power beyond the reach of imagination. So also when, applying the microscope to the materials and products of our earth, we find order and law asserting itself among objects, some dead and some living, so minute that thousands can be counted in the space of a speck of dust, when we learn that all matter is composed of atoms infinitely more minute than the microscope can distinguish, yet that all these are alike ordered by law, we recognise that the range of power which regulates them must be without limit. How can these things be, but by the supreme direction of a Being whose will is supreme in heaven and in earth? But such an Existence and such a Will furnish us with a solution which explains everything, and therefore such a Being is proved.

The next attribute of God must be perfect knowledge combined with perfect wisdom. For these vast forces, in every sphere, work without a hitch; they must therefore be so ordained that no condition is left unprovided for, no consequence unforeseen. Chance is no possible element under such law. Moreover, the entrance of Life into the combinations, involving growth, decay, fresh conjunction and dissolution at every moment, demands

CHAP. I]

WISDOM AND LOVE

11

prevision the most exact for its operations. When further still we find involved the human mind (not to speak of what intelligences may probably exist beyond our ken) with its varying action and influence on every object within its range, and the interaction of millions of human wills upon each other in past, present, and future ages, and yet a certain guidance plainly operating upon each, effecting a general progress, we recognise that no explanation is possible save that of an all-wise, overruling God, but that such an explanation furnishes the complete and convincing clue to the whole amazing system.

The final attribute of the God we are supposing must be illimitable Love. For why should all these wonders be save for the sole object of causing happiness? In our human consciousness the obtaining of happiness is the one common motive of all our actions. If we perform a duty it is because it gives us happiness; if we commit a crime it is because we prefer the gratification it yields; if we hope for the future it is that it may bring us happiness; and if we regret the past it is because the thought of it makes us unhappy. But in the Eternal Mind, Who sees all the past and all the

future, the sole motive of action must be to give the utmost possible degree of happiness that its infinite power and wisdom can impart. By some Churches it has been declared that God's motive of action is His own glory; that is a human and degrading conception. Glory means applause and admiration by others-how can these sentiments affect a Supreme Being so far above all? But when we see the whole of creation so arranged as to supply life and food and enjoyment to every living thing, when we see the sense of beauty in nature and in art bestowed and satisfied, when we see the intellect made capable of cultivation and progress, what conclusion is possible but that this vast system is the result of the infinite love of the Being who overrules every creature? It is true that these results are often marred by human perversity, or blind selfishness, or evil desires; but even to these there comes, sooner or later, a corrective and a remedy in the human breast, or in the overpowering influence of other agencies. So, looking around us at all the rich sources of delight the earth supplies, at all the pleasure which each creature from the lowest to the highest manifestly shares, and above all at those highest joys which come to our minds as the blessing of those who walk with

CHAP. I]

MYSTERY OF PAIN

13

God, the one sufficient explanation recurs, that a God Whose essence is Love is the author of the world that now is, and of that which we believe shall be hereafter.

This conclusion remains irresistible, although we must admit the occurrence of pain alike in mind and in body, alike in ourselves and in lower animals. For when we look at the great mass of life which falls within our cognisance we cannot but perceive that happiness is the broad and general rule, to which pain is the exception. In the following chapters some explanation of its permission or employment in certain cases will be offered, though it may be frankly acknowledged that these do not cover every occasion in which it exists. But is it reasonable to expect that our human minds can fathom every mystery in the great scheme of existence? In science it has been seen that there are found frequent difficulties, and even contradictions, in its theories, yet we do not allow those discrepancies to shake our belief in the truth of the theories. So in the immense sphere of organic existence and life, the broad general proposition that all is conceived in an intention of the utmost attainable happiness cannot be controverted by pointing to a certain proportion of pain, some of

which is obviously due to ourselves, while there is some of which we cannot at present penetrate the full cause or design.

Yet there are some partial explanations which, so far as they go, we may well keep in mind. To a certain extent pain is both preservative and instructive. Our mortal frames are exposed to injuries, and the fact that they cause pain puts us on constant guard to avoid them. Were a bruise, or a cut, or a burn to give no pain, we should be careless in incurring lesion; were excess not to cause illness we should be more apt to indulge in it; did other maladies bring no suffering we should lose the index of their nature and the motive to search for the conditions of health. So also mental pain is often the most effectual means of drawing our souls away from evil and towards good. Some of these considerations do not indeed apply to the suffering our own acts inflict upon others, whether human beings or belonging to the lower creation. These are the unhappy consequences of breach of the Divine commandment of Love; but our wickedness cannot impeach Divine perfection. Rather it adds to our sin that thus we break God's purpose, and not only impose suffering on the innocent, but make ourselves the authors of pain in that infinite