The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 130

THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD

90

to be present,

i.e.,

Our is

and the presence of what an abnormal derangement of the parts and

original righteousness,

ought to be absent, powers of the soul.

viz.,

fathers held almost the

same view.

They judged

not material, but the loss of original righteousness.

original righteousness belongs to the

that si«

But since

sound human nature, the

loss

did not leave that nature intact, but damaged, disjointed, and cor-

rupted

it.

A beautiful geranium that adorned the window was killed by the frost. Leaves and flowers withered, leaving only a mass of mildew and decay. What was the cause? Merely the loss of the sun's light and heat. But that was enough; for these belong to the nature of the plant, and are essential to its life and beauty. Deprived of them it remains not what it is, but its nature loses its soundness, and this causes decay, mildew, and poisonous gases, which soon destroy it. So of human nature In Paradise Adam was like the blooming plant, flourishing in the warmth and To

illustrate

:

:

brightness of the Lord's presence. ence.

The

result

By

was not merely the

sin

he

fled

from that presand heat, but

loss of light

since these were essential to his nature, that nature languished,

drooped, and withered. The mildew of corruption formed upon it; and the positive process of dissolution was begun, to end only in eternal death.

Facts and history prove even now that the human body has weakened since the days of the Reformation that bad habits of a certain character sometimes pass from father to child even where the early death of the former precludes propagation by education and example. Hence the difference between Adam, body and soul, before the fall and his descendants after the fall is not merely the loss of the Sun of Righteousness, which by nature shines no longer upon them, but the damage caused by this loss to the human nature, in body and soul, which thereby are weakened, diseased, corrupted, and thrown out of balance. This corrupt nature passes from the father to the child, as the Confession of Faith expresses it in article xv. " That original sin is a corruption of the whole nature, and an hereditary disease, wherewith infants themselves are infected in their mother's womb, and which produces in man all sorts of sin, being in him as a root ;

:

thereof."

However, the relation between a person and his ego must be

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