The Logan Republican

GOD AND THE EARTHQUAKE.

All this talk about GOD having anything to do with that earthquake, the deliverance of some and the annihilation of others, appeals to none but strict sectarians. Sectarians from time immemorial have been and till kingdom come will be extremely narrow. Their very existence religiously depends on their narrowness, and the first law of nature is self preservation. The assumption of a great eastern minister that GOD sent this calamity to bind closer the ties of brotherhood is as ridiculous as the assumption that GOD interposed in behalf of Mormon elders. Neither science nor religion can offer rational explanation as to why such calamities come just when they do, why certain sections and people suffer and others escape, and speculation as a rule takes the trend of the desire of the person making the explanation. None know the why nor the wherefore of this material existence, and it seems impossible that any mortal man is able to interpret the law of that existence. We are here without our consent, in an environment that was not our choosing and over which we have but the slightest control. We live a fitful existence of some three-score and ten years on a globe the origin and final destination of which we can have no certain knowledge, and then we lay down our lives—for what? No man has returned to tell—and if he did most sectarians and most graceless atheists would call him a liar if his story did not tally with what we in our arrogant pride and dense ignorance have chosen to believe. The thinking man knows that in this life only good is worth the while, and to the good, the noble and the true this world is ever beautiful. Sin brings its recompense,—it brings it here, and only those who have sinned and know the real difference between good and bad can know how terrible is that recompense. As to the why and wherefore of such catastrophes as that at San Francisco, as to the future, when in this life we shall be known no more, the deponent saith no further than that the power or force that formed this world and its people so mysteriously, which gives and takes away as it chooses without our understanding, is certain to dispose of us no less mysteriously and in accord with any plan that has been or may yet be perfected. The writer has no fear of a future hell for any man and does not ask a heaven. He who opens his soul to the glory there is for any life devoid of selfishness has a heaven here that no power can take from him, and just as certainly does that other individual whose soul is cramped with sin and wrong doing have his hell. The heaven or hell in either case may not always be patent to the casual observer, but we believe either is there according to the merit. The writer hopes never to disturb the belief of any individual as to the infallibility of any religion or creed. Any religion that makes of any man or woman the best man or woman that person can be is certainly the true religion for him or her. However, to him who has doubts, the assurance may be offered that to attempt to believe that which does not and can not appeal to his reason must be false for him. For instance, any attempt to make reasonable an explanation involving a Deity's hand in that San Francisco earthquake is folly which none need hesitate to throw aside if it does not appeal to them.