ON THE HYPOTHESIS OF EVOLUTION. 171 



state of satisfaction. He may be then said to be ^'awakened" to 

 the importance of religion. If he carry on the struggle to attain 

 to the high goal presented to his spiritual vision, he will be deeply 

 grieved and humbled at his failures ; then he is said to be '' con- 

 victed." Under these circumstances the necessity of a deliverance 

 becomes clear, and is willingly accepted in the only way in which 

 it has pleased the Author of all to present it, which has been epito- 

 mized by Paul as " the washing of regeneration and renewal of the 

 Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ." Thus a life of advanced and 

 ever-advancing moral excellence becomes possible, and the man 

 makes nearer approaches to the *' image of God." 



Thus is opened a new era in spiritual development, which we 

 are led to believe leads to an ultimate condition in which the na- 

 ture inherited from our origin is entirely overcome, and an exist- 

 ence of moral perfection entered on. Thus, in the book of Mark 

 the simile occurs : ^^ First the blade, then the ear, after that the 

 full corn in the ear" ; and Solomon says that the development of 

 righteousness "shines more and more unto the perfect day." 



8. Summary. 



If it be true that general development in morality proceeds in 

 spite of the original predominance of evil in the world, through 

 the self-destructive nature of the latter, it is only necessary to ex- 

 amine the reasons why the excellence of the good may have been 

 subject also to progress, and how the remainder of the race may 

 have been influenced thereby. 



The development of morality is then probably to be understood 

 in the following sense : Since the Divine Spirit, as the prime force 

 in human progress, can not in itself be supposed to have been in 

 any way under the influence of natural laws, its capacities were no 

 doubt as eternal and unerring in the first man as in the last. But 

 the facts and probabilities discussed above point to development 

 of religious sensiUlity, or capacity to appreciate moral good, or to 

 receive impressions from the source of good. 



The evidence of this is supposed to be seen m— first, improve- 

 ment in man's views of his duty to his neighbor ; and, second, the 

 substitution of spiritual for symbolic religions : in other words, 

 improvement in the capacity for receiving spiritual impressions. 



What the primary cause of this supposed development of re- 

 ligious sensibility may have been, is a question we reverently leave 

 untouched. Tliat it is intimately connected in some way with, 



