THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER AND

ORTHODOXY.

BY REV. E. M. CLARK.

[The following is a portion of a correspondence passing between myself and a brother who belongs to the Baptist church.]

Before I come down to your letter I wish to say a few words on the correspondence in the Standard concerning the Johnstown disaster. I refer to the article by Rev. Mr. Grose, and as I read his description of the awfulness of the disaster at Johnstown I could not avoid contrasting that disaster with another, which both yourself and the correspondent believe in And I wondered, as I read, if your thoughts night not have run in pretty much the same channel with mine while you were reading it. But, knowing as I do, that you Orthodox are not given to thinking on these things in any serious mood, it occurred to me that I would better call your attention to them now, lest they might have escaped your notice at the time.

Here is one passage. "The truth is," says Br. Grose, "that the heart and mind alike stagger and refuse to

reach anything like REALIZATION of SUCH A CALAMITY. Fortunately. For, were it not so, THE SURVIVORS WOULD BE INSANE to-day and many others who have for days been recovering their dead and preparing their disfigured bodies for decent burial COULD NOT STAND THE STRAIN."

True, thought I; and I said to myself as I read this, if such a calamity, here on earth is beyond “realization," if "the heart and mind alike staggers and refuses to reach anything like a realization of such a calamity," and if they were to entertain a just realization of it "the survivors would be insane" and others "could not stand the strain thus put upon them; what, O what will be, what must be the effect upon the saved (the survivors) in the great day of doom when they see, not a temporal, not a passing, not a momentary calamity like that at Johnstown sweep away their friends and relatives for a little while, but a calamity whose end no language can fully tell, for it is (as you claim) endless-NO END TO IT AT ALL! And, I wondered in my mind if you or Br. Grose or any one else who may chance to escape that calamity will have a

friend send you a message, as Br. Grose says W. C. Bitting of New York sent him, viz: "Send $300 to the Baptist pastor Johnstown and draw on me "? What a grand act that was of the New York pastor and how it must have rejoiced Br. Grose's heart to be able to comply! There was much of Christ in that telegram. But, just think now-when Br. Bitting stands on the right hand in the day of doom and beholds some of his fellow-men on the left, equally as good perhaps as the majority of the Johnstown sufferers, he will neither send a message to anyone else to go nor will he himself go to turn so much as one finger to alleviate the sufferings of those in hell or to palliate the anguish of the "survivors" of that awful calamity! Had you thought of this? I fear not. Did not your heart go out to the Johns

town sufferers? You need not answer for I know it did; and thousands of dollars, had you possessed wealth, would have been subject to their order, and you would not have asked any questions about whether or not they had been apostolically baptized in order to know whether they were your brethren.

says,

Well, when that great calamity of calamities shall come, as come it will if your doctrine is true, what do you think-will you have any sympathy for the unsaved? will you be willing to do as much for them as you were willing to do for Johnstown? Your heart says, "Yes, and more," but your creed "No, not as much;" and thus you are divided against yourself. My heart says yes, too, and my creed says yes also; and not only so but it also tells me that God will send me to relieve every pang I can, and then assures me that if I cannot do it alone he will send me a legion of angels to assist me. That's the difference between your creed

and mine. Yours shuts your heart's best sympathies outright where they will be of the greatest good, while mine takes the whole heart, mind, soul and strength and utilizes them for the salvation of those sinners for whom Christ died. Which of these two faiths is worth most to a perishing soul?

But, another thought. If those temporal sufferings which Br. Grose had the power to (partially at least) relieve are of such magnitude that to realize them is to be driven to insanity, what must be the effect upon "survivors" of that indescribab.y endless calamity-ENDLESS SUFFERING? Just multiply the Johnstown calamity by infinity and see what you have.

