There is an old Spanish fable which tells of a man rich in this world's goods who, having houses and vineyards in abundance, was yet never satisfied with the weather. It was too cold or too hot, too dry or too wet; always there was cause for complaint, and his grapes were never as good as they might have been, though they were the best in the province. One day while walking in his garden he met a stranger, who told him that for one year he might choose what weather he desired. Delighted with the opportunity, mortal mind exerted itself diligently through the four seasons, ordering in turn rain, snow, hail, and sunshine, but the grapes harvested were small and bitter. To the uncomprehending mourner there appeared again the angel visitant, with the compassionate truth, "You have forgotten the wind."
The fable of course speaks for itself. Its whole meaning was put, many years before its writing, in the terse sentence: "Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?" Assuredly no man, we say, would deliberately try to exceed omnipotent wisdom, yet no unnecessary or meaningless sentences are to be found in the Scriptures. When we think about it, is it not at once apparent that merely for lack of logical conclusions along spiritual lines, humanity has long been placing the judgment of the human mind above that of the divine Mind? For example, in the doctrine of original sin, scholastic theology teaches that by the fall of one mortal the whole human race is cursed. Furthermore, only a few years ago infant damnation was an accepted dogma, until by most of the churches the conclusion was reached that it was hardly fair to condemn a child to eternal punishment because of the guilt of its far-removed ancestors. Hand in hand with scholastic theology goes physiology and its law of heredity, which is merely the doctrine of original sin transferred to the realm of bodily ills. Medical laws and creeds thus unite in ascribing to God the practice of visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, forgetting completely the assurance found in the eighteenth chapter of Ezekiel: "What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel." In Article III, Section 3, of the Constitution of the United States we read: "The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted." Quite an advance, that, since the days when even the name of a Scottish clan was proscribed. Nowadays charity provides for the families of criminals left destitute by the imprisonment of the breadwinner, even though theft was the means by which he was accustomed to provide bread. Then why deny to God like clemency?
There are many other and more common ways in which we self-righteously proclaim our superiority to infinite Love and wisdom, instead of striving to see the truth above all the imperfections of mortal and material belief. The complaining tendencies of mortals imply that discordant conditions are real and that the complainant could, given power, better them; but if the conditions are evil they are unreal, and all that is good is a part of God's creation. If we are not satisfied with God's creation, we had best look for the fault, not in His universe, but in ourselves. Here we may well ponder Mrs. Eddy's words on page 510 of Science and Health, "Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose 'light shall we see light;' and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense."
