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Ridiculous to talk of God permitting the bombing. He has let out the earth to man. He has tested him in a comparatively small garden and found he was not to be trusted. God gave him a larger place with work to keep him out of mischief and in the second generation he kills his brother. God can cause more damage in a minute's earthquake than all the bombing of a thousand airplanes. He can destroy and blight a mountainside of trees in five minutes of typhoon weather and do more damage than a week's continuous shelling by man. If God took a hand in war, there would soon be an end. Moreover, the time will come when God will take a hand and leash the forces of evil. Then we shall have peace. In the meantime, He is biding His time. Perhaps there are still characters to be forged on this anvil of fiery heat. For I am convinced that a soul must at some time go through fire and water to pass the test of character. Christ the Victor leads on and He leads through fire as well as by pleasant paths. He leads through the valley of the shadow of death as well as by the still waters. He has led through centuries and He has led many nations, many kinds of people-regardless of race-are following Him and have followed Him down the years. They are content to be bound with chains to His chariot wheels. He promises them wars and rumours of wars, persecutions and bitter cups to drink. They follow in spite of these things and do not regard suffering for the love they bear to Him. The strangest thing of all is that the harder the test and the hotter the flame, the nearer they draw to Him, and the more victorious their feeling, and the more radiant and happy they become. Long spells through green valleys tend to let them wander away.
Should we then pray to be allowed to walk through peaceful scenes when that tends to make our souls leaner?
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