What Is the Reason for Sorrow?

Comfort for the Bereaved

Referring to the question which you start in your letter, the reason for sorrow, let me say* to you first that I am not averse to raising such questions. I do not say it is wrong or unwise for us to do so. Indeed, we cannot help asking questions if we have any brains at all. A person who has no questions does not do much thinking. My thought is, however, that there are a great many questions which are unanswerable, and that the best way for us to treat such questions is to leave them for further light and intelligence. I preached last Sunday on the words of Peter in Luke 5: 5, “At thy word I will.” I tried to show that the one simple duty of Christians is to obey Christ’s biddings, whatever they may be. I spoke specially of the fact that the reason for many of these biddings cannot be understood by us at the time, but that whether we understand them or not, even if the whole matter is full of mystery, our duty is the same — always to obey the Master’s call.” At thy word I will.” Peter could not see any use in casting the net again after they had been fishing all night without avail. Still this did not affect his obedience, either in fact or in spirit. I referred in the sermon to many experiences in life in which we are called to enter a mystery of trial or sorrow, where it seems to us the end can only be disaster, but that in all such cases our duty is the same — “At thy word I will.”

Let me say further, referring to the question more directly, that it is one I suppose never can be answered. I read last night a sermon by Rev. R. J. Campbell, of London, on the subject of God’s omniscience and omnipotence and of human free agency and responsibility. Mr. Campbell takes the ground that the hard and severe things which come to people’s lives have their mission, a mission which we cannot always interpret, but which our faith in God makes us sure that he understands. Nothing is without purpose.

“The very law that molds a tear

And bids it trickle from its source, That law preserves the earth its sphere And guides the planets in their course.”

Even where we do things to others which are wrong, the very wrong has its blessing for those to whom it is done, although this does not free us from the guilt of the wrongdoing. Joseph’s brothers, for example, committed a terrible crime against him when they sold him into Egypt, but God used that very crime to forward his own great purposes, not only for Joseph’s promotion, but for the good of the people of Israel and of the world. Those who put Christ to death committed the crime of crimes, and yet their very crime brought about the redemption of the world.

I suppose something of the same reason applies to all the matters to which you refer, the things which seem to be cruel and terrible in nature. We may say that God does not interfere with natural law in ordinary cases, and this is true. As a rule, he does not save people from physical suffering in disease. He does not stop fire and flood in their devastations.

All we can say, I suppose, in the matter is that whatever may happen, we know that God is love. He is redeeming the world, lifting it up from its degradation into beauty and heavenliness. For example, the war which is now beginning may work great blessing to the whole East. It would seem that nothing but war will ever change the policy of Russia or open up its vast country to let the gentle and sweetening influences of Christianity into its life and its homes. Chicago was swept by a terrible fire more than thirty years ago, but Chicagoans now tell us that the fire was the greatest blessing that ever came to their city, for out of the ruins of the town there rose a new city, a thousand times more beautiful than the one which was destroyed. The same is true of the Boston and Portland fires. The same will be true, no doubt, of the Baltimore fire. Evidently, therefore, there is a law running through all the providence of God by which good is brought out of evil and blessing out of suffering and new life out of sorrow.