Page:Studies in the Scriptures - Series I - The Plan of the Ages (1909).djvu/123

 STUDY VU.

THE PERMISSION OF EVIL AND ITS RELATION TO GOD'S PLAN.

WHY Evil* WAS PERMITTED. RIGHT AND WRONG AS PRINCIPLES. Tur MOF.AI. SENSE,- Goo PERMITTED EVIL. AICD TOW, OVERRULE IT FOR GOOD GOD NOT THE AUTHOR OF SIN. ADAM'S TRIAL NOT A FARCE. His TEMPTATION SB- VERB HK SINNED WILFULLY. THE PENALTY OF SIN NOT UNJUST, NOR Too SEVERE THE WISDOM, LOVE AND JUSTICE DISPLAYED IN CONDEMNING ALL. IN ADAM. GOD'S LAW UNIVERSAL.

EVIL is that which produces uuhappiness ; anything which either dire&ly or remotely causes suffering of any Kind. Wcfater. This subject, therefore, not only inquires re- garding human ailments, sorrows, pains, weaknesses and death, but goes back of all these to consider their primary cause $in and its remedy* Since sin is the cause of evil, its removal is the only method of permanently curing the malady.

No difficulty, perhaps, more frequently presents itself to the inquiring mind than the questions, Why did God per- mit the present reign of evil? Why did he permit Satan to present the temptation to our first parents, after having created them perfect and upright? Or why did he allow the forbidden tree to have a place among the good? Despite all attempts to turn it aside, the question will ob- trude itself Could not God have prevented all possibility of man's fall?

The difficulty undoubtedly arises from a failure to com- prehend the plan of God. God could have prevented the entrance of sin, but the fa<ft that he did not should be sufficient proof to us that its present permission is designed ultimately to work out some greater good. God's plans, seea

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