1. If left alone, which way do we tend? Does a normal and sound individual need spiritual reinforcement to live a good life?
2. How do you account for the fact that the noblest movements are so easily debased?
II. Jesus and Human Sin
1. Did Jesus take a friendly or a gloomy view of human nature? How did the fact of sin in humanity impress him?
2. Why did he condemn so sternly those who caused the weak to stumble? Estimate the relative force of the natural weakness of human nature, and of the pressure of socialized evil, when individuals go wrong.
3. Do you agree with the exposition in the Daily Reading for the Fourth Day? Do men want to be let alone? Is this an evidence of sinful tendency?
4. What personal experiences of Jesus prompted the parable of the tares? Was the conception of Satan in Jewish religion of individual or social origin? When did it have political significance?
III. The Irrepressible Conflict
1. Why did Jesus foresee an inevitable conflict if the [pg 166] Kingdom of God was to come? Has history borne him out?
2. Does mystical religion involve a man in conflict? Does ascetic religion? Which books him for more conflict with social evil—a life set on the Kingdom of God on earth, or a faith set on the life to come?