Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-10-01
A PLEASING TALK
REV. !. 7. SIMMONS VIEWS THE
SUBJECT "THE PROBLEM OF
IL EVIL" LAST EVENING.
Il
Spoke Ekfore the Brotherhood of st.
Paul Of the First Methodist Episco-
pal Church at the Home of J. w.
I Neasiham-His Talk in Part.
From ! tuesdays Daily.

"Ths Problem of Evil was the sub
feet treated last evening at the meet
ing of the Brotherhood of ST. Paul OF
the First Methodist Episcopal church.
Rev. j. T. Simmons presented the top
ic in d clear, concise, thorough and
pleasing manner, before large num-
Der at the members of the brotherhood
at the home Of j. w. Neasham, on
North Market street. The meeting
was the regular monthly gathering and
after the usual reading of the several
different reports of committees, Rev.
j. T. Simmons began his paper on
'oThe Problem of Evil" Several new
members were taken in last evening
and new committees appointed. 1t
was suggested that the meeting night
De changed and also that a program
1or the year be compiled and these
Awo suggestions were referred to the
social committee. Rev. Simmons pa
per treated the subject thoroughly and
from every side and is in part as fol-
lows:
The Problem of Evil.
mo subject that has ever come into
the range of human thought has
claimed more attention and has been
the theme of more hard and intri-
rate thought. than has the problem of
evil, It's origin and it's effect; its
nature and It's end; its agency and
its responsibilities. What it is and
what it is not. nave all been questions
of controversy of the most comprehen-
sive character and have taken on char
acter vital to the interests of human
ity. ALI THAI has ever been written
or said has not freed the problem from
mystery. In a paper like this by COM
pairing the different kinds of thoughts
and holding what light we have on
them, we can only hope to indicate the
most probable ground of truth that
lies within our reach. We observe
there is one based fact upon which
all agree. That it; that evil exists.
The SORROWS, the woes, the untold suf-
ferings of all the world, attest it's ex-
istence so emphatically that all as
sert it's reality.
Hard to AnaIyze.
'sBnt when we come to assert its ma
lure or causation and assert 1t to be
this or that, or it's effects to be that
or the other, at every step Of the
argument point has been challenged
snd disputed by controversy. In this
paper in the effort to cite the NOV
able trends of thought as advocated by
the best critics of their schools, can
do no more than to state the funda-
mental ideas at the most, but very linn
tied quotations. AS we propose to
treat the subject only nationally, it is
we'll to state that by rationalism we
mean to include all there is in philo-
sophie and scientific reasoning or men
tai effort, and eliminate all, ii posi-
BILE, that is in what is known as Bib
licaA theology.
ssFirst, the duelistic school was per-
haps the most ancient. They asserted
the reign of two equal reigning and
anaiagonistic powers, one good, the 9TH
err evil. and assumed that all the good,
as we'll as all the evil, were the legiti-
mate work of these powers. They seem.
ed ito know nothing or make nothing OF
the moral agency of men or of their
Individual responsibilities, nor of the
yokitionary freedom or non-freedom
of subjects. Nor had they any trouble
In freeing their deities from implica,
ticins in the creation OF authorship OF
evil that subsequently became trouble
some to the later schools, for they
were heather. .
eFatalism - this school of thought
sweeps out of the way all contingency
and alternatively all moral law
There is no such thing as
a. 'blameworthy' or praise
worthy act. Whatever is, is as
it lis, because 1t could not be other
wise. What is not, is not. because /,
could not be. The man we call wick
ed is simply unfortunate and sinful
and the one we call virtuous, is only
lucky, not remarkable. Good and evil
are alike necessitated. Thus, the athe
ist sweeps out Of existence all govern
ment, all law and Deity Himself assum
ing that matter is the sole substance