The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1875-06-26

themselves to prove to us that the Lord
has clearly sent them as a punishment for
our iniquities? And does it not appear
that the proclamation is futile, falacous
and foolish, and that it comes under the
popular description of "fying in the face
of Providence % One reverend gentleman
in this community recently edited his con-
gregation by proving that the grasshopper
was judgment sent upon us from the
following text-Exodus, 10, 3-5: How
long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself be-
fore me? Behold, tomorrow will I bring
the locusts into thy coast" And, emulat-
ing the (salutatory) agility of the insect
which furnishes him with a text, he leaps
with one bound from Egypt to Kansas,
from the hard hearted Pharaoh to the soft
honest farmers of Missouri and Kansas the
wrath which punished the oppressors of
Israel. For this there is no warrant in the
Scriptures. Because God declaredly pun
| ished the doors of evil by certain inflic-
ton, it does not at all follow that all those
who, to the end of time, are afflicted in the
same way are vil-doers equally flagitious
and equally predestinated. This is an as
sumption which no teacher of the Gospel
has a right to make, even if the facts lent
conformation to his uncomfortable theory;
and when the facts 60 to prove that the
sufferers are not a bit worse than their
more fortunate neighbors, it looks as if
these selfappointed soothsayers of the Lord
were inspired rather by natural propens-
ity to judge harshly of others, and we may
be pretty certain that when the Lord, in
His own good time, comes to pour out the
walls of His wrath, He will not intrust the
job to hands SO reckless, albeit they are
ever willing. He said Goods name is
written upon the film of every locust's
| wing, and the vast army may soon renew
its flight from the far West to the green
pastures of the Mississippi valley, will but
execute His holy purpose" but if these
words mean any thing at all, they mean
too much. The grasshopper is plague,
but he is the result of natural laws Just as
the burglar, or forger, or adulterer; yet he
would hardly assert that these latter are
executing Gods holy purpose. If these
words mean any thing, they mean all this
and more, if they do not mean any thing
they should not have been spoken in the
pulpit and reported in newspaper. The
man who asserts that the suffering farm
ers of Kansas and Missouri are special vic
| tins of the anger of God, at once challenges
the results of every honest mans expert
ence, and those who listen to him, and &C
cept his doctrines, lend their aid to swell
| the division between common sense and
fanciful visions. If scrap of Scripture
suffices unto conviction, We may answer
these by saying that God "maketh the rain
to fall upon the just and the unjust" if
| we arrive at a Judgment of one class of
natural events rather by such plain evil
dence as enables MS to form Judgment of
all others, we will discuss the grasshopper
question as we discuss the wheat crop or
the price of pork; if we make it the text
for sermons, it would be well in the first
place, to ascertain whether the facts square
with the theory we are going to clap unto
them; and if it is easy to explain why one
district is punished, it ought to be equally
easy to explain why another is not pun
ished, and this, l think, would be beyond
the power of preacher. l know I am not
overburdened with piety, and have been
often reproached for my levity in speaking
of sacred things, yet am not wicked enough
to arrogate to myself the authority and
infallibility of one dvinely inspired, and
clothe myself with the mantle of that proph-
ecy which was fulfilled when the Saviour
came, and mock at the misery of the suf-
ferers and aggravate their losses by revers-
ing the impiety of Balaam, and bearing
testimony against them that God has never
sanctioned. C. F. w.
-FOUR correspondent treats altogether be-
You'd its desert the silly Numbering of a
crack Drained preacher, who would be much
better employed in catching grasshoppers
than desscrating the Scripture.-Ea.]
GnN