The teeth and beaks, the claws and fangs, that tear and rend, fill me with horror. What can be more frightful than a world at-war? Every leaf a battle-field--every flower a Golgotha--in every drop of water pursuit, capture and death. Under every piece of bark, life lying in wait for life. On every blade of grass, something that kills,--something that suffers. Everywhere the strong living on the weak--the superior on the inferior. Everywhere the weak, the insignificant, living on the strong--the inferior on the superior--the highest food for the lowest--man sacrificed for the sake of microbes. Murder universal. Everywhere pain, disease and death--death that does not wait for bent forms and gray hairs, but clutches babes and happy youths. Death that takes the mother from her helpless, dimpled child--death that fills the world with grief and tears. How can the orthodox Christian explain these things? I know that life is good. I remember the sunshine and rain. Then I think of the earthquake and flood. I do not forget health and harvest, home and love--but what of pestilence and famine? I cannot harmonize all these contradictions--these blessings and agonies--with the existence of an infinitely good, wise and powerful God. The theologian says that what we call evil is for our benefit--that we are placed in this world of sin and sorrow to develop character. If this is true I ask why the infant dies? Millions and millions draw a few breaths and fade away in the arms of their mothers. They are not allowed to develop character. The theologian says that serpents were given fangs to protect themselves from their enemies. Why did the God who made them, make enemies? Why is it that many species of serpents have no fangs? The theologian says that God armored the hippopotamus, covered his body, except the under part, with scales and plates, that other animals could not pierce with tooth or tusk. But the same God made the rhinoceros and supplied him with a horn on his nose, with which he disembowels the hippopotamus. The same God made the eagle, the vulture, the hawk, and their helpless prey. On every hand there seems to be design to defeat design. If God created man--if he is the father of us all, why did he make the criminals, the insane, the deformed and idiotic? Should the inferior man thank God? Should the mother, who clasps to her breast an idiot child, thank God? Should the slave thank God? The theologian says that God governs the wind, the rain, the lightning. How then can we account for the cyclone, the flood, the drought, the glittering bolt that kills?