All that has to be
done to it is to be cured of its diseases; and the Bible declares
that it can be cured. Howsoever man may have fallen, he may rise.
Howsoever the likeness may be blotted and corrupted, it can be
cleansed and renewed. Howsoever it may be perverted and turned
right round and away from God and goodness to selfishness and evil,
it can be converted, and turned back again to God. Howsoever
utterly far gone man may be from original righteousness, still to
original righteousness he can return, by the grace of baptism and
the renewing of the Holy Spirit. And what in us is the likeness of
God? That is a deep question.
Only one answer will I make to it to-day. Whatever in us is, or is
not, the likeness of God, at least the sense of right and wrong is;
to know right and wrong. So says the Bible itself: 'Behold the man
is become as one of us, to know good and evil.' Not that he got the
likeness of God by his fall--of course not; but that he became aware
of his likeness, and that in a very painful and common way--by
sinning against it; as St. Paul says in one of his deepest
utterances, 'By sin is the knowledge of the law.
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