"PAIN AND CHARITY."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 184, 3 February 1914, Page 7

"PAIN AND CHARITY."

'J'HK IiEYDI/r AND TIIK CUXKIv QUEXCI-X An unexpected Mini was given to ;i recent iii.ctin- of the Soulhwaik branch of the C'haritH' Organisation' Society, when Dr. In-c'i)can of St. I'aul's. gave an address mi "Pain mid Charily." A revolt against, pain, hi' silil, was one of llii' most ]iroinini'iit features in our life u(, the present lime. Wo disliked tin" very thought of pain, anil we shrank from inflicting; it. even with go-id reason. A* an extreme instance of this tendency tlit re was the Imdy who called themselves Christian Scientists, ollemig to solve the problem by refusing to recognise pain at all. I'ain. he said, was a condition that was most precious m this world. Would motherhood he what, it was without pain and scl(--ac-rifice? Would pity and charily have iinv seope ill a painless world'! Would 11 world in which no one deserved pain he a moral world al all'.' Some people needed to be reminded that this world was not, merely a seliool of morals. God wished us to find out His laws, so finds they eom-enied lis, and He would ;:o on punishing our ig-noraiicc until \v« did lind them. There was no lesson which we needed more to learn Hum I hat evil was wrought bv want of head us well as k.v want of heiirf. We must not .shirk pain, for it was in itself bem-lieial mid part of Clod's ordering of the world. It was a great purilier: we eoiild not gel rid of moral evil without it, Where pain ended gain ended. Wen- we lo practise heroic endurance for ourselves anil preach unbridled sentimentalisjii i<i dealing with the siiflerinsg of others'; Surely one or the other must be unreal. tf wo loved our neighbor as ourselves we. must wish for him Unit which seemed host to us for ourselves, and if we knew pain were, salutary for ourselves we should not wish it away from other people, lie did not niean i'hal we -honld not do all we could to relieve pain and suffering, but if We were Christians we could not regard nil the pain in the world as a thing simple to be removed at once and at all costs. He knew notliing more radically un-Christinn than this temper. I'libridled. sentimental almritv was not the right way to help Hie sufferer. It. tacitly accepted the. i;i-fatett utilitarianism as its standard.