Greatness in Spite of Evil
What a prominent Western daily designs as a crushing argument, printed in capitals, is the following question: “What really great man can you mention ‘in the history of the world who was a teetotaler?’ and then it remarks: “We should like a list of the ‘great men who have never tasted alcohol; and if no ‘such list is forthcoming, we should like an explanation of the fact that so much has been achieved in ‘spite of the universal popularity of the rum demon.” Now this could be paralleled by such a question as this: What great man can you name in the history of the world who was sinless [not a sinner]? But the sin did not make them great; it hindered them at every step, and finally, with but two recorded exceptions, laid them in the grave. Would they have been better without the sin? Ask the angels who have never fallen. Before the presence of one, 185,000 of the flower of an army turned to death. Greatness and worth and the power and goodness of God work through humanity in spite of evil. How much more might have been done, we do not know, and will not till God’s books reveal it.