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Rh The anomalies of earthly life and their final adjustment in heaven. The unequal distribution of earthly possessions among mankind, the unequal opportunities held out to men, the undeserved sufferings of the righteous, the unmerited success of the wicked, and various other anomalies of life have led man by long ages of thinking to postulate a place where wrongs shall be ultimately adjusted, outraged righteousness expiated, and undetected wickedness punished. Death is the entrance into eternal light or eternal darkness. The order of this world is far from perfection; the innocent often suffer, while the guilty escape with impunity; the virtuous poor man pines under grinding poverty, while the rich man prospers. The doctrine of a future life of rectification where justice will be administered with exactitude in accordance with the divine ordinance, where grievances of this world will be redressed, and where every injustice, borne patiently, will be rectified, gives mental tranquillity and spiritual calm to the afflicted. A vista of hope thus opens before those who are roughly handled by this world. This hope brings peace that the world had not hitherto given them. It enables them manfully to endure pain and privation, suffering and sorrow, in the pious hope that a higher life awaits them in which they will receive their due. This hope assures man the continuation of what little happiness he has had in this world and the cessation of what great misery he suffered on earth. It gives meaning to the life of the individual, and inculcates a robust faith in the goodness of God. Man thus learns that he is not the sport of some evil-designing spirit who has carelessly thrown him on this world, resourceless and helpless. When in spite of his own honest work and hard labour he finds himself hopelessly lost in the feverish struggle for existence, he does not complain that some unjust and partial Maker has made him of clay inferior to that of his intensely selfish competitors, and given to him lesser opportunities for success than to his rivals in the race of life. The cheerful idea dawns upon him that the gloomy and dark night of anguish of his broken heart and troubled spirit will be followed by an eternal morn which will dispel all darkness and shed light on his path. He consoles himself with the belief that his life of misery upon the earth is a precursor of happy life in heaven. When life upon earth brings no solace, the hope of heavenly recompense comforts and sustains him.