Editorial January 8, 1903 Issue

The Inutility of Pain

W.

The ministry of suffering has been a frequent topic for religious homilies, and the statement that our Lord was made perfect through suffering is often quoted as evidence that pain has a vital and inseparable relation to character.

This assertion of the necessity of suffering and its salutary effect is the logical outcome of its classification as providential. The maintenance of God's goodness and wisdom, together with the claim that sorrow and pain are "from the Lord,"—these render the conclusion inevitable that their end is beneficent, and that therefore we should accept the situation with grace, if not gladness.

A further logical outcome of the above premises has not been generally accepted, however, even by devout Christians; viz., that this divinely appointed experience should not be shunned or intentionally lessened, but accepted a dispensation of that Love whose gracious purpose it would be un-Christian and rebellious to thwart.

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