THE WONDERS OP LIFE 



suffering brother fhe eternal rest and the freedom from 

 pain which he has obtained by his self-redemption. 



The seventh petition of the Lord's Prayer, which is 

 repeated daily by millions of Christians, is: "Deliver 

 us from evil." Luther explains this as a prayer to be 

 saved "from all evil of body and sotil" in this life and 

 the next. When we consider this in the light of our 

 monistic principles, we have naturally to "set aside the 

 superstitious ideas of the Middle Ages regarding the 

 future life, and deal only with the petition as regards 

 this life. The number and variety and gravity of these 

 evils have grown in civilized communities in the nine- 

 teenth century, notwithstanding all the progress we 

 have made in art and science and the rational reform of 

 our personal and social life. Civilization has gained in- 

 finitely in value by the change we have made in our con- 

 ceptions of time and space in this age of steam and 

 electricity. We can make our domestic and public life 

 much pleasanter, and avail ourselves of a far greater 

 number of luxuries, than was possible to our grand- 

 fathers a hundred years ago. But all this has caused a 

 much greater expenditure of nerve-energy. The brain 

 has to bear a much greater strain, and is worn out earlier, 

 the body is more stimulated and overworked than it 

 was a hundred years ago. Many diseases of modem 

 civilization are making appalling progress ; neurasthenia, 

 especially, and other diseases of the nerves, carry off 

 more victims every year. Our asylums grow bigger and 

 more numerous every year, and we have sanatoria on 

 every side in which the baited victim of modem civiliza- 

 tion seeks refuge from his evils. Some of these evils are 

 quite incurable, and the sufferers have to meet a certain 

 death in terrible pain. Many of these poor creatures 

 look forward to their redemption from evil and the end 

 of their miserable lives. The important question arises 

 whether, as compassionate men, we should be justified 



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