The Faith and the War; A Series of Essays by Members of the Churchmen's Union and Others on the Religious Difficulties Aroused by the Present

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill PROVIDENCE—THE UNIVERSAL ASPECT FREDERICK JOHN FOAKES-JACKSON " The mills of God grind slowly.' PROVIDENCE—THE UNIVERSAL ASPECT In times of trouble we are put to a test which is liable to make us reveal the essential paganism of our nature. It comes out in our view of the Universe and in our belief in God: for then we demand that the world should be different from the one which human experience has disclosed, and that God should be other than He has been revealed to those who have known Him. Accustomed to regard things as having long gone on in their normal course, we cannot understand when it is rudely interrupted even by natural and accountable events. Hence there rises to our lips the cry ' If God is just why are such things as we witness permitted ? If the world is ruled by a power which makes for righteousness how can such wickedness be allowed to prevail ? With our own eyes we have witnessed things which could never have happened if there were such a thing as a Providence in the government of the world in which we live.' Being as we are it could scarcely be otherwise. It is not hard to accept the doctrine that all things are for the best when all is well with ourselves. Even when trouble comes and we are able to strive against our misfortunes, even though we feel ourselves succumbing to them, we are not for that reason altogether miserable. The sense of combat brings with it a certain exhilaration. Suffering itself is almost better than monotony in life. We have hope in the final issue,and as long as that lasts we can believe that, however dark the present, things may be ultimately working for good. But there are times when all these supports fail. We realise our powerlessness to withstand the onrush of evil. Nothing we may say or do can avert it : the ...