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STUDY VIII. MAN AND HIS RELATIONSHIPS.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempteth no man: but each man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it hath conceived, beareth_sin: and the sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death." (Jas. i. 12-15.)

"Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it." (1 Cor. x. 12, 13.)

PART II. GROWTH OF MORAL LIFE.

A CHILD is born into the world with capacities both for good and for evil. It is not a moral being, but it has capacity to become a moral being. Two great forces will mold the life into its mature form. The first of these forces is heredity. The individual man is a part of the race. He enters life in the midst of the stream of human consciousness. He must, therefore, bring with him certain of the established tendencies of the race. This relation of the individual to the race has led some to suppose that the direction of the life is so set before responsibility dawns, that the nature of the child is so bent at birth, as to remove from him all responsibility. We may not be able to answer all the questions raised by heredity in relation to freedom; but this much we do know that all human society, all law, all discipline is based on the conviction that man ultimately and finally is free. Heredity may modify the degree of responsibility, but it cannot destroy it and leave man still a man. I have nothing to say about the kind of disposition I inherit, but I am responsible for the way I use and train that disposition.

After the child comes into the world, he finds himself surrounded by certain forces and influences. These have a tendency to mold his character in accordance with their own nature. Some have, therefore, supposed that a man is made by his environment. While no man can prevent his environ

ment influencing his life, even if it be only in the nature of a recoil, yet man is not bound by his environment. A man can make his own environment, as it were. We grow like that on which we center our attention, and a man's power of attention lies in the realm of the will. I may attend to the best about me, or I may attend to the worst. Two boys come from the same home with approximately the same heredity and practically the same environment. They enter college. One becomes a social dandy, and the other becomes a serious student. The difference is largely in the things to which they give attention. Man ultimately is free and, therefore, responsible. Or, to put it from the reverse angle, we hold man responsible for his actions; therefore we must believe that he is ultimately free. How, then, does the child use his freedom to build character? "It is of the very essence of life to express itself; and this expression takes the form of personal assertion, personal initiative, the assumption of self-command. It is out of this inner struggle of self-command and self-assertion that character is born. All character, whether good or bad, is the accelerated victory over opposite tendencies. This, then, means the development of will, the building of the power of choice." Since it is of the nature of life to express itself, this choice, this self-assertion, is not in itself evil or selfish. But out of this growth into self-assertion the selfish tendency arises. We are apt to come to the place where we do a thing simply because we want to and without due regard to the rights of others. The minute our self-assertiveness becomes selfishness it has passed over into the realm of evil and sin.

"The author's "Personal Elements in Religion," chapter on "Sin."

STUDY VIII. MAN AND HIS RELATIONSHIPS.

"And he said unto all, If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and lose or forfeit his own self?" (Luke ix. 23-25.)

"But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Not so shall it be among you: but whosoever would become great among you shall be your minister; and whosoever would be first among you shall be your servant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Matt. xx. 25-28.)

PART III. SELFISHNESS AS SIN.

THE fact that it is of the very essence and nature of life to express itself has given rise to a kind of laissez faire theory of morals. It has become a kind of defense of license. A college man came to me once, saying that indulgence of his physical nature was no more nor less than the expression of his being; and that was natural. He had forgotten, however, and refused to remember that his nature must be expressed with reference both to his own best self and to the well-being of others. To act in accord with the demand of my lower life without due regard to the rights of my higher self and the rights of others is sin.

"Love, looking upward toward God and outward toward man, is the true law of life; and such love, filial and fraternal, will render it impossible for a man to be a selfish, selfregarding, self-seeking person. It is true that there is a selfregard which in its place is not sinful, but normal and worthy; and yet to a man in the right attitude, not self, but God and men, will appear the chief end to be regarded, and the

general claim of duty will appear more urgent than all selfinterest.""

Sin, therefore, is the placing of my will, self-will, selfishness, over against the will and the need of all other persons-God and men. Sin is selfishness. It will appear, therefore, that sin is not an abstract something, but is a concrete form of relationship. It is lack of harmony, deliberate opposition to other persons or my best person. When, therefore, man gets so set on having his own way and on following his own desire that he forgets and disregards either his own highest self or other selves, he becomes a sinful man. Selfishness is the root of all sin. A man is a libertine because he forgets his own higher nature and the person against whom he sins in the one consuming desire to satisfy his lower nature-that is, he is selfish. A man is dishonest when he forgets the property rights of others in the morbid desire to possess. He is selfish. Persons are jealous when they exalt the importance of their own natures and fail to give consideration to the virtues and rights of other natures. They consider themselves alone worthy of love, which is a form of selfishness. One is selfish when, because of ease, one indulges one's lower nature and neglects one's higher nature, which becomes sin. All intellectual laziness, all inordinate yielding to ease at the expense of development, is selfishness, is sin.

Therefore one may go to perdition on the road of selfishness as rapidly as one goes on the road of so-called grosser sins. The essential failure of selfishness lies in the fact that it makes one insensible to the needs and rights of others. It thus cuts one off from sympathy with others and destroys one's means of growth. In this respect selfishness becomes sin.

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1Clark, "Outline of Christian Theology," page 235.

STUDY VIII. MAN AND HIS RELATIONSHIPS.

"Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." (Ezek. xviii. 4.)

"Know ye not, that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But thanks be to God, that, whereas ye were servants of sin, ye became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered; and being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification. For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being made free from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. vi. 16-23.)

"Every one that doeth sin doeth also lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And ye know that he was manifested to take away sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither knoweth him." (1 John iii. 4-6.)

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John i. 8, 9.)

PART IV. THE GROWTH AND MEANING OF SIN.

STEVENS, in his "Psychology of the Human Soul," outlines the growth of the power of sin, or selfish desire. First, we perceive an object or an end. Secondly, we think of this object or end as a possible good. Thirdly, we dwell on the thought of the good to be received. In common parlance, we play with temptation. Fourthly, a strong desire seizes us to take this possible good for ourselves regardless of how it may affect others. Fifthly, we act, and the sin is done. Every man who has yielded to temptation knows how true is this description. Sin comes from staying so long in the

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