HEEEDITAEY SIN IS DISPEOVEN 95 



redity is a thing of the flesh, of the nervous sys- 

 tem, and hence has immense importance. God has 

 given our children to us for fleshly weal or woe. 

 We have much to say as to what they shall be; 

 but we can not directly consign them to guiltiness 

 and spiritual poverty by our sins, through the law 

 of heredity.* 



* "The purifying grace of God in human nature does weaken the power of sin, 

 and to the degree that it loses its dominion over the flesh, (1) and its enticing influence 

 over the spirit, to that extent is its transmissive power weakened." (2) (Cooke: In- 

 carnation and Recent Criticism, 151.) 



(1) "Power of sin in the flesh," is here manifestly intended to be understood. 

 This would be probably true if there were any sin in the flesh, which there is not. Sin 

 is not an attribute of a material substance. There may be disease in the flesh. Whether 

 the grace of God weakens the power of disease, we will not discuss, because it is not 

 relevant at this point. We can readily believe that it would, but it is simply a question 

 of fact to be established. 



That Paul speaks repeatedly of "sin in the flesh" we are aware, but even a slight 

 examination will show that he is not thinking of the substance, flesh; but is using the 

 word *arx as a figure of speech for a nature or person, who is giving himself to the do- 

 minion of fleshly impulses. 



(2) This is an easy and at first view apparently pleasant assumption; one that 

 has been much indulged in in recent years by different writers. But first, when heredity 

 and environment are properly discriminated, the experience of the race furnishes no con- 

 firmation of it. It is now rejected by scientists, although the whole subject can hardly 

 be said as yet to be worked out definitely. In the second place, if it were true, such 

 a law of heredity would produce a condition of hopelessness for mankind. If moral 

 qualities are transmissible by heredity, then the bad as well as the good would have 

 their cumulative consequences. Unfortunately the history of the race has been so pre- 

 ponderantly evil that such a law would long ago have brought us below salvabilit^. 

 However such a law would be on its upward side, the downward side must go with it, 

 and would have placed mankind in a hopeless condition. There are few things from 

 which we have escaped for which we should be more thankful than that the law of her- 

 edity does not include in its operation the transmission of moral qualities from gener- 

 ation to generation. 



