What hope has the Christian face to face with a world's wickedness?
what answer to the question, Whence comes sin?
To the Atheist the terrible problem has in it no figure of despair.

Evil comes from ignorance, we say; ignorance of physical and of moral facts.

Primarily, from ignorance of physical order; parents who dwell in filthy, unventilated, unweathertight houses, who live on insufficient, innutritious, unwholesome food, will necessarily be unhealthy, will lack vitality, will probably have disease lurking in their veins; such parents will bring into the world ill-nurtured children, in whom the brain will generally be the least developed part of the body; such children, by their very formation, will incline to the animal rather than to the human, and by leading an animal, or natural, life will be deficient in those qualities which are necessary in social life.

Their surroundings as they grow up, the home, the food, the associates, all are bad.

They are trained into vice, educated into criminality; so surely as from the sown corn rises the wheat-ear, so from the sowing of misery, filth, and starvation shall arise crime.