The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1885-01-28

peated all over the globe. Wherever
the geologist digs he finds pain ''graven
on the rocks forever" A museum of
fossil bones is like the arsenal of war
like nation. Weapons of destruction,
the teeth, claws, and horns, of life mil
liant, far outnumber the toothless Jaws
and inoffensive mouths of the peaceful
herbivora. Of the animal kingdom
half are parasites. Every known ami
NAL has its own species. They flour
ish in the human intestines, causing
distress and even insanity. They cause
pain and disease in brain, lungs, liver,
heart, and eye. They imbed them,
selves in the skin, the muscles, and in
fest the surface of the body. Man,
animal, plant are infested-the two
former enduring suffering even unto
death. Pain and sorrow are not partial
nor accidental, but widespreading as
life.
Is it possible to extract good out of
this evil? 1t is not only possible, but
science has succeeded in doing it with
out thought of contributing thereby
to religion. For science has discovered
that in the lowest grades of existence
are creatures wholly inert. Higher in
the scale are organisms with members
OF great variety, everyone fitted to
function; but life and activity are not
at their best until some obstacle has to
be surmounted, some difficulty over
come. Then action and reaction-the
taking this, refusing that-the opera
tion of will, come in 1t concludes from
the whole that obstacles, difficulties,
evil, are not something arbitrary, nor
altogether hurtful, but the natural ac-
compartments of limited condition
in fine, spurs exciting to defence and
enlargement of the sphere of activity.
n Notwithstanding this conflict, existence
is better than non existence, a plant
better than stone, an animal better
than vegetable, and man the best of
ALL Physical evils are undoubtedly
among the elements of progress urging
toward relative perfection of lifeethe
struggle to escape from the evil giving
more energy and leading to ameliora-
tion to the casting off of those pecu-
liarities or weaknesses which tend to
nourish evil parasitic life.
Science cannot furnish the link which
indissolubly connects physical with
| moral evil, nor tell how spiritual evil
can poison the root of things and cause
degeneration in the lowest forms of
life; but science can emphasize the an.
alogue which exists between physical
betterment and moral Improvement, be-
tween the sense OF pain shared by all
conscious beings and the pains of moral
sense. And thus viewed, evil is a
grand means of discipline, inuring to
the growth, supremacy, and multipli-
cation of the best The beneficenee of
pain is seen as an incentive to action,
to consciousness, use, and development
OF powers, enforcing obedience to law
as the requirement and condition of
happy life. Are not onward move
ments essential to the happiness Of
finite life? And can we form any idea
of growth and progress without con-
tlict. The march of all beings through
evil to perfection is higher conception
OF divine working and finite veal than
world rystalized-than machine
complete In all it's parts but incapable
of development Scientific men admit
that in the brief period Of human his
tory there has been development, that
we can trace gradual, though slow
abatement of moral and physical evil
Analogy leads us to extend that fact to
| the universe, and confirms the revela-
tion that all things are moving through
evil and by evil to more perfect good.
The existence of evil instead Of ne
eating the goodness of God renders
Gods goodness more conspicuous i'm
the gift Of more abundant life for man.
God who made man free, foreseeino the
peril of that freedom, not only rem
dered the peril plain by type, by warn
ing, by threat, excluding sin on the
one side and defining it on the other,
but also met and rectifed the inexcus-
able abuse Of freedom by preparing
celestial machinery, spiritual power to
work repentance, to effect moral change,
and convert ungOdliness into right
eOusness that leads up to fulness of
peace and JOY. Thus the transgression
of the first man, transmitted to us by
natural inheritance, is made the ground
OF advancing into higher knowledge
and life. The son dies not for the
fathers sin, but being warned and SOW
ing to the Spirit, reaps life everlasting.
Sin is always sin, and the wages is
death. Yet if man ay 81 have erred
but mean to err no more" the door is
opened to that man. God himself
helps, and is the more gloriously ap
pretended by the soul in His provi
dence and redemption. Jesus has