Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1895-07-04
suFFERINes OF THE WORLD

Growth of the Spirit of Christ and the
Brotherhood OF Man Makes Them More
Koenly Felt. and Is Evidence of Progress
Toward God.
There has been more suffering in the
world than there is to-day, but there
has never before been so wide and keen
a consciousness of suffering. The con-
ditions of living are distinctly more
wholesome, and, taking the world to-
gether, more favorable to health and
comfort, than in any past time. The
agencies to discover and relieve acute
distress are incomparably more numer-
Gus and more intelligently managed;
the altruistic feeling is more widely
diffused and far more practical in its
aims. In proportion to population,
men are better off than they have been
in any previous period. Pessimistic
views on this question are partial
views, and arise from an inadequate
survey of the subject. But while men
are, as a whole, more comforta BILE, the
consciousness of the miseries of the
world is far more poignant than
ever before in the history of the race
There is more vicarious suffering than
before; more men and women in easy
circumstances are saddened by the
misery they see about them; they car
ry the anguish of the race in their
hearts, and are tormented and over
Swallowed by it.
1t is this deepened consciousness of
misery, and not any increase in the
amount of misery, which depresses
Of hn wi re of ho
and makes them feel as If the world
were going backward instead of for
ward, and as if the evidence of Gods
care for His creatures were somehow
fading out of sight. This world-con-
seriousness of the sins and sorrows of
humanity, which Christ bore in such
silent and appealing solitude, and which
we are now beginning to share with
Him, is mainly due to two things
edge of the facts. For the first time
in the history of the world, all men
constitute, for purposes of news, a
single community. We know from
day to day what is going on in every
part of the globe, and the conditions
of all kinds of people are constantly
spread before us. The anguish locked
in prisons and mines of Siberia eludes
locks and bars, and wrings our hearts;
the cry of the outraged Armenians
reaches us, and will not be disregard,
ed; the miseries of India and AfrScG
are recited in books; the wrongs of the
Indian and the negro will not let us
rest in ignorance or Incidence; the
wretchedness of the great masses in
the chief cities cries to us day and
night. In antiquity the most philan-
thropic Greek or Roman could not
have known a hundredth part of
what we know about the conditions
in which the race lives. The devout
man of the middleages might seek ref
uge in the monastery from the wretch
edness he saw about him, but he could
not possibly have known the wretch
edness of the world. Not until our
century has that knowledge been pos
sible; not until our own quarter of a
century has that knowledge, in it's
completeness, become one of the great
factors in our lives, and by its
tremendous appeal to conscience made
itself force for regeneration.
But knowledge of the facts would not
of itself have produced this world con
seriousness of suffering. If the phil
anthropic Greek or Roman had known
the extent of this suffering, he
would not have cared as we
care, because he could not have
the race-feeling which we have. The
pious Jew might have sorrowed over
the sufferings of his own people, but
he would have had little compassion
for the sutferings of alien people.
There has come with this knowledge
new sense of the solidarity of the
race and of the brotherhood of man.
This feeling, so often misnamed senti
mentalism by those who do not under
stand the times in which they live, is
the most glorious fruit of a slowly
ripening Christianity in the hearts o.
men. The remote suffering is becom
ing as real to us as the near suffering
the man on the other side of the globe
Is as much our brother as the man in
the next street; the Armenian has n
| great a claim upon US as the victims o.
! food or fire in neighboring state. The
Christ-spirit, slowly defining itselffn the
| souls and to the minds of men, bring:
with it the Christ-burden; for the frs
time in the history of our race we arr
bearing the sorrows of the world in oul
own hearts. We are beginning to un
derstrnd the meaning of Gethsemans
and Calvary in our own experience.
Some of the finest spirits that ar,
dealing with this appalling knowledg,
are fiercely asking God what it al
means. They are sometimes askinf
themselves whether there be God
| When one lives long in the sewers, on,
Begins to doubt whether there is an,
sunlight. The doubt which comes will
this terrible knowledge in its first dis
closure is perhaps more acceptable t,
God than the easy acceptance of tn,
knowledge of so many who are slug
gish or indifferent. Most father
| would find more satisfaction in such
sympathy with suffering child II
would prompt sharp searching of tn
parental dealing with him than il
the easy-going influence to the child
condition which cloaks itself undo
unquestioning faith in the parenta
care. The doubt which springs out o