How often we are moved to admit the intelligence exhibited in both the designing and the execution of some of His works. Take the fly, for instance.Ⓐalteration in the MS The planning of the fly was an application of pure intelligence, moralsⒶemendation not being concerned.Ⓐalteration in the MS Not one of us could have planned the fly, not one of us could have constructed him; andⒶalteration in the MS no one would haveⒶalteration in the MS considered it wise to try, except under an assumed name. It is believed by some that the fly was introduced to meet a long-felt want. In the course of ages, for some reason or other, there have been millions of these persons, but out of this vast multitude there has not been one who has been willing to explain what the want was. At least satisfactorily. A few have explained that there was need of a creature to remove disease-breeding garbage; butⒶalteration in the MS these being then asked to explain what long-feltⒶemendation wantⒶalteration in the MS the disease-breeding garbage was introduced to supply, they have not been willing to undertake the contractⒶalteration in the MS.

There is much inconsistency concerning the fly. In all the ages he has not had a friend, there has never been a person in the earth who could have been persuaded to intervene between him and extermination; yet billions of persons have excused the Hand that made him—and this without a blush. Would they have excused a ManⒶalteration in the MS in the same circumstances, a man positively known to have invented the fly? On the contrary. For the credit of the race letⒶemendation Ⓐalteration in the MS us believe it would have [begin page 113] been all day with that man. Would these personsⒶalteration in the MS consider it just to reprobate in a child, with its undeveloped morals, a scandalⒶalteration in the MS which they would overlook in the Pope?

When we reflect that the fly was not invented for pastime, but in the way of business; that he was not flung off in a heedless moment and with no object in view but to pass the time, but was the fruit of long and pains-taking labor and calculation, and with a definite and far-reaching purpose in view; that his character and conduct were planned out with cold deliberation; that his career was foreseen and fore-ordered, and that there was no want which he could supply,Ⓐalteration in the MS we are hopelessly puzzled, we cannot understand the moral lapse that wasⒶalteration in the MS able to render possibleⒶalteration in the MS the conceiving and the consummation of this squalidⒶalteration in the MS and malevolent creature.

Let us try to think the unthinkable; let us try to imagine a Man of a sortⒶalteration in the MS willing to invent the fly; that is to say, a man destitute of feeling; a man willing to wantonly torture and harass and persecute myriads of creatures who had never done him any harm and could not if they wanted to, and—the majority of them—poor dumb things not even aware of his existence. In a word, let us try to imagine a man with so singular and so lumberingⒶalteration in the MS a code of morals as this: that it is fair and right to send afflictions upon the just—upon the unoffending as well as upon the offending, without discrimination.Ⓐalteration in the MS

If we can imagine such a man, that is the man that could invent the fly, and send him out on his mission and furnish him his orders: “Depart into the uttermost corners of the earth, and diligently do your appointed work. Persecute the sick child; settle upon its eyes, its face, its hands, and gnaw and pester and sting; worry and fret and madden the worn and tired mother who watches by the child, and who humblyⒶtextual note prays for mercy and reliefⒶalteration in the MS with the pathetic faith of the deceived and the unteachable. Settle upon the soldier's festering wounds in field and hospital and drive him frantic while he also prays, and betweentimes curses, with none to listen but you, Fly,Ⓐalteration in the MS who get all the petting and all the protection, without even prayingⒶalteration in the MS for it. Harry and persecute the forlorn and forsakenⒶalteration in the MS wretch who is perishing of the plague, and in his terror and despair praying; bite, sting, feed upon his ulcers, dabble your feet in his rotten blood, gum them thick with plague-germs— [begin page 114] feet cunninglyⒶalteration in the MS designed and perfected for this function ages ago in the beginning—carry this freight to a hundred tables, among the just and the unjust, the high and the low, andⒶalteration in the MS walk over the food and gaum it with filth and death. Visit all; allow no man peace till he get it in the grave; visit and afflict the hard-worked and unoffending horse, mule, ox, ass, pester the patient cow, and all the kindly animalsⒶtextual note that labor without fair reward here and perish without hope of it hereafter;Ⓐalteration in the MS spare no creature, wild or tame; but wheresoever you find one, make his life a misery, treat him as the innocent deserve; and so please Me and increase My glory WhoⒶalteration in the MS made the fly.”Ⓐalteration in the MS

We hear much about His patience and forbearance and long-suffering; we hear nothing about our own, which much exceeds it. We hear much about HisⒶalteration in the MS mercy and kindness and goodness—in words—the words of His Book andⒶalteration in the MS of His pulpit—and the meek multitude is content with this evidence, such as it is, seeking no further; but whoso searcheth after a concretedⒶtextual note sample of it will in time acquire fatigue. There being no instances of it. For what are gilded as mercies are not in any recorded case more than mere common justices, and due Ⓐalteration in the MS—due without thanks or compliment. To rescue without personal riskⒶalteration in the MS a cripple from a burning house is not a mercy, it is a mere commonplace duty; anybody would do it that could. And not by proxy, either—delegating the work but confiscatingⒶalteration in the MS the credit for it. If men neglected “God's poor” and “God's stricken and helpless ones” as He does, what would become of them? The answer is to be found in those darkⒶalteration in the MS lands where man follows His example and turns his indifferent back upon them: they get no help at all; they cry, and plead and pray in vain, they linger and suffer, and miserably die. If you will look at the matter rationally and without prejudice, the proper place to hunt for the facts of His mercy, is not where man does the mercies and He collects the praise, but in those regions where He has the field to Himself.

It is plain that there is one moral law for heaven and another for the earth. The pulpit assures us that wherever we see suffering and sorrow which we can relieve and do not do it, we sin, heavily. There was never yet a case of suffering or sorrow which God could not relieve. Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐalteration in the MS Does He sin, then? If He is the Source of Morals He does—certainly nothing can be plainer than that, you will admit. Surely the SourceⒶalteration in the MS [begin page 115] of law cannot violateⒶalteration in the MS law and stand unsmirched; surely the judge upon the bench cannot forbid crime and then revel in it himself unre-proached. Nevertheless we have this curious spectacle: dailyⒶalteration in the MS the trained parrot in the pulpit gravely delivers himself of theseⒶalteration in the MS ironies, which he has acquired at second-hand and adopted without examination, to a trainedⒶalteration in the MS congregation which accepts them without examination, and neither the speaker nor the hearer laughs at himself. It does seem as if we ought to be humble when we are at a bench-show, and not put on airs of intellectual superiority there.Ⓐalteration in the MS Ⓐtextual note