272 THE REV. CHANCELLOR LIAS, M.A., ON 



addressing his class to dilate on the tremendons consequences 

 which would eiisue to the inhabitants of this planet if the 

 isthmus of Panama were to be cut throui^h, the Gulf Stream 

 diverted, and the climate of this country thereby assimilated 

 to that of Labrador. 



Again, take the existence of evil. Evil is the result of 

 the misuse of will. It is the necessary consequence of the 

 j)Ower of choice vouchsafed to man. But the conditions of 

 the exercise of that power belong to the spiritual order. No 

 one knows what they are. Even the man himself cannot 

 explain why, on a given occasion, he preferred evil to good. 

 Some, no doubt, would lay down a theory of necessitarianism, 

 or determinism, as it has become the fashion to call it. But 

 determinism cannot claim to be more than an hypothesis, 

 and an hypothesis which is beset by many and serious 

 difficulties of its own. If evil is decreed, we must proceed 

 to ask why it is decreed, a question which has never received 

 a satisfactory answer. As Bishop Butler has shown, the 

 moment we attempt to deal with practical questions on this 

 theory we are foi'ced to act as though it were false. On the 

 basis of determinism, human society becomes an impossi- 

 bility. So we return to our assertion that the laws of 

 human action are unexplained and unexplainable ; that they 

 are facts of a mysterious and supernatural order ; that they 

 are altogether outside the region of physical science. And 

 yet what amazing results they have produced on the 

 visible world! From the determination to do evil, to mis- 

 use the mighty force of will, comes war and famine, and 

 pestilence: tbe desolation of once fertile tracts of land, 

 cruelty, oppression, violence, crime, with their fearful conse- 

 quences, the baneful results of ignorance and poverty, the 

 overcrowding of great cities, the stuggles between labour 

 and capital, the various and accumulated miseries of 

 civilised and uncivilised life. These effects are capable of 

 being measured by a physical standard, but they are not 

 due to physical causes. Still less are the effects of the 

 conflict with evil due to physical causes — the noble efforts 

 made to grapple with and to destroy all that is prejudicial 

 to the welfare of mankind, the resistance to moral wrong, 

 Avhether in ourselves or others, the struggle to promote all 

 that may elevate the character and ameliorate the condition 

 of man. To what natural causes are these facts owing? The 

 inquiry is a purely scientific one. The facts are undisputed and 

 indisputable. It is the province of science to note them, group 



