If The Sun Rises On The Evil As Well As On The Good, If
The Wicked 'become Old, Yea, Are Mighty In Power,' Still, The
Lightning, The Plague, The Falling Chimney-Pot, Smite The
Good As Well As The Evil.
Even the dumb animal is not
spared.
'If,' says Huxley, 'our ears were sharp enough to
hear all the cries of pain that are uttered in the earth by
man and beasts we should be deafened by one continuous
scream.' 'If there are any marks at all of special design in
creation,' writes John Stuart Mill, 'one of the things most
evidently designed is that a large proportion of all animals
should pass their existence in tormenting and devouring other
animals. They have been lavishly fitted out with the
instruments for that purpose.' Is it credible, then, that
the Almighty Being who, as we assume, hears this continuous
scream - animal-prayer, as we may call it - and not only pays
no heed to it, but lavishly fits out animals with instruments
for tormenting and devouring one another, that such a Being
should suspend the laws of gravitation and physiology, should
perform a miracle equal to that of arresting the sun - for
all miracles are equipollent - simply to prolong the brief
and useless existence of such a thing as man, of one man out
of the myriads who shriek, and - shriek in vain?
To pray is to expect a miracle. Then comes the further
question: Is this not to expect what never yet has happened?
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