We have presented the “nature” of mind as the chief evidence of the grand design of its Creator in forming all things, and thus also presented the proof of his perfect wisdom, benevolence, and rectitude. We now will trace the evidences of the same beneficent design in the nature of all social and material organizations.
First, then, in regard to the domestic relations. We have seen that while all happiness depends on obedience to laws, every mind comes into existence in perfect ignorance of them, and without any power to learn what is good or evil but by experience and instruction. The intention of the Creator that each new-born being should be taught these laws and trained to obey them, is clearly seen in the first and highest domestic relation. In this we see two mature minds, who have themselves been trained to understand these laws, drawn by sweet and gentle influences to each other. They go apart from all past ties of kindred; they have one home, one name, one common interest in every thing. The one who has most physical strength goes forth to provide supplies; the delicate one remains behind, by domestic ministries to render home the centre of all attractions.
Then comes the beautiful, helpless infant, of no use to any one, and demanding constant care, labor, and attention. And yet, with its profound ignorance, its tender weakness, its delicate beauty, its utter helplessness, [pg 122] its entire dependence, how does it draw forth the strongest feelings of love and tenderness, making every toil and care a delight! And thus, month after month, both parents unite to cherish and support, while, with unceasing vigilance, they train the new-born mind to understand and obey the laws of the system into which it is thus ushered. Its first lessons are to learn to take care of its own body. And when the far-off penalty of pain can not be comprehended by the novice, the parent invents new penalties to secure habits of care and obedience. During all this period the great lesson of sacrifice constantly occurs. The child must eat what is best, not what it desires. It must go to bed when it wants to sit up. It must stay in the house when it wants to go out. It must not touch multitudes of things which it wishes thus to investigate. And so the habits of self-denial, obedience, and faith in the parents are gradually secured, while the knowledge of the laws of the system around are slowly learned.
But the higher part of the law of sacrifice soon begins to make its demands. The child first learns of this law by example, in that of the mother, that most perfect illustration of self-sacrificing love. Then comes a second child, when the first-born must practice on this example. It must give up its place in the mother's bosom to another; it must share its sweets and toys with the new-comer; it must join in efforts to protect, amuse, and instruct the helpless one. And thus the family is the constant school for training ignorant, inexperienced mind in the laws of the system of which it is a part, especially in the great law of self-control, for the best good of self, and of self-sacrifice for the best good of others.
[pg 123]Next comes the discipline of the school and the neighborhood, when the child is placed among his peers to be taught new rules of justice, benevolence, and self-sacrifice for the general good.
Next come the relations of the body politic, for which labors are demanded and pain is to be endured according to the grand law of sacrifice, by which the individual is to subordinate his own interests and wishes to the greater general good, so that the interests of the majority shall always control those of the minority.
Lastly, the whole world is to be taken into the estimate, and the nations are to be counted as members of one great family of man, for which every portion is to make sacrifices for the greater general good.
Thus, as age, and experience, and habits of obedience to the laws of rectitude increase, the duties and obligations grow more numerous and complicated. But the same grand principle is more and more developed, that each individual is to seek the greatest possible happiness with the least possible evil, for the vast whole as well as for each subordinate part, while self is to receive only its just and proper share.
The same great design of the Creator can be detected also in specific organizations, by which minds so differ from each other as to fit them for the diverse positions and relations that the common good demands. If all were exactly alike in the amount of constitutional powers and in the proportionate combinations, it can easily be seen that the general result would be far less favorable to the happiness of the whole. But as it is, some have the love of power very large, and seek to lead and control; others have it small, and prefer to follow. Some have elevated intellect, and love to [pg 124] teach; others have humbler capacities, and prefer humbler pursuits.
These varied combinations also give scope to the virtues of pity, tenderness, patience, mercy, justice, self-denial, and many other graces that could not be called into being without all the disparities, social, domestic, intellectual, and moral, that we find existing. Meantime the principle of habit and the power of the will give abundant opportunities for modifying these natural peculiarities to accommodate to varying circumstances.
