Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1906-05-10
The Observer.

| befell San Francisco, there have not
| been wanting the usual attempts to
make us see in such calamity direct
act of divine judgment. San Fran
cisco, we are told, was an exceedingly
wicked city, and for its sins was devas
tated by the hand of God. Those who
advance this view have no doubt in
! mind consciously or unconseiously, the
story of the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah But even this story, which
reflects the imperfect ideas of pre-
Christian revelation, should teach a
lesson of merciful consideration to
these modern selfappointed spokes-
meu for God. According to the terms
of the Genesis story, God would not
have destroyed the cities of the plain
had there been found ten righteous per-
sons in them. AS that number was not
to be found, the cities were destroyed,
but not until Lot and his family had
found safety in fight
If now we are to view the San Fran
cisco earthquake in the light of divine
Judgment, we can only conclude that
God is less just and considerate now
than He was when Sodom and Gomor-
rah were destroyed. In San Francisco
dwelt many thousands of people as
righteous as any to be found elsewhere
in our land. IF God would have spared
Sodom for the sake of ten righteous
persons ought he not to have spared
San Francisco for the sake of these
many thousands? And if God gave
Lot and is family an opportunity to es
cape, nay, even dragged them out of
the way of destruction, ought He not
to have insured the safety of the many
thousands of good people in San Fran
cisco? True, the loss of life was COM
paratively small, but the terrible loss
and suffering fell upon all alike, regard
less of their righteousness or wicked
ness. If only the dives and doggeries,
the gambling halls and the gilded
palaces of shame had been singled out
for destruction, and the loss of life
| confined to the frequenters of such
| places, while the churches and
schools and libraries and civic
buildings were spared; there might
be some show of reason for re-
garding the catastrophe in the light of
special divine judgment. AS it is
even the sacred writer who penned the
| story of Sodom and Gomorrah would
scorn to put such an Interpretation up
| on it.
1t is certainly amazing that people
who profess to regard the teaching of
Jesus Christ should be so blind to some
of his plainest utterances OF the
| Galilaeans whose blood PLATE had
mingled with their sacrifices, He said,
''Think ye that these Galilae&ns were
sinners above all the Galilaeans be-
cause they suffered these things? tell
| you, nay = . = Or those eighteen,
/ upon whom the tower of Sloan fell.
| and killed them, think ye that they
were offenders above all the men that
dwell in Jerusalem? 1 tell you, nay"
Again, when exhorting his hearers to
love their enemies, He points them to
the example of our Father in heaven;
for He maketh His son to rise on the
evil and the good, and sendeth the rain
on tie just and the uDiust.'
In the face of these utterances, so
lofty and large and wthal 80 clear, how
can any of Christ's followers be so
slow of heart as to put narrow and
unmerciful Interpretation upon an
event which, however mysterious, has
at least been overruled to bring TO light
the fortitude and heroism, the faith and
hope of those who have suffered. and
| which has caused the hearts of men
the world over to throb as one in pity,
sympathy and the desire to help'