IN TROD UCTION. 1 7 



of. There is such a belief as theistic evolution ; and 

 this belief would look at all nature as the continued 

 manifestation of God. The power of the universe is 

 just as truly manifested in the birth of an individual 

 as in the creation of a world. Naturalists have not 

 succeeded in explaining life, but have, in evolution, 

 discovered a new law regulating life. Instead of 

 being sufficient in itself, evolution finds it necessary 

 to assume the constant action of power underneath 

 nature. Instead of excluding God from nature, 

 theistic evolution finds him as its eternal expla- 

 nation. 



It is not our purpose here to discuss the relation 

 of evolution and revelation. The question has been 

 much studied, and the rapidly growing opinion 

 among theologians is that, considering evolution 

 as a method of creation, it is not at all out of 

 harmony with the teachings of revelation. There 

 are certainly some views of evolution which would 

 be fatal to any religious belief, but this is not 

 because of any principle necessarily implied in the 

 theory. Neither natural theology nor revelation 

 finds any difficulty in accepting the theory. Grad- 

 ually the conviction has been growing on all 

 sides that this subject is purely scientific and not 

 theological ; that it must be decided by scientific 

 investigators upon scientific evidence. The appli- 

 cations of evolution to other realms besides the 

 organic world are interesting and valuable, but they 

 will not aid toward settling the question at issue. 

 Almost everywhere we find a readiness to leave the 

 question for scientists to settle ; at least to permit 



