176 MORAL CONDITION OF THE CHILD 



ment of these children, so that they can enter 

 upon conditions of faith and acceptance of Christ, 

 and that, this being accomplished, their nature is 

 regenerated and they are taken into heaven? 

 These seem to he the necessities of the case on 

 the assumption of inherited sinfulness. We un- 

 dertake to say that even God can not do that. 

 Moral character is a personal achievement, and 

 can not be thus cut short, nor any short cuts taken 

 in its attainment. Moreover, the whole repre- 

 sentation is the promulgation of a theory in dire 

 distress. It is much easier to disbelieve the whole 

 theory, to start with, than to stretch our credulity 

 to such limits. Reject the doctrine of original 

 sin, and it serves no useful purpose. 



The answer that these children are sent to 

 perdition, having never done evil, requires noth- 

 ing but a reference to it. There was a day when 

 it required argument ; but the sun of that day will 

 never rise again. It passes our comprehension 

 that such an article of faith ever could have had an 

 hour's lodgment in human belief. That man could 

 ever have thought so vilely of God is a mystery 

 which can never be fully explained. That belief 

 has been driven forth, not so much by argument 

 or presentation of proof texts as by direct insight. 

 Whatever else is true, that can not be true. We 

 may forever despair of an answer to our ques- 

 tion; but this answer is forever barred. 



The only other answer that can be presented 

 on the assumption of hereditary sin is the answer 



