re- 
 flection " quoted . .146 
 
 448 
 
 393 
 
 370 
 370 
 
 Page 
 
 Conscience, the develop- 
 ment of . . . .63 
 
 Conscious acceptance of the 
 Saviour a necessary con- 
 dition of complete salva- 
 tion . . , . .418 
 
 Consciousness, the primal 
 origin of, an unfathomable 
 mystery (Fiske on) . . 31 
 
 Continuity, "breaks" of 
 
 26, 308 
 
 "Continuity of Nature," the 24 
 
 Creation of Man, the Biblical 
 account of . . .73 
 
 the drama of . .84 
 
 the story of, not chrono- 
 logical but literary . . 88 
 
 the two versions of . 93 
 
 Creator, a, not rendered 
 unnecessary by Evolution 68 
 
 Crime, the Christian attitude 
 towards .... 395 
 
 Cross, the Mystery of the 
 
 283-306 
 
 Dahle's '♦ Life after Death " 
 quoted . . . 421, 425 
 
 Dale's, Dr., " Christian Doc- 
 trine " quoted . . . 103 
 
 "Fellowship with 
 
 Q\ij:\^\." quoted , 271,275,339 
 
 Darwin's position stated by 
 Wallace .... 57 
 
 " The Descent of 
 
 Man " quoted . . 56, 205 
 
 theory of Natural Se- 
 lection . . . .40 
 
 Death, the function of, in 
 the world of organic life 
 
 170, 171, 172 
 
 the uncertainty of .411 
 
460 
 
 Index 
 
 Page 
 
 Death and sin, the relation 
 between . . . .169 
 
 the instrument of 
 
 moral punishment . 182, 183 
 
 the moral significance 
 
 of 
 
 the Scriptural doctrine 
 
 of 
 
 our Lord's view of . 
 
 Does it end Human 
 
 Probation? 
 
 St. Paul's teaching con- 
 cerning . . 169, 175, 
 
 the fear of . 
 
 Christ's victory over . 
 
 Degeneration, its place in 
 Evolution 
 
 evidences of, in Na- 
 ture 
 
 intellectual . 
 
 physical, of Man 
 
 of non-Christian races 223 
 
 Deism, Profs. Flint and Orr 
 on 
 
 Devil, the, is he responsible 
 for physical evil ? . 
 
 the power of the, is 
 
 limited .... 
 
 Differentiation, the law of . 
 
 Disease, analogy between 
 sin and .... 
 
 Drummond's "Ascent of 
 Msin" quoted, 6^, 154, 155, 
 
 159, 202, 292 
 
 " Natural Law in the 
 
 Spiritual World " quoted. 210 
 
 •• Tropical Africa" 
 
 quoUd . . . 208, 209 
 
 Eden, the story of, alle- 
 gorical . . . .107 
 
 177 
 
 174 
 177 
 
 406 
 
 179 
 183 
 185 
 
 . 150 
 
 152 
 162 
 383 
 
 36 
 
 145 
 129 
 
 212 
 
 Egypt, ancient civilisation 
 of, its greatness 
 
 Eliot's, George, " Scenes of 
 Clerical Life " quoted 
 
 Elmslie's, Prof., article on 
 Genesis and Evolution 
 in Contemporary Review 
 quoted .... 
 
 Emerson on Miracles . 
 
 Emerson's " Over-Soul " 
 quoted .... 
 
 Environment is not creative 
 
 Character is self- 
 created .... 
 
 Man's power of chang- 
 ing his .... 
 
 Ethical nature of Man an 
 argument for Immortal- 
 ity 
 
 the develop- 
 
 Page 
 
 163 
 
 312 
 
 89 
 
 35 
 
 366 
 63 
 
 431 
 52 
 
 354 
 
 62 
 
 ment of . 
 
 Ethics and Religion, the dis- 
 tinction between . . 65 
 
 Ethnic narratives and Gene- 
 sis, difference between . 105 
 
 religions in relation to 
 
 Christianity . . . 448 
 
 Evil, the mystery of . .139 
 
 as old as 
 
 humanity .... 225 
 
 definitions of the word 144 
 
 Moral . . . .145 
 
 the hereditary nature 
 
 of ... . 109, 113 
 
 the choice of . . 147 
 
 the temptation to .120 
 
 " Evil and Evolution " quoted 144 
 Evolution, ancient and 
 modern ideas of, how 
 they differ . . .15 
 
 defined . . .39 
 
Index 
 
 461 
 
 Page 
 Evolution, laws ot, con- 
 sidered . . . 16 ff. 
 
 by Resident Forces . 21 
 
 does not necessarily 
 
 imply progress . .151 
 
 Man the climax of . 50 
 
 reveals Man as a being 
 
 apart . .62 
 
 the Intellectual, ot 
 
 historic times . . .160 
 
 Social and Moral . 389 
 
 Spiritual . . . 369 
 
 Theism and . . 24 
 
 and Christian Theo- 
 logy .... 323 
 
 and Man's conception 
 
 of himself ... 9 
 
 and the Incarnation . 241 
 
 and the Resurrection 335 
 
 "Evolution in Relation to 
 Religious Thought" j-wo/*?*/ 17 
 
 Fairbairn's " The Place ot 
 Christ in Modern Theo- 
 logy " quoted 65, 149, 260, 
 
 274, 286, 303, 326, 332 
 Faith, Justification by . . 365 
 Fall, Anthropology and the 138 
 
 the Biblical theory of 
 
 the . ... 138 
 
 Genesis records five 
 
 "Fall-Myths". . 108-112 
 
 of Babel . . .112 
 
 of Cain . . . 108 
 
 ofLamech . . .110 
 
 of Nations . . 165 
 
 of the Angels, the 
 
 III, 114 
 
 the story of the . . 96 
 
 its religious 
 
 teaching . . . .105 
 
 Page 
 
 Fall, the story of the, on a 
 Babylonian Fragment . 104 
 
 parallel with 
 
 the Parables . . .98 
 
 the, repeated in every 
 
 man's history . . .214 
 
 Fallen race, a, how it may 
 be restored . . . 227 
 
 Family ideal, the fruit of 
 Christianity, the . . 393 
 
 "Final Restoration," objec- 
 tions to theory of . . 423 
 
 Fiske's " Man's Destiny 
 viewed in the Light of 
 his Origin " quoted 31, 33, 
 
 45,49 
 Flint's "Antitheistic Theo- 
 ries " quoted . . 7 
 Forgiveness, Man's craving 
 
 for 299 
 
 Future Life, the . . . 428 
 
 Genesis and Creation . 73-91 
 
 the Second 
 
 Account . . . 92-116 
 
 " Early Narratives of," 
 
 by Prof. Ryle, quoted . 104, 
 
 109, III, 112 
 
 Legend as an element 
 
 in 102 
 
 " Remnant " idea in . 230 
 
 Geology, the evidences of, 
 in reference to death . 170 
 
 Gladstone's " Impregnable 
 Rock of Holy Scripture" 
 quoted . . .85, 303 
 
 God, alienation from, caused 
 by sin . . . . 298 
 
 Immanent and Trans- 
 cendent . . . '35 
 
 our conception of . 34 
 
462 
 
 Index 
 
 Page 
 
 God, self-limitation of . . 243 
 
 the character of, as 
 
 seen in Nature . . 246 
 
 as seen in 
 
 the Atonement . . 302 
 
 as seen in the 
 
 Parables . . . .253 
 Godhead, the Sacrifice and 
 
 Passion of the . . . 287 
 God's love for His creatures 254 
 
 love to Man proved by 
 
 the Incarnation . . 304 
 
 purpose in Creation . 250 
 
 Goethe's reverence for Christ 3 1 4 
 Gordon's, G. A., "Immor- 
 tality and the New Theo- 
 dicy " quoted . . 357» 4^3 
 
 "The Christ of To-day" 
 
 quoted .... 400 
 Gore's " Dissertations on 
 Subjects connected with 
 the Incarnation " quoted 
 
 256, 330 
 Greg, Rathbone, on Christ .313 
 Guilt, imputed, the doctrine 
 
 of 199 
 
 theological meaning of 197 
 
 the sense of . . 297 
 
 435 
 
 99 
 
 Heaven, the blessedness of 
 the saints in . . . 
 
