Future Life. 485 



enjoyment while others are destitute of all these accessories 

 to happiness. Putting aside the fact that those whose lots 

 seem to be the most enviable are the least to be envied, we 

 cannot help acknowledging that this disparity does exist, and 

 that the earthly lot of some is very hard, while that of others 

 is very easy. But we must remember that there is taught in 

 the New Testament the grand doctrine of Compensation. 

 Paul alludes to this when he remarks that the sufferings of 

 this world are not to be compared with the glories of the 

 world to come, and that the troubles, trials and tribulations 

 of this life are but the precursor of that glorified existence 

 where all these things will be utterly unknown. That some 

 such arrangement would be nothing more than justice there 

 can be no question, and that some principle of Divine Justice 

 must exist was instinctively known long before it was explicitly 

 declared by the inspired apostle, for references to such com- 

 pensation are found throughout the Psalms. Even Job him- 

 self, sunk as he was in the very depth of afflictions, could say : 

 " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him ; but I will 

 maintain my own ways before Him. He also shall be my 

 salvation ; for an hypocrite shall not come before Him." So 

 far, then, as man is concerned, this problem of apparent ine- 

 quality is not so difficult of solution, for he knows only too 

 well that in spite of his hard and bitter earth-life that Divine 

 Justice will be more than vindicated in the life beyond the 

 grave to which he aspires. But in the case of the lower 

 animals, granting that they have no future existence, what, 

 I ask, becomes of Divine Justice ? In this land of enlighten- 

 ment we meet with many animals that are treated with the 

 greatest kindness by their masters, and others, endowed with 

 capacities that are not a whit inferior to their more fortunate 

 brethren, that are treated with the utmost cruelty. While 

 one is petted and pampered, another is abused and given 

 over to the pangs of hunger and starvation. If there is a 

 future life for these animals, it is simply impossible to recog- 

 nize in their Maker that justice which sensible, reasoning 



