WHAT ABOUT GOD?

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXII, Issue 11451, 27 February 1931, Page 3

WHAT ABOUT GOD?

THE EARTHQUAKE AND ITS

LESSONS,

(By ’ Archdeacon K. E, Macloali, Havelock North.) We have been hard ldt: death and injury find thill litiye been the experience of niany, find very few indeed have escaped loss and suffering; Ids the common instinct ot~ all people who believe there is a God, even if they would not call themselves religious people, to turn to God for comfort und help in times of trouble—but what about God now? Have we got to add to all the rest tlie ltddUiunal burden of doubting the goodriess of God and IBs euro for us? This, is. a question which is troubling the iniiids of many people They may have at the back of then* minds a certainty, though it will not come out into wolds, that God still means all He used to mean, but on the surface and in face of criticism there is doubt, and that doubt is a heavy burden in times like tIIGSG. • • People outside have nothing but oily for us, but we who are in it and have shAfered., we can. indeed we must, face things frankly with all urn nonesty we have. Web, what about God? Tlie savage, whose religion is tlie effort to keep on good terms with an easily-offended spirit more powerful than himself, savs of everything lie does not understand: “God did it. A child falls sick, God did it; a canoe is sunk iu the rapids, God did it; a bough falls in the forest and maims ■a man, God did it: and in each case it is a punishment fur some wrong done. That is the universal idea of primitive man and it dies very hard, ■r shows up uprv often m the o*d Testament, indeed it is only the most enlightened prophets who get past it and the rank and flic of the people will not, accept their truer picture of God. Even in the time of our Lord it is the accepted idea that sickness or smlcleu death is a pnnishiiil7 net of God. They think the man born blind was born by the punishing act of God, Christ sa\s “No.” They think that eighteen men killed by I lie fall of a tower w ere being punished by God, ( heist says ‘ No. ’ ft has been" the slow influence of His teaching that lias persuaded men to give up the idea that sickness or frliat we eat I natural calamity are onni.shing acts of God. and where they have given it up it lias set them live to stud'- the causes ol such things as earthquakes and cyclones.

Vet the old idea persists in the face oF the teaching of Jesus Christ and in the face of all modern knowledge. Still tliere is in the minds ol many in this stricken district the unhappy question “Is this a punishing act i f God?"’ and there are even those who seem to find a ghoulish pleasure in saying ‘‘God did this to unisii us ami uu'K'e us think. ' How a man who thinks that i» true can bother any further about God, let alone 'worship Him, is very difficult to understand. Let us face it. Is the ruin of our towns, tlie death ol men. women and chidren, of nurses sleeping after a night of tending tlie sick,' of theological students meditating in charel of old people m the Old People's Home, tin* injury :tod .suffer ng and sorrow of hundreds and hundreds •'! others—is this a punishing : of tho God rei ealed to us by Jesus Christ? Think of a simple instance to clear tho ground. It is a blazing hot summer day. A man goes out. to work and works'in tin: sun for hours without a hat: lie gets .sunstroke mid dies. Is it a punishing act of God? Tlie, common-sense of ordinary people k:iys “Why didn't hr have more sense and wear a hat?” We are sorry for him. sorrier for the wife and family lie- leaves behind, but we say bluntly: “It- was his own fault.” To he quite honest, is not our position much tho same? We know what earlhuuakes are, we knew* a

good deal about how and whv they happen. We know tliero are “faults” iu the earth’s surface and that the countries near those faults are liable to earthquakes. We know, we always have known, that New Zealand is oii(. of these countries and that a bad earthquake might come at any time. Vet we came, knowing tins, and lived hero and shrugged our shoulders about earthquake!'.

Our fathers-'who ■'remembered the earthquake iti Wellington in warned us against brick houses and high eliiinneys, but • the years wild by. and more brick houses and tall chimneys were built and t 1.,. years went on and they stood. li v.as quite possibe (o build earthquakeproof houses in wood or brick or concrete but it was expensive and we wanted , moncv for other tin tics. It was quite possible to build chimneys in ordinary houses which had not got a tight collar of wood round them at the flashing, but we did not bother, ft was quite possible to follow sound principles of construc- ,; hn in building shoos and offices but no one cared and no one asked for it, so tip went the flimsy, showy walls and the heavy copings, ft is not the fault of anvone in particular. Architects, builders and workmen .just shared the common mind and built their own houses in just the same way that they built houses for other-'-people. We are all in this together; it was public opinion that if did not matter. Two years ago the Murcliisop earthquake happened and we said, or nearly all of us, “‘‘Poor beggars! -Genie and live in Hawkes Bay and be safe,” and we went on living happily >in the deathtrap iye had built. Then on February the earth wriggled for a minute. The I'a’dt seJtlod down a hit more*. "Who caused the death and suffering? God gave us brains and memories and we have not troubled to use them. Is it sane to blame God because he does not suspend the forces wliieli formed the universe in order that we may bo foolish AviLli safety? The loss of life and property is not God’s doing but . ours. Only if wo face this lujnesMv shall avo live more wisely in the future. To believe in God up to February 3 and to doubt Him after that is not only unintelligent, it is something Averse.’ To be horn say in 1.890 and be brought up to belioA-o in God,' then Avlien von were 18 to hear of an earthrn’cke in Italy in which 55,000. were killed in Messina alone, hut; to go pn believing; to hear during the Avar of another earthquake in Italy, in ivliieh over 25, OCX) we re killed, hut to go on believing: lo hear in >1923 of 1 Hie thousaiids.-killed by the-earthquake : in Tokio, hut tu go on believing and not only bcliov'ug but undisturbed aud'then in 1931 because vit happens in our own district to lose one’s faith in-Go<l-—-what are you to call that? It is something Averse than lifiiiitellj'geiit : in" fact jit is hard to find a word pungent enough, to/describe it- adequately. •'Tteiigion above all e!se mu.yb bo Jionest. There is no reason for this disaster, to shake a Christian’s faitlf in God, but let us hope that piili ,'of the suffering and ruin, we shall learn something 'which; avi 11 make our life a-wiser thing in. the future.- If this disaster shakes or breaks a man’s religion ' then it ia tiis '.religion -that is »AV-r<*hg; he has lost imtuiug wox-ili. keeping Avlien he loses it. ■The G.od oh infinite lox’« and pity is still Avitli us and still cares. If, avo will try to make our life what” Ho created it to he, ..aii ( eternal thing begun hOi;e • aiid now.' * Ave shall not fear death nor unduly mourn the dead .they have., passed, to the next stage of tHe eternal life and they, are in His loving,' hands.- ; If Uie only- - : tiling, th'e earthquake Ws left ns is a determination to re-ljuibJ Eastings...and.. Napier bigger

and better than before and get richer and more comfortable than before Mien we are not worthy of the name of men and women.

Gcd is still here and we have tin 1 chance of a lifetime, out of our agony, to have a truer faith ami to let that faith guide our lives.