that God may show us "with what sort of a storm-bell he will one day ring in the last judgment."[1]
About the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, we find, in Switzerland, even the eminent and rational Professor of Mathematics, Scheuchzer, publishing a "Physica Sacra," with the Bible as a basis, and forced to admit that the elements, in the most literal sense, utter the voice of God. The same pressure was felt in New England. Typical are the sermons of Increase Mather on "The Voice of God in Stormy Winds." He especially lays stress on the voice of God speaking to Job out of the whirlwind, and upon the text, "Wind and storm fulfilling his word." He declares, "When there are great tempests, the angels oftentimes have a hand therein, . . . yea, and sometimes evil angels." He gives several cases of blasphemers struck by lightning, and says, "Nothing can be more dangerous for mortals than to condemn dreadful providences, and, in particular, dreadful tempests."[2]
His distinguished son, Cotton Mather, disentangled himself somewhat from the old view, as he had done in the interpretation of comets.[3] In his "Christian Philosopher," his "Thoughts for the Day of Rain," and his "Sermon preached at the Time of the Late Storm" (in 1723), he is evidently tending toward the modern view. Yet, from time to time, the older view has reasserted itself; and in France, as recently as the year 1870, we find the Bishop of Verdun ascribing the drought afflicting his diocese to the sin of Sabbath-breaking.
This theory, which attributed injurious meteorological phenomena mainly to the purposes of God, was a natural development, and comparatively harmless; but at a very early period there was evolved another theory, which, having been ripened into a doctrine, cost the earth dear indeed. Never, perhaps, in the modern world has there been a dogma more prolific of physical, mental, and moral agony throughout whole nations and during whole centuries.[4] This theory, its development by theology, its fearful results to mankind, and its destruction by scientific observation and thought, will form the subject of my next chapter.
- ↑ See Stöltzlin,"Geistliches Donner und Wetter-Büchlein" (Zurich, 1731).
- ↑ See Increase Mather, "The Voice of God," etc. (Boston, 1704). This rare volume is in the rich collection of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester.
- ↑ See a chapter on this subject, by the present writer, in "The Popular Science Monthly" for October, 1885. A new edition, with large additions, has been recently published by the American Historical Association.
- ↑ See the "Semaine relig. de Lorraine," 1870, p. 445 (cited by "Paul Parfait," in his "Dossier des Pèlerinages," 141-143).
