this great question in a rough-and-ready way by denying outright the existence of evil. We cannot dismiss this eternal problem with a shrug of the shoulder. Evil is far too potent a factor in human life to permit us to turn a blind eye to it. It is too real to be ignored and sophistically explained away.
Man finds that he lives in a hostile world. The elements and animals and his fellowmen combine to make war upon him. Great is the wrath of the elements. Nature is beautiful and kindly, benevolent and bountiful, wise and frugal, cheering and comforting, ennobling and inspiring. But Providence governs the universe by the law of contraries. In her malevolent mood, nature is a callous and capricious and frightful monster, raging and thundering, wasting and withering, scorching and burning, drowning and burying, devastating and destroying, devouring and killing. Her catastrophes and cataclysms work havoc upon earth. Her magic wand spells destruction and death all around. With appalling suddenness, in one terrific moment, she razes to the ground marvels of man, raised by his toil and industry of years. Her burning mountains, in their frightful freaks, rain brimstone and fire upon fertile fields, convert prosperous towns in one raging sea of flame, emit molten metals, and let loose hell on earth. Her terrific quakes bring havoc upon villages and towns, overwhelm sleeping humanity reposing in its implicit confidence in the gentle mother earth, rudely wake men, women, and children, and mercilessly drive them headlong, demented and delirious, in futile search of shelter and safety and bury their unwary victims deep under the debris. Her furious hurricanes blow about the weeping weaklings of the human and animal world like autumn leaves and bury them alive in the sandy solitudes of the desert. The unbridled gushing waters of her inundations carry all life and property before them. Her famines and droughts kill vegetation and decimate animals and human beings. Her giant trees strangle and deal out death to small trees growing about them in the forests. Wild creepers entwine themselves like serpents round trees and choke their lives out. Countless millions of insects and ants gnaw trees down to dust and death, ravage the crops, and kill live stock. A reign of struggle to the death is witnessed in the animal world. The strong live and thrive by devouring the weak in the forests. Millions of animals and birds and fishes are born to be so many morsels to the stronger of their
