acquainted with the Pelagians, the Nestorians, the Gnostic sects, and others who held opinions contrary to those professed by the Church of the period. Then the Article proceeds: - but it is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam:'-there is the doctrine of Original Sin.

In these days, if we were to draw up Articles in accordance with present thoughts and feelings, we should have avoided all dogmatic assertions about Adam, because we should feel we were on dangerous ground; because even many sound theologians do not hold now to the letter of that story of the Apple in the garden of Eden; in short, a variety of different opinions are now held within the orthodox Church about the early chapters of Genesis. Then, we should not have alluded to the Pelagians at all, because few people now-a-days know or care anything about them. In short, they are left to the tender mercies of theologians, which are often-times cruel. And, then the Article goes on to explain how utterly corrupt and degraded we all are; not so much because we have done anything wrong, but because Adam did what was wrong.

78. Now I want to show you that there is a great deal of truth in all this, and yet, somehow, when it is so stated, it does not appear true to us—it does not bring home to us the consciousness of sin at all. And the matter being put so before men, they go about with a light heart, merely believing that the Article is overstated; they say,

we are not so bad as that; there may be a little taint of nature somewhere, so that a man may be said to be born with bad dispositions, but there is a good deal of natural righteousness about us after all, and Job knew this perfectly well, for when they told him he was a bad man and being punished for his sins, he said practically, ‘I am not a bad man, I am a very good man, and I do not deserve this; although I may have my weaknesses I do not deserve all this trouble; it is useless for you to tell me that God is afflicting me because I am a wicked man ; it is not so.' If you do not like my paraphrase, hear Job on his own righteousness (Job xxiii. 11): My foot hath held His steps, His way have I kept, and not declined, neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips ;' and to his accusers he replies: 'God forbid that I should justify you; till I die I will not remove my integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, I will not let it go' (Job xxvii. 5). There is something of that kind in the feelings of people whenever the charge of unlimited original corruption is brought against them; they have a consciousness, for instance, that God has blessed them with an equable temper, and inclined their hearts to good, and these things are in them natural qualities—birth qualities—an original righteousness-and much of their actual virtue has been only a spontaneous and natural pleasurable development of something which God has made in them originally good; and in many respects they are about as originally righteous as they are originally sinful. Now, I think it is simply because the Article takes no account of man's original righteousness

that we are unfortunately impressed with its teaching on Original Sin. Yet, if we state the same doctrine in a slightly altered form, our reasonable objections will vanish.

79. Am I denying original sin? am I denying this Article? On the contrary, I wish to show you how true it is.

Do you deny original sin? Look into the streets of this great city and tell me what are all these people so wan, so weary for, so masked and painted, so restless, or so pale and suffering? Is it merely physical and accidental disease? Is it not rather, in the vast majority of cases, some deep-seated moral disease-sin—an original tendency to sin, which has brought forth disease and which is bringing forth death? I say it is written in our streets, the original sin of man; the unbalanced nature of his passions, his unruly lusts, his primitive tendencies to headlong self-indulgence, have brought him to bitterness. It is true, there is blight in his nature.

I say, original sin is written in our thoroughfares, in our hospitals, in our shops, in all our public places, and in our private homes. This is why the rose fades out of the young cheek. This is why sweet laughter changes to the hollow sound as of wind whistling through a death's head. This is why the busy hands are feeble, and the keepers of the house tremble, and the strong men bow themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and those that look out of the

windows are darkened, and the doors are shut in the streets when the sound of the grinding is low, and they rise up at the voice of a bird, and all the daughters of music are brought low.' Eccles. xii.

80. And this is not merely the assertion of theologians or old prophets. Ask Dr. Darwin to what he attributes half the misery of this world, he would tell you, 'I attribute it to original sin.' You reply, 'Oh, but Dr. Darwin is a scientific man. He does not believe in that sort of thing.' I tell you that is just the sort of thing which he does believe, and which he is incessantly preaching. He tells us those bad tendencies which you call sinful are inherited tendencies-inherited from your father and grandfather, and even their ancestors, and so down to the old Adam whoever he was, perhaps the Ascidian monster of whom we have heard so much. You carry in you the burden of past generations, you carry in you the taint of their original sin, in your members and in your mental tendencies and emotions, so that though I am not a stickler for dogmatic theology, yet I would affirm, and must affirm, that we are all suffering, not only from actual sin which we have committed, but from a certain original tendency to sin, for which we are personally not responsible.

81. Look into your own hearts; there is a proclivity towards evil. You know there is; and in quiet moments this comes flashing through your brain; and when you are perfectly happy, when there is nothing to disturb you,

when your heart is full, and the cup of health overflowing, at that time you are often most disposed to all kinds of iniquity and abnormal self-indulgence. These tendencies announce themselves to you, not always in the hour of adversity, but in the hour of prosperity.

Why will you be bad? Because you are not satisfied? No, but because you are satisfied: because you are so happy, therefore you will be wicked.

And now, brethren, it is a most solemn and practical reflection, that as tendencies are inherited from the past, so tendencies are transmitted to the future. You live in a moment, and what you do in a moment is for all time. Remember you do not only inherit, you transmit ; and you do not only transmit to your children natural qualities but acquired qualities, and therefore this doctrine of original sin has a very practical bearing upon you. Through your children you rule posterity. You leave for good or evil indelible marks on the Universe. Supposing before your child is born, you managed to make yourself a better man, or a better woman; supposing before you enter into the marriage state, you actually do make yourselves better men and women, then you will transmit to another generation these better tendencies; but supposing you neglect this, and allow yourself to go on in unbridled lusts and passions, suppose you do not acquire habits of love, and truth, and self-control, then the child born to you will be born with so many tendencies against him. You have no right to lay the burden of your original sin upon him. See then, dear friends, how solemn a thing it is for you to enter