168 GENERAL EVOLUTION. 



of development were at the disposal of this being, between which 

 his free will was to choose. Did he choose the courses dictated 

 by the spirit of the brute, he was to be subject to the old law of 

 the brute creation — the right of the strongest and spiritual death. 

 Did he choose the guidance of the Divine Guest in his heart, he 

 became subject to the laws which are to guide — 1, tlie human spe- 

 cies to an ultimate ]3erfection, so far as consistent with this world ; 

 and, 3, the individual man to a higher life, where a new existence 

 awaits him as a spiritual being, freed from the laws of terrestrial 

 matter. 



The charge brought against the theory of development, that 

 it implies a necessary progress of man to all perfection without his 

 co-operation — or necessitarianism, as it is called — is unfounded. 



The free will of man remains 'the source alike of his j^i'ogress 

 and his relapse. But the choice once made, the laws of spiritual 

 development are apparently as inevitable as those of matter. Thus 

 men whose religious capacities are increased by attention to the 

 Divine Monitor within are in the advance of progress — progress 

 coinciding with that which in material things is called the har- 

 monic. On the other hand, those whose motives are of the lower 

 origin fall under the working of the law of conjlict. 



The lesson derivable from the preceding considerations would 

 seem to be *^ necessitarian " as respects the whole human race, con- 

 sidered by itself ; and. I believe it is to be truly so interpreted. 

 That is, the Creator of 'all things has set agencies at work which 

 will slowly develop a perfect humanity out of his lower creation, 

 and nothing can thwart the jDrocess or alter the result. '' My word 

 shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which 

 I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.^' This 

 is our great encouragement, our noblest hope — second only to that 

 which looks to a blessed inheritance in anotlier world. It is this 

 thought that should inspire the farmer, who, as he toils, wonders, 

 " Why all this labor ? The Good Father could have made me like 

 the lilies, who, though they toil not, neither spin, are yet clothed 

 in glory ; and why should I, a nobler being, be subject to the dust 

 and the sweat of labor ? " This thought should enlighten every 

 artisan of the thousands that people the factories and guide their 

 whirling machinery in our modern cities. Every revolution of a 

 wheel is moving the car of progress, and the timed stroke of the 

 crank and the rhythmic throw of the shuttle are but the music 

 the spheres have sung since time began. A new significance then 



