ON THE MANUSCRIPTS OF GOD 



ness perhaps another deep device to develop 

 the ingenuity and invention of man? May 

 not her methods be like those of a good text- 

 book which gives one or two examples and 

 many problems? 



Such a view finds support in the wonder- 

 ful records of irrigation in the arid plains of 

 the West and elsewhere. The converse of 

 her problem of aridity the earth also gives 

 in her malarial swamps and bogs, which on 

 their face seem anything but benevolent. 

 But a study of these flaws in the nature of 

 our fairy godmother and the deadly coquetry 

 of her quicksands would lead us by analogy 

 into the debatable land of theology, which 

 has its own moral quicksands, known as 

 temptations and "the problem of evil." 



In both cases it would seem that "the 

 game's the thing" ; that is, how to make both 

 the physical and the spiritual desert "re- 

 joice, and blossom as the rose." If we are 

 willing to admit (as most of us are) that we 

 really prefer our friends and neighbors not 

 so perfect that we cannot see them making 

 improvements on their arid regions and 



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