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there be crystals; let there be life; let there be man with knowledge of good and evil. Each in turn is severally an expression of that which, for lack of a better phrase, we speak of as Divine Purpose, freed from the temporal limitations of human purpose; but each is an independent and unconditional expression thereof.

It may still be asked, however, whether it is not open to us to interpret also in the light of all that science has taught us—that is, in terms of interdependence and the linkage of the natural events themselves—to trace the steps through which and the conditions under which this or that item in the list from atom to man came gradually into being. Is it not open to us to accept evolution without rejecting Divine Purpose? The concept of fiat—if it is still to be retained as helpful—then takes the form: Let there be one natural plan of evolutionary progress exemplified throughout in many and diverse ways. It is because I have been led, through my survey of what seem to be the patent facts, to find one evolutionary plan as the manifestation of one Divine Purpose (difficult as this may be to define) that I prefer the unrestricted usage of the word “evolution.”

On grounds such as these it may be urged that acceptance of unrestricted evolution though many ascending grades, reaching its culmination in the highly-developed mind that plays so great and increasing a part in later evolutionary progress, is not incompatible with belief in God as manifested in all advance from lower to higher.

In any case many evolutionists hold this belief with sincere and enhanced conviction. What, for one of them, does this imply? It implies reference to God as object of spiritual contemplation; it implies guidance of conduct in the light of this reference; it implies joy in attaining such ends as are deemed to be consonant with Divine Purpose. But this joy, this guid-