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LESSONS FROM THE DAYTON DISASTER
DR. J. L. WHITE OF MACON, GA., FORMER WAKE FOREST COLLEGE MATE OF DR. L .G. BROUGHTON, NOW LEADING
GREAT REVIVAL AT BROADWAY BAPTIST CHURCH, FT. WORTH, TEX.—SYNOPSIS OF SERMON PREACHED THERE
MARCH 27—FILLS DR. BROUGHTON’S GOLDEN AGE PULPIT PENDING ARRIVAL OF SERMON FROM LONDON.
Text: Ezekiel 38:22. And I will rain upon
him and his hordes, and upon the many peo
ple with him, an overflowing rain.
HE tornado and floods of the last few
days have overshadowed everything
else. Dayton, Ohio, has been the great
est sufferer, but a wide area of our
T
country, east and west, north and south, has
paid fearful toll. How shall we view this
and like calamities? Not by vain speculations
on the ‘ 1 why and wherefores; not by blasphe
mous clamorings against the operations of di
vine law. The effort at solution, if conducted
logically and without error, brings us back to
the old formula that the “Fear of God is the
beginning of wisdom.” This proposition today
is the last word on the subject. Further than
this we canont go.
“The submission of man’s nothing—perfect to
God’s all —complete,
As by each new obeisance I climb to His feet.
God permitted the flood. It was caused by
the rain from the cloud in the sky. Rain and
storms are not accidental, the Almighty is the
ruler of the universe; its laws are his creatures
and they obey his will. Elijah recognized God
as the one who withheld or sent rain. The Man
cf Gali'ee said to the raging storm: “Peace,
be still,” and there was a great calm. The
winds and the waves obey his will.
Victor Hugo said that one word explained
Napoleon’s disastrous defeat at Waterloo —
God. God is the explanation of this flood. If we
know God then we fully know the reason for
this disaster. But how unspeakable are his
judgments and his ways are past finding out.
Yet we know that God is wise and just and
merciful. We cannot reach back into the past
and explain his wondrous works, nor stretch
our hand into the future and bring into light
his final and benign purposes. God reigneth,
let the earth be still.
Father Ryan sang:
“And nature is his voice; who lists may hear
His name low-murmured every, everywhere;
The winds, or still or stormy, breathe the same;
And some have ears and vet thev will not hear
The soundless voice niched everywhere,
And some have hearts that never are enthrilled
By all the grand hosannahs nature sings.”
A Rebuke for Our Sins.
The first lesson of the flood to be noted is
a rebuke for our sins of unthankfulness and
disobedience. The flood in the days of Noah
came because of the wickedness upon the face
of the earth. Israel recognized God’s hand in
the scourge of grasshoppers, catterpillars and
mi dew. In the hour of his distress Israel asked
of God the reason and the answer was “because
thou servest not the Lord with joyfulness and
with gladness of heart for the abundance of all
things.” In gratitude and disobedience were
the sins. This is a day of great prosperity.
Our people are becoming commercialized and
pleasurized. Would it not be wise to accept
this calamity, so widespread, as a rebuke of our
selfishness?
The flood of 1912 which swept the Mississippi
valley, touched one of the richest portions
of our country. The people of the Mississippi
valley are rich and pleasure loving and the
multitude said, “Who is the Lord that we
shou'd serve him?” From Cairo to New Or
leans there is no recognition of the Lord’s day,
The Golden Age for April 3, 1913
there is no Sabbath. Both the civil and relig
ious Sabbath is ignored. Shall the Lord keep
silent? Shall he let his people drift into a
spirit of blasphemeous defiance? No. He
speaks in the voice of the storm, declaring
the inseparable connection between sin and de
struction.
Chief Justice Harlan, who lived with one
hand upon the Bible and the other upon the
constitution of the United States, in addressing
the Protestant Pastors’ Conference of New
York, said: “You ministers are making a fatal
mistake in not holding forth before men, as
prominently as the previous generation did, the
retributive justice of God. You have fallen
into a sentimental style of rhapsodizing over
the love of God, and you are not appealing
to that fear of future punishment which your
Lord and Master made such a prominent ele
ment in his preaching. And we are seeing the
effect of it in the widespread demoralization of
private virtue and corruption of public con
science throughout the land.”
