among the angels; and he who had been Lucifer, the
light-bearer, prince among the glorious sons of God, took up arms of
rebellion against the Almighty. Naturally, he failed in this inevitably
losing battle, and was cast out into the abyss, with a third part of
all the angels, who had followed him. Then the tradition goes on: God
decided to create the world, that the sons of men born and trained here
might ultimately take the places that had been held by the angels who
had been cast out on account of their sin. But Satan, seeing this fair
and beautiful earth, this wondrous handiwork of God, determined, if
possible, to thwart and defeat the purposes of the Almighty. He
therefore invades this beautiful world. He finds Adam and Eve in their
condition of perfect felicity, innocent, but inexperienced; and they
fall a ready prey to his intention.

They then share his rebellion, accept him instead of God as king.
Henceforth they are followers of him in his age-long warfare against
light and truth, and, unless in some way saved, are to be sharers of
his eternal destiny, cast out into chains and darkness forever.

Now comes the necessity for noting for a moment the nature of sin on
this theory. You see it is not ignorance, it is not weakness merely, it
is not inherited passion only: it is conscious and purposeful rebellion
against God, putting yourself at enmity with his truth, his
righteousness, his love. In action it is some specific deed done
against God or against his truth or his right. As a state of mind, it
is a heart perverted, choosing always that which is evil, a heart at
enmity with God and with all that is good; and the theologians have
always been obliged, as a matter of consistency, to hold, no matter how
noble, how unselfish men might appear to be, that the natural man has
inherently, always, necessarily been evil. He carries about with him
the taint of original sin; that is, sin of constitution, ingrained,
inherited, that which is of the very fibre of his being. This is the
character of man as required by the old theological systems; and this
is how it happened to come about. Evil is not something natural, not
imperfection, not something undeveloped, not yet outgrown. Sin
originated outside of this world, invaded it, and worked its ruin and
destruction.

Now comes the device that has been called the Atonement, by which it is
supposed that God is going to be able to save at least a part of this
rebellious humani