The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-08-01

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their paper lanterns; others rushed to
the bluffs behind the villages; the
first wave struck the houses, some of
which went down. Those on the
bluff could see people with lanterns
moving on the house tops below, and
calling to one another; then came the
second wave, the lights went out and
all was still. When morning dawned,
ruin and desolation were everywhere.
The land was strewed with corpses;
cries of distress were heard from
those who had not been drowned,
but had perhaps been injured and
swept to some higher point, and
were pinned down under the ruins
or had gained refuge in trees.
There we're many exciting tales of
adventure, many remarkable escapes;
little children landed safe and sound
in some high tree-top. And heart
rending were the losses. Here a
man with father, mother, wife, child
all gone, here child with every rel
ative perished. Here part of family
saved but everything they had de-
stroyed. Lumber and stones from
the wrecked village remain for re-
building, but SO mixed up that the
ownership is impossible to determine.
1t is impossible to bury the bodies;
the sorrowers and the helpers are too
few. Some are thrown into trenches,
some are burned, some are taken
away by friends for burial, others re-
main to pollute the air. But the po-
lice have so complete a register of
the inhabitants that they are able to
identify large number and tell who
are missing.
Each report makes the disaster
more appalling. Fishermen in their
boats five miles out at sea noticed
only more than unusually heavy
swell of the sea but knew nothing of
the disaster till they came to land.
The cause was undoubtedly volcan-
ic upheaval or earthquake beneath
the bed of the sea. At some places
the beds of rivers were changed and
great rocks moved many yards. Here
in Tokyo we felt nothing of it at all
The people who lost their lives were
mostly poor fishermen and their fam
lilies.
1t is said the people of the devast-
ed section are very religious in their
way, and some one curious to know
how the survivors felt in regard to it,
questioned them. They replied, "It
is all right, undoubtedly we have
committed some great sin and the
gods have sent this great wave as a
punishment" We find this view OF
temporal calamities existing in Bible
days. This was the opinion of Jobs
friends, that he must have been a
great sinner therefore these terri
BILE sufferings. I do not say this is
the teaching of the Bible, that calam-
tiles are always evidence of sin, but it
does certainly teach that the deluge
was sent because of sin, and that Sod
ON and Gomorrah met their doom
for the same reason. Christ repudi-
ates the idea that calamities are al
ways proof of sin, yet he seems to
teach that it is because of sin that
some calamities are sent. DIR. At
wood few weeks ago writing of the
St. Louis cyclone says that such oc-
currences as these raise questions in
the mind concerning the perfect
goodness of God. Well, that depends
upon the mind. These poor people
who have survived the flood, declare
it is all right. No such question rises
in their minds. The naturalist may
claim that God had nothing to do
with it; it was simply an operation of
natural law. But if one believe in
God at all, one must believe that God
was connected with it in some way,
either directly or indirectly. He
caused it, or permitted it, or else ma
tural forces are beyond his control.
But what puzzles me is how our
friends who hold "the Immanent
God" theory dispose of such case as
this, holding that God is not in any
sense transcendent, but is the direct,
immediate, operating force in every
process of nature. Was it God direct
ly who lifted up and moved this wave
on to those villagess Another ques-
tion that rises to my mind is, What
have these people to say who declare
they have higher and nobler idea of
God than is taught in the Bible, es-
pecially in the Old TESTAMENT Where
do they get their higher, nobler and
more loving idea of Godi From ma
ture9 The Bible represents those
destroyed in Canaanitish wars and in
the deluge and at Sodom as sinful