INVOLUTION 439 



them ; it carried on the building by slow and 

 gradual modifications ; and, through processes 

 governed by rational laws, it put the finishing 

 touches to the Ascent of Man. 



No man can run up the natural lines of Evolu- 

 tion without coming to Christianity at the top. 

 One holds no brief to buttress Christianity in this 

 way. But science has to deal with facts and with 

 all facts, and the facts and processes which have 

 received the name of Christian are the continua- 

 tions of the scientific order, as much the suc- 

 cessors of these facts and the continuations of these 

 processes — due allowances being made for the 

 differences in the planes, and for the new factors 

 which appear with each new plane — as the facts 

 and processes of biology are of those of the 

 mineral world. We land here, not from choice, 

 but from necessity. Christianity — it is not said 

 any particular form of Christianity — but Christianity, 

 is the Further Evolution. 



" The glory of Christianity," urged Jowett, " is not 

 to be as unlike other religions as possible, but to 

 be their perfection and fulfilment." The divinity 

 of Christianity, it might be added, is not to be as 

 unlike Nature as possible, but to be its coronation ; 

 the fulfilment of its promise ; the rallying point of 

 its forces ; the beginning not of a new end, but of 



