That is many people's notion of the world--religious people's
even. How they can believe, in the face of such notions, "that God
is love;" how they can help going mad with pity, if that is all the
hope they have for poor human beings, is more than I can tell. Not
that I judge them--to their own master they stand or fall: but this
I do say, that if the preacher has no better hope to give you about
this poor earth, then I cannot tell what right he has to call himself
a preacher of the gospel--that is, a preacher of good news; then I do
not know what Jesus Christ's dying to take away the sins of the world
means; then I do not know what the kingdom of God means; then I do
not know why the Lord taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will
be done on earth, as it is in heaven," if the only way in which that
can be brought about is by His sending ninety-nine hundredths of
mankind to endless torture, over and above all the lesser misery
which they have suffered in this life. What will be the end of the
greater part of mankind we do not know; we were not intended to know.
God is love, and God is justice, and His justice is utterly loving,
as well as His love utterly just; so we may very safely leave the
world in the hands of Him who made the world, and be sure that the
Judge of all the earth will do right, and that what is right is
certain never to be cruel, but rather merciful.
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