SIN AND DEATH* 



Sin , or disobedience to God, to which was added a 

 vivid belief in the personification of evil the Devil. 

 To all thinking men this question lies ever open and 

 unanswered. The object of most religions is an 

 attempt to answer it ; of all, to point out a method to 

 avoid the consequences of evil-doing and to obtain for- 

 giveness for the evil done. It is not to be expected 

 that man should ever fully comprehend all that these 

 questions involve, still less presume to answer why 

 God has thus done. All that man can do is to strive 

 to know what has been done, and how it has been done. 

 If it is only the truth that is sought for in every 

 step of the search, the reason why, will sometimes also 

 be disclosed. 



If it is asked why God has made living creatures to 

 suffer and to die, it may be said that God did not create 

 the world or its animate creatures as man might 

 create a watch. God is the life of the Universe, vast 

 as it is, and lives himself, in part, in the life of each 

 creature, and therefore rejoices in its joys, and sorrows 

 in its sorrow. His laws, made for all, are for the 

 good of all ; but to the individual must unavoidably 

 often give pain as well as pleasure. To the idealist, 

 who from his own ideas projected, forms the idea of 

 God, the Omniscient is also the Omnipotent, to whom 

 the impossible is possible ; who can by his fiat change 



* * v c5 



all things at will. Science does not pretend 



329 