 Hebrew prose and poetry, 
 importance of recognising 
 the distinction between . 
 
 race specially adapted 
 
 for the Divine revelation 450 
 
 Heredity in its relation to 
 sin . . . . 135, 194 
 
 there is moral as well 
 
 as physical . . .195 
 
 the law of . .18 
 
 Ptfe 
 
 Heredity, the theories of 
 Lamarck, Spencer, etc. . 40 
 
 Higher Criticism, one of the 
 chief services wrought by 
 the 106 
 
 History, the teaching of, con- 
 cerning redemption . . 223 
 
 Hodge's " Systematic Theo- 
 logy " quoted . . . 198 
 
 Holy Spirit, the coming of 
 the 362 
 
 Horton's, Dr., "Revelation 
 and the Bible " quoted 90, 
 
 107, 324 
 
 How a fallen race may be 
 redeemed . . .219 
 
 Human " depravity " . . 196 
 
 Probation, does it end 
 
 with death ? . . . 406 
 
 Humanity, the future of . 379 
 
 the Mental Evolution 
 
 of 384 
 
 Huxley, Prof., on Evolution 
 and Theism . . .24 
 
 on persistent types of 
 
 life 202 
 
 Hypocrisy typified by 
 mimicry in Nature . . 209 
 
 Ideal, the, actualised by 
 
 Christ . . . .316 
 Ideal Man, the . . . 307 
 Ideals, the power of . .311 
 Illingworth's, Canon, "Per- 
 sonality, Human and 
 Divine," quoted . 157, 388 
 Immortality, the problem 
 
 of 351 
 
 what has science to 
 
 say in reference to ? . . 51 
 Intimations ol . 357 
 
Index 
 
 463 
 
 Page 
 
 Immortality, Resurrection of 
 Christ the believer's final 
 pledge of . . . .357 
 
 Imputed guilt, the degene- 
 rate doctrine of . -199 
 
 " In Memoriam " quoted . 355 
 
 Incarnation, the . . . 235 
 
 and Evolution . .241 
 
 modern difficulties re- 
 garding .... 242 
 
 and the Copemican 
 
 system of Astronomy .251 
 
 the purpose of the 
 
 271, 278 
 
 necessitated by the 
 
 character of God . . 276 
 
 crowning proof of God's 
 
 ove to Man . . . 304 
 
 dignity of Man re- 
 vealed by the . . . 303 
 
 necessary apart from 
 
 the Fall ... 272 
 
 premonitions of, in the 
 
 Old Testament . . 233 
 
 its historical form .255 
 
 its physiological diffi- 
 culty . . . .261 
 
 and the Atonement 
 
 closely connected . . 283 
 
 character of, changed 
 
 by the Resurrection . . 364 
 
 Inductive method of inquiry 
 the cause of recent de- 
 velopments . . .164 
 
 Industrial changes . .391 
 
 Infancy, the fate of those 
 who die in . . . 412 
 
 Innocence and virtue com- 
 pared .... 147 
 
 Inspiration compatible with 
 error in uon essentials . loi 
 
 Page 
 
 Jehovist, his characteristics 
 
 and point of view . 93-95 
 Jehovistic story of the Fall, 
 
 the 95 
 
 Job, the Book of . . 99 
 
 Judgment, the eternal . 439 
 
 Justification by Faith . .365 
 
 Keim's "Jesus of Nazara" 
 
 257, 264 
 
 Kingdom of God, the teach- 
 ing of Christ concerning 
 the 280 
 
 Kipling's, Mr. R u d y a r d, 
 " Jungle Tales " ^-w^/fe^ . 193 
 
 Laidlaw's " Biblical Doc- 
 trine of Man " quoted 
 
 Lamarck's theory of Heredity 
 
 Lamech, the Song of . 
 
 Lang's, Andrew, " Making 
 of Religion " . . 449, 
 
 Lankester, Prof. Ray, on 
 Degeneration . 
 
 Lankester's, Prof. Ray, 
 " Advancement of Sci- 
 ence " quoted . 
 
 "Larger Hope," the . 
 
 Lazarus and Dives, the par- 
 able of ... . 
 
 Lecky, W. H. E., on the 
 character of Christ . 
 
 Le Conte's " Evolution and 
 Religious Thought" 
 quoted 17, 21, 22, 24, 27, 
 55, 69, 146, 147, 215,221, 
 
 Life a distinct emanation ot 
 Divine power . 
 
 a real but not always 
 
 a final probation 
 
 after Death 
 
 191 
 40 
 no 
 
 452 
 
 • 153 
 
 70 
 425 
 
 420 
 3H 
 
 244 
 
 26 
 
 421 
 427 
 
464 
 
 Index 
 
 Page 
 Life, the Biblical meaning 
 
 of 176 
 
 persistent types of . 202 
 
 •' Lost," the misery of the . 436 
 " Lux Mundi " quoted . 302, 367 
 
 Mackenzie's " Manual of 
 
 Ethics " quoted . .65 
 Man a child of the Eternal 148 
 
 a fallen creature . .161 
 
 a magnificent ruin . 166 
 
 a free agent. . 64, 119 
 
 a new factor in Evolu- 
 tion 310 
 
 and the lower animals, 
 
 the difference between . 59 
 
 a spiritual being . • 1 36 
 
 arrested moral d e - 
 
 velopment in . . . 203 
 
 at the head of physical 
 
 Evolution . . .55 
 Evolution and . . 43 
 
 his future Evolution 
 
 mental .... 380 
 
 in the re-making . . 380 
 
 independent of climatic 
 
 changes . . . .52 
 
 naturally mortal . .175 
 
 physical degeneration 
 
 in IS4 
 
 physically descended 
 
 from the brute creation . 45 
 
 Primitive, not to be 
 
 identified with modern 
 savage . . . .157 
 
 separated from the 
 
 brute creation by an 
 impassable gulf . . 62 
 
 the climax of Organic 
 
 Evolution . . 50, 356 
 that is to be, the . . 379 
 
 Pare 
 
 Evolution, the higher and 
 
 lower natures in . .189 
 
 the Ideal . . 307-333 
 
 the rise of the moral 
 
 sense in , . . .62 
 
 unable to rise without 
 
 Divine intervention . . 224 
 
 Was there an indi- 
 vidual First? . . .143 
 
 Man's control over the phy- 
 sical universe . . . 387 
 
 ** Man's Destiny viewed in 
 the Light of his Origin" 
 quoted . . -45, 49 
 
 Man's future destiny . . 406 
 
 mental education just 
 
 beginning . . .385 
 
 position defined by 
 
 Evolution . . .48 
 
 Marriage, degenerative 
 effects of free . . 383, 396 
 
 Marshall's " The Nature of 
 Christ" . . . .273 
 
 Martineau's " Seat of Autho- 
 rity in Religion " quoted 
 
 68, 265 
 
 " Study of Religion " 
 
 quoted . . . .65 
 
 Massacre of the Innocents, 
 the 256 
 
 Matheson's " Can the Old 
 Faith live with the New?" 
 quoted . . . .170 
 
 Mental Evolution . . 384 
 
 Romanes on . 57 
 
 Selection displaces 
 
 Natural Selection . .53 
 
 Metaphysics ignored by 
 earlier Evolutionists . 37 
 
 Mill's, J. S., " Essays on Re- 
 ligion " 5'«<7/^^ . . .319 
 
Index 
 
 465 
 
 Page 
 Mill's, J. S., testimony to 
 
 Christ . . . .318 
 Milligan's "The Resurrec 
 
 tion of our Lord " quoted 
 
 345. 348 
 Mimicry in Nature . . 207 
 a type of hypocrisy in 
 
 the moral sphere . . 209 
 Mind and brain, their inter- 
 dependence . . . 352 
 
 the origin of, a mystery 31 
 
 Miracles, what they are .35 
 Miraculous Conception, the 255 
 Missionary effort, the results 
 
 ot 455 
 
 three reasons for 
 
 supporting . . -453 
 " Money Parables, The " . 437 
 Moore's, Aubrey L., "Science 
 
 and Faith " quoted . . 89 
 Moral development, arrested 203 
 effort in the future 
 
 life 
 
 freedom a distinguish- 
 ing mark of Man 
 
 a sublime reality 
 
 heredity 
 
 probation, adequate, in 
 
 what does it consist ? 
 
 sense, the rise of the 
 
 62, 126 
 significance 01 the 
 
 Hebrew terms for sin 
 " Mosaic " code of ritual, 
 
 the 
 
 legislation, effect of . 
 
