73/115 SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS By FRANK H. SPRAGUE

9.
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL.

Any scheme of philosophy that recognizes evil as a factor to be reckoned with, in dealing with problems of human existence, seems to some persons to savor of pessimism. In whatever light the theme may be presented, in whatever fashion it may be treated, they regard any serious consideration of it as altogether superfluous.
They are satisfied either entirely to ignore it, or to dismiss it with the briefest negation. If evil is an illusion, they say, why recognize it, even in a doctrinal way? What profit can be derived from an intellectual discussion of a myth! Is it not sufficient to reiterate such positive sentiments as “All is good” and “God is all, and in all,” and relegate the negative aspects of life to oblivion?

Sufficient as these positive affirmations may be for ordinary practical purposes, there is, nevertheless, a sense in which evil does exist, and in which it becomes necessary to recognize it as an element of experience, if we are to obtain the deepest insight into life. Granting that what appears to the finite mind as evil, does not have its origin in the essential nature of things,

that it is not recognizable as such in the Absolute consciousness, the fact still remains, that in any profound analytical study of life, this problem figures in a prominent way. To be sure, we may so direct our attention as completely to shut it out from view; but this manner of disposing of the issue suggests the action of the ostrich, which buries its head in the sand in order to escape impending danger.

The problem of evil is of the deepest moment in a contemplative survey of life, even though it be recognized that evil itself has no valid basis of existence in spiritual Reality.

As the pendulum of thought swings backward from the depressing pessimism of the recent past, an accelerating momentum naturally tends to carry it beyond the point of perfect equilibrium, in the direction of an unduly exalted optimism.

The present reaction against an excessive, and in many cases almost exclusive, contemplation of the nether side of existence, bids fair to engender, in some instances, an attitude in which only certain beneficent features of life are taken into account. By singling out such features, and dwelling upon them apart from the grand whole of life, we may obtain a view quite as ill-balanced as the characteristically pessimistic one.

Between these two danger points, the Scylla and Charybdis of speculative thought, the impartial, earnest truth seeker must steer his bark. On one side lie the seething depths of a despairing pessimism; on the other, the deceptive, alluring shoals of an ecstatic optimism. The ship of life can be piloted successfully only in deep water; but it must be in the calm depths, where the current flows firmly and steadily.