[1] The Churches and Modern Thought, by Philip Vivian, p. 231.
[2] Three Essays on Religion, R.P.A. reprint, p. 85.
[3] This and subsequent quotations are taken from pp. 108-119 of Prof. Hudson's Introduction to the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer.
[4] Op. cit., p. 231.
[5] Hudson, op. cit., p. 116.
[6] Supra, p. 46.
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CHAPTER VI
EVIL versus DIVINE GOODNESS
That the renewed emphasis upon the Divine immanence must have for one of its effects that of raising the problem of evil afresh, and in a particularly acute form, will be obvious to anyone who has thought out for himself the implications of that doctrine. Dark and pressing enough before, this particular problem has, in appearance at least, been both complicated and accentuated by the displacement of Deism. If, as we have argued on a previous occasion, there is a certain causal connection between Deism and a somewhat sombre outlook upon the world, on the other hand the existence of evil seemed to fit in better with a view of God which represented Him as outside the universe than with one which insists upon His indwelling in creation. If the earth was the scene and playground of undivine agencies which work their will while the Divine control is withdrawn, then many things became comparatively easy of comprehension; indeed, there was a certain consolation in the thought that—