 Moule's, Principal, " On the 
 
 Epistle to the Romans" 
 
 quoted 
 Moulton's, R. G., "Literary 
 
 Study of the Bible " quoted 86 
 
 429 
 
 65 
 146 
 196 
 
 417 
 
 124 
 
 125 
 125 
 
 . 416 
 
 Page 
 MuUer's, Max, •• India and 
 
 What it can Teach us" 
 
 quoted .... 204 
 Munger's " Appeal to Life " 
 
 quoted . . . • 13 
 Myers', F. W. H., " Science 
 
 and a Future Life " quoted 
 
 351.355 
 Myth, the formation ot .104 
 Myths, the study of . .101 
 
 Natural religion among 
 
 heathen nations . .451 
 "Natural Selection" quoted 54 
 Natural Selection displaced 
 by Mental Selection . 51, 53 
 
 the theory of . 40 
 
 Nature a revelation of the 
 character of God . . 247 
 
 new departure in 34 
 
 " the Continuity of ' . 24 
 
 the " cruelty " of . .291 
 
 the dramatic complex- 
 ity of . . . .6 
 New Birth, the . . . 369 
 
 Omnipotence, the s e 1 f- 
 limitations of . . . 246 
 
 Organic to Sentient, 
 from . . . .28 
 
 Orr's "The Christian View 
 of God and of the World " 
 qtioted . . . 37. 275 
 
 Ottley's "Aspects of the 
 Old Testament " quoted . 232 
 
 Pain and suffering a part 
 of God's plan . . -145 
 
 Palmer's, E. Reeves, "The 
 Development of Revela- 
 tion " quoted . . -97 
 30 
 
466 
 
 Index 
 
 Page 
 
 Pantheism, Professors Flint 
 and Orr on . . -36 
 
 Parables of the "talents," 
 " pounds," and •• pennies " 438 
 
 Parallelism of the First 
 Chapter of Genesis . . 87 
 
 Parasitism in Nature and its 
 analogies in the moral life 210 
 
 Parker, Theodore, on Christ 314 
 
 Parthenogenesis . . . 262 
 
 Payne's '' Lectures on Origi- 
 nal Sin " ^«^/^^ . . 198 
 
 Pember's, G. H., "Earth's 
 Earliest Ages " ^?/<?/^^ . 81 
 
 Pfleiderer's, Dr., " Philo- 
 sophy and Development 
 of Religion " quoted . 252 
 
 Physical pain and moral evil 
 not identical . . . 145 
 
 " Pillars of the Faith " quoted 
 
 315. 323 
 Plants, degeneration of .152 
 Powell's " Our Heredity 
 
 from God " quoted 30, 205, 212 
 Preaching, Ruskin on . .219 
 Probation after Death . 409 
 
 Progress, the law of . .21 
 Prophets, the teaching of 
 
 the 126 
 
 Psychology, experimental . 56 
 Punishment and rewards in 
 
 the future life . . . 437 
 
 Racial solidarity . .199 
 Rational power, the posses- 
 sion of . . . ,61 
 Redemption the f u n d a - 
 mental idea of the Bible . 137 
 
 the promise of . .96 
 
 must come through the 
 
 descent of God to Man . 251 
 
 Page 
 
 Religion and ethics, the 
 distinction between . . 65 
 
 Religious beliefs, the changes 
 in 66 
 
 Evolution of Man, the 
 
 158, 396 
 
 instinct evolved in the 
 
 individual . .67 
 
 systems of the Orient 44& 
 
 Renan's testimony to 
 Christ .... 313 
 
 "Resident Forces," Evolu- 
 tion by . . . .21 
 
 Resurrection Body of Our 
 Lord .... 342 
 
 of the body, the . . 358 
 
 the, a new evolution- 
 ary departure . . . 360 
 
 the seal of Divine 
 
 acceptance, the . . 346 
 
 spiritual teaching 
 
 of the . . . . 377 
 
 Retribution in the future 
 state .... 433 
 
 Revelation, a primitive . 1 58 
 
 of God to Man, the 
 
 need for a . . . 227 
 
 the limits of, why so 
 
 narrow .... 443 
 
 Reversion to type . 204, 213 
 
 Rewards and punishments 
 in the future life . . 437 
 
 Ribot's " Heredity " . .194 
 
 Richter on the influence of 
 Christ . . . .314 
 
 Romanes' " Mental Evolu- 
 tion in Man " quoted . 57 
 
 Prof., on Natural Selec- 
 tion 41 
 
 on the Virgin 
 
 Birth .... 262 
 
Index 
 
 467 
 
 Page 
 
 Romans vii. and viii. and 
 
 Evolution . .189 
 
 Ruskin on preaching . .219 
 Ruskin's " Seven Lamps of 
 Architecture " quoted . 244 
 
 Sacculina, the . . .215 
 
 Sacrifice, the Divine, in the 
 Incarnation . . . 286 
 
 the Levitical laws of 345 
 
 St. Luke's account of the 
 Incarnation . . . 255 
 
 St. Matthew's account of the 
 Incarnation . . .255 
 
 St. Paul's knowledge of the 
 Virgin Birth . . .261 
 
 teaching concern- 
 ing death . 169, 175, 179 
 
 theory of sin . 132 
 
 Salmond's " Christian Doc- 
 trine and Immortality " 
 quoted . . 176, 416, 439 
 
 Salvation, the condition of . 418 
 
 Schiller on the holiness of 
 Christ . . . .314 
 
 Schiller's, Prof. F. C. S., 
 " Darwinism and Design" 
 quoted . . . .18 
 
 Schleiermacheronthe Virgin 
 Birth of Christ . 255, 265 
 
 Schultz's "Old Testament 
 Theology " quoted 104, 
 
 106, 118 
 
 Science and Revelation . 85 
 
 the principles of, tri- 
 umphant . . . .75 
 
 throws no light on 
 
 beginnings . . . 238 
 
 Self-consciousness, the psy- 
 chological significance of 59 
 
 Self-limitations of God . 244 
 
 Pas:e 
 
 Self-will the root of sin . 214 
 
 "Sensory and Rational Dis- 
 crimination" . . .60 
 Sentient, from the, to the 
 
 self-conscious . . .32 
 Shelley's '* Witch of Atlas " 373 
 Sin, Natural History of 186-218 
 
 analogies of, drawn 
 
 from organic world . 201-218 
 
 — a theological term 
 
 — a universal fact . 
 
 — an intruder in the uni- 
 verse . . . 121, 
 
 — began with Man . 
 
 — Christ the only hope of 
 release from . 
 
 148 
 135 
 
 226 
 201 
 
 . 226 
 Christ's conception of 128 
 
 227 
 130 
 217 
 146 
 
 135 
 
 Divine visitations on . 
 
 gradations in 
 
 Hebrew terms for 122, 
 
 Original . .135, 
 
 St. Paul's theory of 
 
 132, 
 
 the Biblical doctrine 
 
 of 117 
 
 the effects of . 297, 425 
 
 the first . . 143, 188 
 
 the human conscious- 
 ness of . . . . 297 
 
 the mystery of . .187 
 
 the origin of . .189 
 
 the penalties of . 121, 174 
 
 the relation between 
 
 death and . . .169 
 
 the teaching of the 
 
 Epistles concerning . .132 
 
 the teaching of the 
 
 Gospels concerning . . 127 
 
 the teaching of the 
 
 Prophets concerning . 126 
 Sinlessness of Christ, the . 265 
 
468 
 
 Index 
 
 Page 
 
 Smyth's, Dr. Newman, "The 
 Place of Death in Evolu- 
 tion " . 172, 182, 183, 
 Social aspects of the In- 
 carnation 
 
 Evolution . . 63, 
 
 instincts of Man reahsed 
 
 Sodom and Gomorrah, the 
 
 legend of . 
 Some final problems . 
 Soul, the Platonic view of 
 
 the 
 
 Space, Man's conception of, 
 enlarged .... 
 Special Revelation, Mr. 
 Spencer on . . . 
 Spectator, the, quoted . 
 Spencer's, Mr Herbert, hy- 
 pothesis of development . 
 
 on a Primal 
 
 Mystery .... 
 Spirit, the life of the . 
 Spiritual life, the basis of . 
 Spirituality a mark of the 
 
 true Church 
 
 "Spontaneity, the law of" 
 
 " Spontaneous Generation " 
 
 Stephen's, Mr. Leslie, 
 
 " Social Rights and Duties " 
 
 quoted .... 
 
 Strauss on the character of 
 
 Christ .... 
 
 Struggle for existence, the 
 
 41. 
 a condition 
 
 of growth. 
 
 for the life of others . 
 
 Suffering for others 
 
 the mystery of . 
 
