2i8 ORIGINAL SIN 



cap which has been physically inherited. The con- 

 clusion to which we are led is that an acceptance of 

 creationism need not in the least interfere with the 

 reasonableness of behef in the cathoHc doctrine of 

 original sin. 



We come at last to the question of the moral value 

 and importance of the doctrine of original sin. If it 

 has no moral value — no bearing upon practical prob- 

 lems and issues — it was hardly worth our while to 

 employ so much argument in its defence. The doc- 

 trines of Christianity are not imposed upon us as mere 

 trials of faith, but as affording the knowledge which 

 must determine a true ideal of human destiny and of 

 the method of attaining it. Saving doctrine should not 

 be regarded as an arbitrary stipulation, but as called 

 saving because needed for the guidance of those who 

 would Hve a saving Hfe.^ I have already shown that, 

 if the moral state in which mankind has found itself 

 during all the ages which our natural knowledge of 

 his condition embraces is its original condition, the 

 language of redemption and of baptismal regeneration 

 which is so much employed in the New Testament 

 needs correction; for these doctrines, as they are there 

 exhibited, imply a fall from grace, and depend for their 

 truth upon the doctrine of original sin. The practical 

 importance of the doctrine of the fall is therefore 

 involved in that of the New Testament dispensation 

 of salvation.^ 



1 Cf. the author's Introd. to Dog. TheoL, ch. ix. §§ i, 2. 



2 Cf. p. 185, above. 



