h that; shew that Calvary was not inconsistent with the
goodness of God, but rather the perfection of that goodness shewn forth
in time and space: then all other arguments connected with God's majesty
may go for nought, provided that God's moral majesty be safe. Provided
God be proved to be morally infinite--that is, in plain English,
infinitely good; provided God be proved to be morally absolute--that is,
absolutely unable to have His goodness affected by any circumstance
outside Him, even by the death upon the Cross: then let the rest go. All
words about absoluteness and infinity and majesty, beyond that, are
physical--metaphors drawn from matter, which have nothing to do with God
who is a Spirit.

But God's infinite power too often means, in the minds of men, only some
abstract notion of boundless bodily strength. God's omniscience too
often means, only some physical fancy of innumerable telescopic or
microscopic eyes. God's infinite wisdom too often means, only some
abstract notion of boundless acuteness of brain. And lastly--I am sorry
to have to say it, but it must be said,--God's infinite majesty too often
means, in the minds of some superstitious people, mere pride, and
obstinacy, and cruelty, as of the blind will of some enormous animal
which does what it chooses, whether right or wrong.

If the mystery of the Cross contradict any of these carnal or material
notions, so much the more glory to the mystery of the Cross. One
spiritual infinite, one spiritual absolute, it does not contradict: and
that is the infinite and absolute goodness of God.

Let all the rest remain a mystery, so long as the mystery of the Cross
gives us faith for all the rest.

Faith, I say. The mystery of evil, of sorrow, of death, the Gospel does
not pretend to solve: but it tells us that the mystery is proved to be
soluble. For God Himself has taken on Himself the task of solving it;
and has proved by His own act, that if there be evil in the world, it is
none of His; for He hates it, and fights against it, and has fought
against it to the death.

It simply says--Have faith in God. Ask no more of Him--Why hast Thou
made me thus? Ask no more--Why do the wicked prosper on the earth? Ask
no more--Whence pain and death, war and famine, earthquake and tempest,
and all the ills to which flesh is heir?

All fruitless questionings, all peevish repinings, are precluded
henceforth by the passion and death of Christ.

Dost thou suf