, 1877-04-07

PdctRc went down, hnrying in ocean sep.
ulChrcs hundreds of our tcllOw-mortals,
some OF them dear personal friends to
more than one of us, think you there
were no good men and true ON board
who shared one common fate with the
vilest wretch Of all that company
Thus we learn from experience as well
as from the language OF our text, that
particular calamitles do not always pre-
suppose particular guilt. BY logicll in
ference we have also seen that the Great
Ruler does not often use any other than
the ordinary laws and forces of Nature,
material and spiritual. in carrying on the
affairs of the universe, though these
forces and laws are to us largely miracu
lous, being beyond our comprehension
and outside OF our power in II large de
gree Doubtless the time will come
when, by the advancement OF art and the
discoveries OF science, many things now
called by and really to us miraculous
shall be no longer so or so.called. But
even then there shall be TO mortal man
nn undiscovered realm of thought, an in.
finite re-. ion of the unknowahle, vast
storehouse of forces which he shall lack
the power to apply to the problems of
human life. This undiscovered realm
this region Of the unkn wable-those
forces which he cannot rulc-though
quite familiar to, well known and easily
governed by the Infinite God, shall al
ways he supernatural, and their phenom-
ena miraculous, to finite man.
Let us learn from this halfhour's study
of Gods truth, the practical lesson not
to be ever ready to find miracle in
every extraordinary phenomenon; and
especially let us get away from that child.
ish Interpretation Of especial Provi-
denccs' (phenomena surely not unknown
to-day any more than IN the oldcn timel
which secs n direct expression of His
particular rage in every calamity to II
Sunday excursion train, in every over
turned pleasure boat, by which Sab
bath.brcaking citizen loses his life. You
may entertain and even appear to edity
children and childish men and women
with that superStitious kind of talk; but
thoughtful men will he more likely to
agree with the Great Teacher that the
Ga ileans Of our text were not sinners
above all" their cOuntrymen, and that
the eighteen persons upon whom the
tower in Sloan fell, were not sinners
above all the dwcllcrs in Jerusalem.
Reasoning men will be most likely to nc
cept the platform of our Lord, especially
when they see that the same conhagra.
tion which destroys the theatre consumes
the house of prayer across the street
that for every Sunday train destroyed,
hundreds return to the city all right
that while one Sabbath breaking pleas.
ure yacht is lost, half thousand reach
their moorings amid the jubilee of laugh.
ter and song, with all their passengers
unharmed.
This does not prevent us from con.
demning theatres and theatre-going, ii
we believe they are evils; it does not
prevent us from regarding Sabbath.
breaking as vile and pernicious thing,
degrading to humanity and dishonoring
to God But it causes us to look in the
proper place for the punishment Of that
and every other sin, in the special, direct
and indirect consequences which the in.
exorable law of the just, Interchangeable
and only God hath bound by chain
that is iIrefrangible to every kind of sin
Let us give earnest heed to the Great
Teachers suggestion not to waste our
valuable time passing judgment upon
other men for their real or imaginary sins,
but to be careful lest we perish by ms
cradle second death while the Father of
Infinite Mercy is calling us to eternal