The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-23
CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH,


 The pastor, Rev. w. F. Dickerman, delivered a very impressive and sym pathetic discourse Sunday morning re- Hating to the recent apalling calamity. Following was the text from ter. S1:15, "A voice was heard in Ramah; weep ing and great mourning; Rachel weep ing for her children, and she would not be comforted because they are not. He remarked as follows: Last Sun day was extensively observed as Chil- dren's day, and this is Children's Fun eral day in connection with St. Marks Lutheran church, New York city. None can pass by on the other side, like the priest or Levite, inmoved by f the recent catastrophe, which has fur nished a lesson in the reality of death loss and anguish that ought to silence forever such vaporings as there is no matter; pain and death are but be- liefs of the mortal mind I do not be- lieve in that blind and paralyzing opti- mism which tries to narcotinize the senses and cheat the reason, while mangled, burning bodies of babes and mothers are swallowed up by the de- vouring waters. There is indifference and heartlessness enough in the world, without trying totcallous the heart or to smile at calamity
 The record of casualties on the rail- road for the past fifteen months was presented as possessing features which render it distressingly memorable The number of killed and wounded had nearly reached the total of those in the eastern war. Explanation for the enor- nous excess of accidents in this conn- try over those of European systems was attributed largely to the tempera- ment of the people, and the rapidly lessening value of human life in the ca ger haste for wealth or other specific ends.
 Tn the midst of the recent calamity, as in those past, the question is forced upon us, Where was God?' We must reply God is everywhere He is at no point in his universe to interfere or res cue any one from the inevitable conse- quence of violated law, physical or moral.
 Judging by the facts of human life this side of deathsAwe are not warrant ed in calling God the Father Does this then give thelcase over to the athe- ist? It does, it. must, if all ends at death. Without life beyond death the thought of an overruling Providence be- comes a cruel absurdity. Resting in the facts of human experience, religion has no case. In the light of what is the ! problem is insoluble. Faith alone can justify the ways of God to man.
 If there Is life beyond in which all who have suffered and fallen by the way shall be lifted into health and happiness, in which the millions of the i ignorant, the brutal and the wretched will be developed into intelligent, re- fined and lovable, characters-in which the barbarous and the savage will evolve genius and goodness; 8 life be- yond in which all the martyrs to ths worlds growth and progress are to en- joy full fruitage of their own priva- tions and sufferings,-a life beyond in which all the generations of the dead are living on and progressing as the < succeeding generations have made pro- gress here; if there is life beyond ir which every human being shall have al least as good portion as the most for tunate can ever have in this world; if that be true, and only if that be true can we say that God is good. That one