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Again. If, as Br. Grose says, it is fortunate for the Johnstown sufferers that "the" survivors" could not realize the magnitude of their calamity, and that their inability to do so was the only hope of their sanity, may it not be that God will work a miracle and impose the same impediment on that great and awful day of doom to prevent the damned in hell from going crazy and so remaining forever? But, just think (in the event he should not do so) of the spectacle of that God whom Christ taught us to call "OUR FATHER" punishing a lot of crazy children forever and ever! All human laws exempt idiots and insane persons from punishment, and we applaud such exemptions as just and equitable. equitable. Here is another passage. Having the purpose AND A CHANCE TO HELP SOME ONE kept me to the reality. THE NECESSITY TO WORK,

TO KEEP GOING, WAS THE SALVATION OF THE SURVIVORS." The clear inference is that, if he had had no "purpose," or if he had had "the purpose,' but was debarred and forever shut out of "a chance to help some one." if he could have done nothing to re

lieve their sufferings the scene would have been unendurable, or to say the very least, excruciatingly unpleasant and that all that rendered the scene at all bearable, all that served as "the salvation of the survivors was "the NECESSITY to work" plus "a chance to HELP SOME ONE." And I said to myself as I read this, what will the good brother do when he comes face to face with that awful judgment scene where the torture is unmitigated and unending and where there will be absolutely NO "chanee to help ANY ONE-no, not even his own child? Aud I asked myself the question WHAT will he or you bave then as a "Salvation for the Survivors?"-yes, what? If you should have a "purpose" or a desire to help them, that purpose, that desire would be nothing less than a rebellion against God who sentenced them to their ENDLESS PAIN. And, if you had not the desire to do so your heart would have become harder than a stone and you would not be the brother I once knew here upon earth. And I said this is a dilema; who can explain it? Now my creed has no such dilema to face for it assures me that my heart will not only be as tender, as loving and as sympathetic as it now is, but that every step upward in the process of salvation refines and purifies it so that what seemed little pain here shall then be seen as great; and that in the exact proportion of the perfection of my salvation will be my desire and purpose to see all suffering end and to assist in bringing it to an end. will have a chance to help some one" then according to my creed, but you will not according to yours.

I

Here is another passage. "SUCH

trouble MAKES ALL AS BRETHREN." This is a short one but there is much in it. As I read this I said to myself, if "such trouble makes all

as brethren" here on earth where we are all imperfect, what, according to all the rules of logical sequences must be the effect of " SUCH TROUBLE in the hereafter? If they will not make us all as brethren then as now, why not? And, if they will (as they certainly must there as here) how happy will "the survivors" be with a desire to relieve and help their suffering brethren and yet unable to lift a finger in their behalf? How happy? Will they be happy at all? Can an unhappy soul, a soul in anguish be a saved soul? If so, how would you distinguish between a miserable saved soul and a miserable lost soul?

Here is another passage. Br. Grose is giving the language of "one of the survivors" who says: "If my little girl had been with us I could have saved her. But she was at her grandfather's, where she spent most of her time, and they are all gone. And here the heroism gave way to nature. Ah, few of the survivors could say, we were all saved. Few the families unbroken."

Sad? Ah yes indeed, but this was but a temporal calamity. The suf ferings of the lost were momentary; a struggle, a gasp, and all was over, and the living, "the survivors" must soon or late in a measure forget the disaster or at least become resigned to the separation since the lost are out of sight, just as you and I have become reconciled to father's absence since his death. But, as I read this I could not but think of another time when the calamity is not death by drowning but ENDLESS LIFE IN PAIN, at which time it will verily be true as Br. Grose remarks above that "few of the survivors who can say we

are ALL SAVED, FEW THE FAMILIES

UNBROKEN." And I said to myself if such a state of things renders the living miserable here on earth where

the calamity is slight comparatively, and where the dead are out of sight and out of suffering, what must be the effect upon the SURVIVORS when that suffering is multiplied by infinity, and that suffering is to be endured in sight of the survivors (for the rich man and Lazarus convers d together, one in hell, the other in heaven)?

My creed has no such difficulties to encounter, for it affirms that beyond a doubt there is a time coming

"far off it may be, yet at last to all," when every family, when each survivor can and will rejoice in the glad refrain WE ARE ALL SAVED. Don't you wish your creed would let you think so too? I do for your

sake.

Here is one more. After giving a full detail of the catastrophe, Br. Grose closes with this prayer, "God comfort and help the broken-hearted and bring blessings in some way out of this, the most appalling calamity of our country and century. AND

LET THE HELP CONTINUE. WHEN SYMPATHY ABATES THE NEED WILL BE INCREASING."

When I read these words I said, Amen, from the very bottom of my heart.

