The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1906-05-04
WHY WAS SAN FRANCISCO DE
sTROYED?

Whenever there is great disturb
ance of nature and ruin follows in its
wake there are always some to pro-
claim that it is a Judgment of God"
and is done to show his fierce anger.
his omnipotence and his power.
Just after our great freeze we heard
a sermon delivered in the Methodist
church in this city by one of the most
eminent preachers in our state and he
took the position that he saw in this
destruction the finger of Cod" that
people had grown rich and arrogant
and had forgotten God, and that this
visitation was sent upon them to hum
Bile them before him.
That freeze killed all the orange
| groves in Florida-frOm Orange Lake
TO the Manatee rivera distance of
three hundred miles and in which ter
ritory there lived many good men and
good women, and yet, unless their
groves were protected by extraordina-
~ natural advantages, all, without eX-
ception, suffered alike. None escaped.
Were the people of Florida more
sinful than those oc Georgia ana ad
jacent states?
Some years ago q fire occurred in
one Of the churches in Brooklyn, n.
Y. 1t seems that the pastor and sun
day school superintendent had decid-
ed upon q Sunday school celebration
of some sort and a large number of
Sunday school scholars were in the
church rehearsing for the entertain
ment. One Of the curtains caught fire
and in little while the building was
in flames. In the panic which followed
many children were crushed to death
and persisted in the flames.
We heard a preacher proclaim that
it was a judgment of God invoked
against the church because of the at
tempt to convert it into a theater.
On another occasion we heard a
preacher say that there was a fire in
one of the cities of this state. Among
other buildings destroyed were the Ca
tholic church, the Episcopal church and
the Presbyterian church, the Method
list church had not yet been destroyed,
and this preacher said he fell upon
his knees and prayed as he had never
prayed before. that the winds might be
shifted and his church saved; that just
at that moment the winds were shifted
and the building saved, as if the pas
tors of the other denominations had
not prayed in their hearts just as
earnestly and sincerely for the spar
| ing of their churches.
/ God is not impartial, he Is not an
cry and revengeful He is not capri
clous, yielding and unstable if he were
there would be confusion and constant
disorder in the universe.
Gods laws are fixed and ineXorable.
They are not subject to change With
every passing breeze. They are the
same yesterday. today and forever. If
these laws are violated, whether ig-
norantly or by design. the party doing
so must suffer If ship at sea catches
fire. prayers are not sufficient to sub
due the flames, only the heroic work
of the seamen at the pumps will do
this, and if they fail all on board must
alike suffer.
The fire and lava would have issued
from Mount VesuVius whether there
were any one living near it or not and
so of the earthquake at San Francisco.
These great disturbances of nature are
only the result of natural laws which
some day will be fully understood.
Vesuvius shot forth her fires and
the earth had her commissions in the
western hemisphere long before it was
possible for man 10 have provoked
lGod to anger-long before man had a
habitation here.