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2 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.