THE thought is not infrequently ventured that we are living in an age of marked intellectual freedom, and by way of contrast reference is often made by Christian writers to the times of Bruno and of Columbus, when the great body even of so-called educated people were in such abject subserviency to ecclesiastical traditions as to be ready to subject to the auto da fé all those who dared to maintain a conflicting opinion. This freedom from the domination of old ideas, simply because they are old, is generally regarded as most pronounced in the United States, and especially in "the Athens of America," and it is the more surprising, therefore, to find a Boston religious publication, of late date, discoursing upon "The Privilege of Pain" in a way that reminds one of a poet's saying, in praise of sadness, "Who suffers conquers ... to woman in particular hardly comes the gracious gift of sweetness till her soul has been excavated by pain."
This writer quotes approvingly the statement of Edward Payson, that all his dreadfully afflictive experiences wore necessary and good, and cites the case of a sweet innocent, a noble little girl whose sufferings for years were "indescribable,"but who, despite them all, is said to have had a wondrous patience and peace, so that the results were "higher than heroism, better than philosophy," and altogether "worth while"! Summing up his sense of things, the writer says: "He who trusts God implicitly and holds to His immediate agency in all events, has the firmest possible ground beneath his feet. Whatever Love divine appoints is certainly to be reckoned a precious privilege, an undoubted benefit, a peculiar and carefully selected favor, opening to us a rare opportunity of entering into the special secret of the Lord." The salient features of the teaching thus given prominence in an authoritative organ of one of the largest evangelical bodies, cannot be overlooked or misunderstood, and they are these: that God is the "immediate agency in all events," including the infliction of suffering, and that we should therefore accept His impositions, however cruel and long-continued the torture they involve, as a "precious privilege."
Christian Science does not question the logic of this teaching, though unequivocally regarding it as both unscriptural and untrue. For him who accepts the premise laid down, who believes that the conduct of God is not legitimately subject to the judgment of our moral sense, and that in keeping with His infinite goodness and wisdom He can and does afflict the innocent and responsive for their betterment,—for such a one it is not illogical to conclude that the most trying experience of pain should be "reckoned a precious privilege." It follows, however, by the same process of reasoning, that it would be wholly inconsistent and out of keeping for those who hold these convictions to try to escape from this divine schooling, since this would be to dishonor spiritual opportunity, and thwart the divine purpose.
