So the children of Adam, on account of his sin, inherit a disability to possess the nobility of the state of grace and to inherit the kingdom of heaven. This disability is inherent in the person son of each one, and therefore "inest euique proprium." It is a separation from God incurred by the transgression of Adam, who represented the human race in his trial, and therefore is truly and properly sin. It is a privation of grace which is the supernatural life of the soul, and is therefore properly called death, or "mors animae." The "reatus culpae" is the obligation of being born in a state of relative degradation, and the "reatus poenae" the obligation of undergoing the conflicts, sufferings, and death which belong to the state of despoiled nature, as well as submitting to the sentence of exclusion from the kingdom of God. By it, human nature has been changed into something worse as to soul and body, [{531}] "in deterius mulatur quoad corpus et animam," because it is now deprived of integrity, immortality, and sanctifying grace. Nevertheless this state is essentially the same with that which would have been the state of man if he had been created in the state of pure nature. Man in the state of lapsed nature differs from man in the state of pure nature, as Perrone says, only as nudatus from nudo, one denuded from one always nude. This is original sin, which consists formally, as St. Thomas teaches, in the privation of sanctifying grace and the other gratuitous gifts perfecting nature which depended on it. Mankind, therefore, by the sin of Adam, have simply fallen back on the state of pure nature, and are born with those attributes and qualities only which are contained in human nature by virtue of its intrinsic principles. To understand, therefore, the condition, capabilities, and ultimate destiny of man, apart from the grace which comes through the Redeemer, we have simply to inquire into the essence of these intrinsic principles, and ascertain what man is, simply as man, where he can do, and what is the end he can attain by his earthly life.
Man, as to his rational nature, is in the lowest grade of rational creatures. Except under very favorable circumstances, his intelligence is very imperfectly developed, and so far as it is developed it is chiefly employed in perfecting his merely exterior and social life. Under the most favorable circumstances his progress is slow, his capacity of contemplating purely intellectual and spiritual objects weak and limited. As to his body, he is also frail and delicate, and naturally liable to death. Moreover, there is in his constitution, as a being composed of soul and body, a certain contrariety of natural impulses, one set of impulses inclining him to rational good, the other to sensible or animal good. Like the inferior animals, he is capable of an improvement of his species up to a certain point which cannot be fixed, and also liable to a degeneracy which brings, him down to a state little above that of the brutes, and even to idiocy. There are indications enough in his soul of a latent capacity for a much higher and more exalted state, to make it certain that his present condition is one of merely inchoate existence, and that he is destined to a future life in which these latent capacities will be developed in a more perfect corporeal organization. The great difficulty of forming an ideal conception of the state in which he would have been constituted, had he been left to his merely natural development, consists in the fact that we have no human subject to study except man as he actually is, that is, under a supernatural providence from the beginning. The actual development of human nature has taken place under the influence of supernatural grace, and we cannot discriminate in human history the operation of natural causes from those which are supernatural. There are three principal hypotheses respecting the possible development of pure nature which may be sustained with more or less plausibility. The first is, that the human race, beginning in its perfection of type as a species, but without any revelation of language, or any instruction in natural theology, morals, or science, would have remained always in the same state in which it was created, without any intellectual or moral progress. According to this view, the present state of man on earth would have been a mere stage of existence, which could have no ulterior end, except the production of a species destined to begin its higher life in a future state. The second hypothesis is, that the human race, beginning from the same point of departure, might have progressed slowly, through very long periods of time, to a high limit of civilization, knowledge, virtue, and natural religion. The third is, that a kind of natural revelation, including a positive system of religion, morals, and science, would have been requisite; in a word, that human society must have been placed [{532}] at first, by the immediate intervention of the Creator, in the state of civilization, and conducted in its course by a continuance of the same intervention. We have little room, however, for anything beyond conjecture in this matter. The only point we are anxious to establish is, that the state in which we are now born is not one intrinsically evil; that it is not one derogatory to human nature as such; that it is not one in which God might not create man in consistency with his sanctity and goodness.
