58 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



are left without any means of accounting for the 

 moral history of the individual. Our explana- 

 tion, on the other hand, throws back no great 

 burden of responsibility on the first man; allows 

 the wisdom, the goodness, and the justice of God 

 to stand unchallenged, and at the same time af- 

 fords every datum of explanation of the subse- 

 quent history of the child that the traditional 

 view possessed. And it does much more : it allows 

 us to use physical descriptions of physical condi- 

 tions, and reserves to us the word "sin" for ap- 

 plication to a fact purely moral and spiritual. It 

 gives us a rational and possible basis for a life 

 of struggle, which no man ever could avoid, what- 

 ever his professions and claims, which life God 

 can smile upon and reward. It gives an expli- 

 cable view of the sanctified life, which, under the 

 supposition that animal propensity was sin, was 

 made impossible and absurd. These are not small 

 contributions to an explanation of our spiritual 

 life and its reconciliation with our actual life in 

 the body. Moreover, it creates no difficulties to 

 offset its gains, unless it be the straightening out 

 of some exegesis based on the materialistic view 

 of sin. Having meditated much upon it, I know 

 of no Scripture that may not be explained in an 

 atmosphere of candor, although there are several 

 that may be quoted in a controversial spirit. 



