t acts with no more consciousness or volition than
the deftly contrived machine that picks up raw material at one end, and
turns out some finished product at the other? Clearly for strong and
resolute men and women an Eden would be but a fool's paradise. How
could anything fit to be called _character_ ever have been produced
there? But for tasting the forbidden fruit, in what respect could man
have become a being of higher order than the beast of the field?"

The point is that the same law of evolution applies in the moral world
as it does in the material. As the highest types of life have been
developed only thru the processes of struggle with adverse elements, in
which only the fittest, strongest and best adapted to its environment
survived, so moral character is only developed thru the struggle with
moral evil. Just as one cannot learn to swim on a parlor sofa, but
must get in the water and struggle, so one must come in contact with,
combat, struggle with, and overcome moral evil in order to develop the
highest and strongest type of moral character.

"Heaven is not reached by a single bound;
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies,
And rise to its summit round by round."

The rise from a bestial to a moral plane involves the acquirement of a
knowledge of both good and evil. The moral conscience thus developed
plays the same role in the moral world that the consciousness of pain
does in the physical. As this consciousness of pain is a monitor to
warn us from physical danger, so the moral conscience is our monitor to
keep us from moral evil. And the higher this moral conscience is
developed, the more sensitive it becomes, the higher will its possessor
rise in the moral scale. This is the law which Paul tells us is
written in the hearts of all men, "their consciences meanwhile accusing
or excusing them." This may seem a strange philosophy. But it
comports with the facts of nature and life. The mystery of evil is not
solved. But at least we have a rational, working hypothesis upon which
to deal with it, as will further appear as we proceed.

_SIN_

Evil, at least in the physical world, exists separate and apart from
sin. We will not speculate upon the metaphysical differences that may,
or may not, exist between moral evil and personal guilt. But I wish to
record briefly the views I ultimately arrived at concerning the nature
and consequences of