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'Judge not,' he says, 'and ye shall not be judged,' and therefore we
must not judge. We have no right to say, for instance, that the
terrible earthquake in Italy, two years ago, came as a punishment
for the sins of the people. We have no right to say that the twenty
or thirty thousand human beings, with innocent children among them
by hundreds, who were crushed or swallowed up by that earthquake in
a few hours, were sinners above all that dwelt in Italy. We must
not say that, for the Lord God himself has forbidden it.
But this we may say (for God himself has said it in the Bible), that
these earthquakes, and all other disasters, great or small, do not
come of themselves--do not come by accident, or chance, or blind
necessity; but that he sends them, and that they fulfil his will and
word. He sends them, and therefore they do not come in vain. They
fulfil his will, and his will is a good will. They carry out his
purpose, but his purpose is a gracious purpose. God may send them
in anger; but in his anger he remembers mercy, and his very wrath to
some is part and parcel of his love to the rest. Therefore these
disasters must be meant to do good, and will do good to mankind.
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