Moral  evil  is  that  which  is  opposite  to  the  character  of
God,  and  which  therefore  no  free  being  ought  to  choose
or  do.  It  is  odious  to  God  from  its  character,  and  odious
again  because  it  is  destructive  to  his  creatures  and  in
opposition  to  his  end  in  creating  them.  Its  presence  in
the  universe  brings  in  the  greatest  existing  moral  prob-
lem,—  a  problem  that  all  religions  encounter,  and  all
experience  keeps  open.  The  subject  of  sin  must  be  dis-
cussed elsewhere;  but  in  this  place  something  must  be
said  upon  the  presence  of  such  an  element  in  the  universe
of  the  good  God.
GOD


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The  Scriptural  view  of  moral  evil  —  established  not  so
much  by  single  expressions  as  by  the  drift  of  the  whole
Bible  —  is  that  God  hates  moral  evil,  as  he  has  shown
throughout  the  course  of  revelation ;  that  his  moral  gov-
ernment is  against  it,  as  he  shows  by  his  constant  com-
mands, entreaties,  and  threatenings,  and  by  the  unalter-
ableness  of  his  established  moral  sequence;  that  he  is
seeking  to  deliver  men  from  it,  as  he  shows  by  his  redemp-
tion in  Christ  and  by  the  work  of  his  Holy  Spirit;  and  that
his  attitude  toward  it  is  unchangeable,  being  the  necessary
expression  of  his  character.
Concerning  the  presence  of  moral  evil  in  his  universe,  if
we  cannot  solve  the  problem,  we  can  at  least  record  some
truths  that  have  their  bearing  upon  it.
