Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-24
THE RESULT OF NATURAL CAUSES.

We have re during the past week sew
eral sermons delivered by the ministers Of
New York ard Brooklyn on the East river
bridge dis .ster, and the catastrophe is at
tribued TO natural causes. A few years
since this horror would have been held up
as act of special providence, instead Of the
result OF natural causes-e panic created by
fright and timidity. Many sermons will be
preached in EngIan to-day on the Sunder-
land disaster, aud it is safe 10 say that the
ministers while referring to the calamity as
an awful exempli6cation OF the uncertainty
of life, the certainty OF death, and the neces-
sity OF being prepared for 1t, will not refer
to it as put-up job to teach these thing.
Over 200 children lost their lives
in a theater at Sunderland. A few
years since this would have been
held up from the pulpit ss an act
of special providence intended as a punish
ment 10 wicked and sinful fathers and moth.
ers who had permitted their children to COM
nit the monsTous siR OF visiting thealer to
witness the tricks of the harlequin. Verify,
this ia an age Of progress. As people be-
come acquainted with the ordinances gov
ening the universe, with the principle, OF
science, with the lava of health, with the in
| exorable regu i ions of nature in fire and
storm, they understand the penalties that in
variably await the violation OF these laws
and the failure TO adopt precautions and
proper remedies. Man was given his in
tellisence, his reason, his senses, his instinct
and brain in order that he might appreciate
these laws, to understand them and to obey
them. The world now recognizes the tact
that the great FIRST cause works through
natural laws and the penalty OF pair
which follows their violation. There
would have been the same loss OF life
st Sunderland, England, if the 200 children
suffocated and trampled to death bad beer
at Sunday-schooI, inste ad OF the theater. A
many church buildings are consumed by fir
as theaters. Gambling dens are sometimes
fred by the lightnipgs of heaven, SO are or
phan ssylums. The same cyclone which
destroys ths house of ill-repute, never shun
the house Of refuge for the fallen. Tit
| WlChcu sOuctiuSo ocoA "ohC III Wv
very act of committing sin or crime; 80 d.
Christians while at prayer. When natura
laws ave violated, whether it be in church
or theater, and the audience composed o
sinners or saints, the same inevitable result
will follow. The old theory which assumed
that calamities, like those at the East rive
bridge and at Sunderland, were the specia
acts of Providence would assign the sam'
cause TO all calamities-the destruction o
life by lightning, tornadoes, explc
sions, cyclones, shipwrecks, plaques
cholers, yellow. fever, smallpox, epidemic,
and all diseases incurred by violation Q
natural lave. This would place upon tn
throne OF the universe being breathing FIR
and slaughter, and characterized BY qualitie
Of hate, wrath and vengeance surprising
, even the attributes of the most wrsihfu
> gods Of mythology. Such hideous doc
D trine is not preached from the pulpit as wa
8 universally done a few years ago. 1t pa
1 been mischievous, because thousands OF PEG
Q pie know it is fallaciou', and, being falls
' cious, it only tended to throw doubt upo
E other doctrines. 1t is hopeful sign to se
t ministers discarding the superstitions of pas
s ages and keeping abreast with scientif
. knowledge and the progress of bum q
( thought.