THE PROBLEM OF FAITH 2IQ 



central doctrine of the Christian revelation. It 

 distinguishes Jesus from all other masters. The 

 study of heredity gives an altogether new signifi- 

 cance to the word salvation. Its primary idea is 

 of one who has lost his way, finding it again ; of 

 one sick, restored to health ; of one in peril, being 

 given a way of escape. But we do not proceed 

 far in this study before we realize that that from 

 which men need salvation is a state or condition 

 into which they are born. The tendencies to evil 

 which burn in the veins are not chosen ; they are 

 not taken in at some specific time ; they are dis- 

 covered, and the discovery is usually an awful and 

 humiliating surprise. Most are sometime rudely 

 shocked by finding themselves the abode of pas- 

 sions of whose existence they had heretofore been 

 ignorant. This condition is not sin, since sin 

 implies guilt, and no one is blamable for anything 

 which he does not choose, and which at first, at 

 least, he would repudiate with loathing. Different 

 thinkers have given different names lo this state, 

 such as sin, depravity, evil, imperfect development. 

 It has been ascribed to the effect of a wrong choice 

 on the part of the first human ancestor, and it has 

 been regarded as a necessary stage in the evolution 

 of humanity. The differences between philoso- 

 phers and theologians concerning innate tendency 



