EVOLUTION OP LIFE. 85 



whence the moral conduct of the individual 

 takes its bend. 



It is the especial object of the Christian dis- 

 pensation to teach man to have a knowledge of 

 himself, in order that he may know what he 

 really is : that, although he possesses within 

 himself a soul, immortal and divine, this divine 

 nature is, nevertheless, full of corrupt affec- 

 tions, from the depravity of the animal consti- 

 tution, by which it is defiled; that he is less 

 disposed to acquire the perfection of the one, 

 than to indulge the impulse of the other, 

 Christianity will teach man, that he is, by nature, 

 born in sin, and the child of wrath ; that, in- 

 stead of resisting the allurements of passion, 

 and of vice, he is prone to yield to their influ- 

 ence ; that instead of resisting, like the oak of 

 the forest, the hurricane force by which he is 

 assailed, he bends to temptation, like the wil- 

 low to the air ; and, that he is incapable of be- 

 coming acceptable to the Almighty by his own 

 works. 



Notwithstanding the fallen condition of man, 

 he is not left altogether destitute of attaining 

 the end for which he is designed. If he em- 

 ploys the means, they are always within his 

 reach. In order, however, to obtain regenera- 

 tion from sin, it is absolutely necessary that he 

 should give up the " old man," " be born again," 

 >' live in newness of life," and in the simplicity 



