Friday, November 14, 2014

One Truth is Clear, "Whatever IS, is RIGHT."

In my British Literature class on Wednesday, we were referred to a few lines from the Essay on Man by Alexander Pope.  I haven't read the whole thing (though it looks interesting), but I was struck by the lines we were referred to in the class.  I've heard these lines quoted for criticism in the past, but I find them to be a beautiful description of the fact that God "worketh all things after the counsel of his own will" (Ephesians 1:11) and that therefore all things--small and great, good and bad--happen for a reason, to serve the overall purposes of God's great, good, and holy plan.  Evil is truly evil--in its own nature contrary to God's--and yet God allows it and uses it to further his good purposes for his glory and for his people in spite of itself.

Cease then, nor ORDER Imperfection name:
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame.
Know thy own point: This kind, this due degree
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee.
Submit -- In this, or any other sphere,
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear:
Safe in the hand of one disposing Pow'r,
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour.
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony, not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good:
And, spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite,
One truth is clear, "Whatever IS, is RIGHT."

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