 Supernatural, the, in the 
 
 Old Testament histories . 233 
 
 357 
 
 281 
 
 389 
 53 
 
 228 
 442 
 
 31 
 
 33 
 
 23 
 
 40 
 
 22 
 368 
 365 
 
 370 
 
 19 
 26 
 
 195 
 
 313 
 
 294 
 
 210 
 292 
 290 
 248 
 
 Page 
 
 Survival of the fittest, the 
 
 41, 248, 290 
 the spiritual 115 
 
 Telepathy, an argument 
 
 for a future life . .353 
 Temptation, the first 120, 142, 188 
 Theism and Evolution . 24 
 
 Tools, the discovery of -52 
 Tower of Babel, the story 
 
 of the . . .112 
 Tulloch's "The Christian 
 Doctrine of Sin " quoted 
 9, 107, 121, 122, 179, 198, 225 
 " Movements of Re- 
 ligious Thought" quoted 149 
 Tyndall's " Uses and Limits 
 of the Scientific Imagina- 
 tion " quoted . . .163 
 Typology of the Old Testa- 
 ment .... 325 
 
 Unity of the Spirit, the . 371 
 Universalism a dim hope . 425 
 Universe, the future of the . 401 
 
 "Variation" . . .17 
 Verbal inspiration a bene- 
 ficent illusion . . .80 
 Vicarious Sacrifice, the prin- 
 ciple of . . . . 290 
 
 Wallace's " Darwinism " 
 quoted . . 25, 28, 31, 
 32, 57, 182, 249 
 
 " Natural Selection " 
 
 quoted . . . 54, 143 
 Wedgwood's, Julia, " The 
 Message of Israel " quoted 
 106, no, 112, 113, 214, 229 
 
Index 
 
 469 
 
 Page 
 
 Weismann's •' Essays on 
 Heredity " quoted . 186, 384 
 
 Welldon's "The Hope of 
 Immortality " quoted -357 
 
 Wellhausen's "Sketch of the 
 History of the People of 
 Israel " quoted . . , 234 
 
 Westcott's "The Gospel of 
 the Resmxection" quoted 
 
 336, 377 
 
 * Westminster Confession, 
 The," on guilt and sin . 198 
 
 Page 
 
 Whale, the, a signal instance 
 
 of degeneration . .154 
 Will, the human . . . 146 
 
 the seat of moral ffvil, 
 
 the 225 
 
 Wilson's •• The Cell in De- 
 velopment and Inherit- 
 ance " quoted . . .27 
 Work a condition of growth 210 
 
 ZoROASTRiANisM, modern- 
 ised 145 
 
 Printed by Hazelly Watson, &» Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, 
 
Some New Books 
 
 Published by Mr. James Bowdea 
 with Portraits of the Authors . 
 together with ....... 
 
 other matter of interest . . . 
 
 to 
 
 every Lover of Books. . . . 
 
For the convenience or the public a. s:encral and 
 reliable description, indica-ting: the class of reader 
 By wnom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be -found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 'T'HE Rev. R. E. Welsh was born at Cum- 
 nock, in Ayrshire, in 1857, and came of 
 Covenanting stock. His early education was 
 begun at Ayr Academy, and in 1872 he became a 
 student at Glasgow University, where he took the 
 first place in Mathematics and his M.A. drgree. 
 Then he was transferred to the United Presby- 
 terian Theological College at Edinburgh, where 
 he studied under Principal Cairns and Professor 
 John Ker. In 1880 he became a missionary, and 
 went to Japan, but returned owing to failure of 
 health, and became English Presbyterian Minister 
 at Harrogate, and afterwards at Brondesbury (at 
 each of which places he built a new church). 
 Seven years ago he spent six months in South 
 Africa, in search of health. 
 
 REV. R. E. WELSH, M.A. 
 
 A young man's book — 
 not for the " namby- 
 pamby " but for the 
 manly ^ thoughtful 
 young fellows who 
 read and think. Mr. 
 Welsh faces the ques- 
 tions which confront 
 every youug man, 
 sooner or later, but 
 writes always with 
 reserve and delicacy. 
 A book which cari 
 offend none, yet may 
 and should be the 
 means of directing the 
 feet of young men 
 aright. 
 
 Crown 8vo, Buckram, 
 
 gilt, gilt top, 
 
 GOD'S 3/6 
 GENTLEMEN. 
 
 By Rev. R. E. WEL5H, M.A., 
 
 . . A uthor of . . 
 "In Relief of Doubt," " The People and the Priest." 
 
 The Literary World says : " Essays of such 
 brilliance and earnestness that it would be diffl- 
 cuit to say anything in their praise that would 
 be exaggeration." 
 
 British Weekly : " An author who (like Mr. Welsh) 
 brings a young man face to face v^uth life, weighs 
 good and evil before him in the balance, has done 
 a work which will not be forgotten." 
 
 Independent : "To read it is to recognise the genius 
 that lies behind it. Every young man should be 
 persuaded, commanded, or bribed into reading it." 
 
Fov iho eonvenienco of the public a greneral and 
 reliable description, indicating- the class of reader 
 by wnom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 HTHE Rev. F. B. Meyer. B.A., was born 
 in 1847, and educated at Brighton 
 College and Regent's Park Baptist College. 
 He entered the Baptist ministry in 1870 as 
 Assistant Minister to the Rev. C. M. Birrell, 
 of Liverpool, and came to London in 1888 
 as Pastor of Regent's Park Chapel. In 1892 
 he succeeded the Rev. Newman Hall at 
 Christ Church, Westminster, one of the 
 finest Nonconformist Churches in London, 
 
 REV. F. B. MeVER. 
 
 It is recorded of a certain literary 
 lady that she went into a bookseller's 
 shop where she was personally un- 
 known to make some purchases. When 
 the time came to pay she said that she 
 wished to open an account, and was 
 very naturally asked who was her 
 reference. "The World," she replied 
 grandiloquently, being incensed that her 
 name was not immediately recognised. 
 
 Of the Rev. F. B. Meyer it might 
 without exaggeration be said that his 
 public is composed of Christian people 
 of the English-speaking world. In 
 England, America, Canada, Australia, 
 his navie is almost equally honoured by 
 all denominations, for he has aimed at 
 preachiyig the pure Christianity of the 
 New Testament rather than to mix up 
 in the wordy warfare between the sects. 
 His contention is that it is not so much 
 Church-going Christiatiity that the 
 ■world wants, as the Christianising of 
 our daily life, and that when professing 
 Christians do not hesitate to test every 
 act of their business and every-day life 
 by the touchstone of Christ's teaching, 
 the coming of God's kingdom on earth 
 is not far off. His book is just what 
 its title proclaims it to be — a helpful, 
 heartening antidote against the trials, 
 temptations, and worries of modern 
 work-a-day life. 
 
 SECOND 
 
 Handsomely bound in cloth, 
 with gold lettering and 
 EDITION. gilt top, with a beautiful O//^ 
 Photogravure Portrait, ■^ / " 
 
 WQRK-A-DAY 
 SERMONS. 
 
 By the Rev. F. B. MEYER. 
 
 The Christian World says : " We have 
 never before met Mr, Meyer in such an 
 elegant setting," 
 
 The Liverpool Mercury says: "If ever 
 a thoroughly practical and sensible book 
 of sermons was published, it is certainly 
 the volume before us. It is full of homely 
 counsel, enforced by the highest con- 
 siderations, which, if followed, would 
 make the years 'a golden stairway 
 up to God. " 
 
 The Sun says:"Cheery,manly, homely. We 
 cordially wish the little volume a very wide 
 circulation. It is one of those unpreten- 
 tious little productions which deserve a 
 place on the favourite bookshelf ready to 
 hand for the odd ten minutes busy people 
 snatch from the world," 
 
 The Free Churchman says: "A book 
 which no possessor of the author's other 
 volumes should miss." 
 
 Sunday School Chronicle: "Ex- 
 cellent as all his devotional books are, our 
 opinion is that these Sermons have 
 qualities of popularity and perman- 
 ence which all the others do not 
 possess. . . , Certain to bless and cheer 
 the numerous homes into which they had 
 an entrance." 
 
For the convenience of the public a. greneral and 
 reliable description, Indicating: the class of reader 
 by wnom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 DR. FRANCIS E. CLARK. 
 
 rjR. Francis Edward Symmes— for Dr. Clark's 
 ^ father was Charles Carey Symmes — is a New 
 Englander, and was born on Sept. 12th, 1851. 
 His father died of cholera in 1854, and his mother 
 survived her husband only five years. The orphan 
 boy was adopted by his uncle, the Rev. E. W. 
 Clark ; and by the wish of his adopted father and 
 mother changed his name to Clark. He gradua- 
 ted with honours at Dartmouth College and 
 studied for three years at Andover, going thence 
 to his first pastorate at the Willeston Congre- 
 gational Church, Portland, Maine. Here, on 
 Feb. 2nd, 1881, was held the first meeting of the 
 Society which is now known all over the world as 
 The Christian Endeavour Society. Instead of a 
 single Society there are over 55,000, and the two- 
 score members have multiplied to 100,000 times 
 two-score. 
 
 The journey round the 
 world which this book 
 describes was tinder- 
 taken chiefly in the 
 interest of the great 
 Christian Endeavour 
 Movement, of which 
 the author is the Foun- 
 der and President. 
 Such a work is natural- 
 ly of pre-eminent im- 
 portance to Christian 
 Endeavourers, Sunday 
 School Teachers, and 
 Religious Workers 
 generally. Dr. Clark 
 visited many interest- 
 ing countries, and in- 
 terviewed many celebri- 
 ties, and as he writes 
 picturesquely and pi- 
 quantly his book 
 affords pleasant and 
 entertaining reading, 
 quite apart from its 
 religious aspect. 
 
