The Open Court Author:Paul Carus Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE MYSTERY OF EVIL. BY PAUL R. HEYL. I. THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN NATURE AND MAN. THERE is an old stumbling-block, an obstinate rock of offense, which has... more » lain long in the path of those who would tread both reverently and logically the way of life. From the earliest records of human thinking the best minds of all ages have been sorely perplexed by the mystery of evil. This it was which prompted the wife of Job to counsel her husband to curse God and die; which urged the Prince Siddhartha forth from his palace to wander poor and alone that he might perchance find the truth that should save mankind; which wrung forth the bitter cry: "Eloi! Eloi! lama sa- bachthani?" and which has wrung as cruelly multitudes of souls before and since, parents, lovers, friends, helpless witnesses of that which they are powerless to alleviate. A mystery profound, yet all-compelling: if we cannot solve it, we cannot let it alone. In its ultimate analysis the mystery lies in the antagonism between what man regards as his finest instincts and the operation of the established order of nature. Man finds himself in a wonderland of phenomena, in the midst of a play of forces which he can control only by cunningly pitting the one against the other. He finds laws which he must obey. If he rebels, he dies; if he conforms, he may live a little season; yet is his strength labor and sorrow. And among these laws there are some whose operation he cannot view with approval, aye, many which cause him to cry aloud in horror; and his first experience of this kind is his introduction to the mystery of evil. II. MAN'S CONCEPTION OF GOD. Man's conception of God has undergone an evolution comparable to his own, and may fairly be taken as a barometer of his own spiritual progress. In the highest and most spiri...« less