There are three ways in which sin may be engendered in a person,-by nature, by temptation, and by example. Now, we find that evil tempers and dispositions show themselves in children spontaneously, as it were, when no temptation presents itself; so it cannot be by temptation that all mankind are sinful. And we find that the children of godly parents, who have seen in their parents a holy example, show the same seeds of evil as the children of the ungodly. It is through generation then, and that only, that each one of the human race exhibits so early the traces of moral evil in his nature and dispositions.

This doctrine of the transmission by natural generation of an evil nature, from the first Adam to all his posterity, is the doctrine of original or birth sin.

Though an infinitely mysterious truth, it is a truth that no one, not even an unbeliever in Scripture, if he be of a candid mind, can gainsay; for its proof lies not only in the pages of inspiration,-not only in such texts as, "I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me," "We all were by nature children of wrath," "As in Adam all die," but its proof lies in the history of every family, and of every individual of the human race, in the experience of every parent, and in the memory of each one of us as to what we were when little children.

Here, then, is the awful mystery of moral evil naturally engendered; of moral evil transmitted to those who receive it whilst they are in a state of unconsciousness, -with the very seeds of their being.

Along with the flesh and blood of our parents, we receive their spiritual corruption, as they received theirs from their parents, and they from theirs.

Our first parent, in whose loins were, at the time, all his posterity, sinned, and so received into his nature the seeds of corruption, both moral and physical; and he begat children in his own likeness, not only with outward frames like his, but with souls like his in their taint of evil. And he transmitted to each one that was engendered

of him and his offspring the corruption he had received. To each unconscious babe he transmitted the corruption he himself had received in a state of the highest moral consciousness.

In the words of Inspiration, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men ;" "Death reigned even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of Him that was to come;" "By one man's disobedience many were made sinners." (Rom. v. 12, 14, 19.)

At last God, in fulfilment of His ancient promise, heard the groans of universal human nature, and provided the remedy. He interposed, by an act of love surpassing all conception,-" the Eternal Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us." In the fulness of time One was conceived and born, not in the way of nature, but by miracle; —not in sin, as every other human being had been born, but sinless: One was born, of whom alone, of all born of women, it could be said, that He was not shapen in iniquity, neither in sin did His mother conceive Him.

He-this One Sinless One-was marked out by God to be the Saviour of His sinful brethren.

To be their full and complete Deliverer, He must procure them two things-pardon and a new nature; pardon for past transgressions, and a new nature to enable men to live to God; for what would be the use of pardon to such creatures as we are, if we were only pardoned to continue under the bondage of sin?

He, if He is to be in very deed the Second Adam, must be to us, not only atonement to make amends for the actual transgressions that consist in our doing the deeds of the first Adam, but He must also be to us a source of life and health, to counteract the moral and physical corruption or poisoned nature transfused through the race from its very fountain.

But how could He be these things to us? How could

He be atonement, seeing He was one, but one alone in His holiness, and we, His sinful brethren, as the sand upon the sea-shore?

How could one make reconciliation for all?

We know that when God thus interposed to insert into the line of our sinful race this sinless One, He interposed, not by causing a mere man to be born, but He caused His only-begotten Son to become one of us. "The Word was made flesh;" "God was manifest in the flesh;" "God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh." Such was the union of the Godhead and the manhood in Jesus, that "God and man was one Christ, who suffered for our salvation."

This one Man could and did make atonement for all, because the Godhead that was inseparably united to the manhood in Him, made everything that Jesus did or suffered, of infinite account. The infinite dignity of His Godhead imparted such dignity to the human nature it took into union with itself, that the sufferings of that nature were a world's ransom.

In this way Christ's undefiled human nature was able to fulfil the first condition of our salvation,-to make atonement.

But the Second Adam must not only atone for the guilt, He must also be a fountain of healing to His brethren, as His prototype was a fountain of corruption.

How was this to be, seeing that the Second Adam was born when the earth was peopled with myriads of a sinful race?

It could not be in the way of nature, seeing that mankind, by the very condition of their being, could have but one origin; they could only spring from one man, because that God originally created but one, and having derived their being from this one, they could not be born by way of nature from another.

If, in this respect, Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, was to answer to the first (i.e. if He was to be an ADAM at

all),—if His undefiled human nature was to be to mankind, or any part of them, a principle of life counteracting the death received from the human nature of the first Adam, this could not be in the way of nature; it must be effected supernaturally.

If this was to be, the nature of the Lord Jesus must be made so that it could be imparted to, and diffused amongst, His brethren, and means also must be taken to diffuse it.

That Christ's nature was so constituted (after His resurrection at least) that it could be imparted, is expressly asserted in 1 Cor. xv. 45. "The first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening" (. e. life-imparting) " spirit."

Now what is meant by this? Certainly not that Christ's Spirit merely imparts religious knowledge; for if that was all, in no sense would He be an Adam. Adam imparted not instruction, but a nature, to those sprung from him.

What is meant, then? for surely Christ had a body in all respects, except the indwelling of sin, like ours.

Before His resurrection they nailed His body to the cross; after His resurrection He had a real body, because He invited His disciples to handle Him, and said to them, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” How is it then that as the Second Adam He was made a spirit; and not only so, but a life-imparting spirit? (veõμa WOTOLOUv.) This must mean that His body received, by God's almighty power, not only the properties of a spirit, but that His very body became life-diffusing as well. That this is the meaning also is evident from this, that this text closely follows upon the assertion, "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

St. Paul had just been speaking of the marvellous change that will be made in our bodies at the resurrection. In answer to the objector's question, "How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?" he

directs men to consider the wondrous difference between the little insignificant seed sown, "the bare grain," and the plant that springs from it. Then he speaks of the different sorts of bodies, celestial and terrestrial, and the different glories belonging to each, and then he says, "So is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body;" and then he concludes with the assertion, "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."

We cannot understand what this spiritual body shall be. We are only told some of its properties,—that it will be incorruptible, glorious, powerful. We gather from the Apostle's comparison, that it will as far excel our present bodies as the plant clothed with leaves and flowers excels the, to all appearance, lifeless seed. What St. Paul really means by a spiritual body we cannot fathom; for we know absolutely nothing of the mode in which a spirit exists, much less do we know what a spiritual body is.

If, then, our sin-defiled bodies are to be raised so glorious, with such new and transcendent qualities, because they are to be raised spiritual bodies, what must have been the glory and power in which that body was raised which was in union with the Eternal Word, in which the only-begotten Son of God was to be manifested throughout eternity? If our bodies are to be raised "in power," in what power must it have been raised? I believe, then, from all these overwhelming considerations, that these words of the Holy Ghost must be taken in their fullest meaning, viz. that Christ's body, because the body of the Second Adam, was raised a spiritual body, capable of infinitely diffusing its life-a life-giving, a quickening spirit.

Three questions here present themselves:

How can this be?

Why should it be?