 Handsomely bound 
 in new and attractive 
 style, with Illustra- 
 tions, 
 
 A Christian 
 
 3/6 
 
 Endeavourer^s 
 
 Journey 
 
 in Lands Afar. 
 
 . . BY . . 
 
 Rev. F. E. CLARK, D.D., 
 
 Founder and President of the World's Christian Endeavour 
 Society. 
 
 Sunday School Chronicle : "A series of won- 
 derfully YlYid pictures which give astonishingly 
 comprehensive glimpses of the countries and 
 peoples embraced in the tour." 
 
 Christian World : " Sure to be welcomed by 
 thousands who revere the author. . . The reader 
 feels that he is really sharing the writer's 
 experience. There is not a dull line in the book." 
 
 Christian Endeavour: "Altogether delightful. 
 A most winsome volume in a most attractive 
 setting.'" 
 
For the convenience o-f the public a greneral and 
 reliable description, indicating: the class 0"f reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be -found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 The Frontispiece to »he book is a 
 
 beautiful Photogravure of Thor- 
 
 waldsen's statue of our Lord. 
 
 TWIRS. Clark is the wife of Dr. Francis 
 Clark, the Founder of the great Chris- 
 tian Endeavour Movement. If Dr. Clark 
 may be called the Father of Christian En- 
 deavour, his wife is scarcely less deserving 
 of being called its Mother, for no-one has 
 worked more strenuously in its behalf than 
 Mrs. Clark. She, as her husband puts it, 
 " rocked the cradle of the first Christian 
 Endeavour Society," and for seventeen years 
 she has scarcely missed one of the weekly 
 meetings. 
 
 Another hook with a 
 special & direct interest 
 for the religious public, 
 and particularly for 
 Christian Endeavour- 
 ers. Mrs. Clark, the 
 wife of the President 
 and Founder of the 
 Christian Endeavour 
 Movement, has, with 
 her husband's invalu- 
 able assistance, com- 
 piled a selection of the 
 most beautiful and 
 helpful thoughts that 
 bear upon the higher 
 life. An ideal gift book 
 for religious workers. 
 
 ^%J, 
 
 J% 
 
 Beautifully produced in cloth, 
 
 with gold lettering and gilt 2/0 
 
 top, with Frontispiece . . . 
 
 A DAILY ME55AQE 
 FOR CHRISTIAN 
 ENDEAVOURERS. 
 
 By Mrs. F. E. CLARK. 
 
 Christian Leader : « By all means get it. The 
 
 passages selected will be specially valued by those 
 who have taken Paul's great word for their life motto : 
 ' Here is daily spiritual food, manna for the hungry 
 soul, and honey from the rock.' It is a book for the 
 quiet hour, the prayer meeting, and the birthday." 
 
 Sunday School Chronicle: "We predict that it 
 will be among the most sought after of gifts. 
 Nothing so dainty, alike in its format, printing, and 
 binding, has come into our hands for many a day. 
 The book is the fruit of wide reading and a culti- 
 vated mind." 
 
 Dundee Advertiser: "Lovely gems of prose and 
 poetry." 
 
 Black and White : " Mrs. Clark has done really well 
 in her compilation. She has, moreover, done a ^ood 
 action to the struggling preacher, for she has provided 
 him with a wonderful mine in which to burrow." 
 
For the convenience of .the public a g^eneral and 
 reliable description, indicating the class of reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 •pace Immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 r)R. Andrew Wilson's name is everywhere 
 known as a scientific lecturer and writer. 
 He was born in Edinburgh, Sept. 30th, 1S52, 
 and educated at Edinburgh University and 
 Medical School. He was at one time editor 
 of Health, and is the writer of a weekly 
 scientific causerie in the Illustrated London 
 News. 
 
 DR. ANDREW WILSON. 
 
 Photo by Mr. Geo. Shaw, Edinburgh. 
 
 To read only and always for mere 
 amusement is most injurious to the 
 faculties, yet thousands scarcely ever 
 think of settling down to anything 
 more serious than a newspaper or a 
 journal of stories and short para- 
 graphs. But the mind no less than 
 the body requires nourishment, and 
 the brain cannot exist for long in a 
 healthy state upon a diet of mental 
 scraps, any more than the body can 
 continue healthy upon a diet of sweet- 
 meats. It is no exaggeration to say 
 that thousands have so accustomed 
 themselves to "light reading" that 
 they cannot concentrate their mental 
 faculties. That science is heavy read- 
 ing is quite a fiction. Dr. Andrew 
 Wilson can write about the marvels of 
 the physical world and of animal and 
 human life in a way which renders his 
 hooks more absorbing than any novel. 
 He can entertain and amuse, and at the 
 same time instruct, and readers who have 
 once stepped with him into the wonderful 
 world he opens up, will not be content 
 thereafter to spend their time in un- 
 profitable chatter about the diet or dress 
 of celebrities. This scholarly and in- 
 structive but delightful book may be 
 described as " Science for the Million." 
 For an intelligent boy it will prove a 
 treasure house of entertainment. 
 
 Very prettily and 
 tastefully produced, 
 cloth binding, an- 
 tique paper, gilt top. 
 
 THE 
 
 2/6 
 
 LIGHT SIDE 
 
 OF . . 
 
 SCIENCE. 
 
 . . BY . . 
 
 Dr. ANDREW WILSON. 
 
 The Sketch : " He has the gift of investing 
 the least attractive topic witli life 
 and interest, thanlvs to the lightness of 
 his touch." 
 
 Pall Mall Gazette: "Recalls the 
 cliarming gift which Huxley had of 
 investing with humorous and general 
 interest the most abstruse problems of 
 physiology." 
 
 North British Daily Mail : "We 
 
 doubt if there is a lecturer on things 
 scientific who can be more instructive, 
 more accurate, and at tlie same time 
 more entertaining than the author of 
 this delightfully-written volume." 
 
For the convenience of the public a. grenera,! and 
 reliable description, indicating: the class of reader 
 toy whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 •pace immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MR. CLEMENT SHORTER. 
 
 TWTR. Clement Shorter is of East Anglian 
 '■*■ parentage, though he was born in London. 
 He entered the Civil Service in 1877, but occupied 
 his leisure by contributing critical articles to the 
 literary reviews and magazines. These at once 
 attracted the attention of those who were on 
 the look out for new talent, with the result that 
 Sir William Ingram offered Mr. Shorter the 
 editorship of The Illustrated London News, 
 which he accepted, and carried on for several 
 years with brilliant success. Equal success at- 
 tended his connection with the Sketch, of which 
 he was the first editor, and in the starting of 
 which he was associated with Sir William 
 Ingram. Mr. Shorter is a literary critic of dis- 
 tinction, as well as an editor and journalist. His 
 book on Charlotte Bronte and her Circle has 
 probably said the last word on that great novelist. 
 Though still a young man, he has given years 
 of his life to the careful study of Victorian 
 literature, and is peculiarly qualified to write 
 with authority upon that subject. 
 
 As a text book for 
 schools, and as a hand- 
 book for the use of the 
 millions of busy men 
 and women who have 
 no time to study the 
 critical journals, but 
 want to be guided in 
 their reading, this 
 work will prove in- 
 valuable. Most of all, 
 perhaps, it appeals to 
 young men and women 
 who though engaged 
 in business pursuits 
 wish to keep an intelli- 
 gent interest in the 
 great world of books. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 VICTORIAN 
 LITERATURE, 
 
 Crown 8vo, 
 cloth gilt, 
 gilt top, 
 
 2/6 
 
 SIXTY YEARS OF . . 
 BOOKS AND BOOKMEN. 
 
 By CLEMENT K. SHORTER. 
 
 The Times says: "The cleverest retrospect of the 
 literature of the reign that we have seen." 
 
 Truth says: "Mr. Shorter's ' Victorian Literature' is 
 a model of the art of putting the greatest 
 number of things in the least possible space, 
 in the neatest possible way, and in the handiest 
 possible order. It will take a permanent place as 
 the most clear, succinct, well-written, and 
 judicial of handbooks of literary reference. " 
 
 The British Weekly says: "A marvel of com- 
 pression. Even on the subject where he is known 
 to be a master, Mr. Shorter has not written a super- 
 fluous line. The book is full of sound criticism and 
 trustworthy information, conveyed in a clear and 
 pleasing style, with a full sense of proportion and 
 with almost invariable accuracy. It has no rival 
 in its own field, and it deserves the most cordial 
 commendation." 
 
For tho convenience of the public a g^eneral and 
 reliable description, indicating: the class of reader 
 by wnom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MR. W, OLARK RUSSELL. 
 