This point is established on sound theological and philosophical principles; and from these principles it follows that all the phenomena of man which are referrible to his original fall are the natural consequence of his human constitution, and not evidences of a positive, innate depravity. He is a weak, frail, inconstant creature, easily led away by the senses and passions, liable to fall into many errors and sins, but he is not an object of loathing and abhorrence to his Creator, or an outcast from his love. He has in him all the primary elements of natural virtue, the germ from which a noble creature can be developed. Nevertheless, although his natural condition is one which is not derogatory to himself or his Creator, it seems to cry out for the supernatural. Its actual weakness and imperfection, coupled with its latent capacities for a high development, mark it as being, what it is, the most fitting subject for the grace of God; and indicate that it was created chiefly to exemplify in the most signal manner the supernatural love and bounty of the Creator. It is only in the idea of the supernatural order that we can find the adequate explication and solution of all the problems relating to the destiny of man. For that order he was created by an absolute, not a conditional decree of God. The fulfilment of that decree was not risked on the issue of Adam's probation. According to our view, the creation of man was only the inchoation of the incarnation of the Eternal Word in human nature; and the decree of the incarnation being absolute, the elevation of human nature was necessary and must be efficaciously secured. The fall of man from original grace could not therefore hinder it. After the sin of Adam, the human race had still a supernatural destiny, and was under the supernatural order of Providence. The divine decree to confer grace on man was not abrogated, but only the form and mode under which the grace was to be conferred were changed. Moreover, by this change, the human race was, on the whole, a gainer, and came into a better and more favorable position for attaining its destiny. There was a reason both for the original constitution of man in the grace of Adam, and also for the change of that constitution which followed upon Adam's sin. By the original grant of grace, God showed to mankind his magnificent liberality and good-will. He gave them also an ideal which has remained imperishably in their memory of the state of perfection, and left a sweet odor of paradise to cheer them along their rugged road of labor and trial. By the withdrawal of that grace he brought them under a dispensation of mercy, in which their condition is more humble and painful, but safer and more advantageous for gaining the highest merit.
St. Francis de Sales says: "L'état de la redemption vaut cent fois plus que l'état de la justice originalle." "The state of redemption is a hundred times preferable to the state of original justice." [Footnote 167] The church herself, in her sublime hymn Exultet, breaks out into the exclamation: "O certé necessarium Adae peccatum; O felix culpa! quae tantum et talem habere meruit Redemptorem!" "O certainly necessary sin of Adam; O happy fault! which merited to know such and so great a redeemer!" We reason to lament our lost paradise, or to mourn over the fall of our first parents. Our new birth in Christ is far better than that ancient inheritance forfeited in Eden. The consideration of the mystery of redemption must be postponed, however for a future number.
[Footnote 167: This thought has been beautifully developed by Mr. Simpson in some Essays on Original Sin, published in The Rambler]
Original.
MY CHRISTMAS TREE.
The Christmas logs were blazing bright, the house was all aglow,
Five little stockings brimming full were hanging in a row;
The balls of golden, silver, red, upon the Christmas tree,
Like fire-flies glancing through the green, were shining merrily,
And gifts for May and Josey, and for Maggie, Kate, and Will,
From bending top to sturdy root, the swaying branches fill;
And I, my labors all complete, sat watching through the night,
For well I knew that busy feet, before the morning-light,
Would patter, patter down the stairs in merry Christmas glee,
And warm and bright as love could make, must their first welcome be.
The while I mused upon their joy, with eyes fixed on the door.
The fairest form I ere had seen glided the threshold o'er—
A sweet and gentle maiden "waxen little past the child,"
And close upon her steps a man of visage grave and mild.
As the fair maiden nearer drew, I saw her small hands prest
The loveliest new-born baby that e'er slept on mortal breast—
Albeit, five fair little buds had blossomed on mine own,
Such winning grace of perfectness mine heart had never known.
Adown, in sudden rapture caught, I fell on bended knee.
For Jesus and Saint Mary and Saint Joseph were with me!
The Maiden Mother gently bent, and in my trembling hands
Laid little baby-Jesus, wrapt up in his swaddling bands.
"Give rest and food and shelter unto him who for your sake
Hath reft himself of all things," thus the Maiden Mother spake;
"Each Christmas eve we, journeying, as once in Bethlehem,
At every Christian door-step ask for shelter, as of them
Who in my mother's maiden home had room for all save him
Before whose throne of living light bow down the seraphim.
And oft times now, as on that night, rejected, we depart.
As though they were Judean inns, from many a Christian heart.
With warmth and light and merry feasts ye hail his natal-day,
But who have place for Jesus Christ who in the manger lay?
Mosttimes the doors are closely barred, the fire-light is grown dim,
And few who watch as now you watch, keep watch or ward for him."
Her tones were tender, sweet, and low, but through the crust of years
They found the blessed, blessed fount of humble, contrite tears;
And as they overflowed mine eyes, and plashed upon his head,
The baby woke to life and warmth, who seemed so cold and dead;
And pointing where a little gift for "Christ's poor" lowly lay
Beneath the tree so richly bowed, he smiled, and passed away.
Ah! me, how little seemed the share that I had laid aside
To give to him who for our sake was born and crucified!
He held back naught, the last red drop flowed out for you and me:
Oh! surely he should have the best on every Christmas tree.
Genevieve Sales.