To these indications of benevolent design may be added the “nature” of the bodily system, and the “nature” of the material world without. In examining the body we inhabit, so nicely adjusted, so perfectly adapted to our necessities, so beautifully and harmoniously arranged, so “fearfully and wonderfully made,” it is almost beyond the power of numbers to express the multiplied contrivances for ease, comfort, and delight.
We daily pursue our business and our pleasure, thoughtless of the thousand operations which are going on, and the busy mechanism employed in securing the objects we desire. The warm current that is flowing from the centre to the extremities, with its life-giving energies, and then returning to be purified and again sent forth; the myriads of branching nerves that are the sensitive discerners of good or ill; the unnumbered muscles and tendons that are contracting and expanding in all parts of our frame; the nicely-adjusted joints, and bands, and ligaments, that sustain, and direct, and support; the perpetual expansion and contraction of the vital organ; the thousand hidden contrivances and [pg 125] operations of the animal frame, all are quietly and constantly performing their generous functions, and administering comfort and enjoyment to the conscious spirit that dwells within.
Nor is the outer world less busy in performing its part in promoting the great design of the Creator. The light of suns and stars is traversing the ethereal expanse in search of those for whom it was created; for them it gilds the scenes of earth, and is reflected in ten thousand forms of beauty and of skill. The trembling air is waiting to minister its aid, fanning with cool breezes, or yielding the warmth of spring, sustaining the functions of life, and bearing on its light wing the thoughts that go forth from mind to mind, and the breathings of affection that are given and returned. For this design earth is sending forth her exuberance, the waters are emptying their stores, and the clouds pouring forth their treasures. All nature is busy with its offerings of fruits and flowers, its wandering incense, its garnished beauty, and its varied songs. Within and without, above, beneath, and around, the same Almighty Beneficence is found still ministering to the wants and promoting the happiness of the minds he has formed for ever to desire and pursue this boon.
We are now prepared to meet the questions proposed, (i.e.) is the Creator a being who, with the varying humors of man, sometimes prefers evil to good, and sometimes prefers good to evil, or does he invariably choose what is best for all, even in cases where it may involve personal sacrifices and suffering to himself?
In attempting to answer this question, we have set [pg 126] forth the evidence to be found in the works of the Creator which establishes the position that his chief end or ruling purpose is to produce the greatest possible happiness with the least possible evil.
The question then reads, does the Creator destroy happiness and cause needless pain, and thus thwart his own chief desire and great end; the end for which he made all things?
The very statement of the question is its most forcible answer.
We have seen that we are obliged to conceive of God as possessing such a social and moral nature as our own. This would lead him to desire the veneration, confidence, love, and gratitude of the children he has created.
But he has formed their minds to hate selfishness and to admire and reverence self-sacrificing benevolence. Will the Creator then oppose his own chief end and grand design by conduct which would make all his creatures necessarily, by the nature he implanted, withhold their respect and love, and feel only dislike and contempt? The very question involves its own answer.
Add to this, that all those causes which our experience and observation have shown to lead to wrong choices are necessarily excluded from our conceptions of the Creator.
The Eternal Mind can not err for want of knowledge, nor for want of habits of right action, nor for want of teachers and educators, nor for want of those social influences which generate and sustain a right governing purpose; for an infinite mind, that never had a beginning, can not have these modes of [pg 127] experience which appertain to new-born and finite creatures.
Again: Such is the eternal system of the universe, as we learn it by the light of reason, that the highest possible happiness to each individual mind and to the whole commonwealth is promoted by the right action of every mind in that system. This, of necessity, is seen and felt by the All-creating and Eternal Mind, and to suppose that, with this knowledge, he would ever choose wrong, is to suppose that he would choose pure evil. It is to suppose the Creator would do what he has formed our minds to believe to be impossible in any rational mind. It is to suppose that the Creator would do that which, if done by human beings, marks them as insane.
