520 IMMORALITY OF CREATION. 



book inscribed in blood and tears ; it is when we study 

 the laws regulating life, the laws productive of develop- 

 ment, that we see plainly how illusive is this theory 

 that God is Love. In all things there is cruel, profli- 

 gate, and abandoned waste. Of all the animals that 

 are born a few ouly can survive ; and it is owing to 

 this law that development takes place. The law of 

 Murder is the law of Growth. Life is one long 

 tragedy ; creation is one great crime. And not only 

 is there waste in animal and human life, there is also 

 waste in moral life. The instinct of love is planted in 

 the human breast, and that which to some is a solace 

 is to others a torture. How many hearts yearning for 

 affection are blighted in solitude and coldness. How 

 many women seated by their lonely firesides are musing 

 of the days that might have been. How many eyes 

 when they meet these words which remind them of 

 their sorrows will be filled with tears. cold, cruel, 

 miserable life, how long are your pains, how brief are 

 your delights ! What are joys but pretty children that 

 grow into regrets ? What is happiness but a passing 

 dream in which we seem to be asleep, and which we 

 know only to have been when it is past ? Pain, grief, 

 disease, and death, are these the inventions of a loving 

 God 1 That no animal shall rise to excellence except 

 by being fatal to the life of others, is this the law of a 

 kind Creator ? It is useless to say that pain has its 

 benevolence, that massacre has its mercy. Why is it 

 so ordained that bad should be the raw material of 

 good ? Pain is not less pain because it is useful ; 

 murder is not less murder because it is conducive to 

 development. Here is blood upon the hand still, and 

 all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten it. 



To this then we are brought with the much- 



