THE NATURAL PROVIDENCE 



In us or through us the Primal Mind will have con- 

 templated and enjoyed its own works and will con- 

 tinue to do so as long as human life endures on this 

 planet. It will have achieved the miracle of the In- 

 carnation, and have tasted the sweet and the bitter, 

 the victories and the defeats of evolution. The leg- 

 end of the birth and life of Jesus is but this ever- 

 present naturalism written large with parable and 

 miracle on the pages of our religious history. In the 

 lives of each of us the supreme reality comes down 

 to earth and takes on the human form and suffers 

 all the struggles and pains and humiliations of mor- 

 tal, finite life. Even the Christian theory of the vi- 

 carious atonement is not without its basis of natu- 

 ralism. Men, through disease and ignorance and 

 half knowledge, store up an experience that saves 

 future generations from suffering and failure. We 

 win victories for our descendants, and bring the 

 kingdom nearer for them by the devils and evil 

 spirits we overcome. 



