her than to the sense of
duty. The temptation came from within rather than from without,
and the responsibility of not choosing the best rested with the
individual. The explanation is as simple and as true to human
experience to-day as in the childhood of the race.

The Persian religion, on the contrary, conceived of the world as
controlled by two hostile gods, with their hosts of attendant
angels. One god, Ormuzd, was the embodiment of light and goodness.
The other, Ahriman, represented darkness and evil. They traced all
sin to the direct influence of Ahriman and the evil spirits that
attended him. During the Persian period a somewhat similar
explanation of the origin of evil appeared in Jewish thought.
Satan, who in the book of Job appears to be simply the prosecuting
attorney of heaven, began to be thought of as the enemy of man,
until in later times all sin was traced directly or indirectly to
his influence. This was the conception prevalent among the
Puritans. This view tended to relieve man of personal
responsibility for he was regarded as the victim of assaults of
hosts of malignant spirits. Does your knowledge of the heart of
man confirm the insight of the prophet who speaks through the
wonderful story of Genesis 3?

III.

THE ORIGIN OF SIN ACCORDING TO THE STORY IN GENESIS 3.

In your judgment is the story of the man and the woman in Genesis 3
a chapter from the life of a certain man and woman, or a faithful
reflection of universal human experience? Most of the elements
which are found in the story may likewise be traced in earlier
Semitic traditions. The aim of the prophet who has given us the
story was, according to the view of certain interpreters, to
present in vivid, concrete form the origin, nature, and
consequences of sin. This method of teaching was similar to that
which Jesus used, for example, in the parable of Dives and Lazarus.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, with the command not to
eat of it, apparently symbolizes temptation. Is temptation
necessary for man's moral development? The serpent was evidently
chosen because of its reputation for craft and treachery. The
serpent's words represent the natural inclinations that were
struggling in the mind of the woman against her sense of duty.
Note that in the story the temptation did not come to man through
his appetite or his curiosity or his esthetic sense but through his
wife whom God had given him. Was the man's act