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REV. CANON R. B. GIRDLESTONE, M.A._, ON 



the analogy of human products, the Universe, though 

 apparently working automatically, has intelligent 

 Force and Purpose behind it. 



(3) The alternative view — that nature is the result of 



Chance and has no Mind at the back of it — is untrue 

 to the dictates of human intelligence and deprives us 

 of the possibility of adoring a Being higher than our- 

 selves. 



(4) If the gulf between a human inventor and his work is 



vast, no human being can expect to grasp the height 

 and depth of the Divine Author of the Universe 

 which includes man himself. Yet we hud ourselves 

 driven to search for Him. 



(5) The problem is more severe because while we have 



instincts in the direction of goodness and righteous- 

 ness, we find ourselves entangled in a web of evil, 

 physical and moral and all the World cries out. Who 

 shall deliver us ? 



(6) Help has come both for the relief of the speculative 



mind and for the liberating of the enslaved soul 

 from the very Being whom we regard as the original 

 Author of the Universe. We have life, light, liberty 

 in Christ, the Son and Word of the living God. 



(7) To sum up. The physical element in the Universe is 



subservient to the moral and spiritual. Evil cannot 

 form part of the moral scheme in its completeness, 

 but it is being over-ruled to draw out the depths of 

 the divine character, which is infinite love, and which 

 is manifested in the mission of Christ. 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said : I am sure we are all very grateful indeed 

 to the Canon for his very thoughtful paper. I will not attempt to 

 say very much myself about it, but it appears to me that we may 

 regard the Almighty Being from whom everything else proceeded as 

 the summary of all the necessary truths and laws of existence, 

 physical and moral. These laws are necessary. We cannot possibly 

 imagine that this self-existent summary and origin of law is 

 miconscious. If we do so, then we have the terrible alternative of 

 the production of everything by blind chance. There is, therefore, 



