554 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER. 



AMONG the published sermons of 

 the Eev. John "Wesley is a famous 

 one on " The Cause and Cure of Earth- 

 quakes." The cause of earthquakes, ac- 

 cording to the eminent divine, was na- 

 tional unrighteousness, and their cure 

 •would be found to lie in national refor- 

 mation. It was, in his opinion, of slight 

 importance to know what physical causes 

 or conditions were concerned in the pro- 

 duction of earthquakes; seeing that, 

 when the Almighty proposed to use 

 them for purposes of national chasten- 

 ing, they would always be forthcom- 

 ing; and when he willed to hold them 

 in abeyance they would not happen. 

 In the case of railway and steamboat 

 accidents we have often been pointed 

 to alleged Sabbath desecration by the 

 railway and steamboat companies as the 

 underlying causes of the calamities. 

 Speaking generally, there have never 

 been lacking those who could interpret 

 every grave occurrence in such a way 

 as to reveal their own familiarity with 

 the special designs of Heaven. In the 

 face of such explanations any reference 

 to secondary or mediate causes seemed 

 superfluous, if not profane. Lord Palm- 

 erston incurred much theological odium 

 for suggesting tbat thorough sanitary 

 measures might be more effectual than 

 prayer in averting cholera from Great 

 Britain; or that, at least, it might be 

 well to try such measures before ap- 

 pointing a day of national humiliation. 

 Down to the present time it has been 

 customary, throughout a large part of 

 society, to let the theological view of 

 all personal bereavements dominate the 

 natural. From one point of view the 

 effect of this has been beneficial ; from 

 another it has been quite the opposite. 

 It has been beneficial as affording, in 

 effect, a vindication of the natural order 

 of things and disposing men's minds to 



resignation and fortitude. It has been 

 the opposite of beneficial in diverting 

 attention from the proximate causes of 

 painful visitations, and so far diminish- 

 ing the sense of personal responsibility 

 in connection with such things. That 

 mankind would much earlier have ac- 

 quired the power of combating the 

 various forms of disease successfully, 

 had theological prepossessions been ab- 

 sent, no candid and reasonable person 

 could well deny. 



The effect of the Johnstown disaster 

 will be, if we mistake not, to bring into 

 needed prominence the two ideas of the 

 supremacy of natural law and the de- 

 pendence of human life upon a wise ad- 

 justment by society itself of means to 

 ends. No other general lesson is dedu- 

 cible from the sad circumstances of the 

 case. Whatever may have been possible 

 in John Wesley's time, it is hardly pos- 

 sible to-day for any leader of opinion to 

 maintain that the disaster should be re- 

 garded as a divine dispensation. The 

 preacher of the Brooklyn Tabernacle 

 himself, who in most matters generally 

 manages to express the most belated 

 view, has openly refused to interpret 

 this calamity as a sign of divine anger; 

 being able, as he states, to affirm of his 

 own knowledge that many of those over- 

 taken by sudden death were among the 

 best people in the country. Then let 

 the lesson which the facts so powerfully 

 teach be taken to heart. Not by right- 

 eousness of life, not by religious zeal, 

 not by personal piety or devotion, not 

 by anything that does not directly bear 

 on the dangers to be averted or the 

 benefits to be secured, will human life 

 be protected from ill or enriched with 

 good, so far as the order of things in the 

 physical world is concerned. The prayer 

 that is efficacious is the prayer that 

 stimulates to work; and the work that 

 is efficacious is that which is guided by. 



