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246 tempted to violate its laws,—we may see to the bottom of the whole subject—yea, down to the very origin of evil itself. For the simple principle, here exhibited in action, is a key to the whole. Man's possession of a rational faculty, a power of thinking, of looking round about him, choosing this and rejecting that,—a power of observing his own inclinations, noting what he is pleased with, or what he dislikes—thus in a word, the faculty of forming judgments and conclusions, and then of leading himself according to such conclusions—herein lies man's power of perverting the order and laws of his own nature, physical or moral; and thus, while seeking to lead himself,—leading himself astray, and so falling into disorder, that is, evil. Hence came evil into the world. And not only did it come at the beginning, but it is coming every day. The Fall did not merely take place once, but it is continually taking place. Man is born, indeed, at present in a fallen and disordered state: the effect of the original fall is still with him; he inherits disorderly tendencies and inclinations from his parents and ancestors. But, from this general fallen state, he is falling into still lower individual states continually, by the abuse of his rational faculty; and, by a similar abuse, he confirms himself in the perverted courses to which natural inclinations tend. We have only to observe how man falls to-day,—how he brings himself into disorder or increased disorder now continually,—to understand how the fall took place in the beginning, and how the departure from the good order in which man was created, originally occurred. It was by the abuse of the rational or thinking faculty.

But it may be interesting now to inquire, what form