love he wills his brothers and sisters free, that he may fill them to
overflowing with that essential thing, joy. For that they were indeed
created. But the moment they exist, truth becomes the first thing, not
happiness; and he must make them true. Were it possible, however, for
pain to continue after evil was gone, he would never rest while one ache
was yet in the world. Perfect in sympathy, he feels in himself, I say,
the tortured presence of every nerve that lacks its repose. The man may
recognize the evil in him only as pain; he may know little and care
nothing about his sins; yet is the Lord sorry for his pain. He cries
aloud, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.' He does not say, 'Come unto me, all ye that feel the
burden of your sins;' he opens his arms to all weary enough to come to
him in the poorest hope of rest. Right gladly would he free them from
their misery--but he knows only one way: he will teach them to be like
himself, meek and lowly, bearing with gladness the yoke of his father's
will. This is the one, the only right, the only possible way of freeing
them from their sins, the cause of their unrest. With them the weariness
comes first; with him the sins: there is but one cure for both--the will
of the Father. That which is his joy will be their deliverance! He might
indeed, it may be, take from them the human, send them down to some
lower stage of being, and so free them from suffering--but that must be
either a descent toward annihilation, or a fresh beginning to grow up
again toward the region of suffering they have left; for that which is
not growing must at length die out of creation. The disobedient and
selfish would fain in the hell of their hearts possess the liberty and
gladness that belong to purity and love, but they cannot have them; they
are weary and heavy-laden, both with what they are, and because of what
they were made for but are not. The Lord knows what they need; they know
only what they want. They want ease; he knows they need purity. Their
very existence is an evil, of which, but for his resolve to purify them,