infinite value-namely, a conscious being capable of everlasting life-it is infinitely worse than any sin and misery that hold sway only for a time.

We should notice, however, that the process known in ancient theology as election and reprobation is analogous to the process known in biology as natural selection. In both evolution is assisted by the tendency of superior developments to survive at the expense of inferior. The stronger stocks overcome the weaker in the struggle for existence, and in the human sphere morality and practical wisdom grow and extend themselves from age to age. The ostensible purpose in all this is the eventual production of good living beings. Temporary perversions and waste of life appear not to matter very much, as there is always abundance of healthy life to take the place of what is lost. To some extent this evil even helps the growth of the good life. For in the animal world the struggle with inferior forms for the means of existence assists towards the growth of the superior. And in humanity the need of fighting sin calls forth virtue and intellect and religion.

Is then Providence indifferent or nearly so to the fate of individuals, being content to produce quality of life? We must, however, bear in mind that in this world the living being comes into existence and ceases to exist, whether it be low or high, whether it degenerate or progress, whether it leave posterity or not. Even the saints pass out of the world in like manner. Therefore we cannot argue that, because certain souls in their present lifetimes remain unspiritual or even suffer moral degeneration, they must altogether perish or fail to obtain a better life hereafter. In view of the time occupied by the evolution of the race from mere animality to a rich spiritual life, we may judge one lifetime to be but a minute portion of the total period of the corresponding evolution in an individual soul. Now, as a species may

degenerate, and yet, as it were, from a sound core develop new life which replaces what is corrupt, so, we may hold, there is a sound core in morally corrupt souls, whence healthy character will eventually spring. With such a theory we may ease our minds in the face of the appearance of indifference in God to the corruption and degeneration of souls.

Predestination in the sense of Divine election of certain souls on certain occasions for certain tasks we may well believe in. History displays the Providential development and supernatural guidance of both individuals and nations to perform certain functions in the development of mankind. And, more generally, all those who receive Divine life may be counted as Divinely elected for special tasks in the preparation for and production of the Kingdom of Heaven. Predestination is essentially the Divine appointment of souls to various work in the fulfilment of the universal Divine purpose. And that purpose is the supreme good for all souls.

CHAPTER VIII

THE INSTITUTIONS

CHRISTIANITY is a form of communion of man with God in which the Holy Spirit and the soul are in immediate contact. How comes it then that Christianity limits itself with institutions, such as the Church and the Sacraments? How do the mental and the spiritual come to act by means of the material and sensible? It is to be noticed, however, that other kinds of mental and spiritual energy make use of organized societies and symbols. The effort after knowledge, for example, produces organized societies of which the objects are the acquisition and spread of knowledge, and therewith ceremonies of initiation into these societies and distinguishing marks for those who have done good service for the truth. As the soul grows, religion becomes less and less restricted to particular sensible forms. Eventually, we may conjecture, human society will be identical with the Church, and the whole of physical life and the material world will be sacramental. But during the early growth of a moral and spiritual nature in an alien and even hostile environment, special adaptations of the environment for the protection and promotion of the new life could not well be dispensed with. Christianity must at first have organized societies specially for the furtherance of religion, and also symbols to reinforce the inner activities of the soul.

I. THE CHURCH.

Jesus commissioned His disciples to carry on the work of preparing mankind for the Kingdom of God when He was no longer with them in the flesh. Apparently for the more effective fulfilment of this task, they were to form a congregation (ikkλnoía), the name being probably reminiscent of the congregation of Israel (Matthew xvi. 18; xviii. 17). This congregation was to have authority to settle moral and religious laws (Matthew xvi. 19; xviii. 18).

As time went on, the Christian Congregation or Church became more organized organized and consolidated. Membership in it assumed greater importance in the Christian life. St. Paul used the idea of the Church for the expression of his theory of social life in Christ, calling the Church the body of which Christ is the head (1 Corinthians xii. 12-27; Romans xii. 4, 5; Ephesians v. 23; Colossians i. 18), Baptism and the Lord's Supper being respectively the means of entrance into and of living membership in the body of Christ (1 Corinthians xii. 13; x. 16, 17). The Church is thus the embodiment of the growing spiritual life of mankind.

Then, after sixteen centuries had passed, we have the spectacle of numerous independent and to some extent mutually hostile religious communities claiming to be Christian. There appear two great churches, the Greek and the Roman, claiming strict historical continuity with the original Catholic Church, and also offshoots from the Roman Church, from whose ecclesiastical organization they had in different degrees severed themselves. And some of these seceding bodies themselves show little cohesion.

In view of the claim of the Church in the early days of Christianity and of the actual history of the Church, we must inquire what the Church is. Is it visible or invisible? Is it essentially one organization,

or may it consist of a number of independent communities? Is membership therein necessary for salvation, or is faith with the conduct that springs from faith sufficient?

On the ground that the Church is essentially one organization, as evidenced by Scripture, the claim of the Roman Church to be the one Church has been rested. For it has developed by a continuous process out of the one Catholic Church of the first few centuries after Christ, and the continuity has been guaranteed -so it has been asserted-by an uninterrupted successsion of bishops, each consecrated by predecessors with the regular ceremony whereby the authority granted by Christ has been handed down. Certain, however, in episcopal churches that have seceded have disputed this claim, on the ground that in these other churches also the apostolic succession of bishops has been maintained. But it seems unreasonable to lay more stress on apostolic succession than on unity as a symbol of the true Church of Christ.

But is the claim of the Roman Church to be justified by Scripture? In opposition we may point to passages which indicate that salvation is granted to all who approach God through Christ independently of any society-for instance, the commendation of Jesus on all who come to Him and hear and carry out His teaching (Luke vi. 47, 48), His invitation to all the weary to come to Him and find rest (Matthew xi. 28), His promise of eternal life to all who make great sacrifices for the sake of the Kingdom of God (Luke xviii. 29, 30), and His sayings which imply that to do good in His name constitutes the doer a Christian (Mark ix. 37, 39-41). And to these we must add the frequent and variously expressed blessings in the Fourth Gospel on all who believe in Christ (John iii. 15, 18, 36; v. 24; vi. 35; vii. 38; xi. 25, 26; ii. 44, 46; xiv. 12). From all this it might be inferred that the Church of Christ is by