THE normal ruler of this world is God. When man was created, God gave him dominion over the world and all that was therein. Man was prince under God. Gen. 1: 26-28. Under God he possessed power over all the secrets and resources of nature. He was ruler de facto as well as de jure,—in both fact and right. He was free to obey his Sovereign—God—or to disobey; but to disobey meant misery and death, not simply in the decree of God, but in the very nature of things. Obedience—harmony with the all-power of the universe—meant life and peace and joy forevermore.
But man yielded to the enemy. Yielding himself, he yielded all under him, the earth and all of the earth. "For the creation was subjected to vanity [sin, death], not of its own will, but by reason of him [Satan, man] who subjected it." Rom. 8: 20, R.V.
In this way Satan became prince of this world in fact, tho not by right. It could be truly held subject only to God. Man proved a traitor, and Satan usurped the authority of the rightful ruler of earth. He thus became "prince of this world," "god of this world," "prince of the power of the air," etc. God could not meet Satan's usurpation by force. It must be demonstrated in the very working out of disobedience that God's plan is good and only good, that obedience is life, that sin is death, and that God is law. And so Satan still rules, by God's permission, and will until the universe shall see that sin is death and righteousness is life.
The abnormalities, therefore, that we see are not of God. Death and destruction are of sin, and sin is of Satan. Devastating fire and earthquake and tempest are not of the normal rightful Ruler of earth, but of its usurper, the devil. And these things will grow worse and worse as the old earth waxes older, till finally the last great earthquake shall rend it in ruins, and the poisoned atmospheric heavens shall roll together as a scroll and pass away before the presence of God.
This is the lesson taught by the fearful cyclones and tornadoes of these later years. One of the worst, which chilled the blood of thousands, swept from Nebraska through Southwestern Iowa, into Northern Missouri, doing but little damage on its southeasterly way; then it turned, almost doubling on its track, and swept backward to the northeast, striking the city of Kirksville, and the villages of Newtown, Lancaster, Carrollton, Macon, and Linnaeus, and country places, in its course. In the two first named the greatest loss of life took place. This occurred in the afternoon of April 27, about 6 o'clock. Kirksville is the county seat of Adair County, and the population is variously estimated at from 5,000 to 8,000. Newtown has a population of about 550. At Kirksville the loss of life as thus far determined is 33 killed, and more than 90 have been seriously injured, and many others slightly. In Newtown 13 have been killed; 25 were injured.
At Kirksville are two colleges of osteopathy, and a State normal school. The path of the tornado, from 2 to 3 blocks wide, was between one of these colleges and the normal school, where many students boarded, and where were many new and beautiful houses, of which 284 buildings, mostly residences, were damaged or destroyed, and over 200 of these are a total wreck, scarcely a single board remaining whole. The damage to Kirksville is probably $250,000.
Nothing could withstand the fury of the storm. It mattered not whether the building were of brick or stone or wood, it was leveled before the tremendous force of the tornado. It mattered not whether a box or a tree were in its path; both were added to the tremendous and conglomerate cargo borne by the storm. Horses, cattle, houses, furniture, clothing, carpets, trees, branches, boards, timbers, and men and women, with rain and hail and mud and water, were carried in one indiscriminate heterogeneous mass by the storm demons, to be scattered abroad a few minutes later over the face of the earth.
