Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-06-19

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I'VE might get a more accurate idea
of what Paul meant to say to his
Corinthian friends by the following
translation of these words. For ye
were panied as God meant You to be
panied We are stunned at first by
these words. Can it be that God. who
is our loving Father, can will that we
shall be afflicted with pain: The
question plunges us into one of the
most difficult and least understood
problems of Christian thought. Let us
.onfine ourselves merely to the ques-
ion Of physical suffering.
There have always been a numer-
Gus school of thinkers who have OBJ
jected to the linking of suffering with
religion. After Christs death a large
group of philosophers denied that there
was any reality to His physical suffer
;ng upon the cross. This group mum
oered some of the brightest minds of
the age, but the world was never will
ing to accept their view of the cross.
These men have had q create host of
followers who likewise have tried to
Danish pain from life and religion.
Rosewater Religions
Hubert l.. Simpson, a leader of the
Scotch pulpit. aptly speaks of these
people in a somewhat popular style:
They like Christ-'The Christ they
prefer To call him now. How sweet
the name Jesus sounds in the believers
earl HIN sweet, perhaps, but a little
sloppy These people refer to God
Almighty. too. as the All Father,
which is perilously near all nonsense.
They offer Christ upon His cross, if
he insists on staying there. not myrrh
and vinegar. but a little lavender water.
But if they only get him to come down
off that cross. A crown of thOrns is
such a nasty, prickly thing. A religion
without suffering or sacrifice or ser
vice-how attractive it would be. How
specious the invitation TO come down
off the cross. Tow far seeing. How
worldly wise
ut has been left to our age II
launch these fancy and crossless reli.
ready to embrace that kind of thing
the religious beloved Of the uphols-
tered suburb, but which somehow one
can't see going down into the Sums
with William Booth Or marching
through the heart of Africa with David
Livingstone. You can always tell these
rosewater religions by the place they
give to the cross or rather the place
they refuse to give it.
Leaving the consideration of the
relation of Christ to pain, let lis ask
ourselves what philosophy we have to
offer for the place of pain in rc!i-
gion, consequently in life. 1t has been
said that it's function is punishment.
This was the common view in the time
of Christ. When a blind man was en-
countered the disciples asked Jesus:
who sinned, this man or his parents.
that he was born blind Jesus ans
wered. Neither did this man sine or
his parents.' We must give the same
answer 10 much of the suffering which
we see. You canno disobey the laws
of God with impunity. yet it remains
that pain comes to the righteous as
we'll as the unrigbteous.
Element of Life
element of life. with just az legit-
a function as the sensation of
pleasure. The two 60 hand in hand.
Pleasure attracts us to those things
which tend to the preservation of the
race. Pain repels us from those which
tend TO it's destruction.
Let any who think that pain ought to
he banished from the world stop to
think what would hapuen to their baby
should this force be stricken from
bis life. lie would burn his hand to a
crisp playing with a hot iron because
here would be no invisible voice saying
hat too much heat is not desirable. If
his is an illusion, thank God. all babies
rave it. Pain is the great guardian Of
he face. 1t is most acute and per-