Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic ThemesWhitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Religion
Saturday Night Thoughts: A Series of Dissertations on Spiritual, Historical, and Philosophic Themes
Whitney, Orson F. (Orson Ferguson)
Latter Day Saint churches
No Flesh Safe Upon the Waters.--Was not this condition almost realized
during the darkest days of the Great War? Perils undreamed of
developed; disasters without precedent, unexampled in history, were
of frequent occurrence. Even upon the calm Pacific no ship pursued
consecutively the same track twice. Companies operating the great
ocean-liners no longer announced the dates of departure from one port
or of expected arrival at another. They dared not; the destroyer was
abroad, death was in the depths, and the spirit of dread brooded upon
the bosom of the waters. And this upon the comparatively peaceful
Western Ocean; while upon the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, and in
the North Sea, the terrible submarine told the tale of danger and
disaster.
The Food Question.--Another phase of the Titanic struggle was the
food question. Joseph Smith had predicted famine; [4] and the famine
came. As early as October, 1876, the Prophet's successor, President
Brigham Young, placed upon the members of the Relief Society a special
mission--that of gathering and storing grain against a day of scarcity;
and from that time the activities of the Society were put forth largely
in this direction. Some made light of the labors of these devoted
women, declaring that another famine could not be. Too vast an area
of the earth's surface was under cultivation, and the means of rapid
transit and communication were too plentiful, to permit of such a
misfortune. If famine threatened any part of the world, word of it
could come in the twinkling of an eye, and millions on millions of tons
of food-stuffs, speedily transported to the scene, would stave off the
straitness and render the calamity impossible.
The Spectre of Famine..--Alas for those who put their trust in the arm
of flesh! In spite of the vast and ever-increasing productivity of the
soil; in spite of railroads, steamships, and telegraphs, spreading a
network of steel and electricity over the face of the planet, this was,
and is still, a famine-threatened world. Europe calls upon America
for food; America generously responds; but as fast as she consigns
her cargoes of foodstuffs to the needy nations, the merciless and
devouring submarine sends them to the bottom of the sea. Such indeed
was the situation. The floor of the ocean is strewn with the wrecks of
transports whose mission was to carry bread to the starving millions
of other lands. And where was the man, uninspired of Heaven, who could
have anticipated such a catastrophe?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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