for causing an eclipse.  In the realm of creation we are in a sphere of

mechanical movement, where everything is determined, where there can be no

option, no alternative, no choice.  When, however, we pass from this realm of

creation to the realm of human activity, we leave the sphere of mechanical

determinism, and enter the sphere of moral agency, accountability and

contingency.  When God formed man of the dust of the ground, man had no

knowledge of his own creation, and therefore had no responsibility for the

form in which he was fashioned, or for the mind and will with which he was

endowed.  The moment he stood upright, however, as a living soul, made in the

image and after the likeness of his God, he entered into a relationship with

his Creator, in which obedience or disobedience were equally possible, and in

which disobedience involved a penalty.

At this point we step out of the sphere of mechanics into that of

morals, where contingency is possible and the contingent word If comes into

use.  It would have been impossible without altering the nature of man, for

such words as 'It was so', to have followed the command concerning the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil as a matter of course.  Looking at man as a

creature, God could and did pronounce him to be 'good' (Gen. 1:31), but, with

reference to the prohibition concerning the tree of knowledge, and man's own

moral nature, it was impossible for him to be pronounced 'good' apart from

trial and proof.  Moral good cannot be ready-made; it must be acquired.  The

possibility of evil was incipient in the creation of a moral being.

There were three ways in which evil could have been prevented:

God could have created a being who was incapable of sinning.  Had

He done so, the creature thus formed could never have risen above the

level of a brute beast.  His actions would have been governed by the

promptings of instinct, and would have had no moral value.

God could have created a being capable of sinning, and yet have

kept him from all possible internal and external temptation.  Had man

been thus formed and hedged about, he would have remained innocent, but

would never have been upright.  He would have been innocent as an

animal is innocent, but could never have been upright as a man is

God could have created man, and allowed temptation, and yet have

prevented him yielding to it.  If this had been done, the very act

would have destroyed the moral nature that had been formed.  Enforced

goodness, coerced love, compulsory worship are contradictions.

Goodness, love and worship are emptied of their essential meaning the

moment the principle of compulsion enters.  God can create innocent

beings, but in the very nature of things, the creation of a virtuous

character or a ready-made righteousness is impossible.  A virtuous

character cannot be bestowed by Divine fiat.

We must therefore expect, in the very nature of things, to find contingency

in the second chapter of Genesis:

'And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every  tree of the

garden thou mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest

thereof thou shalt surely die' (Gen. 2:16,17).