v] Some Implications of the Incarnation \ 65 



creates himself, there is much which belongs to lower 

 stages of being. There are many impulses that date 

 from preconscious times, which his spirit has outgrown. 

 There are many impulses, many yielding^, which truly 

 belong to stages left behind. Yielding voluntarily and 

 with open eyes to such anachronistic impulses con- 

 stitutes the positive act we call sin. Sin too, then, per- 

 sists in the ever-present past ever present, because, 

 through memory, it is ever active in the now. What a 

 man is and will be is largely determined by what he has 

 been. 



Yet his growing spirit exercises censorship. He re- 

 cognises unconsciously as well as consciously that there 

 is much in his past that must not be imported into the 

 present. Often he commits the dread mistake of being 

 shocked. Lower impulses and past yieldings alike he 

 refuses to admit into consciousness. He dare not face 

 them, and packs them hurriedly out of sight. Instead 

 of realising that only on the basis of the past can the 

 future be built; instead of admitting to himself that, 

 though he may attempt to delude himself into a belief 

 that because he refuses to recognise them they have 

 ceased to exist, they have not done so really ; he actually 

 brings himself to think that out of sight is truly out of 

 'mind.' He forgets the truth that underlies the old 

 catch-word "Forgotten sin is not forgiven sin." 



If only men could get rid of the terrible habit of being 

 shocked at facts ! No real being has caused anything 

 like the harm and misery that Mrs Grundy has been 

 responsible for, even though she be a veritable Mrs 

 Harris. Countless lives have been wrecked morally, 

 countless men and women who should have been 

 healthy have been driven into invalidism, by the con- 

 spiracy of silence. 



We are brought up in an atmosphere of prurient 

 ignorance. We are taught nothing of the majesty and 



