THE PROBLEM OF FAITH 23? 



much unbelief among intelligent classes. What 

 is called irreligion is often only a revolt against 

 gross misrepresentation of a good and gracious 

 God. Much has been said about the responsi- 

 bility of man to God; it is time that emphasis 

 was placed on the responsibility of God to man. 

 This is not said that wrong-doing may be justi- 

 fied, but that our Father may not be misrep- 

 resented. Every man who is true to his own 

 intellectual processes and to his highest intuitions 

 must acknowledge that the more heavily a man 

 is weighed down with evil tendencies when he 

 comes into conscious existence, the more allow- 

 ance ought to be made for his acts of wrong-doing. 

 If a man's nature is totally depraved from his 

 birth, it is irreverence and impiety to presume 

 that the Deity holds him to the same «,<xounta- 

 bility as the one who has possession of untainted 

 and unweakened powers. Into the vexed ques- 

 tion of the penalties of the future I do not enter, 

 except to say that, in that realm of which so little 

 is known, the agency of heredity and environment 

 in the case of every human being will have full 

 allowance. To teach the contrary is to ask think- 

 ing men to disregard their reason and stultify 

 their moral intuitions. 



Considered by itself, a study of the subject of 



