The Indianapolis journal., 1895-12-22
VOICE OF THE PULPIT
SUGGESTIVE DISCOURSE CONCERN
ING vIsITATIONs FROM GOD.
Rev. c. VI. Addison, Rector OF Christ
Church, Fitehburg, Mass, Says They
Are Not Always Calamities.

When sorrow and trouble come to Us.
ought we to say of each that it Is a vista
ton from God? That is the common phrase
for such things; they are ''visitations."
In the verse have chosen we find this
same word: and In the story in which tt oc-
ours we have chance to see whether
Christ would have us agree with the popular
idea or not.
The story tells OF the bringing to life
again Of the son OF the widow OF Main.
just outside the gate OF the city, between
the walls and the cemetery, Jesus was met
by a funeral train poor mother-a widow
who had been left with an only SON, had
been visited by God" as her neighbors
said The son had been taken away from
her: she was utterly alone. 1t was one OF
the saddest OF funerals, and clearly "a Wis
itation;s' any pious neighbor could see that.
What viii Christ. the son of God, say
about it7 VIII He go 70 the widowed
mother, and say: This is a visitation from
God; He has punished you severely. You
must bear the punishment without ques-
tioning. because 1t is Gods will?' No!
when the Lord saw her, He had compass
sion on her. and said unto her: Weep not.
And he came nigh and touched the bier.
and the bearers stood still. And He said:
Young man, say unto thee, Arise. And ne
that was dead sat up and began to speak"
Then 1t was that a strange fear, a holy
awe, fell on the crowd OF mourners. and
they glorified God and said that God had
visited His people.
Here was a strange reversal of their
thought. That death which they had been
saying was Gods visitation and Gods wln,
was found TO be opposite TO his win, and the
visitaItion-by the miracle OF Christ-was
found to be in the raising from the dead,
instead OF in the killing. IL was not Gods
will thar the mother should lose he- son,
and so, when he visited her in Christ, He
gave him back to her again.
1t is true that, in the Old Testament. q
visitation from God was always calamity;
God interfered to punish But in the New
Testament the word visitation" Is never
used. except to denote the love and good
ness OF God. His coming TO save is his
only visitation. Those opening words OF
the hymn, ''Benedictus.' in St. Luke, ex-
press the whole teaching of the gospels
and epistles: God hath visited and re-
deemed his people" He visits to redeem.
And so Christ comes to the widow OF Main
and says, as clearly as acts can speak:
This death OF young man, a boy in the
flower of his youth, is all wrong, it is a ter
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. 1t is
1ust the opposite of what they had thought.
Evil had visited them before: now God has
visited them.
Therefore L say that, to try to comfort
the mourner with the statement that God
sends trouble, is to offer medicine that is
really poison. is to give an explanation,
at any rate, that does not explain. 1t Is a
false humility that will claim every i'll as
e deserved punishment; 1t is a foolish soph-
istry TO make believe that EVIL is a good
thing for US. and 1t Is a stultincation of our
human nature TO say we are ignorant, and
do not know a thing is evil when we see 1t.
Good may come out OF 1T afterward, but
that will depend entirely upon how we use
It.
No. Let US believe that God is good If
he is, this superficial mystery is solved by
being done away with altogether. Let us
be sure that. when God visits his people. it
Is 10 save. not TO destroy; it is TO give
health and peace and joy, not pain and
sorry and tears.
But somebody will say Are you not saw
Ing Gods goodness at the expense of His
vi.
why. being all powerful. does He permit 1.
to come? Why does He not wipe it out alto
gether? A man throws himself over a
precipice, and Is dashed to pieces. an ocean
steamer dashes on the rocks in a storm
and her passengers are drowned an cpl
remic breaks out and destroys thousands of
innocent people. Are not all these in ac-
cordance with what we call the laws of
nature? Did not gravitation kill the man.
drowning the passengers. the disease the
Children? ] say no. The laws of God-that
Is. the way God works in nature, are per-
feet and beneficial; we only suffer when
We disobey these
The drunkard says: This burning dis
ease. this excruciating agony. is Gods
OF disobeyiug Gods Law. The mother SENDS
her daughter TO a dance, lightly clad. on
cold night, and when she dies of penn
monia wonders how God could so visit ner.
But the truth is. the mother killed the
child, and not God.
II the cholera comes here next summer
1t will not come because God sends II. ont
because our boards of health send. il an
invitation and every greedy landlord and
careless tenant make &: Hospitality vel
come III the dam above Johnstown breaks
1t is because the engineer made a mistake
- N--~ ~|@eA'Ntoi |I-1e<u III MS materials
I think nothing is palmer than the fset
that when We break Gods laws anvwhera
we suffer. and that. IL re suffer, 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 certain true sense, whatever be-
falls US is according to law. God made
the law, and to break it is to suffer. R,rt
God does not come down and deliberately
fnfiict the punishment. The broken law
avenges itself; just as when a man reck-
lessly entangfes himself in a moving belt
IN shop. and gets torn limb from limb
There Is no direct Intervention of God no
visitation 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 really saw
that God did it: the law that a man cam
not be ground about a shaft with in1pun-
ity Is good one; II a man is killed. If
IS his doing. and not Gods.
I think these things are true. I think II
viii be help to our knowledge OF God and
70 our love for Him to consider that II a
brakeman Is crushed between two cars IL
pay be his fault and 1t may be the fault
the management OF the railroad COM
my. but that IL can't in justice be called
visitation from God. And when we have
stopped putting off the blame on God We
may go On TO put IL where il does belong