222 HEREDITY AND CHRISTIAN PROBLEMS 



must be, that nothing less than this is salvation 

 worthy of the name. If Jesus Christ does not 

 supply this new life, He is no true Saviour. A 

 fruitful field for theological investigation would be 

 an inductive study of the transmissibility of the 

 spiritual hfe which is in Jesus Christ. Is it true 

 that those who truly accept and obey Him are so 

 regenerated that their children are born in His 

 likeness, as those who live without His life are 

 born simply into the likeness of the first man ? 

 This is a question which can be answered wisely 

 only with facts ; facts so carefully gathered and 

 classified as to leave no question concerning their 

 value. What an inductive study of this subject 

 would reveal is not now known, but there can be 

 no doubt but that the study of heredity has made 

 it plain that that only is salvation which imparts a 

 new and dominant life, putting in the place of in- 

 born tendencies toward sin, new and predominant 

 tendencies toward holiness. These tendencies may 

 coexist, but the tendencies toward evil will no 

 longer occupy the places of power in the person- 

 ality. Nothing is more terrible than the thought 

 that we bring into being immortal spirits who by 

 an eternal and changeless law are possessed of a 

 nature which will surely lead to wrong, and that 

 whatever relief may come to us individually the 



