CHAPTER XV 



SUMMAEY 



LET us connect our chain into three well-defined 

 links. 1. The genesis of the child is not from an 

 act inherently sinful. It is necessary to call dis- 

 tinct attention to the importance of this fact, be- 

 cause logically it is the source of the doctrine of 

 the inherent sinfulness of human nature. That 

 the child is a product of sinful passion has been 

 the assumption of Christian thinkers at least since 

 the time of Augustin, who had so much to do with 

 the formation of Christian doctrine. We are the 

 more surprised at the age-long dominance of this 

 assumption when we remember that the first posi- 

 tive command in the Bible was to multiply and re- 

 plenish the earth. We remember also that in this 

 act God takes man into partnership in the intro- 

 duction of human beings into what we believe is 

 the beginning of an eternal career of communion 

 with Himself. It is surprising that we should re- 

 gard God's part in this act as more worthy of Him 

 than the speaking into existence of a material 

 world, and at the same time should regard man 's 

 part as inherently and invincibly evil. God has 

 nowhere bestowed upon man greater dignity than 



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