ths which Christ sought to convey.
Orthodox Christianity has been so profoundly affected by the ancient
Jewish religion that the conception of God as wrathful and jealous--a
God wholly outside--has persisted to our times. The Atonement means
union with the Spirit of the Universe through vicarious suffering, and
experience teaches us that our own sufferings are of no account unless
they be for a cause, for the furtherance of the design of the beneficent
Spirit which is continually at work. Christ may be said to have died for
humanity because he had to suffer death itself in order to reveal
the complete meaning of life. You once spoke to me about the sense of
sin--of being unable to feel it."

She glanced at him quickly, but did not speak.

"There is a theory concerning this," he continued, "which has
undoubtedly helped many people, and which may be found in the writings
of certain modern psychologists. It is that we have a conscious, or
lower, human self, and a subconscious, or better self. This subconscious
self stretches down, as it were, into the depths of the universe and
taps the source of spiritual power. And it is through the subconscious
self that every man is potentially divine. Potentially, because the
conscious self has to reach out by an effort of the will to effect this
union with the spiritual in the subconscious, and when it is effected,
it comes from the response of the subconscious. Apparently from without,
as a gift, and therefore, in theological language, it is called grace.
This is what is meant by being born again, the incarnation of the Spirit
in the conscious, or human. The two selves are no longer divided, and
the higher self assumes control,--takes the reins, so to speak.

"It is interesting, as a theory. And the fact that it has been seriously
combated by writers who deny such a function of the subconscious does
not at all affect the reality of the experience.

"Once we have had a vision of the true meaning of life a vision which
stirs the energies of our being, what is called 'a sense of sin'
inevitably follows. It is the discontent, the regret, in the light of a
higher knowledge, for the lost opportunities, for a past life which
has been uncontrolled by any unifying purpose, misspent in futile
undertakings, wasted, perhaps, in follies and selfish caprices which
have not only harmed ourselves but others. Although we struggle, yet
by habit, by self-indulgence, by lack of a sustained purpose,