In a sinless and painless world the moral element would be lacking;
the goodness would have no more significance in our conscious life
than that load of atmosphere which we are always carrying about
with us.
We are thus brought to a striking conclusion, the essential
soundness of which can not be gainsaid. In a happy world there must
be pain and sorrow, and in a moral world the knowledge of evil is
indispensable. The stern necessity for this has been proved to
inhere in the innermost constitution of the human soul. It is part
and parcel of the universe.
We do not find that evil has been interpolated into the universe
from without; we find that, on the contrary, it is an indispensable
part of the dramatic whole. God is the creator of evil, and from
the eternal scheme of things diabolism is forever excluded.
From our present standpoint we may fairly ask, what would have been
the worth of that primitive innocence portrayed in the myth of the
Garden of Eden, had it ever been realized in the life of men? What
would have been the moral value or significance of a race of human
beings ignorant of sin, and doing beneficent acts with no more
consciousness or volition than the deftly contrived machine that
picks up raw material at one end, and turns out some finished
product at the other? Clearly, for strong and resolute men and
women, an Eden would be but a fool's paradise.
"_Through Nature to God_"