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seemed to solve the difficulty, at least partially. It was at least calculated to remove the stigma of wanton cruelty and callousness from his ideal, and he was satisfied with the idea. He did not worry himself about the fact that the twins implied a primary duality, incompatible with the spirit of monistic thought, without which the god of the mystic cannot remain in full undisputed possession of the field. But later thinkers saw the trouble involved for their god in dualism, and, finding no other means of escape from the difficulty, boldly pushed the consequences of their belief to its bitterest, logical end. Hence, Isaiah did not hesitate to attribute the creation of evil to his god. Mahomed, likewise, seeing no way out of the difficulty, followed in the footsteps of Isaiah, and declared :
"God misleadeth whom he will, and whom he will he guideth. Al Qur'an, Chap. XIV. 4.
So far as the idea of sin is concerned, it is obvious that there can be no such thing as sin in the theological sense of the word. No one can sin against an imaginary mythological being; and since the soul is its own God, it follows that sin only signifies a wrong done to one's self.
It has been shown that the soul's bondage is a condition which had no beginning in point of time, so that it cannot be the result of sin on its part. Man's suffering hitherto is the result of ignorance, but not of sin, for he is not to blame for it. But when the folly of a godless irreligious existence is pointed out to him, and also the way to salvation, and he perseveres in the path of evil, his obstinacy gives birth to sin. This is what Jesus meant when he said :
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