56 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



tion. Their destruction is not sanctification, as 

 many suppose ; but is rather the retributive effect 

 of their unrestrained abuse. They are to be used 

 and mastered in the interest of the rational life, 

 under the over-guidance of divine law and pur- 

 pose, by the assistance of the Divine Spirit. 



It is an ordinary assumption that sin inheres 

 in the flesh. Writers who treat of the nature of 

 Jesus argue that it was necessary for His per- 

 sonality to have a fleshly nature in which there is 

 no taint. Says one writer: "How much more, 

 then, in the nature of things, is it necessary that 

 He who came to redeem men from sin should Him- 

 self be without sin in His own flesh ! An immacu- 

 late spirit demands an immaculate organism." 

 (Cooke: "Incarnation and Eecent Criticism," 

 147.) What can this mean? It is hard to an- 

 swer, unless we assume that the absence of sin 

 in the flesh will be evidenced by the absence of 

 fleshly appetite, passion, impulse. But such an 

 absence is not purity, it is mutilation, destruction 

 of the bodily function in one form or another. It 

 is something that has no analogy or suggestion in 

 the experience of Christians. The Christian who 

 attains the highest degree and experience of pu- 

 rity does not thereby lose any animal appetite 

 or passion; he receives only such a spiritual en- 

 dowment that he is able completely to control 

 them. This control is the vital and sufficient thing 

 in a member of our race. Not absence of conflict, 

 but victory, is human excellence. This demand 



