THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 



globe has at last got its eyes open to the evils of 

 militarism, and has bought its emancipation at a 

 heavy price. Ty ranny and oppression are finally 

 doomed b y the nature of man . Nature's ways are 

 roundabout, and often regardless of cost. The chaos 

 and waste and suffering in Europe to-day are in 

 keeping with her spendthrift methods. She knows 

 that the most turbulent and muddy stream will 

 clear itself and quiet down. The track of the cyclone 

 through the forest will in time entirely disappear. 

 Evil perishes, the good increases more and more. 

 God is not so bad as we paint him, and we have no 

 need of a devil. All is good. Gravity would glue 

 our feet to the ground and we have to defeat it 

 every time we lift a foot, and yet how could we 

 walk or work without gravity? The bad, or the evil, 

 dogs one's footsteps, but it teaches us circumspec- 

 tion, and to beware of dangerous paths. 



How easy to put one's finger on this or that and 

 say, " Here are positive evils ! " — all diseases, 

 smallpox, infantile paralysis, influenza, and so on — 

 but they are only remote contingencies, and, on 

 the whole, most of us find life good. There arejgoojl 

 germs.and .there are bad germs, hni trhfi gnnri vastly 

 pred&r"infltq r And the bad germs are only bad 

 from our point of view. Our doors and windows let 

 in the cold or the heat, as the case may be. We have 

 them on these conditions. Fruits and grains nour- 

 ish us, but they may injure us also. 



"TsFT 



