Article April 25, 1914 Issue

A most remarkable statement by the dean of St. Paul's,...

W. C. Williams—Annapolis, Md.

The Evening Capital

A most remarkable statement by the dean of St. Paul's, London, England, was quoted in a recent issue of The Evening Capital. One quotation states, "It is quite clear that God does not consider death to be an evil or an injustice, and it is equally clear that He intended His creatures to suffer pain." It is inconceivable that a conception could obtain that would place God on a lower level than His offspring—man.

One is usually characterized as a human brute who wilfully inflicts pain on others, and he is considered as far removed from God as it is possible for a human being to be, and yet this English divine, who teaches the example of the loving, merciful Jesus, whose very presence banished pain, declares that "pain is a condition that is most precious in this world." Jesus plainly taught that sin, not God, is the chief cause of suffering, and he also taught that death is an enemy. The Bible teaches that God is Love, but such an interpretation of love as given by the reverend doctor above quoted is not an inducement to human beings to know God better. The "revolt against pain" is an enlightened revolt, as it appeals to common sense that suffering and disease is not the law of divine Love, and that the image and likeness of God would not suffer any more than the Father suffers, if man did not allow himself to be the image and likeness of evil instead.

If pain is God-ordained, we have no right to try to evade it, but the world-wide and continuous effort to overcome it, proves that there is little faith in such a theory, even if this defender of pain welcomes it. If pity and charity depend upon a painful world, it would certainly be a blessing to eliminate them, but, on the contrary, true charitableness would find a larger field in the uplifting of thought and endeavor to the higher plane of moral and intellectual rectitude. Fear and pain have never been proved to be preventives of crime and other immorality, and no real reform has ever been accomplished through their instrumentality. Love is the only reformer, and it was through love that Jesus achieved his hold on mankind.

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