The first article in every system of religion is, who is the God who controls our destinies, and what is his character?
In attempting to answer this question by the light of nature, independently of revelation, we have gained these positions. There is an Intelligent Mind who created all things, whose natural attributes are the same as ours in kind, but vast beyond our comprehension in extent. In moral character, or that which is exhibited in choice or action, he is perfect in wisdom, benevolence, and rectitude; that is to say, he is a being whose chief end or ruling purpose is to do the [pg 128] best he can to make the most possible happiness with the least possible evil.
This being discovered as the grand design for which all human minds are created, we are thus enabled to decide as to what is the right and perfect construction or “nature” of mind, and also as to its right and perfect action.
In regard to the perfect construction of mind, we must again refer to the fact that in a system of things where both natural and moral evil exist, we are obliged to suppose a limitation of power by the nature of things, so that a system is perfect, not as excluding all evil; for as evil does exist, a system without any evil is impossible. All that remains, then, to constitute the idea of perfection, (as used in reference to things as they are) is this, that whatever is created by God, is the best possible in the nature of things.
The question then must be this, is the mind of man, as a race, the best in construction, that is possible in the nature of things? Is our mind made as good as it can be, so that no change is possible that would make it better?
In replying to this question, we must regard the matter in two relations. We have noticed, in the chapter on the Constitutional Varieties of the Human Mind, that while there are powers and attributes of mind which are common to all, there is an endless variety of character resulting from the diverse proportions and combinations of these several faculties, and also that there are diverse grades of mind, each having these diverse combinations. Some races of men are much lower in the scale of being, every way, than other races, while the same disparity exists among individuals of the same race.
[pg 129]Now when we compare individuals with each other, or when we compare races in these respects, we regard them as more or less perfect in organization with reference to the highest grade or species known to us. In this relation some minds are to be regarded as imperfect and defective in organization. And in reference to any one individual or race in this relation, we feel that the organization could be improved.
But when we regard each mind as a part of a vast system, in which the highest good of the whole will prove the highest possible good of each individual part, we are to judge of perfection in the organization of mind in another relation. If it is for the greatest happiness of the whole that there should be grades and ranks in mental powers; if disparities and varieties in organization give scope and exercise to virtues and modes of enjoyment that would be impossible were all minds exactly alike, and on the pattern of the highest in the scale of being, then the very points which are imperfections in the individual relations, become perfections in relation to the great whole. In this view, the lowest and humblest in the scale of being, when acting in his appropriate place and according to the great Creator's design, is perfect in mental construction, and is fitted to be happier in every respect than he could be if the whole system were changed by placing him among the highest in mental organization.
Just as it is with the human system—the lowly foot is perfect and complete in its place, though inferior in construction and service to the regal head and cunning hand. And should the foot be endowed with the higher gifts it would be a departure from its perfection [pg 130] in organization as related to the whole. The question, then, of the perfect nature of each human mind requires that we regard each one as a part of an infinite system demanding grades and ranks, and thus, also, relative disparities. And having proved that the chief design of the Creator is to make the best possible system, we are necessarily led to the conclusion that the lowest order of mind is as perfect in its nature, in relation to the great whole, as is the highest of all.
From the above we gain this definition:
A perfect mind, as to construction or nature, is one which is better fitted to its position in the best possible system of minds than it would be by any possible change.
In this use of the words nature and perfect it is claimed that in the preceding pages it has been proved that the mind of man is perfect in nature. Our next inquiry will relate to the perfect action of mind in respect to that which is voluntary or self-originated. In other words, we shall inquire as to the perfect moral action of the human mind, as discoverable by reason and experience, independently of revelation.
Having discovered the end for which mind is made, and thus gained the idea of what is meant by perfectness, in its nature or construction, we next inquire as to what is the perfect action of mind.
