Dear Journal: "Why are things thus?" is one of the questions jocosely put to one another by people every day. Well, can you tell? No? Then let me try.
Things are thus, because-such is the eternal will of what Matthew Arnold calls "the Power above that makes for righteousness." There can be no satisfaction with the world or the Universe, no comfort in the outcomings of each day, no belief that "Whatsoever is, is right," unless, there is also belief in the power of the Infinite God, belief that He is All, and that without Him—His will, His affection, His ordering—nothing can take place, but that "all things work together for good to them who love God." But remember, this promise is not to the unloving, not to those who fail to appreciate the divine power and presence.
Because God so wills, things are as they are. This means that they are so ordained in love, in freedom, in good-will, in mercy, in a divine desire for the greatest good of the greatest number,— that is, of all mankind. It follows that "from seeming evil, still educing good," is the heavenly employ, that what is called darkness is only so in name. "Evil is good a' making," says an old proverb. "Hell (what men call Hell) is Heaven a' making," adds a modern preacher.
