WHY IS PAIN?

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3166, 8 June 1931, Page 7

WHY IS PAIN?

The Darker the Shadows the Brighter the Light.

Pain, has been called "the problem of the ages." It has puzzled most great thinkers, for there does at first sight seem something sadly wrong in the mere existence of pain in what is supposed to be a perfect. creation by a perfect Creator. Pain is not necessarily either misery or suffering. Both of these can so easily be the result of our own wilfulness, our own stubbornness, or our own obstinacy. There is no great puzzle in quite a lot of misery and suffering that we see around us. It has been caused by man and could be eliminated by man. One of the things man possesses that he shares with no other created thing is the ability to choose whether he does right or wrong. If he chooses deliberately to do wrong, why should he not suffer? Law, justice, must be the foundation of the Universe or else everything is chaos.

Mostly we can create happiness or we can create misery—both for ourselves and for others. No one can compel us to choose against our will and our conscience. Yet there is, I grant you, a good deal of apparently un'explainable pain and suffering to be found. There are plenty of cases where the justice of the Universe seems to have gone astray. What about those? Well, because we can't understand we should not and we must not assume there is - no reason.

Yet I doubt not thro' the ages one increasing purpose runs. And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns. That is what Tennyson said, and when on every hand the marvellous mechanism of Nature gives proof after proof of this "increasing purpose," it is a little like mental arrogance to say: "But there can't be any real good in life. Look at all the misery we see around us." Maybe there will come a time when we shall understand very clearly. Maybe we are not meant to understand—yet. What I do want to urge strongly is that we do no good to either ourselves or others by dwelling on the misery and the suffering and the pain. Let us help if we can by all means; but do not let us forget that where there is shadow there must also be light—and the darker the shadow the stronger must be the light that throws it. We do nothing to end misery by being miserable ourselves. Good is always in the end stronger than evil, and happiness is more potent to help the world than sorrow.

I am not going to pretend to solve the problem of pain, but this I do know —that in its train come patience and sympathy, kindness and love. These are the silver side of a dark cloud, and I am very sure they are worth while. It is worth remembering that it is fire in the end that tempers the steel.