MODERN EVOLUTION. j6i 



lector, together with Brougham's attack on the un- 

 dulatory theory of light when it was first propounded 

 by Young." The bishop declared " the principle of 

 natural selection to be absolutely incompatible with 

 the word of God " and as " contradicting the re- 

 vealed relations of creation to its Creator." If by 

 " revealed relations " and the " word of God " the 

 Bible is intended, the evolutionist is in agreement 

 with the bishop. But, at this time of day, it seems 

 scarcely worth while to shake the dust off articles 

 which have gone the way of all purely controversial 

 matter, and justification for reference to them lies 

 only in the fact that the contest between the biolo- 

 gists and the bishops is not yet ended. 



In contrast to all this, and in evidence of the 

 compromise by which theology is vainly striving to 

 justify itself, are these vague sentences from Arch- 

 deacon Wilson's address at the Church Congress at 

 Shrewsbury in the autumn of 1896: " It is scarcely 

 too much to say that the Theistic Evolutionist cannot 

 be otherwise than a practical Trinitarian, and cannot 

 find a difficulty in the Incarnation or in the doctrine 

 of the Holy Spirit." " Christian doctrine, apart from 

 the statement of historical facts, is the attempt to 

 create out of Christ's teachirg, a philosophy of life 

 which shall satisfy these needs (i. e., the needs of 

 humanity), and it will therefore remain the same in 

 substance. But the form in which that doctrine will 

 be presented must change with man's intellectual en- 

 vironment. The bearing of Evolution on Christian 



