Why Are Not the Oppressed and Distressed Relieved?
By Adelaide D. Wellman
ARE you sometimes perplexed in regard to the injustice and suffering that exist in the world, wondering why He who has all power does not relieve the oppressed and distressed? Consider how widely this earth's experiences are observed—that numberless inhabitants of unnumbered worlds are watching developments from cause to effect in your life, and learning therefrom the beauty of holiness and the sinfulness of sin. The Infinite will not allow one of His creatures to suffer any evil that He is not prepared to turn into a manifold good. And in proportion to the ordeal that we endure is the benefit that accrues to us eventually. And while the individual himself is thus recompensed for his trials, he is an object-lesson to the intelligent universe,—"a spectacle," says Sacred Writ, "to angels and to men," that they may learn, by observation, what the inhabitants of the earth are learning by hard experience. A man who submits to an untried surgical operation in order that the world may have the benefits gained from the experiment, is esteemed a hero. But even a hero will not thus place his life in jeopardy unless he has much faith in the surgeon. And, in sooth, not a great degree of heroism is required for a person to trust his life with a physician in whom he has abounding confidence. Have we not sufficient confidence in the Great Physician to induce us to trust ourselves in His hands? Our race, by its own perverse course, has brought upon itself a malady which only the Mighty Healer can cure. Surely it would be extreme audacity on our part to dictate that He use only mild remedies. Instead of taking such a course, it is but reasonable that we submit unflinchingly to any form of treatment to which He may subject us, grateful that One so capable and so humane is willing to take our case.
ADELAIDE D. WELLMAN.