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CONFLUENCE OF OPPOSITES
Joseph McCabe who was an ordained clergyman of the Christian church for a very long time has to say on the subject.
"The men and women of our time", writes Mr. McCabe, "are not much interested in the God of nature. A cold intelligence, that fashions atoms and stars and flowers, and leaves men to their own imperfect devices, is not quite the God Christianity led them to expect. Where is the God who counts the hairs of our head, and marks the fall of sparrows, and loves men above all his works?
"This is the gravest question raised by the war in connection with religion. The Rev. R. J. Campbell, who has made earnest efforts week by week to stem the rising tide of scepticism, complained that the war really raised no new issue at all. He could not, he said, understand why religious people were suddenly disturbed. Of course it has raised no new issue. What it has done is to enforce, to give a tragic and stupendous form to, questions that have long been in people's minds. The ordinary man or woman is, as I said, mildly interested in the God of nature. It is God as Providence that matters. We should like to see a little of this vast intelligence devoted to helping the stumbling steps, sparing the bleeding feet, of man. We should like to see this supreme benevolence that feeds ravens making some mark in the human order, helping our halting wisdom to lessen the world old flow of tears and blood, guarding the innocent from pain and privation, snatching the woman and child from the wardrunk brute-or, what would be simpler and better, preventing the birth of the brute or the germination of his impulses. Just this has always been the supreme difficulty of the theologian. He cannot show us any
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