EDITOR'S TABLE. 



555 



observation and reason. In one of the 

 dispatches received by " The New York 

 Times " from the scene of the disaster 

 it was stated that some persons who had 

 been rescued from the flood only to find 

 themselves sole survivors of their fami- 

 lies had abandoned all faith in Provi- 

 dence, and had emphasized their change 

 of mind by casting away their Bibles. 

 Tins affords an illustration of a kind of 

 faith that never should have existed. 

 These persons had evidently cherished 

 the idea that, if they tried to live relig- 

 iously, Providence would see that they 

 did not suffer from the effects either of 

 their own or of others' carelessness; 

 and that natural agencies of a destructive 

 character would in some mysterious way 

 be instructed to pass them over, even 

 while causing havoc all around. This 

 expectation having been falsified by 

 facts, their faith in the divine govern- 

 ment is not only shaken but destroyed. 

 Their standpoint is manifestly a less 

 reasonable and noble one than that of 

 the patriarch Job, who in the depth of 

 his trouble could exclaim, " Though He 

 slay me, yet will I trust him." 



Herein lies a lesson for the clergy 

 and for all teachers of youth. The only 

 stable faith is one that reposes upon the 

 order of nature, or at least that fully 

 accepts that order, and is therefore pre- 

 pared for all that may flow from it. The 

 man who supposes that by any pious 

 observances he can, to even the smallest 

 extent, guarantee himself or his house- 

 hold from fire or flood, from pestilence, 

 famine, or any form of physical disas- 

 ter is virtually a fetich-worshiper. The 

 pact he strives to make with the power 

 he recognizes is of the nature of a pri- 

 vate bargain, according to the terms of 

 which exceptions to the general working 

 of natural laws are to be made when- 

 ever his individual interests seem to re- 

 j quire it. That man, on the other hand, 

 i has a rational faith which will never be 

 ) put to shame, who, accepting the gen- 

 ' eral scheme of things as something fixed, 

 and preparing himself for all that may 



necessarily flow therefrom, strives to 

 make the best possible life for himself 

 and others. Such a man does not ex- 

 pect security if the conditions that guar- 

 antee it have not been fulfilled. He 

 knows that pestilence will " come nigh 

 his dwelling " unless sanitary measures 

 are enforced in the neighborhood. He 

 knows that vigilance is the price not 

 only of civil liberty but of freedom from 

 all the avoidable ills of life. He sees 

 that the laws of life rightly observed 

 are the source of abundant happiness, 

 and that all that is needed to make life 

 increasingly worth living is greater in- 

 sight into the natural order of things, 

 and a due inclination of the heart to do 

 the things which the book of the law 

 prescribes. It seems too much almost 

 to hope that any adequate compensation 

 can be found for so stupendous a disas- 

 ter as that at Johnstown and in the 

 valley of the Conemaugh ; but the suffer- 

 ing and loss it has entailed will not have 

 been wholly in vain if we can bring our- 

 selves to regard the calamity as a great 

 national object-lesson in the paramount 

 necessity of placing human life under 

 the safeguards that science is prepared 

 to supply, and in the duty that devolves 

 upon every individual in the community 

 to contribute his own quota of reflection 

 and action to the general welfare. One 

 man, by a policy of masterly inactivity, 

 re-established the falling fortunes of the 

 Eoman state : who knows what one 

 man, by a resolute activity founded on 

 common sense, might have done to avert 

 one of the greatest calamities of modern 

 times ? 



MEHTAL GROWTH FROM MANUAL 

 TEAimHTG. 



The new class of schools which in- 

 cludes in its course of study exercises for 

 the hands has been much misunderstood, 

 even by some who have undertaken the 

 charge of such institutions. The phrase 

 " manual training " in the names of 

 these schools has conveyed the impres- 

 sion that hand- work is not only their 



