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    Untitled Article

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    DIVINE JUDGMENTS.

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    TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH A ME RIGA

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    Untitled Article

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    Untitled Article

    Whilst some persons seem to deny all moral government of the universe others admit a moral government by which certain classes of action are led by a tram of pre-arranged natural causes tke production of happiness or calamity as almost unerring consequences ; whilst they , deny all special interference and interposition ; Others have , in Pope ' s words , " with then-weak and errin ° - hands , " presumed to throw God ' s bolts , and dealt damnation eternal and temporary suffering , much according to their own notions . These last , however right they may have been m their general creed , have often been so intolerant m temper , so onesided in view , so superstitiously incapable of seeing anything calculated to make against their own argument , so injudiciously inactive , that they have done the greatest injury to the cause they have wished to maintain , and have , quite forfeited their claim to that special possession of the Spirit of truth which they are fond of claiming . Mo > taigxe tells us . plainly what was tin ? effect ot the prediction of judgments by the opposed sects of religionists in France in his own time . In his essay ( 31 st ot Book I . ) ,. Un the propriety of sober judgment in Divine things , ' he says , " Those who gained the battle at Roche Abeille made a great triumph ( grande-feste ) of that event as a proof of the future ot their cause , but when they were defeated at Monteoutour and Jarnac , they called it a paternal rod and chastisement . " Hence , he says * " there is danger that the faith which is to receive its confirmation from such changeful circumstances as these , will be shaken to its foundation in the hearts of men by events so opposite to what they might fairly anticipate , and by this blowing ot hot and cold from the mouths of their prophets and preachers . The same thing has been done thousands of times with the same effect , at least on the minds of reasoning people—not superstitious ones , for superstition seems to refuse to be untaught anything , and persists in believing , or saying it believes , that people can only die at the ebb of the tide , though it sees people dying by hundreds at the Hood—an extraordinary pertinacity—one of the phenomena the most difficult to be accounted for in our strange complex human nature ; and well worthy of more of the metaphysician s attention than it has hitherto received . It is only by unwearied strokes ofthe hammer ' that TnoR andBaal at last comedown , and when we see so much pertinacity in absurdity the wonder is that they have ever come down at all ; Against laying our finger on this or that event , and saying , positively , this is a judgment of God on his or our enemies , Addkon has spoken , and a higher authority—Milton , most severely . . ~ For ourselves , we obj ect not to the doctrine of the occasional interference of the Divine hand , but to the constant pointing of the presumptuous human finger ; and let those who are disposed to ridicule altogether the question of judgments be careful , for they have some individuals to deal with , whom they may think more serious opponents than a Hebrew legislator or Christian apostle . Shakespeare evidently did not think the idea of divine interposition to be pooh-poohed or absurd , when , in that famous passage in the "T empest" he speaks of the fate of traitors , Lord Bacox , in one of his letters , says " disloyalty , ingratitude , and insolency , are three offences , wtiich in all examples , have seldom their ^ nntyi adjour ned to the worl d to come . " These men were not ignorant andT implicit believers , but men of thought , to whose minds all the ordinary arguments against providential interference were as familiar as they are to purs , and as they were long ago to CiCEKo ' Sj who speaks fully on all of them in his third book on the " Nature of the Gods . " The sensible Owen Feltham ! says we ought to be cautious , ' ¦ ' because we do not see Jtow God ' s judgments walk their rounds in striking . " All divines are not enthusiasts , and as well as ourselves see clearly the difficulties without altogether exploding the doctrine . The shrewd practical Burjjet , in reference to a practicali > oint in English history , speaks thus modestly : " I know it is not possible to determine when such accidents rise from a chain of second causes in the course of nature , and when they are directed by a special Providence ; but my mind has always carried me so strongly to acknowledge tho latter , that I love to sot these reflections in the way of others , that they may consider them with the same serious attention that I do myself . " This passage occurs in a history , not in a sermon . There is a passage in Leighton in a similar modest strain * to which we oannot at the present moment refer , but as different as possible in spirit from the " dealings out" of the old Puritans . Historians , and by no moans pious ones , have thought that in certain cises they discovered interference : thus Brantome says that almost all thoso who were personally and principally concerned in tho massacre of tho Huguenots met with violent deaths . Bacox says the same of the Spanish conquorors in America : — " Far l > o it from me to justify ' the orueltios whioh were used towards thorn ( tho American Indians ) whioh had their reward soon after , there behifv not one of tho prinoip al of the first conquorors but died a violent death himself . " ( " An Holy War . " ) Most of our readers —are awai'fr that of the-t ) ion 6 teps of th « -great revolution-in Franog , nearly every one met with a violent death . Certainly the doctrine * of retribution has too many apparent confirmations to be considered in tho light of an ordinary superstition . AVe havo stated the call for special judgments as fairly as we have boon able to do , but to those who aro too fond of assigning them , wo bog to offer tho following considerations , first quoting tho promise that the rain , i . e . the ordinary blessings of Providence , shall " fall on tho just and tho unjust , " and the words , littered by a divino mouth , — " Or those eighteen on whom tho tower of Siloam fell , think ye that they were sinners above all them that dwell in

