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earth knoweth that which is hidden, besides God:'[1] And again, that He alone ruleth the heart; 'Know that God goeth between a man and his heart.'[2]
Nay, but, my friend, is it not impious to lay to the charge of God the guilt which comes forth from the heart? Can He that is holy create that which is unholy?
How then does anything that is unholy exist? is there any Creator besides God ? Yet is there sin in the world; and yet deeper guilt, I have heard thee say, is in Hell; — and the Evil One himself, — how became he evil but by the permission of God?
Havilah was troubled, but he kept silence.
No man, continued Eber, can declare why anything that is unholy exists, or what shall be the issue of all that is now working in the universe: God alone sees the end of all things from the beginning, and can bring calm out of the tempest, and peace from the troubles of the spirit. Do we not believe that sickness and earthquakes and famine are from God?
From Him, said Havilah, comes the desolation which wastes our cities. He sends a parching breath over our plains, and the springs are
