doubt, in his time a mere phantasm, but it was a forecast of the atomism now postulated in the whole domain of physics; and the anima mundi of Greek speculation, likewise a shadow, may possibly have been the adumbration of a law of the Divine working, now for the first time truly interpreted.

Let us here observe that it is not our purpose to discuss the general theory of evolution. Assuming for the present that that theory contains important truth, we merely desire to point out the significance of the particular modification of it which we find in the work before us.

Now, seeing that the author of 'Habit and Intelligence considers Darwin's theory insufficient to account for the phenomena of evolution, it will doubtless be inquired, What place, consistent with the theism which he so strongly holds, does he assign to special creation? In other words, What are we to understand by the whole term, evolution by organizing intelligence? In order to answer this question as carefully as it deserves, it will be necessary to make a slight digression.

It is well known that in the study of nature biologists do not find the total breaks, and the sudden appearance of new orders, which the ordinary idea of creation presupposes. They consequently do not admit that idea. They do not find it realized in nature. Do they therefore deny the fact of special creation? We shall see.

It is well known that the conclusions of science are again and again expressed emphatically in favour of evolution in some form, or to some extent. It is also well known that with regard to the origin of intellectual man, new elements enter into the problem. Characteristics appear, physical, psychical, and spiritual, which materialistic evolutionists are certainly unable to explain. Looking at these two sides of a great question-at the close resemblance and delicate differentiation to be traced in the lower kingdoms of nature, and on the other hand, at the differences, and even contrasts, to be observed in the case of man-evolutionists have been led to adopt various modifications of their theory. One of the most distinguished, Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, holds with Mr. Murphy that the characteristics of man cannot be accounted for by the Darwinian theory alone; but he believes that Darwin's natural selection is sufficient to explain the evolution of the lower kingdoms of life. Mr. Murphy, on the other hand, maintains that, while man is certainly the greatest, he is by no means the only proof against Darwinism. In 'Habit and Intelligence' he traces throughout the kingdoms of nature various important facts which seem quite unaccountable by

natural selection. His own hypothesis of organizing intelligence not only supplies what is lacking in materialistic theories, it recognizes all that is essential to theism; all that sublime unity in the kingdoms of nature which Hermann Lotze speaks of under the name idealismus; * and, what is infinitely more important, and as we now proceed to show, it furnishes a datum by means of which creation, in a purely Christian sense, finds its fitting and supreme place in the origination of life.

6

It will be remembered that in the process of evolution Mr. Murphy recognizes two factors-habit and organizing intelligence. Under the term habit, we are to understand all that in nature is already engaged in the fulfilment of living function-all those resources which have actually come into organic exercise. Now it has been observed that nature endows at least certain species with not only what is necessary for their actual existence, but with a further organic development, which, as being anticipatory of function,' and therefore adaptable to new conditions of life, Mr. Murphy attributes to the operation of organizing intelligence. This, as we shall see hereafter, is suggestive of highly interesting results. Further: in discussing the differences between man and even the highest of the lower animals, the author observes that these differences are so great and so significant as to require 'in some sort a new and distinct creation,' meaning thereby some process that transcends the ordinary working of organizing intelligence. We refer the reader to the work itself for the strong ground upon which both these important positions are based; viz., the sufficiency of habit and organizing intelligence to account for the evolution of all the lower creation; and, on the other hand, their insufficiency to explain any of the higher characteristics of the human race.

But how, it may be asked, are we to regard both these theses of the work in question as corroborating the Christian idea of creation? This leads us to our former questionWhat is evolution by organizing intelligence ?-to which we now are prepared to reply that we believe it to be nothing less than creation in the true Christian sense. Not creation, we admit, in the popular and, as we think, erroneous idea of. the word; but creation in its true sense special creationas revealed in the light of Holy Scripture, and with the corresponding evidence-an evidence to which too little attention has hitherto been given-that afforded by the inner spiritual life of Christianity. The popular idea of creation seems to * Lotze's 'Mikrokosmus,' Viertes Buch, 3te Auflage.

