240 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



vidual. Perfection which rises on personal anni- 

 hilation may be a satisfactory theory as applied 

 to the brute creation, but as applied to the trou- 

 bled world of mankind it is a stone offered to the 

 hungry. Christianity makes progress possible by 

 supplying adequate motives for progress, namely, 

 God, the Father and Lover of all ; the possible 

 salvation of all ; and the certainty of endless exist- 

 ence, which alone makes God and salvation worth 

 having. If these doctrines are facts, then efforts 

 to uplift humanity are natural, inevitable, and 

 full of promise ; if they are not facts, but merely 

 projections of bright fancies, illusions that men 

 have conjured up wherewith to cheat themselves, 

 then, let the poor starve, the quicker the better ; 

 let the weak go down, that the strong may have 

 room ; let the struggle for existence, with its occa- 

 sional comedy and universal tragedy, go on as it 

 will. With the burdened millions, then, the hap- 

 piest man is he who soonest gets off the stage. 

 Progress is conditioned on something to live for. 

 If there is no God, no soul, no life after death, 

 life with a large part of the race, and with increas- 

 ing years with the greater part of the race, is not 

 worth living. Thus the happiness of man depends 

 upon the validity of the truths which are central 

 in the teaching of Jesus Christ. But that which 



