Providence and calamity

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Many Perplexities .... 1 II. Prerogative Under Law . . 11

III. The True Theory of Provi-

Chapter First Many Perplexities

'* That things to mortals are mysterious,

Is not because the things themselves are dark, But the perceptions through which they are viewed."

Bates.

I. GOD AND HIS WORLD

The most oppressive query in the minds of men at the present time is as to how far, and in what respect, God rules and controls the affairs of this world. Indeed, this query is as old as our race, and has perplexed all rational men continuously. The struggles of learning in this direction are apparent in every variety of criticism of God's dealings with his creatures.

It seems that those who rely most sincerely upon the text of the Bible, as it has been resolved into church creeds, allow no retrenchment or extension of what their respective creeds have declared to be the sense thereof. But there is a state of theological unrest prevailing at this time that indicates the existence of a strong desire for more light upon many texts of Scripture and a wider extension of their meanings than has been allowed hitherto.

Chiefly among these texts, we presume to think, are those which inculcate the doctrine of divine 1

Providence. If there is any consideration which would justify our attempt at an advanced investigation of this subject, it would be the fact that there exist so many beliefs in regard to it: one class believes that God rules and controls every thing in an absolute and unconditional manner; another believes that he governs all things conditionally and under the limitations of the laws which he had previously ordained for their existence and operations; another believes that virtually and really there are two gods ruling all things, — the one good and the other evil, — and that in the contests between these deities all the beneficial or evil results which affect our world have their origin.

Though multitudes of men take no part in these and other notions concerning the divine administration, yet all men are less or more in doubt and fear, and are asking for some advancing light on this subject, and many expect that ere long it should come. It is doubtful whether such broader light will ever rise on this subject if men continue to view the Holy Scriptures only according to the trend of creeds, which do not give rest to a faith which would honor God as being purely good and righteous, as the Scriptures declare him to be.

The creeds which attribute all the occurrences of our world to the purposes and influences of God would be impossible to the divine character. If this is so, then such a belief is not authorized

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by the Scriptures; and that it is not thus sanctioned may be seen by the following arguments of this essay. It may be sufficient to say, before we enter into the discussion, that the Fathers of the church did not make concession to the fact that the Scriptures teach that many of the events of this life are declared to be the successful works of evil agencies — especially devils — who effected their purposes even at the same time in which God was opposing them. Nor did they allow that he governs the world according to the laws with which he sustains and binds every creature. This error of theirs is often exposed by natural occurrences, when calamities from storms and other natural forces fall upon those already overwhelmed by evils, and no possible good proceeds afterward from them, but rather, additional injuries. The Fathers and their successors down to this present day would argue that it is all accomplished by the hand of God, and in due time he will make it plain and show us that he brought great good out of it. But the afflicted ones ask whether it was necessary for Almighty God to resort to such measures in order to do them good. Those that mourn their too early dead, from the carelessness and wickedness of men, and indeed from their own remissness in the presence of danger and disease, cannot see any hand of God in it, but only evil influences that were exerted against God's will in those cases.

The true doctrine of Providence is that God governs the world according to the laws he has ordained, and that he interposes only to sustain and promote his purposes of goodness and righteousness towards all his creatures. This doctrine accords with the genuine character of God> agrees with the simple statements of the Scriptures, and is corroborated by the remedial plans of grace and also by the healing and restorative properties throughout nature. And last but not least, it commends itself to pure and unperverted reason, by which we may and must form our own opinions of all things which pertain to our welfare, or which may admit of our services and co-operation with the God and Saviour of our world.

This doctrine assigns man to his true place as God's steward, and makes him accountable — as he surely is — for the good or evil which may prevail, wherever he may be. It constitutes him the keeper of his brother, and assigns to him, and not to God, the responsibility for his own welfare, as to sickness or health, as to happiness or misery, as to virtue or vice, as to life or death, and as to the length of his own life, whether it shall be extended to only thirty or possibly to a hundred years. Hence God sustains and governs creation through the laws he had ordained, and interposes infrequently to accomplish some righteous or gracious purpose. In order to make this position more obvious it may be declared that in every case recorded in the Holy Scriptures in

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which God has sent calamity upon an individual or upon multitudes of people, it was because of their wickedness.

