The herald., 1896-12-05

of its operation reaches from beyond
the atom to beyond perfected life.
Natural law is God manifesting himself
in the processes of evolution. and if "ac-
cidents" were possible anywhere in its
operation it would be uncertain and
therefore unreliable.
To make DR.. Kellogg's philosophy ten
able it would have to be admitted that
there is an element of chance and un-
certainty throughout existence
throughout Universal Life-and that no
matter what man proposes, he is con-
fronted at every step by the possibility
of accident-by a spot in natural law
that is too impotent to carry forward the
purpose of the Almighty. DR.. Kellogg
assumes that there are "antagonisms"
and wrong g-doings'-things separate
and apart from life-which may or may
not enter the life and shape the conduct
of an individual. But what is wrong
doing?" If measured by that standard
of ethical culture which God has erected
of us would fall short. The human fam
lily is now and always has been composed
of individuals of different degrees of
moral embodiment. and each and every
one of US calls it wrong-doing to commit
acts that are not justified by our own
standard of right conduct. 1t is true also
that every one places his standard Of
right conduct where its requirements
may be conformed to without extraor-
dinary strain or effort. Dr. Kellogg's
standard of conduct of life is higher and
has profited by the experience Of years;
but no doubt it would suffer if compared
with the standard of some of the fathers
of Christianity, and it might be found
to be very much more in the shadow
of some standards below than in the
light of some standards above. Ethic-
ally speaking, men differ in degree OF
moral embodiment. That is all.
In the same discourse DR.. Kellogg said
that 'if wholesome restraint is not ex-
ercised the outcome is likely to be a
child of lawless will, who defies all moral
restrictions, and makes good material
for the criminal courts in after years"
Here we have Calvinism pure and simple.
The natural inclination of the child, then,
is to defy moral restrictions and make
a criminal of himself. But who did sin,
he or his parents that he was born NOR
ally blind? If he inherited evil inclina-
tions is he not to be pitied rather than
blamed? And if his parents transmitted
to him an overpowering desire to commit
crime are they the proper persons
to exercise Wholesome restraint" The
fact is, DR.. Kellogg's philosophy makes
the child to be entirely creature of
chance as to home influences and dis
position. The child may have an ideal
he may come into the world and fini
himself in the embrace of vice and social
degradation. If the child shall be
obliged to gather the harvest from seed
sown by others, then indeed does natu-
raj law operate along lines of chance
and luck-on the hazard of the die. To
the teacher in the public school does
civilization look to lead the youth ot
the world to higher levels of intellectual
and moral worth by teaching them the
doctrine of the brotherhood of man; that
what they SOW they shall reap, and that
to be a manly man. a womanly woman is
to be great and good and noble and
that, too, without any reference what
ever to the ties of consanguinity or the
so-called accidents of BIRTH