IV. THE CREATION AND FALL We have now seen the right road in its simplest elements. Our entry into life is at one end : heaven is at the other: death lies between. To understand the map we need a knowledge of the purpose of life and a knowledge of the laws to be obeyed; to put our understanding to fruitful use — that is, to attain the end for which we are made — we need the Supernatural Life. These three things would be necessary, given a supernatural destiny, in any condition of the human race. And all of them must come as a free gift of God or not at all. For us, then, the question simply is : How does God give these gifts — the Life and the twofold Truth — to man here and now? The answer to this question is the actual road of to-day — life as it tnust actually be lived by ourselves. But we cannot understand the strange, winding, arduous, almost incomprehensible road of to-day unless we realize that it is not the first road God laid down for us: that in the beginning there was a simpler, less puzzling road; and that by sin man dynamited it; or from another point of view man so damaged himself by sin that he could no longer walk it. A study of the first road and its ruin will make the road of to-day considerably more comprehensible. • 38