The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1885-05-20
AN OLD QUESTION.
Why Does God Permit Satan and
Sin to Exist 2
Or. Talmages Answers to This Question
Which Has Bothered Many Minds
Since Job-God's Long-Sufiering
Patience and Great Mercy.

Irecent sermon was: "Why does God per-
NIT Satan and sin 70 exist whom, with one
blow, He might annihilate themW The
text was Job xxi, I: "Wherefore do the
wicked live?n Following is the sermon:
JOB.
Poor Jobl with tusks, with stings, with
horns, with hoofs-all the misfortunes OF
life came on him al once. Bankruptcy, be-
reavement, standardization, eruptive dis
ease so irritating that he had to reinforce |
his ten finger r-nails by piece OF earthen-
ware to scratch himself withal. His wife |
took the diagnosis of his complaints and |
prescribed for him profanity. She thought
be would feel better If between the par
oxysms Of pain and grief he would swear
little. For each boil plaster of objur-
cation. Probably no man was ever more
tempted to take this bad advice than was
Job, when at last his three exasperating
friends, Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, came
TO comfort him, saying in substance: "You
old sinner, this serves you right. All this
Is because youl are hypocrite. What
sight you are! God has chastised you for
your wickedness." Tho dishgured invalid
thei piece of broken saucer with which he
had been rubbing his arms and tells his
garrulous group Of friends that 1t is often
the wicked who have the best health and
the most prosperity, and in this connection
hurls the question which every man and
woman that ever existed has at some con-
juhcture of events asked: "Why do the
wicked liveW
They build up fortunes that overshadow
the earth and confound all the life-insur-
ance tables on the subject Of longevity,
someIof them dying octogenarians, or, per-
haps, nonogenarians, or possibly cente-
narians-Ahab in the palace, and Naboth
In the cabin; unclean Herod on the throne,
and Paul, the consecrated, twisting ropes
for tent-making; Manassah, the worst OF
all the Kings Of Juda, lived the longest.
While the general rule is that the wicked
do not live out half their days, there are
instances where they live to q great age In
paradises of beauty and luxury, with a
whole college of physicians expending Its
skill In the attempt for further prolonga-
ton, and then have a funeral with casket
under mountains Of Gala lily, and pro-
cession with all the finest equipage
Of the city flashing and jlngling
into line, taking the poor angle-worm
Of the dust out OF its hole in the ground
with pomp that might make the
passing spirit from some other world
think that the Archangel Michael was
dead. Coup among the great residences
Of our cities and read the door-plates, and
see how many Of them hold the names OF
men mighty for commercial or social iniq-
uity. Vampires Of the nineteenth century
Gorgons OF the ages Every wheel of theil
carriage Is a Juggernaut wet with the
blood Of those sacrificed to their avaric'
and evil design. Men who are like
Caligula, who wished that all the people
were in one neck, that he might cut 1t of
at one blow. Oh, the slainl the slain
What procession OF libertines, Of usurers
of Infamous quacks, Of legal charlatans, o.
world grabbing monstersl What apostles
of despoliation What demons incarnate
Thousands Of men who have concentrated
all their energies Of body, mind and sou
into one prolonged and ever intensified AM
unrelenting effort to sacrifice and bias
and consume the world. 1 do not blam
you for asking the quivering, throbbing
burning, resounding, appalling question
the text: "Why do the wicked liveW
WHY THE WICKED LIVE.
First, they live to demonstrate beyon
controversy the long suffering patiencs
God. You rouse up and say; ~ will no
stand Il any longer;" but perhaps you ar
compelled to stand 1t. God, with all th
batteries OF omnipotence loaded with thun
derbolts stands It century after century
Sometimes, l have no doubt, an ang'
comes up and begs that he may unlimbe
the batteries, crying: snow is the time
strike.n "No," says God, "wait year.
swat twenty years." swat a century.
swat FIVE hundred years" What Go
does Is not so wonderful as what He doe
not do. He has enough reserve corps
sweep from the earth Mormonism, Mohan
mechanism, Paganism in one day. Il
could take all the frauds Of New Yor
City on the west side Of Broadway and
an hour pitch them into the Hudson, an
all the frauds In New York on the eal
side Of Broadway and In an hour pitc
them into the East River. He understand
the combination lock Of every dishone
money safe In Christendom, and coul
blow 1t up quicker than by any earthl
explosive. Written all over the earth fro
East TO West aud from North TO South, ar
all over history, are the words DiviI
patience, Divine forbearance, Divine lonI
suffering. II Is wonder TO me that GC
did not burn up the world two thousar
years ago and scatter the ashes throul
immensity, its erolites dropping In
other worlds and kept in their museums
specimens OF defunct planet. Poop
talk Of God as though He were hasty wi
His Judgments and snapped n man I
quick. Mol Before the ancient delui
the people were warned one hundred al
twenty years to get aboard Noah's ark.
Why do the wicked livel To make Il
overthrow OF sin more climacteric. The
must pile up their mischief very high
that whole communities may see 1t; vel
high so that all continents may see
very high so that all the world may s
II. The higher II rises the harder 1t W
fall, and the greater the vindication
Righteousness. Sin is not TO be permit
10 sneak out OF the world in silence. 1t
mot merely TO resign and quit. II is not
case 10 20 by default because no one q
pears against It. 1t is to be arraigns
handcuired, put in prisoners box, co
damnad bv the verdict OF all the goc