32 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



transactions; there is nothing real about it on 

 either side. The process of salvation is made a 

 sort of arithmetical problem, worked out by some 

 second person, without ever touching the actual 

 personality of the person who is saved. John 

 Jones from the hand of God was a child of God; 

 but something happened with which he never had 

 anything to do, which subtracted something from 

 his acceptable relation to God. But this seems 

 rather hard; so something on the other side was 

 done, with which also he had nothing to do, which 

 restored him to his original relation of accepta- 

 bility.* This is a fiction, as needless as it is ir- 

 rational. There is no warrant for saying that 

 God really is, or ever was, angry with children 

 before they had ever done wrong. The concep- 

 tion is revoltingly repudiated as dishonoring to 

 God by the unbiased judgment of enlightened 

 mankind. The author himself very well knows 

 this, and hence he invents another fiction to right 

 himself in practical results. (I will not insist 



* Luther in his commentary on Galatians says: "And this (no doubt) all the proph- 

 ets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, 

 adulterer, thief, rebel, and blasphemer that ever was or could be in all the world. For 

 He being made a sacrifice for the sins of the world, is not now an innocent person and 

 without sins, He is not now the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary, but a sinner, which 

 hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor, and a persecutor; 

 of Peter, which denied Christ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murderer, and caused 

 the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord; and briefly, which hath and beareth 

 the sins of all men in TTi body; not that He Himself committeth them, but for that He 

 received them being committed or done of us, and laid them upon His own body that 

 He might make satisfaction for them with His blood. . . . Our most merciful Father 

 . . . sent His only Son into the world, and laid upon Him all the sins of all men, 

 saying, Be Thou Peter that denier; Paul that persecutor, blasphemer, and cruel oppres- 

 sor; David that adulterer; that sinner that did eat the apple in Paradise; that thief which 

 hanged upon the cross; and briefly, be Thou the person which hath committed the sina 

 of all men." (Quoted by W. Hale White: "Bunyan," 98, 99.) 



