Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1905-02-18
A MiSTATEMENT.
Not True That Everything Happens
for the Best-W hat Scrip
ture Does Say.

| lnlnS happens Tor the best. But ii is
| not Ser plural, and it is rot true. Many
things happen because OF sin, and sin
is never Tor the best. Paul says that
where sin abCunCed. grace cid much
more abound. But we are not therefore
/ TO suppose that God was dependent on
sin for the manifestation OF His grace.
| VI course nothing ever happens that
| defeats Gods ultimate purposes. God
is able to overrule all evil and accident
to HIS own gracious designs. But evil
is evil and God does not cause it, or
desire it, or need it.
Because of the rascality of brother,
a gentleman lost his money and failed
In business. That misfortune turned
his attention to religious work, and he
| became most devoted lay evangelist
He always said that his loss of money
was really blessing. But the wicked
ness of the brother was not a part of
| Gods plan. Indeed that brother de-
generated and lived an unblest life
There are a great many bad things
in this world for which God is not re
! sponsible and which He does not de-
| sire. And in the wake OF wickedness,
partly connected with it oftentimes, is
much sadness anC sorrow. We must
not ascribe all these calamities to Coo,
and say: Everything happens for the
best" The Scripture does not say that
all things are good, but that all things
work together for good to them that
love God. The world is not as God
would have it. But Gods power is such
that He can bring His people to their
| highest development in the world as
it is.
Leaving aside the mystery of the
origin of suffering and evil. it is evil
dent that they become servants in the
| hand of God for our moral training
| What kind Of a man could be produced
In this way: Let him have everything
| that he desires, let him succeed in all
his undertakings, let people fulfill ali
! their engagements with him, let him
never suffer accident. never be disap-
pointed, never be misunderstood, never
be sick, never be weared. never be over
worked? 1t is evident that no man could
be so shielded and pampered without
| becoming selfish self-sufiicient. unsym-
| pathetic, oyerbearing. 1t is the yeriest
truism that men must fghJ, and suffer,
and wait, in order TO be strong.
| But while we may readily admit the
! general proposition that certain trials
are necessary for the development of
character, says the Sunday School
| Times, we see so clearly how our par
ticular veXings and annoyances could
have been avoided. that we often fail
to apply the principle in our own lives.
The trouble that came last week. we
argue, was not part OF cur Christian
discipline, because il was caused by the
| foolishness of such a one and by the
wickedness of that other one. and the
accident which happened was due to
purely natural causes
/ Yet it is part of the essential eyneri-
ence of life to meet the foolishness and
wickedness of men. and TO live among
material conditions. GOO may not d.
rectly cause them or bring them. We
may be able 10 trace them all to their
beginnings, and see how all might have
been different. But God will be in them
all if we are willing that He shall be.
| The blessed assurance for the Christian
is that all Of them may be helpful, and
none Of them harmful. and that all
things may work together for his GOOD.
| Therein is ,ne distinction between
fataiism and faith. Islam is submission
| to fate; Gods will is inevitable: man
! can only bow 10 it. and hope in the
, Divine mercy. But virile Christian faith
! is far different. Here is a world of
mighty forces, in which man must do
/ his best. He must STUDY and strive.
he must adapt himself 10 the material
conditions in which he finds himself.
i for his fortune Will depend largely upon
| his own efforts. Here, too, is a world of
persons endowed with moral RESPONSE
! bllity, who act and react upon one an
other. And the Christian must meet
, his fellow men in thousand varying
relations. But God is with him in the
midst of all, Transforming every evil into
spiritual blessing, bringing good out of
every accident, trouble, and irritation,
using every circumstance and situation
that comes in the complex play OF
things and persons for the furtherins of
his high design that we shall be con-
formed to the image of His Son.
This noble faith is wonderfully pic
tured in the Book of Revelation What
ever may be the details Of interpreta-
ton of that difficult writing, it's main
| thought is clear and beautiful. On the
earth are prosecutions and calamities.
war and pestilence. There is all man
| ner of iniquity. God is not the cause OF
1t, but strange powers of wickedness
disobedient to His will are The dwell
ers on earth in the midst of the awful
perpleXities cannot see any sign that
God is caring for them. But every
chapter reveals that God is on the
throne, and the Lamb is with Him.
Love is at the heart of the universe.
And that Love is omnipotent, and seeth
| the end from the beginning. At last the
end is revealed. Every evil vanishes,
| and the saints who have come out of too
tribulation are seen to have been puri-
| fled in the process, while a new earth
reveals Gods power to bring out all
things well.
Everything does not happen for the
| best, but out of everything that happens
I Cod uUil hrin0 ba hact 70 tho eO,,1 Abok