372 MAN AND GOD. 



not seen, Is yet known by His action on the pheno- 

 menal world. And when It becomes possible to 

 formulate the tendency of the world's Evolution In 

 terms which appeal to our own Intelligence, this 

 inference as to the existence of God becomes as 

 certain as any of our inferences can be. 



And a similar conclusion follows from the elimin- 

 ation of evil and the contemplation of the moral 

 aspects of the world-process. If we admit — and 

 unless we are pessimists we must admit — that Good 

 is gradually prevailing over Evil, that the world- 

 process tends towards harmony, we must admit also 

 that this improvement Is neither Inherent In the con- 

 stitution of things nor yet due to the efforts of the 

 known existences. It Is not Inherent In the consti- 

 tution of things, for the present condition of the 

 world sufficiently shows that in Itself that constitu- 

 tion is perfectly compatible with the existence of 

 disorder, conflict, and Evil, that the existence of 

 the world Is just as possible with a discordant as 

 with a harmonious interaction of Its parts. The 

 constitution of things Is equally consistent with a 

 good and with a bad world, and hence cannot be 

 regarded as the cause of the world's Improvements. 

 Nor can we ascribe it to the efforts of the known 

 existences, in face of their Ignorance of the good, 

 and their frequent and lamentable failures to dis- 

 cover the conduct which really benefits them. The 

 progress, therefore, of the world direcdy points to 

 God as its author. 



Thus a personal and finite, but non-phenomenal, 

 God is the only possible cause that can account for 

 the existence and character of the world- process, 

 and the belief In God's existence is intimately bound 

 up with the belief in the reality of the world- process. 