Upon the other hand, whenever catastrophe has fallen upon the good and evil alike, God is not named, or does not claim the agency or cause, as if it were acknowledged that the laws of nature, acting according to their tendency without God's influence at the time, produced the calamity ; and if at any time the good were included with the evil, it was because their relation with the evil, and the greatness of God's purpose therein, jutified the divine character in the visitation of a common woe upon the people. And furthermore, whenever some blessing had been conferred in common upon the just and upon the unjust, it was attributed to the act of God in his impartial goodness and fostering care.

Thus in these three several manifestations of providential care, it appears that the justice and mercy of God were seeking occasions to show forth his kindness, mingled in the circumstances and conditions of a disordered world needing regulation and salutary discipline. It is in this manner of regulation and discipline of the world that we may be enabled to discover the difference in favor of seasonable interpositions of Providence as against the terrifying and unnatural doctrine which teaches that Providence appoints diseases and death, starvation and war, and thus effects, in spite of human agencies to the contrary, the annihilation of families and nations and unoffending little children and even also of his dear and devoted adorers, who night and day rejoice and glory in his goodness.

The two qualities in the nature of God which include all the moral and affectionate characteristics by which he is pleased to be known and loved by his creatures, are goodness and righteousness. Now, his goodness in making provision for the welfare of man is of a most discriminating character, and suited to what he desires man to be and to do. It is not a goodness of pure indulgence, but of appropriate care, or otherwise the good becomes evil in effect by intemperance and misuse on the part of man. His righteousness forbids injustice toward his creatures, and is required to be of the same quality in us as it is in himself. In this character he presents himself and requires us to manifest the same to him. Indeed, he comes forth before us and says : " Judge between thee and me, O house of Israel," and declares that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, to be judged at that day which he hath appointed. Thus he presents his providential dealings to our examination and sensible judgment on the basis of his character. But man:

" Would prove the direct enemy of man, His boasted reason wielded to control; Dark systems of despair; his vaunted skill, To forge the fetters which enthrall the soul."

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II. MAN ACCOUNTABLE FOR EVIL

The foregoing suggestions are sustained by facts too significant to admit of any meaning essentially to the contrary. Surely the burning of the Iriquois Theatre in Chicago, and of the Steamer " General Slocum " at New York, in each of which catastrophies many hundreds of men, women, and children perished in awful horrors and sufferings, and the burning of the Opera House at Boyertown, Pennsylvania, on the night of Monday, January 13, 1908, in which some sixtyfive persons perished in like manner, are sufficient evidences.

All of these cases occurred in each instance because of greed or negligence of the owners or care-takers, and it is impossible to the most susceptible credulity or devoted faith in God to attribute these cruelties to him, either by his act or consent. If these evils were for procuring greater future good, then it suggests the impossible thought that he chooses to be cruel before he can be good to mankind. But, rather, it intimates that he does not prevent our liberty to be avaricious and negligent in concert with human depravity and the wiles of Satan. To believe that he, whom Jesus taught us to call " Our Father, who art in Heaven," influenced these and other evils to occur is censuring rather than glorifying him, and while defending his righteousness and goodness, it is implying truly an accusation against the evils and disorders of men and the fallen nature of the world.

Mourners over the victims of wrong, over the prematurely dead, penitents over neglect and mortal deeds, refuse to charge God with evils for which you might be accountable, and excuse not yourselves from a better life and avoidance of the evils which cause unnecessary sufferings and death to yourselves and others. Pondering the following pages, you may become persuaded that most of the evils of our minds and bodies, and of our actions, habitually called " divine providences," are the consequences of our many-fold faults and sins, which we may correct.

III. RIGHTEOUSNESS AND GOODNESS PARAMOUNT

There are two great dispositions in the Creator — righteousness and goodness — according to which he always acts towards his creatures who are even wilfully violating his laws. He also keeps himself by these dispositions, because they are like him, exist in him, and flow out from him over our world, for its welfare. It is because these horrible calamities are laid to him, as if appointing and causing them to come to pass, contrary to his righteousness and goodness, that they are called " mysterious providences." And so we stand in awe of God, while we have every reason for loving and confiding in him.

