N a sinless and painless world the moral element would be lack- 

 ing; the goodness would have no more significance in our con- 

 scious life than that load of atmosphere which we are always carry- 

 ing about with us. 



We are thus brought to a striking conclusion, the essential sound- 

 ness of which cannot be gainsaid. In a happy world there must be 

 pain and sorrow, and in a moral world the knowledge of evil is in- 

 dispensable. The stern necessity for this has been proved to inhere 

 in the innermost constitution of the human soul. It is part and par- 

 cel of the universe. To him who is disposed to cavil at the world 

 which God has in such wise created, we may fairly put the question 

 whether the prospect of escape from its ills would ever induce him 

 to put off this human consciousness, and accept in exchange some 

 form of existence unknown and inconceivable! The alternative is 

 clear: on the one hand a world with sin and suffering, on the other 

 hand an unthinkable world in which conscious life does not involve 

 contrast < ,j* 



We do not find that evil has been interpolated into the universe from 

 without; we find that, on the contrary, it is an indispensable part of 

 the dramatic whole. God is the creator of evil, and from the eternal 

 scheme of things diabolism is forever excluded. Ormuzd and Ahriman 

 have had their day and perished, along with the doctrine of special 

 creation and other fancies of the untutored human mind. From our 

 present standpoint we may fairly ask, what would have been the 

 worth of that primitive innocence portrayed in the myth of the gar- 

 den of Eden, had it ever been realized in the life of men? What 

 would have been the moral value or significance of a race of human 

 beings ignorant of sin, and doing beneficent acts with no more con- 

 sciousness or volition than the deftly contrived machine that picks 

 up raw material at one end, and turns out some finished product at 

 the other? Clearly, for strong and resolute men and women an Eden 

 would be but a fool's paradise. 



THROUGH NATURE TO GOD. 