[pg 131]Here we must again recognize the distinction between two classes of mental actions, viz., those acts which are natural as resulting necessarily from the constitution of mind, of which God is the producing cause, and those which are voluntary and of which man is the producing cause. The first are natural and involuntary, the latter are moral and voluntary.
This introduces the second part of the system of natural religion, that which relates to man's obligations or duty toward the Creator, toward his fellow beings, and toward himself. In other words, the question is, “what is right voluntary or moral action?”
In seeking the reply to this without the aid of revelation, the following particulars demand attention:
In all discussions on this question there is no mental analysis more important than the distinction between the desire, or what moves us to choose, and the act of choice.
The mind is always moved to choice by desire for some good to be gained or some evil to be avoided. The susceptibility or power of being thus led, in popular language is called a “bias,” an “inclination,” a “propensity,” a “tendency,” or a “proclivity” toward the object which causes the desire. Thus the susceptibility to desire stimulating drinks is excited by liquors, and this is called “a propensity” to strong drink.
The susceptibility to desire to amass money is called a bias, or propensity to avarice. The only thing ever meant by a bias or propensity to choose any thing is, that there are such susceptibilities that desire can be excited for that thing.
[pg 132]But all such propensities or biases are from evil and toward good in the widest sense of these terms. No rational mind ever desires pure evil, but always desires good of some sort. On the contrary, it is one of the implanted principles of common sense that no rational mind will choose pure evil. Any man who should do this would be regarded as insane—as having lost the distinctive feature of a rational mind.
But we find that desires are called strong, imperative, powerful, and the like, not at all with reference to the question whether what is desired would be best for all concerned. They are measured, as to strength or weakness, by the degrees of enjoyment their gratification secures, or the amount of pain that self-denial would involve. This measurement of varied degrees of pleasure and pain is a matter of consciousness to every mind, and is constantly referred to by all races and in all languages.
In this use of the term, the strongest desire often exists for that which is perceived to be the best good for all concerned. At other times the strongest desire is for that which is seen to be the lesser good. When the strongest desire is for that which is best, the choice is easy, and the mind always chooses the best good. But when the strongest desire is for that which is not best, then choice is more difficult, and there is a conscious struggle between the promptings of reason and conscience, and the importunities of strong desire for the lesser good.
At such periods there is a conscious power in every mind to choose either way, and sometimes we choose to gratify the strongest desire and give up the best good, and at other times we choose the best good and [pg 133] deny the strongest desire. Every human being has been conscious of this struggle between excited desire and the dictates of reason, and all the literature of the world refers to it as a universal fact. The terms self-denial, self-control, self-government, all are based on this experience of all minds.6
The preceding furnishes the ground for the distinctions [pg 134] always recognized between voluntary action which is right as best for all concerned, and those actions which are deemed praiseworthy, rewardable, and meritorious.
Whenever the dictates of reason and our strongest desire are coincident, so that choosing what is right and best involves no struggle; then the ideas of merit and of desert of reward, praise, and commendation are wanting. We say such acts are right, but there is no merit in them, and no proper ground for adding any other reward than that which naturally results from choosing what we desire most, and which is best for us and for all concerned.
On the contrary, when there is a struggle between a sense of what is right and best, and the strongest desire, and a choice is made which involves self-denial and self-sacrifice, we feel that the act is one which is meritorious, and deserving of reward and praise.
Any voluntary action, then, is right which is conformed to those rules of rectitude which tend to secure the most happiness for all, even when there is no temptation to another course. But an action is meritorious and rewardable only when there is a reference to the rules of rectitude in the mind of the actor and some degree of self-denial. To choose what we desire most, without any regard to what is right or wrong, even when it chances that our choice is that which is best, and thus right, does not meet our idea of a meritorious and praiseworthy act.
