Editorial September 26, 1942 Issue

Thwarting the Adversary

Peter V. Ross

One can approach the problem of evil victoriously only in the conviction that the government of the universe is reasonable and kindly. Appearances may point a different conclusion. To the human mind the universe may seem a house divided between good and evil. But logic and revelation unite in pronouncing goodness supreme and all-pervasive. This is the only rational foundation for a permanent order; the only safe hypothesis from which to shape one's course. Browning is at his best when he observes:

There shall never be one lost good! What
was, shall live as before;
The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying
sound;
What was good shall be good, with for
evil so much good more;
On the earth the broken arc; in the heaven
the perfect round.