The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1895-05-24
IS IT DIVINE DISPLEASURE?
The Dry Weather Sent as a Punish,
ment Of Sins.
IF so, PEOPLE SHOULD REPENT.
The Old idea of Earthly Punishment
Crops Out Again-DrOuth Can BE
Always Accounted For

Last week Governor Morrill, received
a letter from a Sherman county man
suggesting that an executive prOclama-
ton be issued fixing a special day of
worship when the people of Kansas
might unite in prayer to God for rain.
He says that the first duty of the
people is to ask God for the forgiveness
of their sins and then ask him to send
rain that his children in Kansas may
not perish. "Think for one moment, "
be says, show the last two years have
been with US. Famine stares US in the
face, and undoubtedly there is a cause
for it. I am sure it is because we have
forsaken and almost forgotten that
there is a God who rules heaven and
earth"
The writer calls upon the governor
to review the experience of ages. When
the people forsoOk God he sent famine
or pestilence, and the same God reigns
now. He holds that it is plain that
God is now visiting his wrath upon
the people, and that they must repent
and turn to him if they would hope for
rain. The rulers of this country have
not done right, the ministers of the
gospel have neglected their duty, and
the people have turned from God.
In conclusion the writer says: "Then
let US one and all do better, that God
may have mercy on US. Surely our
ground is dry, our crops whitening.
What shall we do? This from n. P.
Clifford, one who fears God and loves
him and is trying to serve him."
The real piety and earnestness ex-
pressed in the letter is characteristic
of the man whose daily life bears out
the statement made in the concluding
sentence of the letter But he, like
many others, has failed to take into
consideration the fact that for ages the
climatic influences that govern the sea-
sons of the western hemisphere have
changed but little, and that dryweather
in the present could no more be a token
of Divine anger against the misdeeds
of men than dry weather in the past
before man ever set foot on the Ameri-
can continent.
The idea of earthly punishment for
sins is as old as time. The ruler of the
universe has been for ages looked upon
as the giver of good and evil. The
bible teens with the optimistic benevo
lence of the true God, whose nature
could but be foreign to such petty pun
ishment as would be the withholding
Of rain from any given section by cause
Of the sinfulness and iniquities Of it,
inhabitants. The Deity that holds
the forces Of the universe in checl
would never stOop to use drouth anC
starvation as the implements of biz
displeasure against the transgTessionl
of a people. Look at the destruction
? of Sodom and GOmorrahl With some
unknown force of nature the iniqui
tous cities were swept from earth in al
instant. Is God less powerful now?
! The plaques visited upon the Egypt
ians we're mighty. The showers of hail
the dreadful darkness, the loss of tn
frstborn, the engulfment of its arm,
in the Red sea.
{ Abraham beloved of God vas ordere,
/ to aget thee out thy country, and from
thy kindred, and from thy father
S house, unto a land that viii shew thee
e And viii make of thee a great nation
> aud bless thee, and thy name shall grea
e and thou shaltb blessing. And vii
a bless them that bless thee, and ours
I them that eurseth thee, and in the
shall all families of earth be blessed.
AMI Abraham jouFneyed into tn
i. promised land and erected an alta
unto the Lord. And yet he experiens
ed 8 drouth and famine the first ssaso
4 and vas forced from his home an
2 compelled TO journey to the land {
J the Egyptians, the idoiatOrs, the heatl
! en-, to obtain the necessaries Of lif
e Was Abraham wicked and the Egyp
ians righteous? And again, IN the tim
4 Of Jacob. the chosen people we're force
b By famine to depend upon Egypt Il
s loed. And SO On through the biblieI
history 70 find the righteous mei