The greater portion of our choices are of those things which are good in all relations, as best for self and best for all concerned. Thus when we desire to eat, to drink, to breathe the pure air, to admire the [pg 135] beauties of nature, to enjoy the society of friends,—to choose these and a thousand other daily blessings, promotes our own best good and the best good of all concerned. In all such cases choosing what we desire most is morally right in all relations. But no acts of choice are meritorious, except as they involve a regard to law in the mind of the actor, and some degree of self-denial in conforming to rule.
The only cases where moral evil (or wrong choices) can exist, are where desires are excited for some good, either for ourselves or for others, which is not best for all concerned. In all such cases there is a “bias,” “tendency,” and “propensity” to choose good of some sort, but it is not the best good, and therefore to choose it would be morally wrong. Thus there is a bias or propensity to what is good in one relation, but evil in another; good as tending to give enjoyment, but evil as contrary to a law which enjoins that the best good should always be preferred.
In such cases the desires for a good which is not for the best are not morally wrong, for they arise involuntarily from those susceptibilities implanted by God, which are not to be exterminated, but only regulated by law. The moral evil consists not in the existence of such desires, but in choosing to gratify them at the sacrifice of the best good of self or of others.
It has been shown that one result of the wrong action of mind is such a change in its constitutional nature, that there will be a desire to inflict evil on others as a malignant pleasure to the guilty mind. In these cases such desires may properly be called morally wrong because they are the result of the voluntary action of the sinful mind, and not of the natural susceptibilities [pg 136] implanted by the Creator. As they result wholly from wrong previous choices, the guilty mind itself is the author of them and not the Creator of mind.
Here it is important to discriminate in regard to that natural impulse in all minds which is excited by the infliction of pain on self or on others. It is this natural impulse to inflict evil on the author of evil which is the foundation of justice in the family and in the civil state. Its design is for the best good of all concerned, and it becomes evil only by excess and misuse. So long as it is controlled by reason and conscience it is good and only good.
In view of the above distinctions, there can be no moral evil in desires for things which it would be wrong to choose, except as these desires are the result of previous wrong choices.7
It has been shown that the principle of habit renders it more and more easy and agreeable to regulate our choices by the rules of rectitude. The habit of sacrificing personal gratification to the rule of duty may be so cultivated that what at first was difficult, and involved a painful struggle, becomes easy. It is possible so to cultivate such habits that our highest desires, and the dictates of reason and conscience, shall continually be more and more coincident.
We can conceive of newly-created beings as placed in such circumstances that, for a considerable period, all their strongest desires may be coincident with the best good of themselves and of others, so that there can be no opportunity to practice self-control in regulating their desires by the rules of rectitude. In such a case, [pg 137] while acting simply from impulse, without reference to rule, they would always act right, and yet they would form no habits of self-control, and thus would be liable to fail at the first temptation where their strongest desire conflicted with the known law of rectitude.
The preceding statements are made in order to arrive at correct and discriminating definitions of certain fundamental terms on which the whole question of the “depraved nature” of the human mind will be found to turn.
Mankind in all ages and in all languages speak of certain acts as right or wrong in reference to their tendency or their effect on human happiness, and without reference to the intention of the author. Thus they affirm that the stealing and selling of men is wrong, whatever may be the motives of the slave trader.
Again, they speak of acts as right or wrong in reference to the motive or intention of the author. Thus they say a man who sacrificed his wealth and reputation, rather than to violate his conscience, acted right as to motive, although he was mistaken in his views of duty, so that his act, as it respects its tendency, may have been wrong.
Again, it has been shown that a man may form a general purpose to act right in obeying all the laws of God as discoverable by reason or revelation. This general purpose may be a quiet, abiding principle, so as to regulate the thoughts and emotions, and may control [pg 138] most of the specific choices of a whole succeeding life. The main purpose, or chief end of such a man is to bring all his thoughts, words, and actions into perfect agreement with the rules of rectitude. In reference to this and his consequent conduct, his would be denominated a virtuous character.
