230 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



as never before, we need not ask. The vital ques- 

 tion for us is, Is there any place left for divine 

 activity when man is explained to be the product 

 of his birth and the circumstances in which he 

 grows ? That question I have tried to answer. 

 God is the largest part of every man's environ- 

 ment, and if there were no power of resistance 

 every man would as naturally grow toward holi- 

 ness as flowers toward light. But holiness implies 

 freedom, and freedom the possibility of resistance, 

 and so, though no man can ever go beyond the 

 reach of the Spirit of God, every man may resist 

 the influences which are intended to make him 

 holy as God is holy. 



There remains yet one other aspect of this 

 subject. The Author of nature is not affected 

 by our theories concerning natural causes. Nat- 

 ural causes are only methods for the manifesta- 

 tion of divine energy. Every natural cause is 

 God acting. But the phrase " natural causes " 

 seems to exclude His free action. That free 

 action we have been accustomed to call super- 

 natural, but all causes are, in a measure, super- 

 natural. This is the inquiry, Is there any place 

 left for the interposition of God in the affairs 

 of human life ? I reply, there is nothing in the 

 fact that men are the children of their parents, 



