THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 22

THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING.

Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller Some time ago, I was invited, with many others, by the editor of a great London daily to witness a play and to write a criticism of it. The title of die play was “The Unknown,” and I remember still the tremendous effect it had upon the city. In many respects it was one of the most remarkable and daring plays ever put before a thinking public. Remarkable because of the absence from it of the usual trappings of drama. Daring, because of its utter honesty. It dealt with the aftermath of the war as it affected religious belief. The most dramatic and poignant moment of the play conic when a widow, who had lost, two well-beloved sons at the front, suddenly turned upon those who were sympathising with her in her grief and blamed God for the whole ghastly business, and cried out, “Who can forgive God !’’

Xow, there are many people who say these words, in their hearts, when diey contemplate the suffering, oftentimes undeserved, not only in the world but more especially within the limits of their wn circle. The fact cannot be blinked that many simply cannot square the love of God with the pain and suffering they sec around them. They foci that pious platitudes such as it is the “Will of God” and “There will be compensation later m,” etc., do not meet the case, but are rather a mockery to sensitive spirits. Personally, I think there is no human solution of the problem of suffering.

Suffering, in some dim way, lies at the heart of the' world. I know there are those who hold that pain and suffering ire not realities, but while I admire them for the amazing faith they have in their belief, my own experience is directly contrary. And yet, if we believe in God, we must find some kind of answer to the eternal “Why !” A measure of the perplexity that surrounds this subject would disappear if we remembered that we are living in an imperfect world. How otherwise can you “square” the terrible facts of earthquakes, tidal waves, etc.? In a perfect world these could 0 not possibly happen. This is no rosewater world. Things have happened, and may yet happen, that are appalling. The world is not yet as the Creator meant it to be. God is still shaping the universe, and one day it will approximate 1 His will. Men are part of the universe—there is a very subtle and vita! connection—and share with it the penalties of imperfection. Then, of course, it is quite obvious that our own lives arc very imperfect Man is still in the making. He has come a long way, and has still a long way to travel. He is not yet a truly spiritual being; the ills of the fiosh still hamper him. The elimination of diseases that used to cut men down like a scythe cutting grass has reduced suffering to a remarkable degree, and warrants us in believing that perhaps within our own time, other two at least of man's greatest scourges will be held in check. I think it will be generally accepted that much of the suffering we see is due to the risks and hazards that are part and parcel of the human lot. It may seem callous, but I feel that many people put an altogether too grea emphasis upon the amount of suffering in the world, and in so doing give it a place out of all proportion in their thoughts. Christ's way of looking at it is surely the best —and He was not exempt from suffering. His view is that suffering is by no means the worst thing in life; but he who causes suffering should tremble. “It is impossible, but that offences will come, but woe unto him through whom they come.” Suffering may demand a terrible toll, but tne man who, for whatever reason, causes suffering will one day call upon the mountains and the rocks to hide him from the face of justice.

Is it fair to blame God when we can surely trace most of our suffering to human agencies? “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.” Unfortunately, there are those who sweep the whole matter aside by saying with a dogmatism that has no roots in experience that all suffering arises from sin. It is true enough that sin does produce suffering, hut it is deliberately untrue that all suffering is the result of sin. To drag in heredity as a prop to buttress the conception that sin is the cause of all suffering is a confession of ignorance of the great factors that go to make up human environment. To raise it to the level of a general law is a libel on the character of God and a blind judgment of issues that lie beyond the rim of human knowledge. While personally I cannot find a complete answer to the eternal “why,” my mind finds relief in the belief that God co-operates with men for the elimination of pain and suffering. God cannot go quicker than men allow Him. His pace is ours. Our best can help Him! our thoughtlessness hinders. Religion docs not solve the problem. No religious reconciliation with the totality of things is possible, but along the line that God shares the suffering of the world, and that He is sharing with men the burden of bringing suffering into subjection we can find a way out. We live in a moral universe, and men are not at the mercy of merciless forces. God is in the world, and He is solving the problem of pain by bearing it. In His allsccing wisdom He often calls one here, and are there to be His companion burden-bearers. Was not Christ made perfect though suffering? And shall we murmur when, in the infinite wisdom of God, life asks that we shelter in our bosom the bird of the grey plumage? One day. “There shall be no more pain.”