"WHY ARE WE ALIVE?"

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 514, 22 May 1909, Page 12

"WHY ARE WE ALIVE?"

SIR' OIilW 1.0P6E QN PROBLEMS or existence. - . , at St. John tho Evangelist's CtairoU, Westminster, ou . "Life and' lt« Mejuijpg," gir o|ivej- Lodge paid thai tiio question somctipies raisod; "Why aro if# aijvaP" could not bo aiwwtred. |>ut they we,i« gradually realising that lifo had a tneaaina greater than what had bepa oonoeiyed in any provipua ago. ' r •' ■ In tho lqwacss of their ancestry h« discerned a mossago of hope. But there \vaa t|ie l<'all, and thp a eppse'quopoe of the rijo ip the: eciilo. of existence, just as tp fall otf a scaffold ono had first to go up it. 'flip rape rose-oijt of n statjo of inuoceiipo. a state in whjchi tlie ; .qjiimals wore. Apts which were sinful to humiui beings wore not sinful to them.- The auiinpls did'not good and pvjl, or, at any rate, only tho higher animals, partly "by roasop of' their association with Uuimmit^,. butthose ■'■ypfo tho. cxcepticn?. The kpowjcdgo of good qnd evil, and power of ohoipo. werp distinguishing human attributes'. They oould nos have 'conscience and freo will without the power'to go Wrong, and tho power to go wrong practically nionijt going wrong, and that was" the l'all. The pot|!)%Uty \vas tho rfefti • tJwi • Wtßality. pas' the- Fall. > Why tshpnld 1%0 biimivn rjipp h»r'p beep permittod to go lyiopsf Bccptipe t.hpy werompp andnot niflplnilPs, thojr rpsppijsiliility must f>o a r«al responsjlnlity, arp f|'aginpnt§, chip? pf Piyjpity/' snid tho speaker, "in so\fqr as fp have tjjjs ppwoKpf rpnlly chopsina ope thipg or the other, \Vo c\ro not distinct, \ separate, sopietiiipg . outside . 'tho' uiiivorfio, v b))t> wp nrp a part.'nf tile pivaisp, a part of tho Godhead, though :)|ow insignilicant {i part I" "... Coptinuiiitt, ho paid m'il w n blight uppn tlie liesfc. Jn all p«(®j evil was a relative tprp)., A. disease >v t i!j jnerply . a paßiai'tip ' organism oyt, \of . il, not wanted.. There were no woods in botany, but in gardening, and, given l)»d surroundings. they would grow. \lt was said ho had a.ssert<xj , sin was non-oxistont. Hp had never said Ui a t. / It was nccessary to,disprimi|iiito between oyi! qnd am. Sin meant the choosing of pvil, 1 rather tJwri good, by. a orcature.' It mount ' seeing tho better anil choosing tho worst. Pain had not boon.wholly «ii) evi|, but it wai > . a necessity in the stago ; wheu the -race began to have the .'power of motion,