Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1870-05-17
Goodness in the Hurricane.

mine explosions, and similar oalami.
ties g matter of almost daily occur
renee such thoughts as those-from
sermon by Rev. Stopford A.Brooks--
are timely antidote against the
doubts that seek to ensnare us
Men say God is cruel to permit
such loss. Three thousand souls
have persisted in this hurricane. Is
this your God Of lover But look at
the hurricane. A mass of heated air
ascends. along q line of heated wa
ter. Two currents dash in right ard
left to fill the space they clash, and
whirlwind, rotating on vast scale
sweeps along the line. It's the only
way in which the equilibrium of the
air can DO restored. Those who OBJ
ject TO this arrangement will per-
haps prefer that the air should be
left quiet, in order to protect their
notion Of God of Lowell Well, what
is the result? Instead of three
thousand by q hurricane, thirty
thousand perish by pestilence.
"But why restore it so violently
Could not God arrange to have uni
form climate all over the earth ?"-
We are spiritually puzzled, and to
arrange our doubts, God must make
another world We know not what
we ask. A uniform climate over all
the earth means simply the death of
ell living beings. IVis the tropic heat
and polar cold which cause the cur
rents of the oceans and the air and
keep them fresh and pure. A stag
nant atmosphere, rOtting sea, that
is what we ask for. 1t is well God
does not take us at our word When
we wish tho hurricane away, we
wish away the tropic heats in the
West Indies and along the whole
equator. What do we do then? Wo
wish away the Gulf Stream, and an-
initiate England. How long would
our national greatness last if we had
here the climate of Labrador
More than half of the solemn folly
which is talked about God of love
not permitting these physical calsm-
tiles is due to pure ignorance, is duo
to skeptical persons never reading
Gods revealed book of nature. A
mere smattering of meteorOlogy
would answer all spiritual doubts, of
this kind, Of Gods tenderness.
Because q few perish, is God to
throw the whole world into confus-
ion? The few must be sometimes
sacrificed to the many. But they
are not sacrificed without due warn
ing. In this case God tells US plain
ly, in His book of nature, that He
wants to keep His air and His seas
fresh and clean for h,s children to
breathe and sail upon. The West
Indies is the place where this work
is done for the North Atlantic and
its borders, and unless the whole
constitution OF the world be entirely
changed, that work must be done
by tornadoes. God has made that
plain to rs; and to all sailing and
living about warm currents like the
Gulf Stream it is as if God said,
"Expect my hurricanes they must
come. You will have to face danger
and death, and it is my law that you
should face it everywhere in spiritual
as we'll as physical life and to call
Me unloving because / impose this
on you ig to mistake the true ideal
Of your humanity. ! mean to make
you active men, not slothful dream
ers. | will not make the world too
easy for My children. want vet
eran men, not untried soldiers men
Of endurance, foresight, strength
and skill for Ny work, and / set be-
fore you the battle. You must face
maniully those forces which you call
destructive, but which are in reality
reparativo. In the struggle all that
belongs to your intellect-invention,
activity, Imagination, forethought,
combination-will be enkiadled and
developed, and all the nobler quail
ties Of the spirit-love to Me and
man, faith TO Ne and man, sympa-
thy with the race, tender guardian
ship, the purity of life which il born
of activity, of chsrity-will enter
into you and mold you into My like
ness"