No one will deny that this is a correct statement of the use of terms by mankind in every-day life. Thus then we have gained the following definitions as established, not by metaphysicians and theologians, but by the people.
A right moral act, as it respects its tendencies, is one in which the thing chosen is for the best good of all concerned.
A right moral act, as to motive, is one in which the intention of the actor is to conform to the rules of rectitude.
A meritorious or praiseworthy act is one in which there is some sacrifice of feeling, either immediate or remote, in order to conform to law.
A virtuous act is one in which that which is chosen is right, both in tendency and in motive.
A virtuous character is one in which a general purpose exists to obey all the rules of rectitude. The degree of virtue is dependent on a correct judgment of what is right or wrong, and the strength or measure of the general purpose in controlling all other purposes. Some men carry out a general purpose much more steadily and consistently than others, and some men have much more correct ideas of what is right and wrong in conduct than others.
[pg 139]The natural character of a man is that which results from his constitutional powers and faculties of mind, of which God is the author.
The moral character of a man is all that results from his own willing.
Our highest idea of a virtuous character, as gained by experience and observation, is that of a mind so trained to habits of self-control and obedience to rule, that it has become easier to obey the laws of rectitude, than to gratify any excited desire, however imperative, which is seen to violate law.
Thus, then, it is shown that a virtuous character consists, not in the nature of the mind which is given by God, but in the purposes, habits, and feelings generated by voluntary acts, of which the man himself is the author; God being the cause or author, of this virtue only as he is the Creator of mind and of all its circumstances of temptation and trial.
In regard to the formation of a virtuous character, as a matter of experience, it usually results from a slow and gradual process of training and development. The general purpose to obey all the laws of rectitude originates, as a general fact, not as a definitely formed purpose, whose time of inception can be distinctly marked. Yet it is not unfrequently the case that persons who have passed a life of unrestrained indulgence, by some marked and powerful influence, are suddenly led to a decided and definitely marked purpose of virtuous obedience, and carry out this purpose with great success.
Any such sudden change, in popular language, would be called “the commencement of a new life.” And when this sudden change takes place under the [pg 140] influence of motives presented in the Bible, it is called by one class of theologians the “new birth” or “regeneration.”
In the discussions which are to follow, it will be found that almost every point debated involves, as a foundation question, “what is true virtue?” And the grand question at issue between the system of common sense and the teachings of all theologians who uphold the Augustine theory, is this: is true virtue possible to an unregenerate mind? Theology says no, common sense says yes. Theology teaches that previous to regeneration every voluntary act of every human mind is “sin, and only sin.” Common sense maintains, on the contrary, that every voluntary act which is in agreement with the best good of all concerned, when the intention is to act right, is virtuous without any regard to the question of the regeneration of the mind. In other words, theology teaches that true virtue is the right voluntary action of a mind after its “nature” is changed by God, and common sense teaches that true virtue is the right voluntary action of any mind without any change in its nature.
The discussion of this point involves the further consideration of certain mental experiences which will shed some light on the subject. It will be found that in case of all persons who are said to “act on principle,” or to be “conscientious persons,” that, in the greater portion of their voluntary acts, they have no conscious immediate reference to the rules of rectitude. There seems to be an unconscious general purpose to [pg 141] act right on all occasions, which becomes obvious only when a case occurs involving a seeming violation of the rules of rectitude. At such times the mind becomes conscious of its ruling purpose. But the greater portion of all the daily acts of life have been decided upon as in agreement with the all-controlling general purpose, and a man chooses to do many things in which he has no conscious reference to rule. And still such acts have, in past time, been subjects of reflection in reference to the question of right and wrong, and have been decided to be right, and it is in consequence of this decision that the mind no longer considers these questions with a conscious reference to rule.
The distinction between what is denominated “a man of principle” and an “unprincipled man,” is simply this, that the former is one who has formed habits of self-regulation by the rules of rectitude, and the latter has not.
