me to be up to that point in its evolution. Such a view
of life has a basis of absolute justice. Every soul gets exactly what
it has earned.

The common belief in Occidental civilization is that we live here for
only sixty or seventy years and that then, when we die, we pass on to
live eternally somewhere else, and that the whole of eternity, whether
it is filled with pleasure or is horrible with pain, is made to depend
on how we spent those few years of the physical life! Such a fate would
be unfair and unjust. If a schoolboy is incorrigible for a term it would
not be fair to condemn him to lose all opportunity of getting an
education. We would give him another chance at the following term.

A little incident of disobedience from home life will illustrate the
point involved. A quinine capsule was lying on the table. A
three-year-old boy reached for it. His mother called across the room,
"Don't eat that, dearie, it isn't candy." But in a spirit of reckless
mischief he hurried it into his mouth and quickly chewed it up! It was a
very disagreeable but salutary lesson for the little fellow. It is an
example of nature's methods. She is always consistent, and has a
balanced relationship between cause and effect. But suppose in this case
we throw her consistency aside as those who believe that eternal results
will follow temporal effects are obliged to do. An ordinary lifetime
compared to eternity is somewhat like that instant of disobedience
compared to eighty years, but the illustration is not adequate because
eternity never ends. As nearly as the principle can be applied it would
be by saying to the child, "Because you were disobedient for a second
of time you shall taste quinine for eighty years!" If that punishment is
injustice what must we call the infliction of an eternity of pain as the
result of the errors committed in a lifetime?

Any hypothesis of existence that does not take into consideration the
welfare of humanity is a false hypothesis. What plan can better serve
the common welfare than a chance to redeem a failure? When a prisoner is
condemned for a crime we do not deprive him of opportunities. We give
him every possible chance to improve his character. God cannot be less
just or merciful than man. Rebirth is a new chance. Every incarnation is
another opportunity.

If the popular idea of an eternal heaven and hell is sound, and there be
few who find the "narrow way," the time will come when the majority of