Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/40

 of order — his  soul  and  its  higher  powers  subject  to God,  his  lower  nature  subject  to  his  reason  and  will, and the  whole  visible  universe  subject  to  the  composite man. The world  was  then  an  earthly  paradise, no  labor,  no  want,  no  affliction  from  without, no misery  from  within,  but  happiness  and  immortality here,  and  the  assured  vision  of  God  hereafter. But man, like  the  angels,  was  tried,  and  man,  like  the angels, fell. The angels  sought  equality  with  God  in power,  and  man,  equally  guilty,  sought  equality  with God in  knowledge. And as  in  their  case  so  in  other and all  cases:  self-exaltation  ended  in  humiliation,  for God anathematized  man  and  freed  his  subjects  from their allegiance  to  him. " Cursed  be  the  earth,"  He said,  "  thorns  and  thistles  will  it  bear  thee.  Thou  shalt labor  and  toil  all  the  days  of  thy  life,  and  as  dust  thou art,  so  unto  dust  thou  shalt  return." Original sin, with its  effects,  was  the  complete  subversion  of  the primitive harmony  established  between  God  and man, between  man's  higher  and  lower  natures,  and between man  and  the  world;  and  this  sin  and  its effects we  all  inherit. " Behold,"  says  the  Psalmist, " I  was  conceived  in  iniquities,  and  in  sin  did  my mother  conceive  me." And St.  Paul  adds,  "  as  by one  man  sin  entered  this  world,  and  by  sin  death;  so death  hath  passed  upon  all  men  from  him  in  whom all  men  have  sinned." As the  wages  of  sin  is  death, and as  all  men  die,  we  must  naturally  conclude  that all men  are  conceived  children  of  wrath  in  original sin. It stains  the  unborn,  and  the  newly-born;  it stains  man  in  whatever  stage  of  unbaptized  existence