320 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



The so-called " physical evils " in the world are those 

 events which he does not like ; but they are relative 

 matters. A storm ruining his nearly ripe corn he calls 

 an "evil"; but coming after a drought has prevailed, 

 when the seed is germinating, it is a " blessing ". 



The old saying " It is an ill wind which blows no- 

 body any good," implies how rare such an occurrence is. 

 It represents the fact that all events imply their contrasts. 



If there were never these uncertainties in Nature, we 

 could not, e.g-., speak of good and bad weather. If we 

 were never ill, we should not know what to be unwell 

 meant and we could not speak of health as " good," for it 

 is only by comparison that we are aware of health at all ; 

 as we are perfectly unconscious of the working of the 

 internal organs of our body until something goes wrong. 



Such contrasts prevail everywhere, and we talk of 

 heat and cold, light and darkness, etc. 



Similarly with regard to man's moral conduct, we 

 describe it as good or bad. But why? What regulates 

 Conduct? The answer is " Law". "I had not known 

 sin but by the law," writes St. Paul ; ^ but laws, as made 

 by man, at least, are very variable not to say capricious 

 or even contradictory ; for we often find one race of men 

 regarding as correct what another thinks incorrect, as 

 the " religious " practices of the ancient Greeks compared 

 with Christian conduct. 



Thus, if a comparison between Judaism and Chris- 

 tianity be made, we find rites and ceremonies to be 

 the essence of the one, their utter abolition to be a funda- 

 mental feature of the other. The highest ideal of a 

 Rabbi was to multiply and endeavour to perform the 

 greatest number of the traditions and religious ceremonies 



^ Rom. vii. 7. 



