The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1905-05-27
ALL PROGRESS is BY SACRIFICE
AND SUFFERING.

In the book of Job we have the first
glimpse in religious history Of vicarious
suffering, the first glimpse of the fact
that all progress is by sacrifice.
The truth is sealed by, our Lords sac
rifice His redemptive death on the
cross, that we might live and progress.
We are the product of all that is past
and gone. and that is to come depends
upon our active interpretations OF life
and duty. We live in a cycle of sacri-
fee and suffering.
Fdin is the handspring of this uni
verse. We are now reaping the re-
ward of the suffering of others. our
happiness has it's roots in soil Watered
by the tears of untold generations.
The ladder by which man has climbed
to his present position is stained with
blood at every step. Pain and suffering
is the common lot of all. Animals prey
upon plants. and the man upon animals
and bacteria upon man. Birds and but
terflies are not the careless, Joyous
things 8f which tho poet tells US living
only for beauty and pleasure. but they
are like all other created beings, en-
gagged i'm a terrible struggle for eXls-
tence. The song of the bird is war
cry. and the adornment of the butter
fy merely war paint
OF the million seeds sown by the wind
only one lives. A thousand eggs are
cast upon the waters to produce one
fish an hundred men have labored ana
TITLED that one might live. This seems
like am awful waste of nature. time
work and life. but it is not. 1t is prog
ress. The only progress which nature
knows. .,.., !, 80
tho creeks said long ago. The rod of
affIiction is the modelling tool by when
God creates. There can be no happl-
ness If there has been no suffering. JOY
-ie The offspring of sorrow. Out OF war
eo,nes neace. through darkness comes
the light. and through death comes
life -, e..
The most glorious promise OF the ru-
t,Ire is the history Of the past. we are
tba ,,roduct of evolution. and the most
comforting thought is that there II NJ
t,reak I'm the process. There was time
,,.l,o5, there was no suffering in the
IND but there was also no life: when
49, esrth was without form, and VOID.
a,,d darkness was one the face OF the
as,+t, As soon as life came, sutrerlng
,>asap and IL has Increased with hte.
progress may be defined as increase III
The capacfty for suffering. The nlgher
the scale of life the more suilelli!S
there is. A stone does llet Ieel pain'
,,,obahly plant does. When man,
tte crown of all life came into being
he was capable of the most intense pam
ana suffering. and this capacity for
suffering SUIT has increased ever since; =.
The earliest animals were DUH III 20 20
avoid suffering They were as Dig as
an animal could be and walk. The SEN
si Sit parts were protected, as in our
modern iron-clads, by defensive armor;
as thick as could be carried macs ana
scales almost impenetable. Now these
animals are all extinct. They were
beaten in the struggle for existence and
beaten by what? BY the little animals,
which had their every nerve on the out
side. The animals that were most cas-
iIy hurt conquered those that were most
protected. Now our museums are f1lled
with the relics of these gigantic animals
OF the past, and one the walls is hang-
ing the arrror of the nights OF the md
die ages who were beaten by men with
ont ar1nor. The best protected living
thing nGrw in existence is the clam, ana
the least protected is man. TO try