--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Talmage, James Edward collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 23 number: 1 published: 1919-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Talmage, James E., "Whence Come the Ills of Men and Nations?," *Improvement Era* 23, no. 1 (November 1919): 41–45.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2301unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2301unse start_page: 41 end_page: 45 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1919-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2301unse publication_year: 1919 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1919, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Whence Come the Ills of Men and Nations? Whence Come the Ills of Men and Nations? By Dr. James E. Talmage, of the Council of the Twelve It is a common Christian belief that the Divine purposes with respect to mankind are beneficent. The firm foundation for this conception is expressed in the Lord's most excellent word to Moses: "For behold, this is my work and my glory to — bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." (Pear] of Great Price, p. 7). Nevertheless, evil abounds in the world and suffering, in it3 ; varied phases, appears to be the unescapable experience of mor« tals— suffering that is no less real because mercifully interspersed with respite. Sin entered into the world, and death by sin (see Romans 5:12) hence there was a period of human history when sin was ; unknown and death impossible. Such a beatific condition was exemplified in Eden before the Fall. Trangsression of Divine law brought the curse, under which the earth itself, and specifically the race of embodied spirits, have since endured. A broad generalization, therefore, classes all the ills to which we say flesh is heir as the results of broken law, in fact, the ef- fects of sin. That pain, illness, adversity, bereavement, and every other afflictingexperience may be sanctified to eventual good, by developing the otherwise weak or dormant capabilities of the soul, nowise beclouds the fact that the afflictions themselves are present banes, and that these are the results of transgression. But in many afflictions, the culpability of the sufferer is not plainly apparent; and the relation of sin to suffering in such cases appears to be that of a general cause producing an individ- ual effect. Our Lord the Christ suffered as hath no other man, for He endured the pains of all men: "Which suffering" He has since declared, "caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit." (Doctrine and Covenants 18:11 and 19:18). The Lord's agony of soul was the direct result of sin; but not His sin. That the relation of physical cause to effect exists in every instance of disease or other affliction is undeniable; but that finite mind is competent to fix the blame, and to justly man's 42 IMPROVEMENT ERA aver that this particular ill is the punitive result of that specific offense, is in many cases obviously impossible. The Book of Job is an inspired refutation of any such false assumption, and stands as a warning against one man's pronouncement of an- other's alleged guilt on the evidence of the latter's affliction. Jesus of Nazareth gave to His disciples a pointed lesson on the subject. He and they came to a man who had been born blind. "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus ans- wered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." (John 9:2-3). The Master's exposition of the case implies no denial of a specific physical cause for the man's blindness; though it exonerates him and his parents from sinful culpability in the matter. Satan is the prime instigator to sin, and through him sin was brought into the world. His diabolical activities are, and from the beginning have been, directed to deceive mankind and to lead them captive to his will, by false inducements and lying promises. Individuals and nations have come under the arch- fiend's sinister control, and thus, led by the author of sin, they transgress and inevitably must suffer. Envy, strife, and all the rest of the frightful results of selfishness, spring from seed of the devil's sowing. — The primary cause of evil that dread malady under which — the earth groans being thus definitely fixed, we may hopefully and intelligently seek the remedy. Since sin is the cause, the elimination of sin alone can bring about a cessation of the effect. Inasmuch as the law of God has been broken, reparation must be made; and this is possible only through obedience. In- dividual relief can be achieved through individual compliance with the divinely prescribed laws and ordinances of the Gospel; and, as communities consist of individuals, the salvation of the community can be effected only through the probity of its citi- zens. The word of the Lord God of heaven and earth has gone forth in this age, commanding all men to repent and to obey His law, which is the law of righteousness upon which the lib- erty of true blessedness is predicated. "Hearken and hear, ye inhabitants of the earth. Listen ye elders of my church together, and hear the voice of the Lord, for he calleth upon all men, and he commandeth all men every- where to repent. For, behold, the Lord God hath sent forth the angel crying through the midst of heaven, saying: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight, for the hour of his coming is nigh." (Doctrine and Covenants 133:16-17). WHENCE COME THE ILLS OF MEN? 43 The Innocent Suffer On Account of the Guilty Jesus Christ, the One Sinless Man, suffered in extreme de- gree, even unto death, on account of the guilt of others. In a lesser way, hosts of relatively innocent ones have suffered and are suffering because of sins in which they have had little or no part. A wayward youth, flouting the warning admonitions of worthy and loving parents, plunges recklessly into what he calls pleasure; and, though the aftermath be bitter to him, his pres- ent suffering is slight in comparison with the pangs of the solicit- ous and yearning father and mother to whom he has brought disgrace and agony of soul. By reversing the conditions, we have the case of a brutal father, a recreant husband, inflicting torture upon children and wife. Again we see the innocent suf- fering under the crimes of the guilty. None can doubt that hosts of the comparatively innocent have endured unspeakable agony in the world war, the fright- ful inflictions having no immediate relation to sinful acts on the part of the victims. The pestilential scourge that has so re- cently swept the earth as with a besom of destruction has claimed its many millions. Accepting the generalization that disease is incident to the curse brought upon the world through trans- gression, we naturally ponder whether all who were thus stricken to death succumbed because of their own unfitness to live. Our answer is that while such calamities are judgments, permitted of God as disciplinary, and, be it hoped, reformatory measures, many have fallen whose sins are not such as to directly bring upon them so heavy a penalty as to us their untimely death appears to be. An incident in the teachings of the Christ is in point. He was told of certain Galileans who had been slain in the Temple courts, so that their blood was mingled with that of the altar sacrifices. "And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, be- cause they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay, but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, Nay : but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." (Luke 13:2-5). Were this life all there is to existence, its deeper problems would be altogether insoluble, its seeming enigmas wholly in- an evil explicable. If death of itself is an unqualified calamity, sequel, then indeed infliction to which there is no recompensing But, by the sure word of Divine avowal, does injustice reign. not that the dissolution of spirit we know that death is finality, 44 IMPROVEMENT ERA and body is but a temporary separation, and that even during the limited period of disembodiment the individual lives as an intelligent, active spirit. Moreover, that same sure word tells of adjustment and resti- tution, whereby the innocent, who have suffered from the evil deeds of others, shall be recompensed in heavenly measure for their earthly pain. Not death but the life that preceded it, and the state of our souls beyond, should be our great concern. "Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord; from hence- forth, when the Lord shall come, and old things shall pass away, and all things become new, they shall rise from the dead and shall not die after, and shall receive an inheritance before the Lord, in the holy city." And further: "And it shall come to pass that those that die in me, shall not taste of death, for it shall be sweet unto them; And they that die not in me, wo unto them, for their death is bitter." (Doctrine and Covenants 63:49; 42:46-47). Incident to a period of cruel intolerance in religious mat- ters among the aboriginal inhabitants of the Western Continent, the evil-hearted persecutors put to death many women and chil- dren by burning thinking thus to terrify the men into a denial of their faith. 1 \ie prophets Alma and Amulek were forced to witness the awfu scenes. Amulek desired to invoke superhu- man power to save the innocent victims: "But Alma said un- to him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto him- self, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall ex- ercise upon them in his wrath, may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day." (Book of Mormon, Alma 14:11). The Revelator "saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Rev. 6:9-10). And in later vision of what is to be, he beheld the consummation, at once glorious and awful, and rendered praise unto God for having avenged the blood of His servants. (19:2). As Christ has suffered for the sins of the race, so those who are Christ's have to endure, in varying measure, the effects of guilt not their own. But to them shall be requited in eternal blessings their experiences of earthly anguish. Wo, wo unto them to whose account is charged the suffering of the innocent! : —