The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-04-23

| At ST Andrews Cathedral Bishop
| Restarick preached yesterday morning
| from the text: COR those eighteen upon
whom the tower of Sloan fell and slew
them, think ye that they were sinners
above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem
shall all likewise perish" ST. Luke
xiii, 4.5.
The Bishop preached without manu-
script He said in substance:
Il was the rooted idea of the people
of our Lords day that accident and
calamity meant that God had made a
direct visitation to punish for sin.
Jesus sought to lead them to a better
vision of God and he did this by sew
eral illustrations. No doubt the falling
of building and the sudden death Of
eighteen people caused a great deal of
excitement. 1t may have been due to
an earthquake, or because it's conStruc-
ton was defective, but whatever the
cause the people considered evidently
that those who We're killed We're great
sinners and the accident was the means
of punishment sent by God.
We have outgrown in a measure this
view of Gods methods of working. I
do not suppose that any one now a days
has the idea that if a man is blind it is
the punishment of God for the mans
sins, or the sins of his parents, as men
believed then, and you remember the
rebuke Jesus gave them. But on the
part of a great many people there is
disposition of mind which expresses it
self in judgment upon places visited
by calamity.
Now, God does undoubtedly punish
sin in individuals and in communities,
nothing is more evident in human ex-
perience and in history than this. The
laws of God which we call natural laws
are working out in the bodies and
minds and souls of men the wages of
sin. But because a tower falls or a
city is shaken or burned there may be
no immediate connection between the
sins of those who suffer and the calam-
ity. This is the plain teaching of Jesus
and is necessary for a large and spirit
ual conception of God.
The fact is as Jesus points out, that
in our proneness to Judge others, we
too often lose the lesson which the mis-
fortune has for us. In connection with
the 1dIlI0dnS WHOiI1 EIIdC0 Stew OF the
eighteen killed by the tower, he says:
Il say unto you, Nay but except ye re-
pent We shall all likewise perish That
is, He says: DO not be concerned
about judging others, turn your
thoughts inward. look to your own sins.
Sin does bring punishment. Repent
therefore and be ready for whatever
may come to you"
That it is not imagination on my part
that it is in the minds of some people
that the destruction of San Francisco
was a Judgment of God on a wicked
city has been evident to many of us in
the past few days.
Now as matter of fact, while San
Francisco possessed many of the best
men and women whom I ever met, yet
it is also a fact that in certain portions
it was a very wicked place. I know
of large cities in Europe and
America and sometimes it seemed to
me that San Francisco had a great deal
of iniquity in proportion to it's size. |
Perhaps this was because it was more |
open and carried on without sense of |
shame
But what of other places visited by |
fire and flood in our day? 1 believe |
hat Baltimore has as large a percent |
age of people belonging to churches as |