Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1876-08-20

arm before the fire was extinguished. In
his manise efforts to free himself from
these who were restraining him,
the skin was rubbed from
the burned flesh and presented
the following character: GOO. Very
close representation, to say the least Of
them, Of the esp tai letters
used in printing the name Of Daily,
while around aud between them the
skin was unremoved and apparently not
burned. The above characters occupied
the angles OF an equilsteTsl triangle,
which, as you are doubtless awsre. was
10 ancient days the symbol OF Deity
This man, then, appears to have Deen
branded with the psme OF the Cfea or
in the symbolic Language, 1t msy be OF
his fcrefsthers three thousand years ago,
and Ia the printed language Of the ma
ton TO which he belonged.
The publication Of such stuff Ia a re-
Iigious paper is shameful; 1t is wicked;
it is blasphemous. The effort to make
an AvengIng miracle Of this accident Is
shocking and blasphemous. If there
were five profsne negroes together, why
were not all killed. We agree with the
Baltimore Gazette in the opinion that
nobody, down in his innermost heart,
believes that a thunderbolt was sent
from heaven to strike cursing negro,
and write the name Of God upon his
back; and any one who writes seriously
to induce the young and foolish to be-
Iieve it, and thus to lower the pure ideal
- loaa a xyioHad fhinn All men
can see that in this world wickedness
does OFTEN flourish, and that virtue often
struggles through life with endless mis-
cries and disasters. The whole book Of
Job works up this central idea into mag
nifieent verse. Gods ways are not our
Wsys. He sends his sunshine and his
rains upon the good and bad alike; mis-
pestilence strikes with equal hand the
cody and the wicked; he gives his har-
vest to the grateful and to the migrate"
full; we are taught to look beyond this
world for rewards and punishment. 1t
is worse than foolish to take a strange
accident and insolently to hold it up to
the world as a special providence or
Judgment of God. 1t is arrogant and
self.righteous. II God punished bias
phemy with thunderbolts, whole cities
would be decimated. But every one
knows that he does not. 1t aliases the
conception of God to hint it. He writes
his name in the storms Of the pure; IN
sesrchable sea, or in its deep repose and
silence; he writes his name in the sky,
in the white infinitudes of countless
stars; he does not write his name in
blisters on q dead negroes back.
The words of our contemporary will be
Endorsed by all sensible men. Only
few days since we published in the
APPEAL that an exemplary christian
young man was struck by light
ming while kneeliDg at prayer on a
Sabbath evening. The warning is here
lost, because he was not, like the negro,
using profAne language. The sudden
death by lightning of the young man at
prayer cannot be traced to the desecra-
ton of the Sabbath. As the case now
stands there is no doubt it will be inge-
niousiy shown by many pious zeslot
that the Almighty deemed him too good
to be of this world, and so took him I'M
to himself. Not go would have been
their judgment had he met his death
from the capsizing Of boat or the burst
ing Of a gun. Then it would indicate
that the Most High had called him, IN
prepared, into his awful presence to an
swer for his sin in not keeping holy
the seventh day, and as such the
warning would be used to i'm
press on the congregations the con-
dign punishment that they rendered
themselves liable to il they did likewise.
This would at once infer that God had
caused small flaw in the barrel Of the
gun, or a lump of mud to be placed in
the muZzle, on purpose to encompass
the death of the young Sabbath-bresker,
or that the gust Of wind that overturned
the boat was caused by special meteor
illogical change for the occasion, as in
the case Of the breeze that was express
Iy ordained for Rev. Samuel Hicks, in
the days Of yore, to grind the corn for
the sacramental bread. 1t is unfortu.
nately too much the design and desire
of ministers of all denominations to dis
tort things that happen entirely in &C
eordsnce with natural laws, and which !
are neither mysterious nor won-
deTful to the educated mind, into |
either special act Of Providence, or
something very closely resembling a
The death of the young man
in question would no doubt have oc-
Cured from the same organic cause,
no matter what pursuit he was engaged
Ia, whether praying or playing cards.
1t can in no way be surmised that the
would swerve from the fixed
and immutable laws by which the gov
erns the spheres, for the purpose of send-
ing to perdition the soul Of the unfortu-
nate wight who goes fishing on Sunday,
any more than he would perform mira
Gle by calling before his time the holy
youth, who died in the act OF suppliea-
lion TO his Maker.