BROKEN COLUMNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

BROKEN COLUMNS.

i HOW GOD ORDERS THINGS. (By S.) My homily last work was suggested by our Lord's rai.-ing of l.n/.inir. from ! tin- (lend, and I mentioned thai as some road tho story tlioy wonder why there I lire so many brokon eidiiums in our cemeteries, why tlii n- - are not so ordorod that the green are spared and I tln> ripo alono taken. [ KUgi'e.stod that |wo havo ilio powor to do .1* we w ill—a power that involves the making of tnin--1 lakes ,i,,il that any interference with it would reduce ~iir manhood and wornani ho,„l to a faroc. Lot us look at the sulijoot again. It ; is not vo long since I rernemher reading ! i" "• Home paper of a minor who was I censured and lined for committing a breach hi' tho propping rules under the | ( 'oal Mino... |{e<riiliition Art. in that In; i had rmt put in his working place a prop I as soon as praot iral.lo. hut. had underpropped |ho cm| ovor ~ xvidlli of eiiiht feet. He had. that is to say. wilfully, made it possible for a fall of coal to take place. Now, suppose his neglect of .luty had not. hi lotected and life had been lost in that mine, would it he rational to consider the Almighty in any way responsible? I also have in mind an epidemic of enteric fever from which several people died, the cause being traced to the dirtiness of a dairy farmer. The same question may be asked here again. There is no question about premature deaths, and accidents resulting in premature deaths, being constantly caused by neglect on somebody's part. When, then, wc think of how often we have to say, "Somebody has blundered." and how often wo have to speak of "man's inhumanity to man," wc ought, perhaps, to wonder if our mistakes, and sins, and griefs are not causing Christ pain and sorrow, rather than to spend time discussing the question why long life is not granted to m all

It may .be asked could not God ha?e ordered things differently in tho making of us originally? Perhaps He could. Who can say? But perhaps Ho couldn't have made His experiment in the creation of human souls other than He did. Which is more likely, for, beir.gf.od, His ordering of things must have been in accordance with His wisdom, therefore it must have seemed inevitable to Him.

Now suppose the person who dies is hopelessly bad, the world is, better without him. Suppose, again, it is a good man wo mourn, then what is our loss is his gain; he is in a better world than this. Or suppose only the ripe were taken, suppose young people were as immune from death as rich people are from hunger, are w 0 not likely to be more eaieloss about a future life than many of us already are? The death of a young man or woman often serves as a trumpet, call to others to be ready. Who can toll how many besides Luther first loarnt the seriousness of life from tho impression made on them by the sudden coll of a companion? Anel how often, again, tho removal of someone we thought indispensable to this business or yon cause has 'brought others to the front whoso powers would never have been educed but for the now responsibilities laid on them ?

* has its terrors for most of us, and leaves some trail of sorrow and sometimes of neeel. Anel yet, if we are reaelv, it is a privilege to die as well as to live, anel perhaps if we had more faith nnd more imagination this aspect of it would impress lis more than any other.