Joy Power | Page 9

a most
powerful nothing! Not the shadow cast by the good, but the cloud that
hides the sun and casts the shadow. Not the "silence implying sound,"
but the discord breaking the harmony. Evil is as real as the fire that
burns you, as the flood that drowns you. Evil is as real as the typhoid
germ that you can put under a microscope and see it squirm and grow.
Evil is negative,--yes, but it is a real negative,--as real as darkness, as

real as death.
There are two things in every human heart which bear witness to the
existence and reality of evil: first, our judgments of regret, and second,
our judgments of condemnation.
How often we say to ourselves, "Would that this had not come to pass!"
How often we feel in regard to our own actions, "Would that I had done
differently!" This is the judgment of regret; and it is a silent witness of
the heart to the conviction that some things are not inevitable. It is the
confession that a battle has been lost which might have been won. It is
the acknowledgment that things which are, but are not right, need not
have been, if we and our fellow-men had seen more clearly and
followed more faithfully the guiding star of the good.
And then, out of the judgment of regret, springs the deeper judgment of
condemnation. If the failure in duty was not inevitable, then it was base.
The false word, the unjust deed, the foul action, seen as a surrender to
evil, appears hateful and guilty. It deserves the indignation and the
shame which attach to all treason. And the spirit which lies behind all
these forms of disloyalty to the good,--the spirit which issues in
selfishness and sensuality, cruelty and lust, intemperance and
covetousness,--this animating spirit of evil which works against the
Divine will and mars the peace and order of the universe is the great
Adversary against whom we must fight for our own lives and the life of
the world.
All around us lies his dark, secret kingdom, tempting, threatening,
assaulting the soul. To ignore it, is to walk blindfold among snares and
pitfalls. Try if you will to shut it out, by wrapping your heart in dreams
of beauty and joy, living in the fair regions of art or philosophy,
reading only the books which speak of evil as if it did not exist or were
only another form of goodness. Soon you will be shaken out of the
dream into the reality. You will come into contact with evil so close, so
loathsome that you can not deny it. You will see that it has its soldiers,
its servants, its emissaries, as ardent and enthusiastic in its cause as if
they were serving the noblest of masters. It inspires literature and
supports newspapers; now intelligent and cultured, drawing the arts

into its service; now coarse and vulgar, with pictures that shock the
taste as much as they debase the conscience. It wins adherents and turns
them into advocates. It organizes the dealers in drunkenness and
debauchery into powerful societies for mutual protection. It creates
lobbies and controls legislatures. It corrupts the government of great
cities and rots out the social life of small towns. Even when its outward
manifestations are repressed and its grosser forms resisted, it steals its
way into men's hearts, eating out the roots of human trust and
brotherhood and kindness, and filling the air with gossip and spite,
envy, malice and all uncharitableness.
I am glad that since we have to live in a world where evil exists, we
have a religion which does not bandage our eyes. The first thing that
we need to have religion do for us is to teach us to face the facts. No
man can come into touch with the Divine personality of Jesus Christ,
no man can listen to His teaching, without feeling that the distinction
between good and evil to Him is vital and everlasting. The choice
between them is to Him the great choice. The conflict between them is
to Him the great conflict. Evil is the one thing that God has never
willed. Good is the one thing that He wills forever. Evil is first and last
a rebellion against His will. He is altogether on the side of good. Much
that is, is contrary to His will. There is a mighty strife going on, a battle
with eternal issues, but not an eternal battle. The evil that is against
Him shall be cast out and shall perish. The good that overcomes the
evil shall live forever. And those who yield their lives to God and
receive His righteousness in Christ are made partakers of everlasting
life.
This is the teaching of Jesus: and I