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do good, evil is present with him," for good and evil 

 are alike unknown. We know that until growth has 

 progressed to a certain degree he fully deserves the 

 praise pronounced by Our Saviour, that " of such is the 

 kingdom of heaven." Growth, however, generally sees 

 a change. We know that the buddings of evil appear 

 but too soon : the lapse of a few months sees exhibi- 

 tions of anger, disobedience, malice, falsehood, and 

 their attendants the fruit of a corruption within not 

 manifested before. 



In early youth it may be said that moral suscepti- 

 bility is often in inverse ratio to physical vigor. But 

 with growth the more physically vigorous are often 

 sooner taught the lessons of life, for their energy brings 

 them into earlier conflict with the antagonisms and con- 

 tradictions of the world. Here is a beautiful example 

 of the benevolent principle of compensation. 



i. Innocence and the Fall. If physical evolution be a 

 reality, we have reason to believe that the infantile 

 stage of human morals, as well as of human intellect, 

 was much prolonged in the history of our first parents. 

 This constitutes the period of human purity, when we 

 are told by Moses that the first pair dwelt in Eden. 

 But the growth to maturity saw the development of all 

 the qualities inherited from the irresponsible denizen of 

 the forest. Man inherits from his predecessors in the 

 creation the buddings of reason : he inherits passions, 

 propensities and appetites. His corruption is that of 

 his animal progenitors, and his sin is the low and bestial 

 instinct of the brute creation. Thus only is the origin 

 of sin made clear a problem which the pride of man 

 would have explained in any other way had it b^en 

 possible. 