These are not mysterious, neither are they Di-

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vine Providences. They are plainly the consequences of our not regarding the laws which God had appointed to operate everything in creation. We are wicked, ignorant, and negligent of them, — and need not be, at least so much so. Did not one or all these faults result in men causing these calamities named above? Can anyone suppose that God prompted persons to be wicked, ignorant and negligent? If so, what had become of his righteousness and goodness? Why, these are the very crimes that pertain to that monster which in the Bible is called "Satan," "Devil," "Destroyer," " Enemy " of God and man — said to be the work of our Heavenly Father. The reason is that because while God is known to be without limitation in power and knowledge, men have felt that he must be in and through every created thing; that it can have no power but what he gives it every instant. And so he is the power and knowledge which act through and by every thing; and all that happens in our world is, they say, in some way influenced and effected by him. This plausible error they affirm and repeat, though every living creature, adult and child, feels in himself that he acts by his own powers and desires, as plainly as if there were no divine influences. If one is hungry, it is his hunger that prompts him to go to the table; if one is suffering pain, it is his pain that prompts him to seek relief ; if one pities another, it is his compassion that moves him to bring relief; if one hates another, it is his malice that urges him to injure the other. The actions that emanate from any emotion of mind or passion arise out of the person himself, because they start from the force of his life power, which is derived from all parts of his body, heart, brain and the organs that constitute him a living creature.

Chapter Second

I. GOD THE UNCHANGEABLE

Some one might reply to what has just been written that the righteousness and authority of God may justify certain acts which are wrong for man to perpetrate, but are quite right if accomplished by Divine Providence. They might say that nothing is right purely in itself, because God, from himself, makes anything right or wrong as he may please. If he says a wrong thing is right, that makes it right ; but God never did this, and never could, simply because he cannot lie ; " And he changeth not."

Inasmuch as he cannot do an unrighteous act, nor cruelly afflict, so he could not influence in any way the tragedies to which attention has already been called, nor to any other awful and unnecessary suffering. The Holy Scriptures afford no instances of which it is declared that God, by his direct exertion, sent calamities or any other evils alike upon the righteous and wicked, or only upon the righteous. But throughout the Bible history he promises prosperity and safety to those who do righteously, and threatens the wicked with a great variety of evils, and declares that he himself would send upon them. Wherever he speaks of natural calamities falling alike on the good 11 and evil ones of our race, as when St. Paul was shipwrecked, it is said that a great storm arose, as if the laws which control the weather had done it and Providence had not interposed to prevent it. So, also, there was a great famine in Egypt for seven years, by the operation of the laws of the physical world, in concert probably with the purpose of God.

All of which shows that some events occur without God; some in part, and some wholly, by his influence; but in all cases events occur by the force of laws and according to their way of operating, by the power which God put in them at the beginning and which he continually sustains ; and they operate not by his exertion every time they act, but by their inherent power. Every creature is a machine with motive power installed in it, and always running until life leaves it. But these living machines have minds and wills and power which the Creator commanded them to use, and also how, and for what purposes, to use them. Indeed, the power in us is so great in many of our organs that if we, or any other cause, hindered their operations, we would decay and perish, and if action were stopped, it would induce death to the organ and to the whole body.

II. NATURE SELF-ACTING

Thus much only has been written regarding the power that is in every living creature to act for and by itself, to keep before the mind of the reader this one of the reasons for believing that many events occur which may be entirely by man, exclusive of any influence from Divine Providence. Or, in other words, with still larger application to the sphere of providential rule, the universe runs on, producing effects according to its several parts and the laws in and over those parts. On this account Providence interposes occasionally, and only so often as his righteousness and goodness may justify.

If we can establish this theory by intelligent reasons, it will become very evident that our Creator is far more benevolent than he could be if he ruled and over-ruled the powers of his creatures and the laws he has ordained for their lives and actions. This theory will appear as a monument to the fact that in no way did God influence or sanction the carnival of horrors whose terrible glare of obloquy has shocked the soul of the writer concerning the providential dealings of our Heavenly Father with his poor creatures. If one stands off and looks at human sufferings from natural causes and evil agencies, he may believe that they are too great and continuous to allow the thought that God is willing to add to them new and horrible ones. It will not assuage the memory of long years nor the true estimate of the worth of multitudes, to say that we are all miserable sinners and should not expect any lot from God but that of suffering, disease, and a time fixed by divine decree when we each should die or be executed by divine sentence.

