The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-09-05
CHRIST AND THE WORLD.

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Der of those whom the problem per-
plexes. We hold that there is no
such thing as absolute evil, or in
finite evil. What we call evil, is evil
only relatively to some portion of
Gods creatures, and has only a finite
duration. Evil is good in the max
ing: it is an unfinished providence
which we NAV not fully understand
in this world, but the purpose of
which it will be our blessed privilege
to see unfolded in some future stage
of our existence. Here and now we
know only in part: then we shall
know fully even as we have been
known fully. When that which is
perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away. (1st Cor
inthians, CHI. Is, V. II and 10) Yes:
when we know fully as we have been
known fully, then much that has been
mysterious to us upon earth will be
interpreted.
Recent reading has brought under
our notice once more the confessed
inability of certain thinkers to recon
cile with the omnipotence and good
ness of God the pi tiless cruelties per-
petrated by the forces of nature.
One of these thinkers, as everybody
knows, was John Stuart Mill, who
characterized nature as more cruel
than Domitian or a Torquemada.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe could
not make the reconciliation. Other
philosophical reasoners, by no means
lacking in reverence, have declared
themselves to be in like difficulty.
Professor Huxley, in his "Romanes
Lecture" arrayed man ia desperate
battle with an unethical cosmos.
The truth is, that the material cos
mos in itself is neither ethical nor
unethical. It cannot be either one
or the other, simply because it has
neither moral consciousness, nor the
attribute of free will. But what
seems to be wholly overlooked by
thinkers of the class we have named,
is, that the very purpose for which
God has created the cosmos, and also
placed man in a world of mixed good
and evil, is to develop his intellect
ual and moral nature.
Such philosophers seem blind to
the fact, that if God had placed them
in a world all fair and always fair,
world without mysteries or unsolved
problems, a world whose interest they
could fully exhaust in two or three
years; a world of wholly unmixed
happiness, in which nothing ever
happened to touch the heart to it's
finest tissues, they would have found
life to be scarcely worth living. 1t
would speedily have palled upon
them. Not only so; they would have
remained in every moral sense mar
rover, poorer, feebler beings than
they have become in tellurian scenes,
constituting as these do an environ
ment precisely adapted to unfold all
that is highest and best in their true
selves. In world where there were
no wrongs to redress, no sorrows to
alleviate, no crimes and no vices, no
disease and no pain, our inner nature
would never be stirred to its depths,
our outlook would never broaden be-
yond the narrow circle of our own
personal interests, and virtue would
die, or grow feeble and sickly, for
want of exercise. There would be
n thing to arouse, enrich, and deepen
our true life-namely, our souls life.
We repeat, that universe without
mysteries and without unsolved
problems, would be universe olsen
chanted. But you may very properly
ask: What say the wronged and the
suffering to all this7 A mere philo-
sophical Theism cannot answer that
question. The Bible and Christianity
answer it fully and satisfactorily.
They affirm that Gods tender mer-
cies are over all his works, not merely
over portion; that his goodness is
universal, not partial; that his love
and care are extended over all his in
telligent offspring, and not merely
over selected few. They who rejoice
and they who weep, the rich and the
poor, the saint and the sinner, the
mighty and the feeble, are equally
the objects of his benign and ceaseless
providence; are all being trained and
disciplined for ultimate holiness and
happiness, though often by methods
we cannot now fully understand.
God must be his own interpreter,
and in due time he will make all
things plain. Even here and now,
however, he gives us striking lessons
of trust in his providence. See how
the terrible crime of the crucifxion of