Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-21
MAN AND GOD ON
BUSINESS BASIS
-
BISHOP C0NATY QUOTES HAIR
WARD PROFESSOR
EXISTENCE OF EVIL GREAT FAC
TOR IN LIFE
All Misery and Afflction Flow from
the One Source, SHIT Shat
ters Harmony of Body
and Soul

I'VE and God have business with
each other. and in opening ourselves
to his influence our deepest destiny is
fulfilled. The universe takes turn
genuinely for the worse or for the
better in proportion as each one of us
fulfills or evades Gods command
ments." said Bishop Conaty yesterday
morning in quoting Prof. James of
Harvard in the. second of his series of
Lenten sermons which he delivered at
the Cathedral of St. Vibiana before a
congregation that taxed the seating
capacity of the church.
Among other things the bishop said
zone of the greatest facts in human
life is the existence of evil, the uni
Versal prevalence of which is unques-
toned. The problem which society
finds hardest to solve is the manner
in which to prevent repress and pun
ish evil. While conceding the general
character of crime and its danger to
society, there are those who are apt
to consider the miseries and affections
of life as it's greatest evil, failing to
recognize that the source of all the
wastes and burdens Of life, its fall
ures and misfortunes flow from the
master evil, which is sin.
MANS future happiness depended
upon his voluntary service, but
through willful violation of Gods COM
mandments sin entered into his life,
and thus he merited the death with
which God had threatened him. The
spirit of God was driven from MIN,
the harmony of body and soul shat
tered, he became the slave Of MS pas
sions and lost the immortality of the
body as well as the integrity of the
soul, and as a consequence of this,
sin. ignorance, misery, sickness ana
death came into his life. The Chris
tian doctrine of original sin is the
only solution to the mystery OF evil
There, as in its source, is the poison
which has entered into human nature
and which is responsible for all the
ills of humanity. 1t is not to be Won
dered at that even leading psycholo-
eists of today, who have nothing Su-
pernatural in their thought and pro-
fess little belief, if any, in the reveal
ton of God, have reached the con-
clusion in their study of the problem
of life that there is something "rons
in this nature of ours, due to some
action against the great purpose OF
life.
Fulfilling Destiny
"Prof. James of Harvard has re-
Gently declared that all religions agree
as to an 'uneasiness in human nature,
which. reduced to its simplest terms,
is a sense that there is something
wrong about us as we naturally stano'
and he adds, all agree that its solu-
ton is a sense that we are saved from
the wrongness bv making proper con-
nection with the higher powers he
saws: we and God have business
with each other, and in opening our
selves to his influence our deepest des-
tiny is fulfilled He further states
that the universe takes turn genu-
inely for the worse or Tor the petI9r
in proportion as each one of us fulflllS
~. Co6'S n1mlndmentS.'
This recent declaration of the new
nsychoIogv will be understood more
clearly in the light of the truth OF
revelation that the something wrong
about us as we naturally stand is due
to the sin of Adam and the proper con-
nection made with the higher powers
is that effected Dy the redemption OF
Jesus Christ.
'FFven in it's most trif1ing character
sin has in it the malice of disobe-
dience, ingratitude and defiance. Nor
tai sin is that which blots out wholly
the image of God and drives the spirit
of holiness out of the soul. 1t pre-
fers evil to good, the deVll to God,
Barabbas to Christ. Sin pours It's
poison into mans very bones and af-
fects his whole system. 1t is the
cause of our ignorance and ruins what
a lifetime of earnestneSs has str1Ven
to build up. 1t is the source of all
the meanneSS and JealouSleS ana
envy. It ens.aves our faculties and
makes us servants of evil. 1t deprives
us of the liberty of the children of
God and casts upon us the calling
yoke of the slavery of the devil. Crea-
ton is constructive, sin is destruc-
tive; God is law, and order, and love;
sin is anarchy, and disorder and hate.
Religion has its great creed in belief
in God, in Christ, and in the Holy
Spirit; sins creed is the denial of omT
impotence, redemption and sanctif1ca4
ton. Religion brings the fatherhood
of God sin changes 1t to the father
hood of the devil.
Mortal SIM which is the master evil
of life, is the transgression of one of
Gods serious commandments and has
in it the character of an Infinite
malice, inasmuch as it is opposed to
the infinite goodness of God. The
wickedness of sin may be seen in the
punishment with which God threat
ems it,
The bishop closed his sermon with
an appeal for a better sense of the
true nature of sin, urging all to realize
that the problem of evil can only be
solved by acknowledging that evil is
a disobedience to God, that the battle
of life is a battle between virtue and
sin, good and evil, Christ and the
devil