130 AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY IT 



concur with the Bishop's remark upon this con- 

 venient refuge for the descendants of Mr. Facing- 

 both-ways. " I have never been able to under- 

 stand this position, though I have often seen it 

 assumed." Nor can any demurrer be sustained 

 when the Bishop proceeds to point out that there 

 are, and must be, various points of contact between 

 theological and natural science, and therefore that 

 it is foolish to ignore or deny the existence of as 

 many dangers of collision. 



Finally, the Bishop of Manchester freely admits 

 the force of the objections which have been raised, 

 on scientific grounds, to prayer, and attempts to 

 turn them by arguing that the proper objects of 

 prayer are not physical but spiritual. He tells us 

 that natural accidents and moral misfortunes are 

 not to be taken for moral judgments of God ; he 

 admits the propriety of the application of scientific 

 methods to the investigation of the origin and 

 growth of religions ; and he is as ready to recognise 

 the process of evolution there, as in the physical 

 world. Mark the following striking passage : 



And how utterly all the common objections to Divine revela- 

 tion vanish away when they are set in the light of this theory of 

 a spiritual progression. Are we reminded that there prevailed, 

 in those earlier days, views of the nature of God and man, of 

 human life and Divine Providence, which we now find to be 

 untenable ? That, we answer, is precisely what the theory of 

 development presupposes. If early views of religion and mor- 

 ality had not been imperfect, where had been the development ? 

 If symbolical visions and mythical creations had found no place 



