The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-05-19
LATEST FAIR HAVEN NEWS
THE DESCLATIONI IN THE SOUTH
 ERN ISLANDS

Subject of Rev. E. w. st0ne's Sermon a
 Grand Avenue Baptist Church Yester
 Catastrophe in tho West Indies.
 Last evening in the Grand avenue Baptist church the pastor, Rev. E. w Stone, spoke on "The Desolation in the Southern Islands," His text was a part of the forty sixth Psalm. In opening his remarks the pastor said that many
 of the catastrophes that overtake com munities are traceable to human care- | lesness, and cited various catastrophes due to that cause. But this one at
 Martinique no human means or agency
 could have averted or foretold. Mans achieve have been many and great, but
 in this awful affair he was as helpless
 as the animals who perished. The Bible speaks in vivid language of Gods al-
 mighty power. The speaker then took
 matter and added:
 T am certain that if we could see from Gods standpoint we should not
 stand in blind questioning of His good
 ness in bringing this desolation upon the islands Floods and hurricanes are
 perhaps far more destructive of life than volcanoes. Yet the circulation of air and water is necessary and benefl- cial, and the mischief occasionally wrought by moving bodies of air and water is insignificant when compared
 with the good accomplished And the
 science of geology has made sufficient
 progress to be able to show that sub
 terranean energies are necessary to the
 continued existence of the earth as a
 place fitted for the habitation of man,
 and that these violent and destructive
 outbreaks, the effects of these forces
 which most powerfully arrest our att
 tention, bear but small and insignifi- cant proportion to the good that results. There Is what the scientists call de- nuding process forever going on in na- ture. It is capable of demonstration that if there was no compensating agency the earth would waste away and be scattered over the bottom of the sea in the course of time. But there is such a compensating agency in these subter- ranean energies or forces within the earth's crust And these wonderful, mysterious and destructive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions probably bear the same relation to these underground forces as floods to circulating water or hurricanes to moving air currents. And the all-wise, all-powerful and all-gra- cious Creator and Upholder of all things ever works. even in devastating floods, destructive storms, bursting and in reeling, gaping earth, to preserve the surface of the globe, a fit dwelling place for man There is a sense, then, in which Mar unique and St. Vincent have suffered for the good of the earth. Some wise end has been served in the physical universe. There is sense in which the victims of this disaster have suffered 1 for the race. The laws of nature have simply been working for the good of | man.
 Suffering Is either the law of or Is , vitally related to all upward progress | md advancement both in nature and in | human life Particularly is this so of | Ill advancement in good in human life. Jesus Christ suffered and died for the | hOIld S IbuttnptlDIl. Ilt SnNV iAiiiiStil [ 'or others And whoever has helped | md uplifted men has done so by taking ID His cross and following Him. The aw by which the grain of wheat multi olies itself is the law by which all good s multiplied in the earth, Everywhere in the realm of human life Is the law of progress, or is ritally related to it. I can and do with III my heart believe that the desola ton lnd destruction of life in those beauti- ul islands of the southern seats were for the benefit of the earth md the good of the human race"
 The speaker, proceeding, showed how, " suffering, mems sympathies and bet CT natures were summoned to action. Here and wonder, then, some suffer for he good of others. Sin has somehow 1ade 1t necessary. That is all we know nd can say. But I am certain that yhen we shall have ceased to see trough glasses darkly we shall be able 0 discern the wisdom, graciousness and ove of God even in such awful desoa- ions as have come upon those beauti- ( Ill islands of the southern seas"