subject. The conflict we have spoken of is that described by St.
Paul as between the flesh and the spirit. Now the flesh is not
equivalent to the body. The works of the flesh are by no means
necessarily sensual sins; they include strife and envy. The flesh, the
animal within us, is not to be identified with our physical organisation.

Now we are drawing near to the very heart of the matter. What is it
which distinguishes the lower nature from the higher, the animal from the
Divine in us, the flesh from the spirit? The distinction lies in the
objects to which the desires of each of these natures are directed.

The animal, predominantly, desires the good of self: the Divine, the good
of others.

This we must now expand. There is nothing morally wrong in the
self-seeking of the animal. Moral evil--sin--only arises when two
conditions are fulfilled.

The self-seeking desire must be felt to be in contradiction to the
unselfish dictates of the higher nature.

The will, having this knowledge more or less clearly before it, chooses
to give effect to the lower rather than to subordinate it to the higher.
We may express the same truth somewhat more accurately.

The material of human sin is the co-existence of the animal nature and
the Divine Nature within us.

The occasion of sin is the conflict between the two.

The conditions of sin are two--knowledge and freedom; knowledge of the
antagonism between the desires of the two natures, and freedom to give
effect either to the one or to the other.

The actual fact of sin is the movement of the will, making its choice in
favour of the lower in opposition to the higher.

These two corollaries follow:--(i) Sin belongs only to the will, not to
the nature. "There is nothing good in the world save a good will." And
the converse is true: there is nothing sinful in the world save a sinful
will.

(ii) Sin does not lie in the act, but in the movement of the will, of
which the act is but the outward symbol. We must carefully distinguish
between sin and temptation. No temptation is sinful, however strong and
however vividly presented to the mind. Sin only comes in when the will
makes the choice of the worse alternative. A sin in thought is an act of
inward choice, the deliberate indulgence of, the dwelling with pleasure
upon, the temptation presented to us. But if I am only prevented by
circumstances or by fear from embodying the wrong choice of my will in
action, I