Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-05-22
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW

The reading public for the past few
weeks have had a surfeit of horrors il
4 the accounts of the terrible affair in the
/ West Indies. Somehow we are affected
by the figures mentioned, as the mum
/ Der VINO lost their lives. Comparisons
with the similar affair at Pompeii are
heard everywhere. And so it was dur
ing the late famine in India it was the
large number of men, women and chill
drea doomed TO a slow, lingering death
Again the wars now in progress in the
| Philippines and South Africa appeal
! but little to the sympathy of the
| masses, because of the comparative
small number of deaths Wars, to
shock humanity must roll up a list of
dead and wounded into the tens of
thousands. To reach and hold public
attention, calamity must do so by i'm
mensity. And all this is a curious
phase of the make up of the human
! family. We either forget or ignore the
fact, that the scattered victims of the
reaper death, are numbered by thou
sands every day, this referring to- all
use our imagination. and people all of
the visible and invisible stars AMI
worlds, the human mind does not con-
ceive of the ravages of nature.
And what we call nature, seems to us
cruel. 1t must be admitted that human
life. whether that of the innocent babe.
or hoary old age, is never respected.
The mills of the Gods grind exceed
ingly small" The volcano spares no
form of life. The young bird, in the
nest on the ground, has. the same value
as the child in the mothers arms, this
when natures laws are in operation.
The shepherd on the hillside meets the
same fate as his flock. The horse and
his master found dead side by side in
st. Pierre. both dropping in their tracks
from the same poisonous gas, are in OBJ
ject lesson for conceited humanity.
Forty thousand dead men, women and
children! This is an awful tale to tell
but the dispatches mention also the al
most entire destruction of all other
forms of animal life on the fated island.
The memorable laws OF nature. Do we
realize what it means. Did Moody, the
evangelist comprehend the doctrine
When he prayed in the open boat and
the storm was stilled, and he was saved.
DO our fippant preachers, who form
the modern pulpit address the Almighty
in such familiar language, have even
u faint idea of the God of this universe
In their mental make up is there q |
of the God of Nature. the
author of the laws that produced the
disaster of not only Pompeii, but of St.
Pierre.
And again, does the latest form of ma
lures terrible work suggest to any of
our modern religious thinkers, the old |
doctrine of fore coordination. Inside of
church circles will it add any to the
number of fatalists. Sure it is, that
in this latest example Of the power of
natures laws the innocent victims were
in no wise to blame for transgressing
such laws. The writer once heard a
successfully to himself ex-
plain the cause of the famine in india,
1t was mans non-obseVance of the
avs or nature that made the charit-
iDleness of the world necessary. So to-
turing the famine in Ireland, the writ
ers OF the day, deplored in improvidence
IF the peasantry. And we all know of
he Biblical explanation of the fate of
Sodom and Gomorrah. But what of the
10000 victims of the volcano disturb
lnce of 1902. How did they bring 1T {
N themselves? What laws of nature
lid the officers, crews and passengers !
" the fated vessels in the harbor,
/
And there is a lesson for u.s. while I
low the details of this awful disaster t
re fresh in our minds. The time the c
lay in the age of the world is here, to G
o away with the modern form of i'm
gined relation of the man and his Gre I
tor. To get rid of the conceited belief u
f the importance of man in the plan s
f creation. "trhe hairs of our head areI y
II numbered" Not q sparrow falleth G
. the ground" De we believe such o
octrine. If we do, the reverse of the. d
ogc Is meritable. If personal God a
oes interfere in the little affairs of Y
umanity. If He stills the storm, He "
lust cause 1t. If He directs the light r
ing's bolt away from your house and h
lmates, He must send 1t to deal des- "
'uction and death to your neighbor. In G
II sincerity and honesty, how many of ii
5 in or out of the church, actually be- b
eve that God of mercy and love- was S,
he direct cause of the deaths of 10000 f,
uman being in the West Indies in 1902. Il
nd If we can bring ourselves around it
Il better, n more reasonable concep- VI
on of the Almighty will not the world k