Page:OptimismBlood.djvu/115

This page needs to be proofread.

SECTION XIX.

GROSS QUESTIONS. — LIBERTY AND HEAVEN.

Thus have we found that God is doing at least all for us that we, after fair contemplation of the necessities of the case, can suggest in our own behalf. We have found that all intellects and powers must be fragmentary and subservient to God's single will. We have found that, to save us from wretchedness, the soul must expand. We have found that truth is the only means of that expansion. And we have found that through variety, mitigation, and compensation, the greatest possible knowledge, happiness, and progression are attained. We have found reason to believe that God is good. The old common-sense of men, which ever has favored this proposition, that evil is good, or else the devil reigns supreme, abides the test of ratiocination, which develops a simple theory, beginning with one God.

No man can deceive us in argument, nor lie with much plausibility, in short sentences; hence the severest test of truth is colloquial interrogation.—Before we go further, let us take time to quiz ourselves a little on the foregoing.

"Between these notions: that all is for the best,—that all past iniquity has been for the good of the race, and that, also, all future iniquity will be equally serviceable; and this, that all good is compensated with evil, as well as all evil with good,—there is no best course to take.—The universe is full of laws: were it

This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.