The final cause of human suffering.
No man, with an eye to observe and a heart to feel, can look abroad upon human life without being impressed and saddened by the spectacle presented to his view. There is so much of privation, of pain, of weariness, of disappointment, of distress, that it sometimes seems as if "the whole head were sick, and the whole heart faint." "Life," it has been said, "is a tragedy to those who feel." But men are so constituted that they cannot be satisfied to observe and to feel. They are compelled to think, and many are compelled to theorize. The prevalence of want and misery leads many to formulate a pessimistic philosophy, which accounts the evil in the world to exceed the good, and which seeks an explanation of the facts in the theory that there is no benevolent Deity, but that the supreme power in the universe is a brutal and unconscious Fate. This daring and blasphemous doctrine has, indeed, many advocates. But there are very many more who seek a less bold solution to the difficulty. It does not follow, because a speculation is comparatively modest, it is therefore sound. Our Lord's disciples faced the fact of human suffering, and by suggesting an explanatory theory, which was altogether inadmissible, gave him an opportunity both of rejecting it and of offering an authoritative interpretation of the facts.
I. SIN IS IN A GENERAL VIEW TO BE REGARDED AS THE CAUSE OF HUMAN PRIVATION AND SUFFERING Our Lord himself taught this on such occasions as that on which he said, "Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee." Experience and observation teach us that violation of the Divine laws impressed upon nature is the cause of very many of the hardships, pains, and calamities that befall mankind. The link between sin and suffering is forged and riveted by the hand of the Divine Governor of the universe.
II. MEN, WHOSE KNOWLEDGE IS VERY LIMITED, SHOULD BE SLOW TO ATTRIBUTE INDIVIDUAL PHYSICAL ILLS TO INDIVIDUAL SINS. Sin as a whole is answerable for most of human evils, and many are the evils which devolve upon every generation as an inheritance. But we should often do injustice did we charge a man's sins, or the sins of his ancestors, with his bodily infirmities. Our Lord warned his disciples not to deem those Galilaeans sinners above others, on whom the tower of Siloam fell. And he expressly exonerated both the blind man and his parents from responsibility for his affliction and privation.
III. IF WE CANNOT ALWAYS DISCOVER THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF HUMAN PRIVATION AND SUFFERING, WE MAY ACCEPT OUR LORD'S REVELATION OF ITS FINAL CAUSE. There is a prevalent tendency of mind, especially among the scientific inquirers of our day, to disparage teleology. We are told to observe that a thing happens, to inquire how it happens, but not to venture into the speculation why it happens. Intention, design, are widely denied as the explanation of human actions, as the explanation of natural phenomena. Our Lord Jesus, the great Prophet, the Divine Enlightener of man, tells us that there is a reason for human infirmities and calamities. "That the works of God should be made manifest in him"—such was the reason why this man was born blind. Here opens up before our mental vision a vast field of inquiry and thought. For if this be so, then there is a purpose in physical evil, and that a moral purpose; then it is permitted and appointed by God, the All-Merciful. Then God does concern himself alike with the existence add the alleviation or cure of such evil; then the works of our beneficent God may be made manifest in the case of even a lowly sufferer. Thus there opens up before us the possibility and the prospect that the world may come to be pervaded by the illumination of Divine love and pity, and by the radiance of a blessed and glorious hope.
"And even pain is not in vain;
For out of discord springs a sweet harmonious strain."
—T.