216 OUR DEBT TO PAIN "Pain's shade enhanced the shine Of pleasure, else no pleasure ! " 1 Pain is defined as "the representation in consciousness of a change produced in a nervecentre by a certain mode of excitation. It would seem that some special perturbation of nervous impulses, and not a mere exaltation of the normal functioning of the sensory apparatus, is necessary to the production of pain." The apparatus to which we are indebted for all our pleasures is the means by which we suffer pain. We could not have the machinery of pleasure without the possibility of its disturbance giving rise to suffering. Pain is often the doctor's best guide to diagnosis. Were there no pain it would be often impossible to detect the ailing organ or the disturbed function. "In the eyes of God A hateful chance no man but would avert Uninterrupted pleasures turn to pain. Pain makes us fight against it, and so becomes an actual tonic. The contest against pain has brought us all that is most valuable in life. We owe to it all our advance in knowledge and all our improvements in civilization. If we had 1 Ferishtah's Fancies: "A Bean-Stripe," etc. PAIN THE CAUSE OF SYMPATHY 217 never felt fatigue railways would have never been invented; if we had never suffered anxiety we should have had no telegraphs. But above all, pain has created sympathy— "Put pain from out the world, what room were left For thanks to God, for love to man?" 1 "Thanks to God And love to man,—from man take these away, Therefore in pain we see the wisdom of God at work. We are so constituted that our hearts tell us that no one deserves to suffer pain; good or bad, humanity concedes that pain must be relieved. The murderer in the condemned cell, the burglar just sentenced, if suffering pain, have as much claim on the anodynes at the prison doctor's command as if they were the chaplain and his wife. "How were pity understood "Our capacity for sorrow is equally necessary with our susceptibility to pain for our whole moral nature. Sorrow itself is a most essential process for the perfecting of the soul."4 1 Ferishtah's Fancies: "Mihrab Shah." 2 Ibid. 3 Parleyings with Francis Furini. 4 F. W. Newman, The Soul, p. 44. 218 THE MYSTERY OF MORAL EVIL Says a spiritual writer: "Although sorrow springs up from the soil over which sin has sown briars wherever we place our foot, it has become transformed into a Divine plant, budding forth beauty, and endowed with a virtue which perhaps nothing else of earthly origin possesses, because the Son of God has touched it and given it a Divine character in the crucible of His own heart." But the Existence of Moral Evil is to many a far greater mystery than that of physical suffering, yet it is not difficult to show that sin or moral evil is as necessary a part of the Divine scheme as that of physical pain. It is conceivable that every sorrow, disappointment, and trial we have to bear-aye, every breach of the moral law we commit-may be used by God to make us permanently the better. There could be no virtue without the presence of sin in the world, just as without temptation there could be no such thing as moral character. Having made man free, it was impossible for God to have compelled him to act in any particular way. His freedom would have been destroyed by preventing him from sinning when he felt so inclined; nor in that case would the sin have been really prevented, for if the man had desired to sin the evil would have been present in his intention, even if its fruition in act had been hindered by God. As Dr. Fairbairn MAN NOT A MACHINE 219 points out" Evil once intended may be vanquished by being allowed; but were it hindered by an act of annihilation, then the victory would rest with the evil which had compelled the Creator to retrace His steps. And, to carry the prevention backward another stage, if the possibility of evil had hindered the creative action of God, then He would have been, as it were, overcome by its very shadow. But why did He create a being capable of sinning? Only so could He create a being capable of obeying. The ability to do good implies the capability of doing evil. The engine can neither obey nor disobey, and the creature who was without this double ability might be a machine but could be no child. Moral perfection may be attained, but cannot be created; God can make a being capable of moral action, but not a being with all the fruits of moral action garnered within him." A man cannot be a steam-engine and a man too, but this is what people demand when they deny the existence of an All-wise, Omnipotent, and Allloving Creator, because of the existence of moral evil in a world of moral natures. The independence of the human will necessitates, therefore, the possibility of our moral imperfections. Browning teaches us that we must "concede a use to evil," 2 because it is 1 Christ in Modern Theology, p. 456. 2 Parleyings with Bernard de Mandeville. 218 THE MYSTERY OF MORAL EV Says a spiritual writer: "Although sorr up from the soil over which sin has s wherever we place our foot, it has bec formed into a Divine plant, budding fo and endowed with a virtue which pe thing else of earthly origin possesse the Son of God has touched it and Divine character in the crucible of heart." But the Existence of Moral Evil is far greater mystery than that of phys ing, yet it is not difficult to show t moral evil is as necessary a part of scheme as that of physical pain. It is that every sorrow, disappointment, a: have to bear-aye, every breach of the we commit-may be used by God permanently the better. There could without the presence of sin in the w without temptation there could be no as moral character. Having made man free, it was for God to have compelled him to particular way. His freedom would destroyed by preventing him from si he felt so inclined; nor in that case sin have been really prevented, for i had desired to sin the evil would present in his intention, even if its fru! had been hindered by God. As Dr |