 MR. W. Clark Russell is, appropriately enough, 
 the son of the famous Mr. Henry Russell, the 
 author of "A Life on the Ocean Wave," "Far, far 
 Across the Sea," etc. He was born in New York in 
 1844, his mother being a connection of the poet 
 Wordsworth, whose sonnet 
 
 " Two voices are there : One is of the Sea, 
 One of the mountainB," 
 is known wherever the English language is spoken. 
 The sea was Mr. Russell's domain by literary inheri- 
 tance, but not content with that he shipped at the age 
 of thirteen as a midshipman, voyaging to India, Aus- 
 tralia, and China. In 1874 be published his first 
 nautical novel, John Holdsworth, Chief Mate, which 
 was followed by The Wreck of the" Grosvenor." He 
 is now admittedly the chief of all living nautical 
 novelists. Of late years Mr. Clark Russell's health 
 has not been good, but the enforced seclusion has 
 fortunately resulted in his being able to devote him- 
 self more ardently than ever to his literary work. 
 
 Another book with several pub- 
 lics. To the public that loves 
 to read about the sea and sea- 
 fighting, what could be more 
 interesting than these pictures 
 from the life of our greatest sea 
 commander, told by our greatest 
 nautical novelist ? Then to those 
 who take pride in the story of 
 England's prowess, to all who 
 seek to encourage the Imperial 
 spirit, where can better reading 
 be found than in the life of this 
 great Englishman ? Lastly, 
 for boys — as school prizes or 
 presents — this superbly bound, 
 beautifully produced and illus- 
 trated book would be hard to 
 beat. So at least thinks Lord 
 Charles Beresford who 
 says: "I think it a splendid 
 boys' book. The advantage of 
 placing Nelson's life and work 
 before the great mass of his 
 countrymen (to whom standard 
 works have been forbidden 
 ground on account of their price) 
 cannot be over-rated. Such 
 books as Mr. Clark Russell's 
 may help to preserve in the 
 coming generation that spirit of 
 patriotism and self-sacrifice 
 which made us a great people 
 and built up the Empire." 
 
 PICTURES 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 Crown 8vo, 
 handsomely 
 bound, well 
 illustrated, 
 
 3/6 
 
 LIFE OF NELSON, 
 
 By W. CLARK RUSSELL. 
 
 The Bookman says: "He will be a lucky boy 
 who becomes possessed of this book, thougn it is 
 not written especially for boys." 
 
 The Daily Mail says: "Glowing and vigorous, 
 and so highly coloured with personal matter as to 
 have all the vivid interest of a novel." 
 
 The Manchester Courier says: "We doubt 
 if any more attractive record of the brilliant 
 services of this intrepid and undaunted maker of 
 history has been published than this volume." 
 
 Manchester Guardian : "When he comes to 
 describe a square-rigged 'seventy-four' beating 
 out in a gale from a lee shore, or advancing 
 solemnly over the dark water, Mr. Clark Russell 
 is unsurpassable." 
 
 Glasgow Daily Mail : " Makes Nelson actually 
 live in the imagination of the reader." 
 
 Leeds Mercury: "Nothing could be better 
 
 than Mr. Clark Russell's artistic vignettes. He 
 conjures up one glorious scene after another 
 
 in Nelson's strenuous and dramatic career." 
 
For the convenience of the public a. g^enera.1 and 
 reliable description, indicating the class of reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MRS. FRED. REYNOLDS. 
 
 JuTRS. Fred. Reynolds is the daughter of 
 the late Sidney R. Percy (landscape 
 painter), and has herself exhibited pictures 
 in the Royal Academy and other Exhibi- 
 tions. She was born in Surrey, but her 
 early childhood was passed in the lovely 
 vale of Aylesbury. She took to literature 
 (though at first ambitious to follow her 
 father's profession) at the advice of her 
 husband. Mrs. Reynolds, though a member 
 of the Church of England, was educated at 
 a Friends' (Quakers') School. 
 
 Picture to yourself a 
 child who could des- 
 cribe child-life, child- 
 joys, and child-sorrow, 
 just as they strike a 
 child, and yet have all 
 the gift of expression 
 and command of lan- 
 guage which only comes 
 when childhood is gone 
 — and you have this 
 book. 
 
 To most of the men 
 and ivomen who read 
 these pages, it will seem 
 as if they had fallen 
 asleep, and dreamt 
 themselves back into 
 their child - days, so 
 fresh and naive are 
 the pictures in '■^ An 
 Idyll of the Dawn.'' 
 Little folks to whom 
 it is read will laugh 
 joyously at the comical 
 doings and quaint ad- 
 ventures of the wee 
 ones of whom it tells. 
 
 -05 
 
 An Idyll 
 
 OF 
 
 Bound in 
 cloth, with 
 frontispiece, 
 
 3/6 
 
 THE Dawn, 
 
 By Mrs. FRED. REYNOLDS. 
 
 The Contemporary Review (article by Professor 
 Sully) : "One of the most authentic records of child- 
 hood's sayings and doings that I have ever met in 
 fiction." 
 
 Christian World: "Written in the most under- 
 standing and delightful way. There is a charm about 
 the stories that is irresistible. Takes us back in 
 smiles and tears to the almost forgotten sunny days 
 of our own childhood." 
 
 Vanity Fair: "Mrs. Reynolds knows how to steal 
 into our hearts with her vivid, yet perfectly natural 
 glimpses into a child's mind." 
 
 Lloyd's News : " She tells of childish joys and 
 sorrows in exquisite prose ; every now and then a 
 quaint phrase sparkling out and putting, with a 
 master-touch, some episode of every day life before 
 us. A book with more real interest than half the 
 novels published of late." 
 
For the convenience o-F the public a. general and 
 reliable description, indicatingr the class o-f reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MRS. QieilGE DE HORNE VAIZEY. 
 
 TWTRS. George de Horne Vaizey is better 
 known to the public as "Jessie Mansergh," 
 under which name she has contributed short 
 stories to many well-known magazines. She 
 began her hterary efforts at the age of ten, when 
 she purchased some old copybooks and wrote a 
 serial story of astounding length, which was read 
 aloud at intervals to a school-room audience. 
 I>ater on a chance story won a prize in an 
 American competition, and this encouragement 
 led to more serious and sustained effort. Mrs. 
 Vaizey confesses to a great love and sympathy 
 for girls in their teens, for whose benefit she haj 
 written three stories. 
 
 " The delicate charm of ' A Rose 
 Coloured Thread ' is as impossible 
 to evade as it is difficult to des- 
 cribe," writes one of Mrs. Vaizey's 
 critics, and this same word 
 "charm" reappears again and 
 again in the many flattering re- 
 views which the work has received. 
 The reader who is looking for 
 sensational "situations," high 
 colouring and "scenic effects," will 
 put down the book dissatisfied; 
 but everyone who is interested in 
 the tragedies which men and 
 women bring upon themselves by 
 their own actions, — the tragedies 
 which are silent and secret and in 
 which no " stage villain " plays a 
 part, will find "A Rose Coloured 
 Thread " entrancing. " Charm " 
 pervades the book from the outset 
 to the finish— the charm of a grace- 
 ful literary style, the charm of 
 subtle insight into htiman nature, 
 the charm of delicacy, tenderness, 
 and fine feeling. Its most enthusi- 
 astic admirers will probably be 
 found among girls and young 
 women, but readers of both sexes 
 who can appreciate good work and 
 graceful writing will thoroughly 
 enjoy these deligh tfid pages. Those 
 who know Cairo and the Mediter- 
 ranean will appreciate the fidelity 
 and beaiity of the local colouring. 
 
 A ROSE 
 
 Attractivel) 
 bound in 
 cloth, gilt, 
 
 COLOURED 
 THREAD, 
 
 3/6 
 
 By JESSIE MANSERQH. 
 
 (Mrs. G. de Horne Vaizev.) 
 
 The World : " A poignant study of character, 
 displaying remarkable ability. While it 
 barely escapes the charge of cruelty, so un- 
 mented and remorseless is the fate of the girl, 
 it exacts praise for strength and delicacy in 
 the development of that fate without a touch of 
 melodrama. . . . There is not a sentence too 
 much; nothing forced, yet a constant sense 
 of compassion kept alive. A work of art, in 
 short." 
 
 Bookseller : " Handled with marvellous 
 skill, insight and tenderness." 
 
 Christian World: "Inexpressibly tender 
 and pathetic." 
 
 Scotsman: "Pulsating with life and truth." 
 
 Dundee Advertiser: "A really notable 
 
 story, memorable for its truth, its pathos, and 
 
 its fine moral atmosphere." 
 
