BENEFICENCE OF 'QUAKES

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 34, 10 February 1931, Page 4

BENEFICENCE OF 'QUAKES

At the Vivian Street Baptist Church <ni- Sunday evening the Bey. W. S. Holdings spoke on the subject of the Jiational earthquake" 'catastrophe in jnwal perspective, taking for his text Romans 5:35, "Who "shall separate ns $r6m the love of Christ?" Tlie preacher said that the peril was that men's jmirids should beepmb preoccupied with ■disaster, and that tides of emotions/ ishould carry them to false conclusions. When cities were shaken down and the piving overwhelmed in ruin, could men iatiil believe in a beneficent Providence idirecting human affairs? There was Sio occasion for pessimism 'or panic, and least of all for charging God foolishly. Man had lived on familiar terms with catastrophe from, the beginning, and his faith had not onlytmryived, but thriven in consequence., Xt might seem, difficult to believe that earthquake action was beneficent. But Buch was actually,the case. God's great builders had been earthquake and volcano. They have upheaved the mountains and alps, created' river systems, formed fertile -plains and valleys, and decked tho land with beauty. Provision had been made for expansion find contraction and adjustment. Most repairs were effected on the sea floor. And these and the occasional earthquakes which appalled mankind were the necessary work of 'the cosmic surgeon, keeping this planet a safe place of habitation. . The lesson was for engineers and architects to plan the erection of buildings that would resist the stresses and vibrations of earthquake shocks. Bolide the open grave at Napier where over fifty fellow-citizens found 'common sepulchre, we should learn anew tho cost of our common life, and the reaction should be the dedication of- our lives to noblo endoavour and the tasks of human brotherhood.