Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FIRST AND THE SECOND MAN.59geology or astronomy, there is one thing, we maysuppose, which it proves with a superabundance ofevidence not found to belong to any other fact ofhistory; and that is, the intrinsic corruption of manas a moral being. That which in theologiesguage is called the Fall of man is, apart from allrevealed doctrine on the subject, brought in uponthe mind with irresistible force by the mere enumerationof the gods which heathendom worshipped,and of the worship paid by it to them ;a force which is indefinitely increased by everyinquiry into the moral and religious state of manas he lived under this worship.Now, then, let us consider what solution theChristian faith does give of this fact, which exists,be it remembered, independently of this swould exist with all its force undiminished,if this were rejected.1. The Christian faith, as a solution of thiswonderful maze of polytheistic idolatry, with allts accompaniments and consequences, carries usack to the first father of the race, whose develop-ient we have been following in it. This, it says,thing else2 but the body of Adam carriedthrough thousands of years, the body of Adfallen under a terrible captivitv. Not onthe Christianfaith set before us man as one race descended from one, but because he is this one race2 " Das Heidenthum 1st nichts anderes als der gefallene und nichtebome Mensch im Gro^sen." Mohler. Klrchenaeschichte. i. 169.