The Toll of the Big Tornado
By T.
The destructive work of the tornado that struck Omaha, and the like storms that were in operation in other places at the same time, are commented upon in a few suggestive editorial paragraphs in the New York World. The paragraphs follow: “Not for seventeen years has a tornado taken such costly toll of human life as that which wrecked Omaha on Sunday. To find its parallel we must go back to the St. Louis storm of May 27, 1896, when more than 300 lives were lost and property valued at $12,000,000 was destroyed.” “The unseasonable weather of Saturday and Sunday produced storm conditions favorable to the development of local tornadoes. Two distinct tornadoes swept down upon Omaha and Council Bluffs. It is not clear that either of them struck Woodbine, Iowa, where another disaster took place. Still other local disturbances were accountable for the havoc wrought at Terre Haute, Indiana, and in Missouri. It will not be strange if a dozen storms are found to have been generated on the same day by the exceptional conditions.” “Lulled by long security, the Middle West had almost forgotten its cyclone-cellar period. Perhaps it fancied that it had outgrown tornadoes. This bitter experience will remind it that the wind is untamable and that like conditions will always bring like consequences. There has not been one of the seventeen years since the St. Louis storm when tornadoes of destructive power have not occurred. But when their field is narrow, and good luck places them in open country, where the destruction done is relatively slight, we hear little about them.” “The material wants of the thousands made homeless will be promptly relieved. As for the stricken towns, they are not American if they are not at once rebuilt.” The foregoing utterances give simply the facts of this storm period. And the unusual prevalence of these storms shows us that this old world is becoming more and more unsteady and unsafe. One of the remarkable things about these storms is the few lives that are lost when we come to compare the number killed with the destruction of property. Hundreds of cases are reported where large buildings occupied by human beings are broken all to pieces and yet but very few are killed. Men and women should awake to the fact that there is a connection between these destructive storms and the immorality of the world. Men are defying God by their wicked conduct, and destruction is being visited in consequence. Thousands of good people are12seeing this and acknowledging it. Every one ought to be able to see it. Murders, and suicides, and graft, and divorces, and the white slave trade, and commercialized crime, are a part of the list of evils that have become so rampant as to make great world problems. Men try to minimize these things, and try to have us believe the world is getting better; but those who are familiar with the facts know better. The conditions in society throughout all the world to-day are identical in principle with the conditions that have invariably preceded the downfall of every empire and kingdom that has crumbled into decay and been stricken from the map. But until the last hundred years, we have had but very limited facilities for intercommunication, and so the evil was confined to some limited territory. But to-day the railroad, the steamship, and electricity have made the world one vast neighborhood, and the iniquities of the time are prevailing everywhere. Good men and women are grappling heroically with these problems of evil, but they are not able to stay the tide. The greed of the time is bearing everything down before it, excepting a few stalwarts here and there in church and state who can not be corrupted. God has given plainly the warning of His word. He has given us the example of what He will invariably do with gross wickedness. “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.” “But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption; and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; having eyes full of adultery, and that can not cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.” “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.” 2 Peter 2:4-22. The foregoing scripture and other similar passages may be studied with profit by the people of this generation. The principles expressed are eternal and will apply while the world stands. And it will not do for us to say that the places visited by storm and earthquake are the ones that are especially singled out; but these visitations that are coming are warnings to us, and we should give heed. And not only should those of us who are uninjured give heed to these warnings, but we should give our substantial sympathy to those who are in distress. Almost every town and village in the country has some central place where means may be gathered to be forwarded to the sufferers in the storm-wrecked sections of our land. We should open our hearts in sympathy by giving of our means to relieve the distress. The warnings that God permits to come, are not for the purpose of destroying life, but to save life. And if we are properly heeding these admonitions, we will be all the more tender and sympathetic toward those who are in distress. T.