imply the sudden calling into existence, out of nothing, by the will of the living God. That the primal act of creation revealed in the opening words of the book of Genesis must thus be interpreted, cannot admit of dispute; but we venture to maintain that in the subsequent history of created life, traced by science in the lower kingdom of nature, and by the light of experimental Christianity in the higher kingdom of the moral and the spiritual, the process of creation signifies, taken generally, the adaptation of an organism to a new function and a new element, through the operation, not of mechanical, but of vital and spiritual law. Our reasons for thus defining the great process of creation are, because it embraces not only the whole realm of external nature, viewed by the clear eye of science, and formulized under the ideas of Habit and Intelligence," but also because it turns to the other great sphere of the manifold works of God; it penetrates to the inner world of thought, will, and experience; it rises to the contemplation, not alone of natural, but of spiritual life; and it finds there the same process-the same Divine method; it finds the bringing into existence of what God Himself expressly recognizes as pertaining to a 'new creation.' What could be more corroborative of the theory propounded in the remarkable work under review, than to find that the very process traced by the author throughout the kingdom of nature is, in its essential characteristics, the counterpart of that which is now operating around us, amongst us, within us, in the higher kingdom of grace? But this is a corroboration that is not available except to those who recognize both the possible stages of man's life upon earththe one, in which he is 'dead' toward God; the other, in which the quickened soul, through a Divine spiritual change, has passed from death unto life. Evolutionists have seldom looked for confirmation of their theory to the great facts of experimental religion; yet it is profoundly true that he who knows not the life of God in the soul of man' knows only one side, and that the less clear and significant side, of the great record of life. On the other hand, evangelical Christians, for example, have generally failed to do justice to a theory of the world's development, which they have wrongly imagined to be discordant with the revealed fact of creation. There is no discord: there is essential harmony. With God is no variableness neither shadow of turning.' The laws by which it has pleased Him to minister in 'the long upward march of nature' are not disowned, they are only transfigured, when they enter the kingdom of grace.

We proceed to the support of our central position, viz., that in the world of life special creation does not necessarily imply the production of a new individual, but the adaptation of an organism to a new function and a new element. We rest the argument mainly upon proof that can be brought to the test of direct observation. For the present, we turn from the works of creation wrought by the Almighty Spirit in the lower plane of nature. We turn to that creative work which He now, in His supreme wisdom and grace, carries on in the heart of humanity itself by the power of the Spirit of truth. That Divine work is creation in Christ Jesus. Nothing can be more certain than that this is the great, the crowning characteristic of our present dispensation. Our Lord Himself, in His redeeming work, is the beginning of this 'creation of God.' His apostles declare its nature, they describe its fruits, they extol the glory of its hope. By their Lord's command they set before perishing man a salvation by which he may enter into life-life of a new order-and by which he may become a new creature in Christ Jesus.' The inspired words in which we find the passing of a soul from spiritual death unto spiritual life characterized as a new creation are too familiar to need quotation here. The expressions are familiar to Christians, and are to them fraught with spiritual life and hope.

It will be admitted by all to whom such a line of proof is available that there is such a work of creation now in progress; that, irrespective altogether of the plane of nature, there is, in the crown and climax of the organic world,' in the human race itself, a work of creation now carried on, and in Scripture revealed under the various names of renewing of the Holy Ghost,' 'regeneration,' and creation in Christ Jesus.' It will be found that these terms are applied not only to the individual believer, but to the whole purpose of redemption. Out of our weak, sinful humanity, God, of His grace in Christ, is evolving, through the mighty operation of His Spirit, a people created anew in Christ Jesus, and led by the Spirit of God into an essentially new existence-conformity to the image of His Son.

The word of God reveals a new creation! Yes; a new creation, already begun, and advancing with the certainty of a Divine work toward the glorious issues of a completed redemption. A new creation! A hope of glory of which the grace now manifested is only the dim shadow. But here we must not strain our eyes toward its glorious future. Our present task is reverently to inquire into the main character

istics of its beginning in the souls of men. First, does it work by producing in each instance a new individual? No; every believer is aware that it is he himself, and not another, who has passed from death unto life. Creation, according to the popular idea of the term, here looks in vain for its analogon; but creation, in what we desire to suggest as its true sense, is here exactly realized. Let us consider and, perhaps, recapitulate.

The point which we have reached is this. The scientific theory of evolution, according to Mr. Murphy's modification of it, suggests a profound analogy between the work of creation as divined in the natural world, and as proved in the spiritual. According to the theory in question, the production of new species in the kingdom of nature demands the two following conditions :--First, the use of powers and resources already in exercise; and second, the operation of organizing intelligence. These are what reason and revelation alike testify to be the formal elements in that great change, the change 'from death unto life,' which God Himself declares to be a new creation, and which brings to the subject of it a new nature and a new name. This change can be accomplished by nothing short of creative power. It is, in one aspect, the work of the Divine Creator alone. All its springs are in Him. But, on the other hand, the Lord and Giver of life, in effecting this great change, operates through powers and affections which are native to the soul. Faith and hope and love now, indeed, reveal their true significance; yet, as natural faculties, they had always existed in man. What the human powers receive from the regenerating Spirit is a new, Divine direction, and an expansion worthy of the eternal things upon which they are for the first time exercised. The God of salvation does not superadd new faculties to our original nature; but He summons all that is within us to enter into a new spiritual element, in which we learn to magnify and bless his holy name.' Before the period of conversion to God, the higher faculties of human nature are like organs waiting for development; we ought rather to say they are such. They point to a higher sphere of action, an enlarged condition of existence, to be realized only when the Father has brought them into 'the kingdom of his dear Son.' Through the operation of the Spirit of God a man's soul is led into a new existence; a new world is opened within him--a world of responsibilities, of moral heights and depths before unknown, of spiritual affections hitherto unexperienced. He finds himself compelled to put forth effort in altogether new directions (for the