We note that throughout the Bible history God promises prosperity and safety to those who would do righteously, and threatens the wicked with great and various evils. This declaration was carried out in many instances toward the righteous and wicked. We think that this was done in certain cases; the main purpose of God in this promise and threat, as they were in each case fulfilled, was to keep before the people of that era of Jewish history the fact that our God is supreme over all the gods which people believed existed. It was done, also, to condemn wickedness and approve righteousness, and to make it plain to all men that sin brings misery and punishment, and that righteousness is profitable and worthy of reward.

III. LAWS OF NATURE PREVAIL

But let the reader observe that all who did evil or good were not thus rewarded. It never was so, is not now, as every person discovers ; it never can be so, until the righteous and wicked shall have been set off apart in two distinct and separate bodies or communities. This is to take place, as the Scriptures declare, only at the end of the world, at the General Judgment of the last Great Day.

The good and the evil ones of mankind are mingled and associated together in temporal business, in pleasures, in families, and so closely allied in all respects that such discrimination by rewarding or punishing one, or a few among many, is impossible in the very nature of the cases, without changing everything, or making quite a different world. For example: Here is a family, some of whom are obedient to God, others diso~ bedient; their worldly prosperity depends for all of them upon their farm. Is it possible to save the obedient ones from adversity when, by a drought, God would entail adversity upon the rebellious part of that family ? Can we suppose that he could punish that unworthy part of the family by sending disease or violence upon them, and give health to the faithful ones? We know right well that good and evil come equally upon both parts of a family, without consideration of any difference of respective merit. Being together in company with each other, and in interests, they share the same lot of good or ill, there being no possibility of alteration in these natural conditions.

In many instances the most worthy of mankind are those who are least prosperous, while often the worst of our race are most affluent and have more worldly enjoyment and a longer life in which to indulge in it.

IV. NATURE EXPLAINS SCRIPTURE

The foregoing facts may enable us to unravel those passages of Scripture which award to the righteous prosperity, and to the wicked adversity, while we see that these awards are not generally fulfilled, the good ones among men quite frequently being deprived of prosperity and the evil ones becoming prosperous. We would remark on this variance between the expressions or declarations of the Holy Scriptures, that they must be modified by the foundation truths in nature, and also by circumstances and occurrences which make it impossible for certain things to come to pass precisely as the Scriptures declare. It may be that it means that these rewards apply to men's lives in the long run, and to the future world. It may be that it means that men shall reap their rewards in their spiritual beings. At any rate, we know that the rewards of temporal or providential good and evil were specially applied only to a few of the good or bad people. And it seems less so now than in former times. In those days God did send drought and moisture on large tracts of the country and over large bodies of people as reward for their conduct, including the good as well as the evil ones. It may have been meant by this to stir up the good part of the people to exert themselves to reform the evil-doers; and it may have been intended by the wicked partaking of the common prosperity given to the righteous to affect their better feelings, and thus induce them to reverence and obey God.

Yet it does not seem as exact and equal justice, according to the full significance of the Scriptures, nor as applied in this manner to the people; but it was as nearly so as it was possible to apply it to mingled multitudes of people, good and evil. This is as near to equal justice as a multitude of people together would admit. It is the same on shipboard; large assemblies, good and bad, alike go down in the waters. Only natural laws are at work, and some person or persons of their own accord have acted wrongly with them. So, when a storm sweeps the sea, it is purely by the laws of that particular realm of nature, while prevention and escape depend upon man's own exercise of his ingenuity in the construction of ships and in the management of them. In none of such cases does God interpose to cause extraordinary occurrences. It is, in all appearances, the working of the laws of these elements of nature, nature being only preserved and sustained by God in its course and in the effects it produces. But if by some extraordinary means some persons are saved through the providence of God, this would be an interposition, for by it the evils from nature and not from God had been overcome. The laws which start fires go on until some other elemental forces greater than they quench them. But if there were laws working in excess everywhere against fires, there could be none of the latter for good purposes ; and if the world were governed in every condition of things by an over-ruling Providence always exercising his goodness, then he only would start fires to do good and quench every fire that was doing harm. So, to be thoroughly good to the world, he would become our real servant and assume the station of a menial, subject to the call of the indolent and careless. But every law he has made is as stable and enduring as the fabric of creation ; from everlasting to everlasting his laws endure; while every creature must accommodate himself to them. This is to be done by coinciding with every law, and by avoiding a false attitude toward it, so that the person may not be injured but benefited by its powers.

