The Elk Mountain pilot., 1901-08-13

atheism. The Post has too much sens.
to maintain such an extreme view. But
on the other hand, if there is "a des-
tiny that shapes our ends on a grand
and majestic plan, if in the long run
divine purposes are carried out in the
affairs of nations, there is n want of
logic and consistency in accusing per
sons of blasphemy and superstition
who profess to believe that IN particu-
lar events of vast present and future
Importance and influence on the course
of history the hand of Providence is
to be recognized.
In the war with Spain and its direct
results one chapter of history closed
and another opened. Many Ameri-
cans, and If the truth We're known
doubtless many Spaniards, believe
that the destruction of Spain as n Co
lonial power after four centuries of
trial, during which period ignorance,
cruelty and oppression marked its poll
cy towards its dependents, was a di-
rect punishment by the hand of the Su-
preme Judge of nations. They believe
that authority was wrested from Spain
because it has been weighed in the
balances and found wanting, that the
time had come when judgment was
to be declared and punishment exc
cuted. They are further of the belief
that this power was transferred to the
United States not only because this
nation had become ready and Etted TO
assume it, but because of the unselfish-
ness of its Intervention in behalf of n
struggling people, the only instance in
history of one nation making war on
another for the benefit of n third. IL
it is conceivable at all that at any time
or under any circumstances n higher
power intervenes in human affairs,
the Spanish War and the strange and
epoch-malling events growing out of
it, unthought of by the American peo-
pie or government when the war was
entered upon, would seem to be OF Il
sufficiently gigantic scale to inspire the
belief. 1t is further impressed on the
minds of many Americans by the un-
precedented circumstances that attend
ed the war. That two of the greatest
naval battles in history, both in the
numbers engaged and the destructive
power of the warships on both sides.
should have resulted in each case In
the total annihilation of one party
without the loss of n ship or even Of n
man of the other, is certainly an es-
founding fact, worthy, If any event
can be, of being regarded as mirocu-
lous and providential.
1t is impossible to complacenty
factors in history. Repeatedly during
the Revolutionary War and later,
Washington, in solemn words. de-
cinreu his reliance upon divine power
and aid, and testified his conviction
that the favorable issue was due to
the Intervention of Providence When
Lincoln took leave of his towns peo-
pie at Springfield in February 1861, in
an affecting speech he declared his
conviction that only the favor of the
Almighty could save the nation.
Throughout the war his reliance on
and faith in providential aid We're
many times reiterated, and in his nee
ond inaugural address he asserted MS
belief that the terrible Civil War YVES
n chastisement of the American peo-
pie by the hand of the ruler of nations
for their national sin of human slav-
cry. If it was not childish supersti-
ton in Washington and Lincoln to rec
ognize the direct Intervention of di-
vine power in the affairs of the coun-
try forty or n hundred years ago, it is
difficult to see on what grounds such
n change can be brought in relation
to the Spanish-American War and
events provoking and growing out of
1t.