cture of the soul. So to
speak, they are physiological. The thing affected by our indifference or
by our indulgence is not the book of final judgment but the present
fabric of the soul. The punishment of degeneration is simply
degeneration--the loss of functions, the decay of organs, the atrophy of
the spiritual nature. It is well known that the recovery of the
backslider is one of the hardest problems in spiritual work. To
reinvigorate an old organ seems more difficult and hopeless than to
develop a new one; and the backslider's terrible lot is to have to
retrace with enfeebled feet each step of the way along which he strayed;
to make up inch by inch the lee-way he has lost, carrying with him a
dead-weight of acquired reluctance, and scarce knowing whether to be
stimulated or discouraged by the oppressive memory of the previous fall.

We are not, however, to discuss at present the physiology of
backsliding. Nor need we point out at greater length that parasitism is
always and indissolubly accompanied by degeneration. We wish rather to
examine one or two leading tendencies of the modern religious life which
directly or indirectly induce the parasitic habit and bring upon
thousands of unsuspecting victims such secret and appalling penalties as
have been named.

Two main causes are known to the biologist as tending to induce the
parasitic habit. These are, first, the temptation to secure safety
without the vital exercise of faculties, and, second, the disposition to
find food without earning it. The first, which we have formally
considered, is probably the preliminary stage in most cases. The animal,
seeking shelter, finds unexpectedly that it can also thereby gain a
certain measure of food. Compelled in the first instance, perhaps by
stress of circumstances, to rob its host of a meal or perish, it
gradually acquires the habit of drawing all its supplies from the same
source, and thus becomes in time a confirmed parasite. Whatever be its
origin, however, it is certain that the main evil of parasitism is
connected with the further question of food. Mere safety with Nature is
a secondary, though by no means an insignificant, consideration. And
while the organism forfeits a part of its organization by any method of
evading enemies which demands no personal effort, the most entire
degeneration of the whole system follows the neglect or abuse of the
functions of nutrition.

The direction in which we have to seek the wider a