The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1895-12-22

| This death of young man, a boy In
the Hover of his youth, Is all wrong: II
Is n terrible evil: let me show YOU how
God would visit you: let me show you
what God thinks of death and sorrow
and pain. This is what he says by
! touching the coffin: by turning the
mothers grief to JOY. II is Just the
opposite OF what they had thought.
EVIL had visited them before; now God
! has visited them
7 Therefore ! say that to try to com,
, tort the mourncr with the statement
| that God sends trouble, is to offer n
| medicine That is really a poison; is to
give an explanation, ut any rate, that
does not explain. II is Il false humIl-
lily that will claim every i'll as a de.
served punishment; II is II foolish sop
hlstry to make believe that evil is Il good
/ thing for us, and ii is II stultilica ton
OF our human nature TO say we are i;s>
nolTtnt, and do not know Il thing is evil
when we see 1t. God may come on, of
II afteiward. but that will depend en-.
tirely upon how we use IL.
No. Let us believe that God is good.
IT he Is. this superficial mystery is
solved, by being done away with alto
gether. Let us be sure that when Cad
visits his people, it Is to save not To
destroy; 1t is to give health and peace
and JOY, not pain ana worry and tears;
But somebody will say: Are you not
saving Gods goodness ut the expense
TO send evil, why, being all powerful
does he permit II TO come? Why does
he not wipe 1t out altogether? 4 man
throws himself over Il prccipice. and is
dashed to pieces; an ocean steamer
dashes on the rocks in n storm, and
her passengers are drowned: an eni.
uemic breaks out and destroys thou
sands of innocent people. Are not an
these in accordance with what we call
the laws of nature? Did no; gravita-
/ LIT L.
scngers. and disease. the children? /
say no. The laws of God-that is. the
way God works In nature. are perfect
and beneilcial; we only suffer when we
disobey these.
The lrunkard says: This burning dis
ease, this eXcruciating agony, is Gods
will when he is only paying the penalty
of disobcying Gods law The mother
sends her daughter to n dance. lightly
clad. on cold night, and when she
dies OF pneumonia, wonders how God
could so visit her But the truth is the
mother killed the child. and not God
III the cholera comes here next sum-
mer, 1t VIII not come because God sends
It, but because our boards Of health
send 1t an invitation, and every greedy
landlord and careless tenant make It
no.pitably welcome: If tho dam above
gineer made a mistake, or the con-
tractor cheated in his materials. I
think nothing Is palmer than the fact
that. when we break Gods laws any,
where. we suffer: and that If we suf-
fer we ought not to lay the blame on
God. whose will. expressed so clearly
by natural laws. is most evidently that
by keeping those laws men should not
suffer.
In 4 certain true sense. whatever be-
rails us Is according to law. God made
The law. and TO break it is to suffer.
But God does not come down and de-
iiberately infict the punishment. The
broken law avenges itself; Just as
self In moving belt in shop. and
gets torn limb from limb. There is
no direct intervention of God, no Wis
itation from him to punish the man;
the engine relentlessly moves on, and
the man is killed We not only cannot
blame God for the accident-we cannot