78 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



it is a fury when it is inflamed with evil desire. 

 A man cherishes wife and child, church and home, 

 with real affection, and yet in a moment his star 

 has fallen, and he has committed an awful sin. 

 He is perfectly sincere in saying that he did not 

 mean to go astray, and that he hates his evil 

 ways. What, then, is the explanation .-* It is, 

 that in him were two men : one visible, frank, 

 open, manly, desiring good things; another out of 

 sight, and perhaps unknown, who is ever waiting 

 for an opportunity to rush into the field of con- 

 sciousness and manifest his vileness. Where did 

 that unknown man come from ? From where the 

 individual originated ; from the human life cur- 

 rent. St. Paul knew that unseen man well ; he 

 knew what it was to desire one thing and do 

 another. What I wish to make plain is, that this 

 friend of ours who has sinned so grievously was 

 not altogether a free man. In him by nature was 

 much of the animal, more, perhaps, than in the 

 average of men ; or, perhaps, his will was consti- 

 tutionally weak, and consequently less able to con- 

 trol the animal nature. Therefore his choices are, 

 largely, the choices of the still more animal ances- 

 tors whose evil influence has not been altogether 

 eliminated from his blood. It is hardly to be 

 doubted that a large proportion of those who fall 



