'...suffering is not good in itself. What is good in any painful experience is, for the sufferer, his submission to the will of God, and, for the spectators, the compassion aroused and the acts of mercy to which it leads. In the fallen and partially redeemed universe we may distinguis (1) the simple good descending from God, (2) the simple evil produced by rebellious creatures, and (3) the expolitation of that evil by God for His redemptive purpose, which produces (4) the complex good to which accepted suffering and repented sin contribute.'
CS Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p.89.