DR. J. L. WHITE.
We must not disregard God’s warning and
punishment because the good as well as the
bad suffer. You must remember the solidarity
of the human family. All Israel suffered de
feat because of Achan’s sin. The babe suffers
with the sinful and sinning father and mother.
Rain and shine and storms come upon all alike
here. The wheat and the tares grow together
here. Even the good must often suffer for the
bad here, as did Jesus for us a'l on the cross.
Separation takes place at the end of the world
when the angel reapers shall separate the just
from the unjust—then they that are righteous
shall shine as the stars for ever and ever, but
the wicked shall go into utter darkness.
The Vanity of Trusting in Riches.
This flood teaches the vanity of trusting
in riches. Man’s theory is that he can get rich
and do as he pleases with what he calls his
own. The steamship Titanic was man’s theory
of his prowess, the iceberg was a fact. The
theory of the test of strength is sad history.
A match among some shavings ignited and the
Chicago fire, $200,000,000 worth of property,
destroyed. A little crevasse in the dam above
Johnstown widened, the flood came, many lives
were lost and $9,000,000 worth of property was
destroyed. The Galveston flood, and $20,000,-
000 worth of property went out within the
night. In 1907 the flood in the Ohio valley
destroyed property and crops to the enormous
value of $100,000,000. The Mississippi flood
of last year broke all records and the loss was
staggering to contemplate, and now the Dayton
disaster, which loss in property has already
reached the enormous sum of over $100,000,-
000-, with hundreds of lives and tens of thou
sands homeless, and yet the worst is not known.
The rich of yesterday are poor today. Man’s
theory of his own before the fact of God’s
providence fades and his riches vanish. Does
it teach us to despise riches? No, but it teach
es not to trust in riches. It warns men who
are rich to do good and make for themselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. It
teaches that life and character are much more
than silver and gold.
This calamity gives opportunity for the ex
pression of sympathy. The whole land is moved
to sympathy and is bestirring itself to give
aid to the suffering, to comfort the survivors,
to cheer both with words and deeds of sympa
thy.
It is this brotherly love after all, this sym
pathy, which helps solve the riddle of life.
Such days as these through which we are pass
ing open our hearts to others, break the charm
of sinful selfishness; so the discords of today
shall become the harmonies of tomorrow; and
God is showing his mercy, even in the midst of
his wrath. We shall not be the same people
tomorrow that we were yesterday. Our hearts
must be tenderer.
“There is a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the *sea;
There’s a kindness in his justice
Which is more than liberty.”
Yes, with every storm there is the rainbow
set in the heavens as God’s sign of mercy fill
ing the sky when storms prepare to part. It
comes from the sunshine smiting the clouds,
so it symbolizes the blending of love and divine
judgment. Without the c'oud it could not be;
so it typifies the light which may glorify judg
ments and is born of sorrows borne in the pres
ence of God. It stretches across the land, so
it speaks of an all-embracing care which en
folds the earth and all its creatures. The storm
and his bow in the cloud call back to God.
“For oh I the surest way to God
Is up the lonely stream of tears,
That flow when bending ’neath his rod,
And fill the tire of earthly years.
On laughter’s billows hearts are tossed—
On waves of tears no heart is lost.”
But’after all, is not this sad providence God
calling us to repentance? In the midst of life
we face death; no man knows the day nor the
hour when he must meet the last foe. The
forces of nature gather for battle upon unex
pected fields. May we not ask the question
prayerfully, why should Fort Worth escape?
Is it better than its neighbors; is there not sin
here; is not the Sabbath day desecrated? Is
it not built on the great plains over which the
wind sweeps and growls? Who knows what to
morrow shall bring? Let the people of Fort
Worth ponder these things and stop long
enough to pray.