accept the universe, have come frankly to ac-
cept that first verdict pronounced upon creation,
namely, that it is very good--good in its sum
total up to this astronomic date, whatever phases
it may at times present that lead us to a contrary
conclusion.

Not that cold and hunger, war and pestilence,
tornadoes and earthquakes, are good in a positive
sense, but that these and kindred things are vastly
overbalanced by the forces and agencies that
make for our well-being,--that "work together for
good,"--the sunshine, the cooling breezes, the
fertile soil, the stability of land and sea, the gentle
currents, the equipoise of the forces of the earth, air,
and water, the order and security of our solar sys-
tem, and, in the human realm, the good-will and
fellowship that are finally bound to prevail among
men and nations.

In remote geologic ages, before the advent of
man, when the earth's crust was less stable, when
the air was yet loaded with poisonous gases, when
terrible and monstrous animal forms held high
carnival in the sea and upon the land, it was not in
the same sense good--good for beings constructed
as we are now. In future astronomic time, when the
earth's air and water and warmth shall have dis-
appeared--a time which science predicts--and
all life upon the globe fails, again it will not be good.
But in our geologic, biologic, and astronomic age,

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