Yet, on the
beneficent-design theory, it is impossible to understand why, when all
mechanisms and habits in the same species are invariably correlated for the
benefit of that species, there should never be any such correlation between
mechanisms and habits of different species. For how magnificent, how
sublime a display of supreme beneficence would nature have afforded if all
her sentient animals had been so inter-related as to minister to each
other's happiness! Organic species might then have been likened to a
countless multitude of voices, all singing to their Creator in one
harmonious psalm of praise. But, as it is, we see no vestige of such
correlation; every species is for itself, and for itself alone--an outcome
of the always and everywhere fiercely raging struggle for life.
So much, then, for the case of _physical_ evil; but Dr. Flint also treats
of the case of _moral_ evil. Let us see what this well-equipped writer can
make of this old problem in the present year of grace. He says--"But it
will be objected, could not God have made moral creatures who would be
certain always to choose what is right, always to acquiesce in His holy
will?... Well, far be it from me to deny that God could have originated a
sinless moral system.... But if questioned as to why He has not done
better, I feel no shame in confessing my ignorance. It seems to me that
when you have resolved the problem of the origin of moral evil into the
question, Why has God not originated a moral universe in which the lowest
moral being would be as excellent as the archangels are? you have at once
shown it to be _speculatively incapable of solution_ [italics mine], and
practically without importance[!].
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