The woman’s face was flushed, her eyes somber, and there was a note of passionate protest in her voice which moved Katherine deeply; while what she had said proved to her that these problems had been pondered o’er and o’er until her mind was almost in a state of chaos regarding them.

While she was debating with herself what reply she could make that would best meet her thought, her companion resumed: 

“I am a dear lover of children, but when I see anyone like Dorothy; when I see mothers grieving for their darlings, whom God gave them for a little while, then ruthlessly snatched from their embrace for no apparent reason, I feel sure that something is very wrong; and, of late years, my heart is filled with indignant protest whenever I hear of the birth of a dear little innocent.  ‘Oh!’ I cry within myself, ’it is born only to repeat the struggle with sin, suffering and death.’  Of what use is its life? of what use the advent of future generations if there is no way to rise above, or conquer, such adverse conditions?  Is God good—­if there is a God—­to create only to destroy? to arbitrarily force these little innocents into the world to fight the unequal battle with evil?  Millions have faced it bravely—­nobly, trusting God’s promises, but they have never succeeded in removing one iota of the curse, ‘Thou shalt surely die.’  The whole problem of life is a mystery which I am tired of trying to solve,” and Katherine was sure the woman stifled a sob as she concluded.

“Surely, dear Miss Reynolds, you do not doubt the existence of God?” she gently inquired.

“No, child; don’t think me quite an atheist,” said her teacher, with a deprecatory smile and gesture.  “Life, nature, the universe, with their teeming and ever-unfolding wonders tell me that there is a Force—­a controlling power and intelligence behind them.  We call that force ‘God.’  We say that God is omnipotent, all wise and good; and certainly, in the government of the universe, everything points that way, everything is exact and perfect.  But how to reconcile God as good, merciful, loving, with the creation and manifestation of evil as we find it on this planet?  Ah! that is beyond me.”

“Can evil come out of good?” briefly queried Katherine.

Miss Reynolds started slightly.

“No,” she returned, positively; “no more than a lie can spring out of truth; those are self-evident facts.”

“Then dare we say that God—­which is but another term for good, Supreme Good—­created evil?”

“Oh, do you believe in the serpent or devil?  I know he comes forward from some mysterious source in the narrative and is held responsible.  Then naturally follows the question, ’Who created his satanic majesty?’ Well, who did?  If God created everything, and evil cannot come out of good, where did evil come from?  What a paradox it seems!” she went on, without waiting for a reply.  “Yet evil does exist in the world—­look at Dorothy!  Think of the sin, misery and crime all about us!  Where did they come from?  There are some who contend that God did not create evil, but permits it for some wise purpose; but that, to me, seems like a weak attempt to clear the Almighty from the terrible responsibility of having made sin and its deadly results without detracting from His omnipotence.”