ust to act in defiance of and in opposition
to that nature. Sin, then, is the only possible case in the universe,
falling under our observation, in which a creature _can_ contradict the
law of its being. Science has at least given the final refutation of the
devil's lie that sin is natural to man. It is the only unnatural thing
in the world. It is not non-human, like the actions of animals. The age-
long history of the race can never be reversed. I cannot undo the
process which has made me man, and act as the non-moral animal. My
sinful actions, my transgressions, are just because they are, and just in
proportion as they are, immoral, for that very reason, and in that very
measure, inhuman, not non-human.

Much more might be shown to follow from this most important
consideration. But here we adduce it for this sole reason, that science
may be allowed to bear its witness, a most just and passionless, and an
unconscious and tacit witness, to the truth of the Christian estimate of
sin.

(_b_) Nothing, at first sight, could be more different from the
scientific account of the origin of sin, than that account of it which is
given in the third chapter of the Book of Genesis.

There we have, to put it shortly, the most profound spiritual teaching in
the form of a story, a piece of primitive Hebrew folk-lore. The Divine
Wisdom made choice of this channel to communicate to man certain great
truths about his nature, realities of the highest plane of his
experience, where he moves in the presence of God and realities unseen,
unheard. And we can discern at least some of the reasons for the choice
of these methods.

The most adequate revelation of the origin of sin which has ever been
made to man, must (we are almost justified in saying) have been made to
us in some such form as this for the following reasons.

(i) Truth expressed in the form of a story is thereby made
comprehensible to men of every stage of culture. "Truth embodied in a
tale, shall enter in at lowly doors." At the door of no man's mind, who
is spiritually receptive, will it knock in vain. To simple and to wise,
to the unlearned and the learned, to the young and to the old, it appeals
alike. This form of instruction alone is of universal application.

(ii) Truth thus conveyed can never become obsolete. Scientific treatises
in the course of a few years become out of date, left far behind by the
rapidly advancing tide of knowledge. Moreover, if