    Jerusalem ?—no verily ; " by which Christ forbade men to consider the incidence of some special calamity in itself a sign _ of sin . Again , let those Avho are too fond of tracing and assigning providential penalties reflect , if they are capable of reflecting , on what follows , and give it its . due weight—no more . . ¦ Some of the heaviest calamities are continually falling on those . "defects of character which belong , to weakness rather than to wickedness . Look first at mere carelessness . How much dreadful loss and suffering of the most terrible kind does every week ' s batch of newspapers announce from this cause only . In pecuniary jna-tters again , look at the disastrous effects of that most amiable fault , a too great dependance on the honour or honesty of otheis ; those who are the most honest themselves being almost always the least suspicious , and consequently being most frequently the victims . Hundreds , perhaps thousands of families , are ruined yearly irom this cause alone . Observe , again , the damaging effects ot that innate want of judgment and defect of prudence which we see in some characters to be almost invincible , yet which can scarcely be assigned to that class of actions which are commonly considered as entailing judgments . How many a man ' s career has been ruined bv an irresistible nervousness ! How many a life has been rendered in its main current futile , if not miserable , by physical states , often strictly and merely constitutional , and for which even blame would be almost cruelty . Add , again , the effects ot preiudice , sometimes even on conscientious and religious grounds , suen , " for instance , as have existed in France and now exist inKussia , ( Times , May 9 th , 1859 , ) against inoculation and vaccination , and . 'have existed in the minds of many in England and Scotland against chloroform , as rational as a prejudice against lightning . conductors . A mere stupid though well-meant scruple may Play its thousands and tens of thousands , and cause almost as much , suffering as a great national crime . Look once more at fickleness and weakness of character , in monarchs especially , and see how these qualities have led to the scaffold , from which mere boldness , cunning , and determination might at least , according to human probabilities , have saved them . . ... In spite of all these considerations we do not deny special judgments or interferences ; still we hope we have said enough , or suggested enough , to prevent weak-sighted and presumptuous beings from fancying that they can see the flight or the aim ot tne ^ Perhaps , after jiH , the philosophical view is ; £ his : individual preservation is the general law . Human law and the law ot conscience subserve this by acting as a restraint upon such direct criminal action as tends to the dissolution of society , or the destruction of the individual V but where conscience and law act feebly as restraints , as in the ease of rashnessy-weakness , timidity , thoughtlessness ,-it is necessary that the consequences should be especially calamitous to furnish sufficient warnings for selt-preservatipn , so that the measure of suffering is by no means commensurate with that of guilt , often the contrary , though there still remain difficulties which we could easily state , and wnicn probably no human wisdom could solve .

    Untitled Article

    Aug . 18 , I 860 . ] The tiatm-day Analyst and Leader . 73 °

    Divine Judgments.

    DIVINE JUDGMENTS .

    Telegraphic Communication With A Me Riga

    TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION WITH A ME RIGA

    Untitled Article

    rfMIE time has arrived , when a public necessity urges us to call ~~ X . attention t 6 the imporraTftr ^ trb > c 1 rc ^ tegrap hy-in-conneefaonwith the attempt to establish submarine communication with "* ' out of consideration for those who with so much public spirit came forward to form the Atlantic Telegraph Company in the years 1856 and 1857 , we have abstained from giving in our columns details of the proceedings taken by others interested m the . Nortnern route , not irom feeling any misgiving as to the reasonable character of the latter undertaking , but simply that we would not be instrumental in giving publicity to any project that might y arrest the course or damp the ardour of those still interested m the reconstructian of the old undertaking ; at the same time feebng ourselves thoroughly satisfied of our great want of . both these lines . Now however , that we gather from the report of Mr . Vabley , the electrician of the Atlantic Telegraph Company , that he has no hope of ever recovering their cable , and has , indeed , abandoned the attempt , we must no longer hesitate in our course ,. but would most urgently invite the attention of men oi scionce and men of public spirit , and all who are interested in . the pro' -ress and well boiny of Groat Britain and America to take this matter in hand in a business-like way , and complete it by one route or another ; for it is not to be endured that while we have effected telegraphic communication with moat parts ot Europe , Africa , and Asia , that tho couniry , founded by our most indefatigable raco , and prospering in every art and science—furnishing : us with their produots and taking in return ours to an onormous amount , should alono bo shut out from that benelit . There oan bo no doubt that an amply remunerative roturn would bo obtained upon tho cost of construction of any line that could'bp laid and worked , au as to . link tOKfttlier _ ttio old and new world , and iu this reiweet tho balance of probability is groutly in fiivour oi the project now , we hoptr , springing into lif > - and tAkin * its ^ rthert ^ y course through Iceland , Ureonland , and Labrador , n . iwl ™? noe . through Canada to New York , a « wo perceive Us longost _ line ot Hiibiuariuo wire is about ( 500 miles only , tho whole ity o being divided into four sections . Its existence , tluwf > re cmnuot a its out retv bo jeopardised , us was thp « ms , with the lute »«»«» l «™ £ cable laid ill ono continuous length hetwoun Irul . i d ^ »« wibundlund , now mainly to bo wiauiu bowd . jin < ch-j » oiwit satotal wreck , At present wo only en 11 attention to the . subject ; but we

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 18, 1860, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2361/page/7/