ix The Question fonuulised. 159 



work through the will of man without superseding 

 and annulling it 1 This is a mystery which man's 

 understanding is not altogether competent to solve ; 

 but its solution is in no way necessary to faith in 

 God; just as 'the somewhat similar, though lower, 

 mysteries of the relation between the vital and the 

 chemical forces in the processes of nutrition and 

 organisation, and between the mental forces and the 

 unconscious functions of the nervous system in 

 other words, the relations between matter and life, 

 and between unconscious life and mind must be 

 recognised as insoluble, without therefore giving up 

 all research into the laws of life and of mind. 



Controversialists on both sides will probably agree 

 that the question may be thus formulised : Does 

 God's foreordination depend on His foreknowledge, 

 or His foreknowledge on His foreordination ? Now, 

 before inquiring what Saint Paul says on this subject, 

 let us ask the previous question, whether this diffi- 

 culty ever presented itself to the Apostle's mind as 

 one that needed a definite solution. I think it can 

 be shown that it did riot. The question in his time 

 was not felt as a practical one. Israelites who were 

 rejoicing that the promised Messiah had come, and 

 Gentiles who knew that they had been saved by the 

 Gospel of Christ from " abominable idolatries," were 

 not likely to distress themselves and show distrust 

 of their Saviour by asking, " How can I be certain of 

 my own individual foreordination to eternal life 1 ?" 

 But if this question, which has perplexed so many 



