THE PROBLEM OF FAITH 227 



which we live, the people among whom we dwell, 

 the institutions of which we are a part, but also 

 the factor, most constant of all, from which none 

 ever escape, — God, the Spirit, whose touch, softer 

 than light, never for a moment is absent from the 

 human spirit. Our inquiry concerns not the rela- 

 tion of a remote sovereign to subjects in a re- 

 morseless series of physical causation, but rather 

 the influence of environment on heredity. In pre- 

 ceding chapters it has been already sufficiently 

 emphasized that in the making of man environ- 

 ment is the stronger force. If a child with vile 

 inheritance can be placed where the predominant 

 influences make for moral and spiritual health, 

 the probabilities are that he will grow into virtue 

 and manly strength. If the atmosphere favours 

 intellectual culture, even the most stupid will 

 probably respond to its inspirations. Whatever 

 tendencies may be in the blood, if the environ- 

 ment is spiritual the growth should be toward 

 spirituality. With some it will be slow; with 

 others, swift; with all it should be sure. 



But if the Spirit of God is constant and uni- 

 versal, how do any fail to show the transforming 

 influences of divine environment .-' That inquiry 

 leads back to the question of freedom. Enough 

 here to say that there is no real contradiction. 



