The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1900-11-30

busy traversing our streets. Skirting
our town is track of desolation, and
sorro~iug survivors of that awful night
are mourning the loss Of once happy
homes. In wonder and astonishment
we have been asking the question, Why?
Have the winds revoted from the
authority of God, and broken away from
his control, that they should thus bring
upon his earth destruction and deathY
The woDder TO me is, not that the
calamity came, but that it did not come
sooner That cloud, whose fury the
center Of our population barely escaped,
was but the sombre vestment of the
Almighty; that track of desolation but
the print Of his footsteps, and that awful
noise, like the sound of many waters,
but the intonations of his voice calling
us to higher and better life. In other
words it was God stirring up the nest.
The things of time and sense have been
binding us to the earth. Turning n
deaf ear to the voices of love that called
us TO grander and broader spheres, we
have been CROPPING along a darkand
lower level We have been unmindful
of the claims of God, and the demands
of our higher natures. The nest, so to
speak, has been cozy, well padded and
adorned, and we have been content to
abide there We have been living as
though this little world were our all
The temporal has overshadowed the
eternal. At the sacrifice OF the intel
lectnal, the moral and the spiritual, we
have been ministering to the gratihca-
ton of the carnal. Given to fun and
frolic and selfish indulgence, the serious
and the sensible have been forgotten in
our hot pursuit of the light and frivious.
Things legitimate in themselves
have been carried to criminal excuses.
The functions of society have parayzed
the functions of the church. AS com
munity we have been Clubbed into
spiritual insensibility Absorbed in the
passing things of the hour, we have had
but little time for duty, for destiny and
for God. To many the store has been
more than the church, and money has
been held above morals. Enticed by
the Delilah of the world, we have laid
our heads in her lap, and she has shorn
us of our power. We have been cling
ing to this little earth nest, and in tones
louder than the thunders of Sinai the
voice of God has broken upon us bidding
us wake up, look up, and rise up. We
have heard will we heed? Will we get
on the wing and rise? We thank God
for some visible manifestations of re
form. commend the members of the
Young Married Woman's Clab for their
appropriate and sensible action. May
the work go on in the revolution OF heart
and life and society until glorious
revival wave of religion shall roll over
our community. God has spoken to us,
and in speaking he has sought our best
and highest interests.
"But why speak through the storm,
and at the sacrifice of life and property
These are mysteries too deep for our
fathoming. May be because the gentle
dispensations of his love were unavail-
ing. But this much we know from his
own revelation, that stormy wind full
fills his word. 1t was so when for
Israel's escape, the waters of the Red
Sea overwhelmed the Egyptians. 1t
was so when at the prayer of Elijah the
messengers of Ahaziah were struck dead
by lightning. 1t was so when Jonah
was fleeing to Tarshish from the presence
of the Lord. 1t was so when the sea of
Galilee was tempest tossed, that the
disciples might learn to trust in the
power of their sleeping Master. We
further know that death is the precursor
and the servant of life. From the graves
of the worlds patriots has grown the
tree of national liberty. The blood of
the martyrs has been the seed of the
church. The sacrifice of the Son of
God was for the salvation of dying
world. And we may yet read the fact
in the light of a brighter day that the
victims of Tuesday night were sacri-
feed that through their death you and
/ might rise to a better, a higher and a
fuller life. Out of the depths of the
mystery let us hear their blood speaking
to us. And may that voice, mingling