The Newtown bee., 1904-12-02
SOCIAL TOPICS.
USE AND ABUSE.-BY DO. WRIGHT.

Evil is everywhere in the world, and is involved in all the relations of life. And since evil is so universal, and has always been permitted to exist, and, indeed, is possible in every issue of our common experiences; it must stand in some vital relation to the divine schooling of the moral-spiritual man. Accordingly we are taught in the Holy Scriptures that evil is to be overcome with good. And above all, the Over- coming of evil with good is the real measure and proof of our manhood, and progress in che divine life. The is one of the prime factors of our moral education, and spiritual perfection. To him that OvercOmeth shall be given the crown of everlasting life; and to him only who wins the mastery of himself over the world, and the abuses that are in the world, shall the prize of eternal worth be given.
 Good is better than evil; truth is stronger than falsehoOd: and use is to be preferred, always, to abuse. Sin is folly and shame. He who believes in God need rot, and is not overcome of the adversary. He who loves God Supremely in his heart is more than a match for all the temptations of evil;
 
 lives in the midst of the world, and is not of the spirit of the world: but a true child of the celestial kingdom; that he walks in the midst of sinful and evil associations, but lives above them in the spirit of the Lord of life, with Satan beneath his feet. And if such an one be Overtaken of evil, and being deceived,i in an hour of weakne ss falls; he is not cast down, for he still holds on to the hand of God, and clings to the side of the meek and lOwly Saviour; and so he arisesI and goes on again more determined than ever to conquer by the grace of tbe divine Helper.
 Some good people are very indignant against evil, and apparently would banish, and utterly destroy it, and root it out of the world at once. In fact they have mo patience with it; and especially if it be m some form of abuse from which they have personal ly suffered much. Accordingly we sus- pect that there may be good deal of personal spite and selfshness in the zeal of certain reformerS. A righteous indignation against sin because it is sinful, and dishonors God, and ruins men, is one thing; petty, personal hatred and bitterness of spirit against mere thing which has become ob- noxious to us because it has been abused, and by it's abuse has made us unhappy, is another thing. It is childish in us to lmpeach the divine goodness and wisdom by in- sisting on the annihilation of that which God has permitted to be, simply | because men abuse it.
 It has been we'll said that: "Oul Lord does not annihilate evil. He does not regard it as an Outlawed in truders who had eluded Gods notice and who, as soon as he is discovered k to be expelled from the universe al
 once. His Father has suffered evil tt
 be and He, Christ, follows in Hi
 Fathers ways; evil may still do it.
 work only not on men. So ouI
 Lord is gentle even with the power
 they would not have been there, ant
 istence before the time."
 If there was no evil, or abuse in tn
 world, of what moral Signltlcanc
 could our conduct be to one another, o
 even to our heavenly Father? If ther'
 mean to us? Indeed, all the grea
 virtues of human life are born of tn
 possibilities of vices-in the choice 0 the proper uses of the gifts of God, il ) the face of the temptation to abus them. As God the Father declares c the Son: "Thou hast loved righteOu! ness and hated iniquity; therefor
 God, even thy God hath amounted the l with the oil of gladness above thy fe lowS"