New Britain herald., 1925-10-12
MINISTER HITS AT
 DENIAL OF EVIL
Christian Science and New
 Thought Mentioned From Pulpit

That the function of the Christian
 Is not to submit peacefully to the
 ills and evils of human life, but to fight and "try to overcome them"
 was the gist of sermon delivered by Rev. Theodore Ainsworth Greene
 at the First Congregational church yesterday morning.
 Mir. Groene's sermon was in part
 as follows:
 "Why is life hard?
 That Is the great question of the
 ages. And 1t Is a tougher problem today than It has ever been before. This condition Is due to no lack of trying to answer, however. Philoso- phers, poets, theologians. scientists
 have done their best. And very
 nearly all of them have failed. The fatalist, the morallst. the stoic, the Imaterialist, and the Christian Scien-
 list with his denial of the problem all these have tried. But not one
 of their answers brings satisfaction. And, if personal difficulties are not enough to stagger us. there is
 plenty of trouble in the world out side
 "Men are telling us that all signs
 point to an appalling catastrophe, an economic collapse in Britain un- less things change soon. Here is Germany. overcrowded, steadily in-
 creasing in population and with no adequate outlet for it. Italy and
 Japan are likewise in the same over
 crowded state, though as victors in the war, their position is not so troublesome as Germanys. China is struggling towards independent gov- ernment without interference from abroad. Difficulties with Turks and hard problems in India cause Brit aims premier sleepless nights, While in Russia, there Is developing d new order under masters who consider | the whole basis of western civiliza- ton 10 be mistak and pernicious. and who practice apparently to de-
 stroy it. Surely. it is no eXaggcra- tion of the facts to assert that there is struggle and suffering enough in the world 10 be q constant source of pain and uncasineSs 10 everyone who docs not shut up his soul in Christlcss unconccrn! We may live in com parative comfort in America but no one can travel through Eur Iope without facing tragedies and hard facts every day.
 "Why is all this" Why is life so hard for any of us--for all of us' Why does God allow 1t?
 Fundamentally, of course, the an swer must be that We do not know Life is too big. and too intricate for us 10 understand 1t. Tho greatest wisdom is 10 be as little child. That is the wisdom of the book of Job. IL is ono of the greatest books of the arcs. It took shape in q period of deep anguish and hardship. It at temrts 10 wrcstlc courageously with l inc hard facts of life. But, the book of Job comes to no conclusion cX- cept this: That God is great and God
 is good, and life is in P;s Hand. Al
 the end Of all this strngA .. man
 lows before tho mystery of life, ana 1 finds peace only in the will of God, and in the urdyng fire of faith in
 his own heart,
 But. now, granting that We C1n. luot hope to solve forever this nrCh lem of tho hardness of life, this fact | tf the existence and rcrsistanc" of evil. how best can we manager to
 get on with it?
 "Flrst, and most obvious of all tho ways In which mon face hard facts, Is the Way of Rchollinn Tt is a vory natural way, but it is at the same tim" wholly futile way.
 'I believe you will agree, that among the saddcsi Of all sad people gre those who hold themselves in q state of intermittent or perpetual !rcbclllon against facts that cannot
 he changed. know people who have prayed every Sunday Thy will be
 done and then have proceeded to set and hold themselves all the week , in a robellious attitude toward thc
 will of God fqr them. To rebel
 against the ohN i6us and inevitable facts of life only adds to ones own bitterness of heart, anl never changes these hard facts by one jot
 or title. Sorrow, grief, pain, sympathy, all
 these reactions have their place. IL is sufficient 10 remember that JeSuF Christ thought it worth while 10 in
 cudo in his brief list of blessings,
 one for those who mourn But he promised no blessing for those who rChol There is no hahn and no com
 fort for those who let their souls
 settle into q stolid attitude Of protest land who move through life under a perpetual cloud of discontcnt.
 "Thc second way is the Way of ! Denial. And it seems to he sought
 by great many people of late. Mon
 and women. who attempt this way, deal with hard facts by the simple 1 process ot SaNlnE that they do not
 exist They claim that all these hard facts. which most Of us sec,
 simply are not present In the world
 at all, that they are only ficticns of our mortal mind. That they are
 nothing hut illusions that will flee
 away All We have to do is 10 op"n
 our eyes, to declare and believe that God is goo1, they say, and then all troubles will depart and there can
 be no moro evil If only we will assert this absen% of evil often enough, and strcnuously enough, why oven the devil himself will come to believe ii, and fade away altogether out Of the life Of our world,
 "As one considers somc of the
 claims of Christian Science, New Thpupbt ThpoSCrbv and l;iDlrp1