For the convenience of the public a general and 
 reliable description, indicating: the class o-f reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 «pace immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MR. JOSEPH HO0.KINa 
 
 Will be thoroughly 
 enjoyed by every lover 
 of romance, especially 
 by those who look for 
 a strong love interest, 
 vividly drawn and 
 constantly changing 
 scenes and exciting 
 ■adventures in every 
 chapter. Like Steven- 
 son's *' Treasure Is- 
 land" it is sure to 
 find favour with boys 
 as well as with men 
 and wofnen. It is pure 
 and manly in tone^ 
 beautifully produced^ 
 and well adapted for 
 school prizes. Being 
 a Cornish story it 
 will be appreciated by 
 Cornishmen and Cor- 
 nishwomen. 
 
 TWTR. Joseph Hocking was born at St. Stephen's, 
 Cornwall, was educated at Owen's College, 
 Manchester, and began life as a land surveyor. 
 In 1884 he entered the Nonconformist Ministry, 
 and after travelling extensively in the East, and 
 visiting the Holy Land, he returned to England 
 and published his first book. All his earlier 
 work was strenuously religious in tone, and very 
 evidently written with a purpose ; but his later 
 books may be described as the Romance of 
 Adventure. Mr. Hocking is a brilliant and 
 forcible preacher, and one of the most hard- 
 working of ministers, his influence upon 
 thoughtful young men being very great. 
 
 ELEVENTH THOUSAN3. 
 
 Cheaper edition, . . 
 crown 8vo. , cloth 
 
 MISTRESS f h!"-''"^'^ "" 
 
 TONWSEND. 
 
 NANCY 
 
 3/6 
 
 MOLESWORTH. 
 
 By JOSEPH HOCKING, 
 
 Author of ''The Birthright:' 
 "■And Shall Trelawney Die?" 
 
 The Bookman says: " A capital historical romance. 
 There is a swing and a dash in it that no reader 
 can withstand. Mr. Weyman has given us no 
 more manly or daring hero than Roger Trevanion, 
 no more attractive or charming heroine than Nancy 
 Molesworth." 
 
 Daily Mail : " Vigour, force, and absorbing interest, in 
 addition to a skilfully contrived and interest-gripping 
 plot. . . . Every chapter contains a dramatic 
 scene. It is all vital, sharp, and exhilarating." 
 
 Daily Graphic: "Too engrossing to relinquish for 
 a moment when once begun." 
 
 British Weekly : " From beginning to end his story 
 is one of absorbing, breathless interest, and the 
 reader who is unable to finish the book at a sitting 
 has our sincere sympathy. It would, we think, be 
 very difficult to imagine a finer hero than Roger 
 Trevanion, and more lovely, more fascinating herolDe 
 than Nancy Molesworth." 
 
For the convenience of the public a. general and 
 reliable description, indicatin,g^ the class o-f reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, >vill be found in the 
 apace immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 C. LIVINQSTON PRE8C0TT. 
 
 E Livingston Prescott is the daughter of a Chan- 
 • eery barrister of some reputation. Her mother 
 was the daughter of Colonel Spicer, 2nd Life Guards 
 and Queen's Bays, who subsequently held an appoint- 
 ment in Chelsea Hospital. She had five great-uncles, 
 officers in different regiments (mostly cavalry) on her 
 mother's side of the family, and another uncle, on her 
 father's side, Major Livingston, lost his arm and was 
 decorated for distinguished service. Though she has 
 always written for her own amusement since she was 
 seven years old, she never entered the literary field in 
 earnest till 1895, when, after a tolerably varied experi- 
 ence of men and things, sick and well, bad and good, 
 she found herself on her couch for the remainder of 
 her days. Then, quite as a stranger, she asked the 
 advice of a distinguished novelist about a small piece 
 of work which she submitted to him, and on his 
 encouragement sent out her first book, which was 
 accepted by the first publisher to whom it was offered. 
 She keeps in touch with soldiers of all ranks, and 
 occasionally contributes to regimental magazines. 
 Perhaps her own, now lifelong, imprisonment first im- 
 pelled her to become the champion of prisoners. She 
 IS president of three football and two cricket teams, 
 one of which at present heads the local league. 
 
 A very unusual book. 
 So intensely pathetic 
 and beautiful is the 
 story that few readers 
 will be able to read it 
 unmoved. It is a tale 
 of prison life written 
 evidently by an author 
 who has studied the 
 whole question of 
 prison reform closely, 
 and who feels that the 
 brutalising influence 
 of our present prison 
 system is often respon- 
 sible for turning a 
 chance law - breaker 
 into a hardened and 
 habitual criminal. 
 Appeals to all social 
 workers, but apart 
 from this side of the 
 case, the simple pathos 
 and beauty of the story 
 will charm the general 
 reader, and especially 
 the reader who loves 
 children. 
 
 A handsome volume 
 beautifully bound in 
 cloth, gilt lettering 
 and gilt edge, 
 
 A SMALL> 2/6 
 SMALL CHILD. 
 
 BY 
 
 E. LIVINGSTON PRESCOTT. 
 
 Westminster Budget (in an article devoted to the 
 book) : " I don't know when I have read anything so 
 touching and so perfectly natural." 
 
 Glasgrow Daily Mail: " We dare assert that no-one 
 will read the story with dry eyes, so deep and genuin* 
 are the emotions aroused. Nothing could exceed the 
 combined power and beauty of the description." 
 
 Athenaeum : " Really touching." 
 
 Bookman : " Very beautiful and touching." 
 
 Queen : "The story of this wee atom of humanity Is 
 full of the deepest pathos." 
 
For the convenience of the public a. g^enera.! and 
 reliable description, indicating: the class of reader 
 by vtfhom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 THE REV, WM. J. DAWSON. 
 
 'T'HE Rev. W. J. Dawson was born in 1854, 
 at Towcester, and is the second son of a 
 Wesleyan minister. He entered the We^leyan 
 ministry after going through the Methodist 
 Colleges, but in 1892 he resigned, and became 
 minister of the Congregational Church of High- 
 bury Quadrant. It was as a poet that he made 
 his debut, his Vision of Souls being published in 
 1878. His first novel, The Redemplion of Edward 
 Strahan, published in 1891, won the commenda- 
 tion of Mr. Gladstone, since when all that he has 
 written has been most favourably received on 
 both sides of the Atlantic. Nothing that he had 
 previously published attracted so much atten- 
 tion as The House of Dreams, concerning the 
 authorship of which much curiosity was aroused 
 on its appearance in 1897. 
 
 An intensely drama- 
 ticy powerful, and pic- 
 turesque romance. 
 Readers of the Novels 
 of Mr. Hall Caine, 
 Mr. Baring Gouldy 
 and Mr. Robert Bu- 
 chanan's earlier work 
 will thoroughly enjoy 
 this story. East An- 
 glians, especially those 
 who know the neigh- 
 bourhood of Yarmouth , 
 will find the local 
 colouring a strong at- 
 traction. 
 
 JUDITH 
 
 BOLDERO. 
 
 Beautifully bound 
 in cloth, with gold 
 decorative panel, 
 and gold lettering, 
 gilt top, 
 
 Frontispiece by 
 S. H. Vedder, 
 
 6A 
 
 By WILLIAM J. DAWSON, 
 
 Author of " The House of Dreams." 
 
 Dr. Conan Doyle says: <* Exceedingly strong and 
 
 good— the character drawing excellent. It is some 
 time since I read anything which I liked so much." 
 
 Ian Maclaren in British Weekly : " 'Judith Boldero' 
 is a strong book." 
 
 Spectator: "The story is finely conceived, and its 
 sombre picturesqueness loses nothing by the manner 
 of its telling." 
 
 Daily Telegraph : ' Described with masterly 
 vigour and impressiveness." 
 
 To-Day : " I can only thank Mr. Dawson for his 
 magnificent story, and beg all my readers to 
 buy it." 
 
 Christian World : " It has all the strength, original* 
 ity, and fascination of ' Adam Bede.' " 
 
For the convenience of the public a g:enera.l and 
 reliable description, indicating: the class of reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MR. MARSHALL MATHER. 
 
 'T'HE Rev. J. Marshall Mather comes of 
 an old Lancashire family. He was born in 
 1851, and his father was a Nonconformist Minis- 
 ter, of Lincoln. He began life in an architect's 
 office, but afterwards forsook architecture for the 
 Nonconformist Ministry. His first book was upon 
 T/te Life a?id Teaching of fohti Raskin, and his 
 second. Popular Studies of the Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury Poets, which he has since followed up by 
 La7tcashire Idylls and The Sign of the Wooden 
 Shoon. An extremely appreciative article upon 
 Mr. Mather's work which was written by no less 
 brilliant a critic than Dr. Robertson NicoU first 
 brought the author of By Roaring Loom int» 
 prominence. 
 