Yes, may "God comfort and help the broken-hearted," not only of the Johnstown disaster, but everywhere, at all times and in all worlds. Wherever there is a broken heart, there is God's "comfort and help' needed; and, if you and I should let our "sympathy abate" the need of God's would be increasing. And, I wondered, if, when the Brother assembles on the plains of doom, and there sees the millions upon millions of broken hearts as those near and dear to them depart into that endless separation, yet in sight-I say, I wondered if he would then and there make the same prayer for those that he now makes for these who suffer

nothing as compared with those? If he should, would he be a consistent Baptist? If he should not, would he be as nearly a follower of Christ then as now? That he ought to pray for even the sufferers of endless punishment is proven by his own words when he says, "let the help continue. When sympathy abates the need will be increasing;" for I take it my dear Brother that neither you nor Br. Grose will have much sympathy for those who are damned; for, in the exact ratio of your sympathy for them will be your own misery on their account. And, in order that you may be happy-(if it were possible for an unsympathetic being to be happy)-you must, to maintain consistency, hold that when once doom has been pronounced, YOUR OWN SYMPATHIES

ARE DOOMED AS WELL AS THE SINNER

and that you will "care for none of these things," but like the fireworshipers in the valley of Hinnom, turn to your drums and make all the noise you can to drown the cries of the ENDLESS SUFFERERS! Fie! Don't I know and don't you know that you could stand nothing of the sort? You do if your creed had not blinded you as blind as a mole.

are

Let us suppose for instance, that the sufferings of the damned nothing more than a pin scratch, but that the pin is kept scratching away constantly and endlessly. Do you wish me to understand that you could behold such a sight, not endlessly, but for only a little while and you be happy while beholding it? My Brother, let me tell you what your heart and good sense both respond amen to, viz., that you could not behold a dog, say nothing of a human soul, tormented thus endlessly and enjoy one moment of peace or rest. No indeed; and you know it quite as well as I do and I know it positively. There is no room for question about

it. Why then, I ask you in the name of our heavenly Father, why is it that you will hold on to a creed that forces such unfatherly, unbrotherly and inhuman conclusions upon you? Perhaps you will reply "my creed does not force any such conclusions upon me." And why not? Simply and only because you will not see them. I remember a scene some 1800 years ago when an innocent personage was being tried for his life, and the king, washing his hands before the multitude said, "I am innocent of this man's blood, see ye to it. Then answered the people and said, his blood be upon us." And O what blindness that was, after having failed to convict, to insist on having his life and invoking his blood upon their own heads. So it seems to you and I now, does it not? And yet, not one whit more blind were they then than you now are in the service you render your creed. You nor I could have convinced them of their blindness at that time for the reason that they would not see it; and possibly I shall not be able to convince you for the same reason. But, as Paul tells us that this blindness of theirs was not endless nor irradicable but only for a time and purpose, viz: "UNTIL the fullness of the gentiles be come in AND SO ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED," &c. (See Rom. 11: 25, 26), and answers us that while in a certain sense and for a certain purpose and time they were cut off and regarded by the Gospel "as enemies for your sakes" (i. e. for the sake of the gentiles), never-the-less through all this blindness "as touching the election they are beloved (i. e. beloved of God) for the father's sake" (see verse 28), who intended thereby to ultimately bring them back "as life from the dead and graft them in again. "For," says Paul, "as ye

(Gentiles) in times past have not believed God (and) yet have (now) obtained mercy THROUGH THEIR UNBELIEF, even so have these (the Jews now) also not believed-(note carefully God's purpose in all this, namely) THAT THROUGH YOUR MERCY THEY (i. e. those Jews who were blinded) ALSO MAY OBTAIN MERCY." As, therefore, there remain a hope for Israel, there is hope also for you my Brother. God has not blinded you for all eternity, but only until he accomplishes his purpose in you. When he has led you far enough into the chasm of darkness to enable you to appreciate the beautiful light of an impartial gospel he will turn your face toward Jerusalem the golden.

THE WINCHESTER PROFESSION OF

FAITH.

I wish to offer some considerations which seem to me to render it improper for "our brethren the Rationalists to subscribe to this document. I will make a strong effort to follow the advice of the editor of this paper, to treat our brethren with kindness and courtesy.

Article I. "We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty and final destination of mankind."

It is presumed that by the Holy Scriptures is meant our Bible. In what sense is the Bible" Bible "Holy Scriptures," according to the faith of Rationalists? As these brethren do often refer to the "Holy Writings" of the heathen nations, the presumption is, that our Holy Scriptures are to be understood in the same way. Of course, that the authors of our profession of faith had no such idea of the Bible, and intended no such, in the use of this language, so far as we know, has no weight with these