This mental analysis is important in reference to deciding the character of a virtuous action.
A virtuous act, as defined above, is one in which the thing chosen is right and the motive is right. But it is not indispensable that the person who performs the act should be immediately conscious of a reference to rule in each right specific volition. It is sufficient that the mind be under the control of a ruling purpose of rectitude, so that all the subordinate minor purposes are in fact regulated, though unconsciously, by this purpose.
It is at this point that the class of theologians who make regeneration to include a voluntary act on the part of man, are in antagonism with the experience [pg 142] and common sense of mankind. Such maintain that every act of every human being is “sin, and only sin,” until a ruling purpose is formed to obey God as the chief end, and one also which is actually more efficient and stronger in controlling the ordinary acts of life than the purpose to gratify self. Previous to the existence of this general purpose, they maintain that every act of self-denial or self-sacrifice for the good of others is “sin, and only sin.” According to their theory, choosing that which is right because it is right, is not a virtuous act until a ruling purpose of universal obedience to God is formed.
That is to say, it is the ruling purpose, or the want of a ruling purpose to obey God in all things, which decides the character of every specific act of choice. Thus if a child is trained to be honest, truthful, and self-denying, and succeeds very often in conforming to such instructions, there is no true virtue in any such acts until a ruling purpose of obedience to God is generated, which is habitually more controlling than the impulses of self-indulgence. This is the point where the people and theologians are at issue.
The people insist that every act is virtuous when the thing chosen is right and the intention is right, even before the mind of a child has attained a ruling purpose of universal obedience. Theologians say no; such acts are “sin, and only sin,” in the sight of God.8
It will be shown hereafter that the theory of theology on this subject is not carried out consistently in practice, but that in the early training of little children theologians contradict their own theory and adopt that of the people.
In a previous chapter we have seen [p. 103] that our idea of perfectness in moral character and action always has reference to power. In a system where evil is actually existing, we regard a contrivance or an action as perfect when there is no power in God or man to make it better, even when evil is involved. A being is perfect in character and in action when his purpose is to do the best possible for all concerned, and when this purpose is carried out to the full extent of his power.
We have shown in the preceding chapter that the mind of man is perfect in nature or construction as being better fitted to its place in the best possible system of mind than it would be by any change possible either to God or man.
The preceding pages of this chapter enable us to point out what is the perfect moral character of minds which are perfect in construction. It consists in a ruling purpose to discover and to obey all the laws of the Creator, which is carried out to the full extent of power in the one who thus purposes.
It has been shown that the Creator himself is limited by the eternal nature of things to a system which, though the best possible, makes him, in one sense, the author of some evil, both natural and moral. He is the author only as the Creator of all things, and thus the author of all the consequent results of creation, even of those that are morally evil. In this sense alone is he the author of either natural or moral evil.
The infinite and eternal mind of God is limited, not [pg 144] by want of wisdom and knowledge, but by the eternal nature of things of which his own existence and natural attributes are a part. But finite minds are limited by a want of knowledge and wisdom which can be the result only of experience and training. For the want of this knowledge and training every finite mind, so far as we can discover by reason and experience, must inevitably violate the laws of God. And yet any mind may be perfect in moral character and action in exactly the same sense as God is perfect, (i.e.) it may form and carry out a purpose to conform to the laws of the existing system of things to the full extent of its knowledge and power. When this purpose is formed and carried out to the full measure of ability, the finite creature becomes “perfect, even as our Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
What then is the cause or origin of evil as taught by reason and experience?
It is the eternal nature of things existing independently of the will of the Creator or of any other being.
What is the cause of the existence of this created system? It is the will of the Creator.
What is the cause or reason why God willed that this system should be as it is, with all the evil that exists? It is because it is the best system possible in the nature of things.
What is the cause or reason that any given event, however evil, is not prevented by God? It is because any change that would prevent it, would alter the best possible system, and thus make more evil than the one thus prevented.