Editorial October 28, 1905 Issue

Good Cannot Be the Product of Evil

Archibald McLellan

We occasionally find persons who try to justify the doing of evil upon the plea that good has resulted from it, or will result from it; but this is an impossibility. To assert that good can be the product of evil is to assert that "sweet water and bitter" can proceed from the same fountain, a logically unthinkable proposition which necessarily assumes the reality and desirability of evil.

It cannot be supposed that persons who desire good to prevail in the affairs of men will voluntarily resort to the practice of evil, unless they believe that evil is more powerful than good and that good cannot do as much for the welfare and prosperity of the race as can evil. The logical outcome of this belief would be the postulate that evil is primary and good secondary, a postulate to which no Christian can assent and which finds no justification in the teachings of Jesus. Our Master in nowise sanctioned evil in cause or effect, and to be consistent Christians his followers must avoid even the semblance of evil.

The text, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee," is sometimes warped to do duty in support of the erroneous belief that evil can result in good, but this use of the text will not bear analysis. The fact that the wrath of man can be checked and made to praise God is one of the most convincing proofs that evil has no inherent power and that its use is inconsistent with true Christianity. The supposition that evil has any quality upon which goodness can be based, is a harmful illusion that does not harmonize with right reasoning, and that leaves no unvarying standard by which conduct may be judged and morality enforced.

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