s their crime? Are toil and pain in
themselves curses or blessings to those who have done wrong? The
picture in Genesis 3 clearly implies that God's intention was not
that man should suffer but that he should enjoy perfect health and
happiness. Jehovah's preparation of the coats of skin for the man
and woman is convincing evidence that his love and care continued
unremittingly even for the wrong doers. Modern psychology is
making it clear that the effect of sin upon the unrepentant sinner
is to increase his inclination toward sinning. But when a man in
penitence for his sin has turned toward God and changed his
relation to his fellow men, God becomes to him a new Being with a
nearness and intimacy impossible before! May the Christian believe
that this new sense of nearness and love to God is met by a
corresponding feeling on God's part? In the light of Christian
experience is there not every reason to believe that God himself
also enters into a new and joyous relationship with the man? This
thought was evidently in the mind of Jesus when be declared that
there was joy in heaven over one sinner that repented.

VI.

THE EFFECT OF SIN UPON SOCIETY.

Men are often heard to remark that they are willing to bear the
consequences of their sin. Is it possible for any individual to
experience in himself the entire result of his wrong-doing? In the
Genesis story the woman's deliberate disobedience would seem to
have had very direct influence upon her husband. Mankind has
almost universally come to regard certain acts as wrong and to
prescribe definite modes of punishment. Such decisions have come
about not simply because of the effect of sin upon the individual
but more especially because the sin of the individual affects
society. State the different influences that deter men from sin
and note those which from your experience seem the strongest.

_Questions for Further Consideration_.

Is an act that is wrong for one man necessarily a sin if committed
by another? Are men's tendencies to sin due to their inheritance
or to impulses which they share in common with brutes, or to
influences that come from their environment? In the light of this
discussion formulate your own definition of sin.

Is the final test of sin a man's consciousness of guilt, or the
ultimate effect of his act upon himself, or upon society?

May the woman in the Garden of Eden be regarded as the prototype of
the modern scientist? Are