ON THE ORIGIN OF LIFE. 



229 



Mr. Marchant asked whether, supposing the origin of life were 

 discovered, it would necessarily destroy belief in the existence of 

 God. 



Mr. A. W. Sutton asked the lecturer if he was convinced that 

 new life could only be produced from pre-existing life. 



At this stage the President had to leave, but took the opportunity 

 of saying that when he came into the room he knew very little about 

 the subject, and if the lecturer would pardon him for saying it, he 

 felt that after hearing the paper, and the discussion, he knew 

 very little more. 



Mr. A. W. Sutton then took the chair and proposed a vote 

 of thanks to the lecturer, which was carried unanimously. The 

 lecturer replied and the meeting adjourned. 



Written Contributions. 

 Archdeacon Potter writes : — 



I feel that the unravelling of the secret of the mystery of the 

 origin of life is, as this paper well puts it, to be found in the belief 

 in the existence and personality of God. 



God is everywhere and eternal ; so is the principle of life — it only 

 needs certain conditions to bring it into action. Life is God and 

 God is life. He is constantly imparting His life to forms in which it 

 develops upward to higher things. Without belief in a personal God 

 the mystery of life is a greater mystery than ever ; with that belief, 

 it is easier to understand. 



Mr. F. S. Bishop writes : — 



Were it possible to build up life synthetically, or to accomplish the 

 further problem set to chemico-physicists, to produce a reaction 

 which at present seems outside the range of chemistry and to be 

 purely biological, would it not be but a further proof of the 

 immanence of God in nature 1 In the early verses of St. John's 

 Gospel we have the plain statement that the Logos made all things 

 and that " that which was made was life in Him." Life is not God, 

 for it was made ; but it comes from God. Science traces everything 

 to ether and energy, but can get no farther back than these. 

 St. John gives the origin of all things as Life, the agent of the 

 Logos, a quietly persistent universal power accomplishing the Will 

 of God in the universe. When a portion of that universe becomes 

 in the " due " time suitable for the action of this life, there it is to be 



