The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1911-08-04
SATURDAY NIGHT
M SERMONS
,WA@ BY
9 ! aEySAMUE *
WpUPv1SDl
THE MYSTERY OF PAIN.

III Tim. ii. IL.
It's rare food for your infidel friend.
He leans back and views you as
though he were visitor from another
planet. "Why does your God allow
pain?'' says he. That sounds judicial.
Makes you blink. IF He is almighty
why doesn't He abolish iii? Notice
his IF were God" air. IF He were
all loving would He permit it?" That's
a squelcher. You wriggle and squirm
mentally. You cough and strangle
like dog that's swallowed a fly. Be-
fore you can stammer forth something
about the ways of Providence being
inscrutable he is gone and you feel
as though you had been caught burn
ing incense to your house cat. Then
you remember that you would have
liked to ask his theory of why the
"blind impersonal force" he believes in
permits pain. His non-God is as cruel
as your personal God and doesn't
profess loving intelligence. But hes
gone and you're alone with your pain.
Come soon or late pain will get you.
1t ushered you into the world: it may
bow you out. However. the amount
between birth and death is curiously
exaggerated. Three rainy Sundays out
Of thirteen will tempt the preacher
(also his excuse making church mem
ber) to declare that lit always rains
on Sunday Some of our pain we
have earned honestly and ought to be
ashamed to mention it. Human wars,
with not only shot and shell. but e4-
posture and camp diseases. have hand
ed down quite few to our human
credit or discredit. Modern psyche
therapeutics prove that envy. jealousy.
hatred and some other unenviable
traits are responsible for. quite a
brood. It's not very polite to blame
God for these.
Pain as Warning.
Pain is signboard. Your physician
tells you, scientifically pain results
from or accompanies deranged. over
strained or otherwise abnormal action
of the body and serves as warning
of danger" True. Nature warns there's
something wrong. Don't hush the pain
remove the cause. flushing the pain
is removing the red lantern. the dan
ger signal, from wreck on the road
instead Of removing the obstruction.
Without pain practically. every i'll
would be fatal. because the cause of
the pain would not be removed.
he, fot,i h0vp
old fodder? The button box. the stove.
the scissors, the steps, even "kitty's
claws" are unknown quantities and
qualities to baby-it doesn't know pain
hence mothers watchfulness. After
awhile 1.-The burned child breads the
fire. and some other things. Without
pain the race would be wiped out of
existence. Some babies of older years
would walk heedlessly in front of troll.
leys-fenders are needed even now;
others would wander over precipices;
some would cut hands and fingers off
Pain is protection.
Philosophy of Pain.
Your infidel friends questions start
ed from wrong assumptions. He has
many such. One is that what hurts is
ent immediate happiness is the chief
end of life. And his notion that God
Of love would not allow suffering
shows he has crude idea Of the ma
ture of love. He would train his son to
believe that boy scouts are best de-
volnnod on ico ornon1 COdac ap1 ooI-o
while his daughters basketball team
best builds muscle on pickles and
fudge. Love is an unselfish devotion
that seeks another's highest good.
whether for the moment it gives pleas
ure or pain. Life is not an entertain
ment; it's an education
This world is Gods university. Death
is commencement day: pain has been
prominent on the faculty. The oak is
tree plus some storms. A statue is
marble plus the chisel. A soldier is a
man plus battle. The martyr is flesh
and blood plus rack and fagot. In
aviation the first rule of fight is to
turn the machine against the wind
Mankind rises through adverse winds
Of suffering. The higher your nerve
organization the more you suffer. Tear.
an arm out Of crab. it will still live
indeed. may grow new one. Tear
an arm from man. he will die
Mans body is a marvellous harp. But
do not subhuman creatures sufferY'
Yes. but only relatively. Cut some of
the simplest forms Of life in half and
they go on their way-two existences
now instead of one Doesn't the fish
worm wriggle under the hook?" Yes
but it wriggles before the hook touches
it. "And the hOrseg' Yes, the more
highly organized he is the more he
suffers. But even he has been known
to hobble around on broken leg. nib
bling grass in apparent contentment
And the inferior races?'' have seen
on one Of the reservations half dozen
Indian boys with playmate down
iabbing pins in him to make him yell
1nsuccessfully.
''Our light Affections" says Paul
Somehow the pounding is turning out
bronze doors with beautiful designs.
Yhe shearing and the weaving and the
dyeing are bringing out beautiful
/ fapoStrv TaHo wow feov;rcS