ence, all provided for him ready made? And yet he turns upon
his soul and wishes to organize that himself! O preposterous and vain
man, thou who couldest not make a finger-nail of thy body, thinkest thou
to fashion this wonderful, mysterious, subtle soul of thine after the
ineffable Image? Wilt thou ever permit thyself _to be_ conformed to the
Image of the Son? Wilt thou, who canst not add a cubit to thy stature,
submit _to be_ raised by the Type-Life within thee to the perfect
stature of Christ?

This is a humbling conclusion. And therefore men will resent it. Men
will still experiment "by works of righteousness which they have done"
to earn the Ideal life. The doctrine of Human Inability, as the Church
calls it, has always been objectionable to men who do not know
themselves. The doctrine itself, perhaps, has been partly to blame.
While it has been often affirmed in such language as rightly to humble
men, it has also been stated and cast in their teeth with words which
could only insult them. Merely to assert dogmatically that man has no
power to move hand or foot to help himself toward Christ, carries no
real conviction. The weight of human authority is always powerless, and
ought to be, where the intelligence is denied a rationale. In the light
of modern science when men seek a reason for every thought of God or
man, this old doctrine with its severe and almost inhuman aspect--till
rightly understood--must presently have succumbed. But to the biologist
it cannot die. It stands to him on the solid ground of Nature. It has a
reason in the laws of life which must resuscitate it and give it another
lease of years. Bird-Life makes the Bird. Christ-Life makes the
Christian. No man by taking thought can add a cubit to his stature.

So much for the scientific evidence. Here is the corresponding statement
of the truth from Scripture. Observe the passive voice in these
sentences: "_Begotten_ of God;" "The new man which _is renewed_ in
knowledge after the Image of Him that created him;" or this, "We _are
changed_ into the same Image;" or this, "Predestinate _to be conformed_
to the Image of His Son;" or again, "Until Christ _be formed_ in you;"
or "Except a man _be born again_ he cannot see the Kingdom of God;"
"Except a man _be born_ of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter the
Kingdom of God." There is one outstanding verse which seems at first
sight on the other side: "Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling;