urvival of
the best; nor, if it were, could the process by which this result is
achieved be justified. For evolution works through a universal struggle
for existence, in which the life and well-being of some can be secured
only through the suffering and final extinction of others; and even
in its higher stages, cunning and unscrupulous strength frequently
overcomes humane wisdom fettered by weakness. "Nature, red in tooth and
claw, with ravin shrieks against the creed" of the Theist. If God is
working through evolution, we must admit that he has marvellously hidden
himself, and agree with the poet that he _does_ "move in a mysterious
way his wonders to perform."

The writer in the _Christian World_ borrows an image from the puling
scepticism of "In Memoriam," which describes man as

"An infant crying in the night,
And with no language but a cry."

This image of the infant is put to strange use. The writer says that
God is necessarily hidden from us because we can grasp "his inscrutable
nature and methods" only as "an infant can grasp the thought and purpose
of a man." Similes are dangerous things. When it is demanded that they
shall run upon all fours, they often turn against their masters. This
one does so. The infant grows into a man in due course, and then he can
not only grasp the thought and purpose of his father, but also, it may
be, comprehend still greater things. Will the infant mind of man, when
it reaches maturity, be thus related to God's? If not, the analogy is
fallacious. Man is quite mature enough already, and has been so for
thousands of years, to understand something of God's thought and purpose
if he had only chosen to reveal them. This, however, if there be a
God, he has not condescended to do. An appeal to the various pretended
revelations of the world serves to convince us that all are the words of
fallible men. Their very discord discredits them. As D'Holbach said,
if God had spoken, the universe would surely be convinced, and the same
conviction would fill every breast.

The reason given for God's hiding himself is very curious. "If," says
the writer, "the way of God were not in large measure hidden, it would
mean that we could survey all things from the height and the depth of
God." Truly an awful contemplation! May it not be that God is hidden
from us because there is none to be revealed, that "all the oracles are
dumb or cheat because they have no secret to express"?

But, says