Though accidents may happen, yet in all places and among all people they become less and less as the virtues of human nature increase, making us more obedient to laws and more diligent in observing their operations and effects, good and evil.

Suppose that we did not voluntarily regard the laws of nature as necessary to our welfare, and Providence ruled and over-ruled in all cases, as the false theory implies: what would be the consequence to mankind and the world itself ? Why, for the lack of exercise of essential life powers, man would be only a broken tool, with which the Lord has seldom worked satisfactorily to himself or to man: a deadly decline in all things would set out like an ebbing tide, until the race of man became idiots and the world smothered with weeds and briars. And if Providence needs to prompt us, why not wait until he makes opportunity for us to work for good? Or why not, in fitting submission, wait before we move at all, in order to see whether we are not about to run ahead of what Providence intends or is about to do? For thus, though tools we be, we can perversely writhe in the Master's hand and mar his work.

Chapter Third The True Theory Of Providence

" Read nature; nature is a friend to truth;

Nature is Christian; preaches to mankind, And bids dead matter aid us in our creed."

Young.

I. UNIVERSAL LAW

The true theory is that God rules creation according to and by the laws with which he endowed it, and that he interposes at intervals and only for the benefit of his creatures, never to hurt or injure any of them except when they oppose and trespass against his laws. Why, then, the troubled ones ask, did he allow such terrible recent calamities by fire? We would reply, first, that God being righteous and compassionate, it is impossible that he should influence the evils to occur; secondly, that he had committed all things long ago to laws that were always to govern them; thirdly, the people unfortunately exposed themselves to the perils, and the law of fire operated. God could not act contrary to the laws of the universe, — suspend or reverse a law necessary to the maintaining of the entire creation. He could not menace eternal duration in order to accommodate a state of things which is so soon to pass away. Therefore our constant reliance is 20 upon the laws of nature to work well for us when observed fully, and adversely when we omit to observe them.

In such conditions for our welfare, it is wrong to depend upon Providence, — just as it would be wrong, when our house is afire, to depend upon our prayers instead of upon our physical and mental exertions. All know this, yet they are prone to believe that which directly contradicts it.

II. THE IMPOSSIBLE

As it is impossible to prosper a multitude on a farm according to exact justice, because all would have to share alike, though unequally, in what they severally might merit, so when Providence made the harvests abound according to the Scriptural promise, he would need also to assort the good people out from the bad on the farm, and give each one his portion of the proceeds, or give the precise portion to each in some other valuable consideration. He never does this, so far as man can see, and if man cannot see it done, or know it, there would be no use in doing it; because this would not influence him to regard or obey God, as God keeps himself from being surely known in the transaction.

If God assorted the meritorious from the blameworthy in order to give each his proportion of the promised prosperity, then people could not be combined in multitudes without confusion and loss to themselves and their earthly estate. So it appears that there are some conditions among men wherein certain things are quite conditional, and others impossible, from the very nature of the relations which prevail between things and men. In all such cases, Divine Providence does not pass over the boundary line which separates, by the laws of nature, the possible from the impossible. This we know to be his habitual way; otherwise he only now and then works a miracle over and above these considerations, — and how rare have been such miracles, for even in answer to agonizing prayer a good man does not escape from the multitude who go down with the ships. Therefore a doctrine that declares that God governs the world arbitrarily, and manages the causes of every small as well as great event and kills one or many as it may please him, is unreasonable and false.

III. PROVIDENCE EXAGGERATED

This false doctrine is founded upon a very magnificent but partial view of the nature of God, and seems to be made extravagant by the devotion of some people to his glory. That is to say, they consider the greatness of God in the most extreme degree. God is all, and in all, absolute, sovereign, without observing any conditional order or disorder of things. This is an error, because he himself speaks of Satan changing things, and of human conduct causing him to change from condemning to approving whenever one turns from wrongdoing to welldoing.