rket and sell in the
dearest, and whose one consistent endeavour is to seek pleasure and
avoid pain; he has never existed.

+Divine immanence and its Fall.+--Besides, we do not want him to exist.
The Fall theory is not only impossible in face of the findings of
modern science; it is a real hindrance to religion. So far from having
to give it up because science would have nothing to say to it, the
difficulty would be to retain it and yet have anything like a rational
view of the relation of God and the world. It has already been stated
that the starting-point of the New Theology is a recognition of the
truth that God is expressing Himself through His world. This truth
occupied a place in religious thought ages before modern science was
thought of; science has confirmed it, but has not compelled us to think
it; if science had never existed, it would still remain the only
reasonable ground for an adequate explanation of the relation of man to
the universe. It simplifies all our questionings and coordinates all
our activities. There is not a single one in the whole vast range of
human interests which it does not cover. There is nothing which
humanity can do or seek to do which is not immediately dependent upon
it. The grandest task and the lowliest are both implied in it. It
declares the common basis of religion and morality. Religion is the
response of human nature to the whole of things considered as an order;
morality is the living of the individual life in such a way as to be
and do the most for humanity as a whole; it is making the most of one's
self for the sake of the whole. Morality is not self-immolation. To
jump off London Bridge would be self-immolation, but it would not be an
act conducive to the welfare of the community; it might indeed be a
very selfish and cowardly act. True morality involves the duty of
self-formation and the exercise of judgment and self-discipline in
order that the individual life may become as great a gift as possible
to the common life. It will therefore be seen at once that there is a
vital relation between morality and religion; the one implies the other
even though the fact may not always be recognised, and both are based
upon the immanence of God.

+The truth beneath the doctrine of the Fall.+--But never yet has a
particular doctrine or mode of stating truth held its own for any
length of time in human history unless there was some genuine truth
beneath it, and the doc