Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1867-11-10


. We exercise our fres viii we know that
suffering is, by Gods ordinance, the con-
SEQUENCE of vice, It's consequences often
descending to our children aud Logic
asks MS II 1t is not true that man can do
DotIing contrary to the will OF God-if
He and not fare-know and isteld that We
should do the wrong? and il so, why
should be punish US?
II IA said'to be an unsatisfactory doc
trine, that God wac compelled by neces.
sity TO create Evil with the Good; and
that It is virtually q system which
teaches that God was forced to create
Devil. -7-.-7.as ls7'
The Devil was created by human i'm
apination, because man considers pain,
sickness, hardship, toll and oppression as
tgr0n0s inflicted on him, to atone for
! which it is necessary there should be an
other, world, 10 which all this is TO be
remedied, and where virtue Is TO be re-
warded and vice and wrong punished.
n ff,e Sacred Scriptures are inspired,
! God himself has told US that He makes
good aud creates evil.
IL II is owing TO human vanity that no
man has ever dared to reason with COM
mon sense on this subject. Man pursuesi
/ tortuTes and kills the most innocent Rnl-
mails. birds, and fishes, to crafty his
appetite.or for mere pleasure, He crushes
! thousands Of insects without thought
| If wrong: nav, he destroys, as does /
every other animal, myriads of animal
culsa and infusoria daily, un0onsciously, |
and without being able TO avoid It. |
! ThrOughOut the whole scale or animal |
| creation. one creature lives by devoming
| another. and every step taken, or move |
nent made. or breath drawn by each, /
/ crushes out life. Pain and sickness, |
calamity and death are the lot OF all Gre
| ated beings. When the dove Is torn by |
/ the hawk, shoals of small fish swallowed
/ by the whale, the lamb devoured oy tne !
lion. the buffalo crushed and devoured by
the boa-when an epidemic sweeps away /
the deer, the swine, the cattle, whole
species OF fish, and innumerable myriads
/ III inseets-wben the volcanic fire, heat
inc the waters Of shallow seas, has de-
stToved Whole races Of dsh, whose bodies
are still found in stone, cOntOrted as IN
the last writings OF their immense ago
uias-when at the different geological
perioris. hv some huge convulsion, all the
individuals Of particular fish, reptile or
animal have suddenly died and the spe'
oias becoue extinct-Rre these fH5LStfceS
Of Con. to atone for which there must be
a new world, in which all these created
existenCes shall again and eteTnally eX-
ist. that by an Immortality Of happiness
the wrongs done them and the pain
upIustly suffered by them in this world
NAV be stOned fOr2
Wnsa one animal devOurs another, the
or,aI and rapaeious Staying the innocent
and barmIess-When the young chicken
steals and runs away with the food TO
which il has no right-w1sn pigeons
and fowls and dogs light each other TO
avhaustiou without cause; when the
horse or cock satisfies his amOrous appe-
tife without ceremony Of marriage
rgban the cat and dog steal from their
master. and lie by actions to conceal the
theft. when all animals OOvet the food
given to others of their KIND Is IL
necessary TO invent a Devil, IN order to
assign to his prOmptings these iTregularl-
ties OF the flesh, these passions, these IN
justiees2
,eger been any sickness, pain OF death
on this earth but that for fifty years
only. beginning with to-day, there
shonid be none. Then ask the student
OF nature how rapidly nOxiOus insects
and animalculse are propagsted and
imagine the condition OF the earth be-
fore the end Of these fifty years. lt
world be impossible for Omnipotenee to
continue mans existence in a world 80
teenlipg with life. Universal death
would become q necessity. Air, earth
and water would be all snimalcule
and the myriads Of noxlous insects
would make human Life an lmposslDlllVy'
The uIan Of creation is that one crea-
ture shall serve as food for another; and
without this law, living creatures could
not exist and increase. .-... "a
what we term Evil, therefore, UaS
nonnnallGn tn
create it, or not to create at all for
evprytbin2 below himself must be i'm
Derfect. and imperfectiOn is the inter-
mingling Of Evil. To give bodies TO hu-
man beings, bodies capable Of receiving
the inauressions that cause pain, bodies
with sensual appetites, and provoking
sensual passions, 1t was necessary that
the creature so constituted should be I'M
perEeet. To dream of perfection in the
BODY is a simple absurdity. A millennium
on earth is impossible. Pain, suffering, /
sickness, death, wrong, oppression, dis
tress and evil, are absolutely necessary,
IN this sense, that without causing them
God could not create human beings,
with bodies, senses and appeutes, at all.
THAT he has 80 constituted man that
his moral principles and reason actas.
CHECK and restraint upon his sppetttes
and missions, and enable him TO temper
and restrain them, is q better proof that
man. while an animal, with the instincts,
cunning, ferocity and greed OF animal
iiv. is also more than an animal, and
that his body is not his whole being, than
all the arguments of logical metaphysics.
The whole theory OF perception, with
which one half st least Of every work on
mental philosophy is engaged applies rs
well to the horse or dog as to the man.
phese have the same consciousness of
indentitv Is we; they think, they reason
from cause to effect, they plan, they
dream. But they have neither the
moral sentiment nor the higher reason,
which make the equilibrium in human
Nature.
The laws Of nature are the develop
mept of love, which is the universal
law. Hence flow attraction and af1ni-
ties. and the swift fash OF the electric
current; and tides, the clouds, the move
ment Of the worlds, the influence Of will,
and the mysterious power Of magnet
ism. Nature is one great Harmony, and
of that harmony every human soul is a
tone. From God it flows in never
ceasing circles; as light and splendor
from bis Sun. 70 him the notes Of that
harmony return, and mingle with the
mighty diapason Of the spheres, and are
immortal.
We cannot escape the conclusion that
it is impossible for Man to do anything Z
not intended by the Deity. To hold
that we can cOntravene his will, is to
deny his Omnipotence. We are thus
forced TO a belief in Fatality or Predes-
tination; and yet our consciousness,
which is higher evidence than Logic, and
our Reason, which tells as that otherwise
God would be unjust, that is, would not
be, concur IN proving 70 as osr Free VIII
or Liberty.
This is an enigma more terrible than
that OF the Sphypx; for upon it hang
life and death, and the justice or ipjns-
fice OF all Divine and human laws.
What is It's solution ?