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the mind of man since lie became morally evil. Man being evil 

 himself, looked out upon the world through a glass darkly, and 

 so all nature seemed coloured with the murky aspect of his 

 own morbid phantasy. 



Eecognize this world as never furnishing more than a relative 

 condition of things; while the purpose and design of that, too, 

 is not difficult to see, now we have the light of Revelation 

 thrown upon it ; namely, as a state of probation for man, to fit 

 him for a higher destiny than any which this world can furnish ; 

 accept this as a great and universal truth, and you will not 

 discolour your view of creation by erroneous views of God's 

 goodness, much less by atheistic ideas ! 



We are told that *'the pure in heart shall see God,^^ and 

 that all things work together for the good of those who love 

 Him ! Learn, then, to succumb to His will, try to adapt 

 yourself to the conditions in which you are placed, not the 

 conditions which are about you to yourself — that is reversing a 

 natural law — and you will begin to suspect that what you 

 irrationally called " physical evils ^' were, after all, but blessings 

 in disguise. (Cf. S. James i. 2.) 



The very idea of '^evil^^ as applied to nature is, to my mind, 

 totally uncalled for, and gladly would I limit it to sin and its 

 effects (and even these latter, as often as not, are clearly 

 blessings). It is not for us to find fault with nature, but to 

 accept it as we find it, as the best for our good ; and I repeat, 

 man would never have dreamt of regarding thiiigs as evils if he 

 was not evil himself, and so considered everything about him 

 evil too. Here, then, come in the elements of faith and 

 humility, which I alluded to as essential elements of the 

 character of a student of nature. 



Chance, 



The preceding remarks on design will, I think, cover all 

 that need be here said upon its former use by teleologists, and 

 the new extension of its meaning which I would venture to 

 give it. I now pass on to consider the next element of the 

 argument which enters into the subject of this essay, namely, 

 that of chance, — an element which forms so important an item 

 in the process of natural selection, but which natural theo- 

 logians have been very loth to admit, as being derogatory to 

 their ideal and subjective method of Divine working. 



What is meant by chance ? We use the word often enough, 

 but, when we think about it, it does not appear to be so easy of 

 explanation as we might have at first imagined, for we discover 

 that it may be employed in more than one sense. Let us 

 consider some of them. 