 // has been said for 
 years that the novelist 
 who could take Fac- 
 tory Life and show its 
 intense human interest, 
 its squalor and its 
 nobility, its hardships 
 and its romance, had 
 a great future. In 
 Mr. Marshall Mather, 
 Lancashire and fac- 
 tory life have found 
 their novelist. A book 
 of such true human 
 pathos, and written 
 with such art that it 
 cannot fail to charm 
 the " literary " as well 
 as the general reader. 
 Members of Parlia- 
 ment and Employers 
 of Labour should not 
 miss this. 
 
 By 
 
 Roaring 
 Loom, 
 
 Beautifully bound 
 in Art Buckram, 
 picture panel in 
 gold. Illustrated 
 by . . 
 Lancelot Speed, 
 
 6/. 
 
 By J. MARSHALL MATHER, 
 
 Author of . . 
 
 "At the Sign of the Wooden Shoon," 
 
 "Lancashire Idylls." 
 
 The Pall Mall Gazette says: "Full of life and 
 verisimilitude they are, and to the Lancashire man or 
 woman exiled, they will be like a breath of native 
 air. Though he treats of simple folk and humble, 
 there are fine types in Mr. Mather's gallery; and the 
 sturdy independence, the dry humour, the kindly 
 natures of the Lancashire working classes are finely 
 lined. ... A masterpiece in its way." 
 
 Christian World: "Will, we are confident, have a 
 great success. They are real literature. ... As 
 good as Ian Maclaren's work. There is not one 
 of the tragi-comedies which does not seize upon 
 the heart of the reader. They have force, feeling, 
 colour, humour, and restraint." 
 
 World: "Lancashire has found her story-telier, 
 
 her painter of manners, her folk-analyist in Mr. 
 Marshall Mather. . . Full of character, interest, grim 
 picturesqueness, and power." 
 
For the convenience of the public a. ^enera.1 and 
 relia.ble description, indicating: the class of reader 
 by whom the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MRS. MURRAY HICKSON. 
 
 " M^^" ^luRRAY HiCKSON " is the pen 
 name of Mrs. Sidney Kitcat, whose 
 husband is one of Gloucestershire's best gen- 
 tlemen-cricketers, and who was captain of 
 the Marlborough College eleven, and has 
 played in the Gentlemen v. Players match. 
 She is the daughter of Judge Greenhowand a 
 great-niece of Dr. James Martineau and the 
 late Miss Harriett Martineau. Mrs. Kitcat 
 began to write a few years ago, and has 
 contributed to many well known magazines. 
 
 Here are no goody, goody 
 children, who die and go to 
 heaven, but a real live 
 " pickle " of a schoolboy, 
 who, full of mischief as he 
 is to his finger tips, is 
 always "a little gentleman." 
 "Grown-ups" who love, by 
 reading about children, to 
 recall their own childhood, 
 will revel in this book, which 
 is written with such literary 
 grace and charm of style as 
 to be a worthy companion 
 to Mr. Kenneth Grahame's 
 " Golden Age." "Concerning 
 Teddy "appeals to both sexes, 
 for a more life-like scene from 
 the childhood of an imagina- 
 tive girl than the chapter, 
 "The Cistern Room," it 
 would be difficult to instance, 
 while every cricketer, young 
 or old, will appreciate the 
 cricketing scenes and share 
 Teddy's enthusiasm about the 
 crack batsman. 
 
 Being one of the most 
 handsomely produced and 
 beautifully illustrated books 
 of the season, it would make 
 a charming present or prize 
 for girl or boy. 
 
 Beautifully bound 
 and produced, with 
 Illustrations by . . 
 Harold Copping^ 
 
 3/6 
 
 Concerning 
 Teddy . 
 
 BY 
 
 Mrs. MURRAY HICKSON. 
 
 Times : " ' Concerning Teddy ' is simply delight^ 
 ful." 
 
 Standard : " It might have been written by Mrs. 
 Burnett and, indeed, we have read nothing 
 since ' Little Lord Fauntleroy ' that equals it." 
 
 Athenaeum: " One of those delightful books which- 
 are enthralling to child-lovers." 
 
 Outlook : " Carries us bacl{ by a sort of magical 
 directness into that pretty world of childhood 
 whose gates close upon most of us too soon. 
 Since Mr. Kenneth Grahame's 'Golden Age' 
 there has been no more understanding book about 
 children. Child-lovers will rejoice in it." 
 
 Bookman : " A great success. . . . The pleasantest 
 and the cleverest stories about children that we 
 have met with for a long time." 
 
For the convenience of the public a general and 
 reliable description, indicating the class of reader 
 by who m the book mentioned would be most 
 appreciated and enjoyed, will be found in the 
 space immediately beneath the illustration. 
 
 MR. JOSEPH HOCKING. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Hocking has written more 
 than one "novel with a purpose." 
 This being so, it devolves upon his 
 publisher — and for two reasons — to 
 make it clear that Mr. Hocking's 
 only purpose in " The Birthright " 
 and "And Shall Trelawney Die? " 
 was to write romance, " naked and 
 unashamed" — romance which, ivhile 
 absolutely pure and manly in tone, 
 shall have no other purpose than to 
 give readers their fill of fun, fighting, 
 and love-making. It is necessary to 
 make this explanation, first, because 
 readers might mistakenly buy the 
 books expecting to find Mr. Hocking 
 preaching a "crusade," and secondly, 
 because those who can and do enjoy a 
 stirring romance might be prevented 
 from doing so from the beUef that 
 these were books with a purpose. 
 Their only purpose is to keep Die 
 reader wide-eyed and wakeful when he 
 might otherwise be in bed, and for this 
 purpose it would be difficult to instance 
 likelier volumes. They bristle with 
 incident and adventure, and one is 
 hurried on breathlessly from chapter 
 to chapter. The general reader will 
 pronounce both books " rattling good 
 stories," and schoolboys will for once 
 be tn accord with the " Spectator," 
 and pronounce them "as good as 
 Stanley Weyman or Conan Doyle." 
 
 Fifteenth Handsomely bound in cloth, 
 Thousand, gilt, with Illustrations by 
 Harold Piffard, 3/6 
 
 THE BIRTHRIGHT. 
 By JOSEPH HOCKING, 
 
 Author of 'All Men are Liars," 
 "Andrew Fairfax" &c. 
 
 The Spectator : " This volume proves 
 beyond all doubt that Mr. Hocking has 
 mastered the art of the historical roman- 
 cist. ' The Birthright ' is, in its way, 
 quite as well constructed, as well 
 written, and as full of incident as 
 any story that has come from the pen 
 of Mr. Conan Doyle or Mr. Stanley 
 Weyman." 
 
 Daily Chronicle: "We read Mr. 
 Hocking's book at a sitting ; not because 
 we had any leisure for the task, but sim- 
 ply because the book compelled us. . . . 
 We hold our breath as each chapter 
 draws to an end, yet cannot stop 
 there, for the race is unflagging. . . . 
 We congratulate Mr. Hocking upon his 
 book, for it is a great advance upon any- 
 thing he has done. We prophesy a big 
 public for ' The Birthright.' " 
 
 Eighth Handsomely bound in cloth, 
 
 Thousand, gilt, with Illustrations by 
 Lancelot Speed, 3/6 
 
 AND SHALL 
 
 TRELAWNEY DIE? 
 By JOSEPH HOCKING. 
 
 Echo (Front page article — Novels and 
 Novelists) : " Admirable stories, quite 
 simplein construction, related in vigorous 
 English, replete with exciting incident,- 
 and abundantly enriched with local 
 colour, they hold our attention in 
 tight grip from start to finish." 
 
 The Methodist Times says: "Two of 
 the best stories of the year." 
 
 The Weekly Sun says: "An engaging 
 and fascinating romance. The reader 
 puts the story down with a sigh, and 
 wishes there were more of these 
 breezy Cornish uplands, for Mr. Joseph 
 Hockmg's easy style of narrative does 
 not soon tire." 
 
 The Guardian says: "There is nothing 
 .pessimistic nor fin de siicle in Mr. 
 Hocking's writings, but a bright, hopeful 
 tone ; an air, as we may say, of goodness ; 
 genuine romance in treating love, with 
 • real feeling for all the ties of home life." 
 
VllLVV-vK 1 
 
THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 bbH 18 1944 
 
 f! T 2 7 1952 tb 
 
 
 NOV 14 
 
 
 20May59BB 
 
 R ta .C'D L.D 
 
 MAY l4Vdb9 
 
 JAN 4 1 9 £oS 
 
 4^ 
 
 4=r^ 
 
 w 
 
 .o^^ 
 
 ^&^ 
 
 LD 21-100m-12,'43 (8796s) 
 
>'C 41020 
 
 874368 
 
 3 fyvr 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY