The Great Galveston Disaster / Containing a Full and Thrilling Account of the Most Appalling Calamity of Modern Times Including Vivid Descriptions of the Hurricane and Terrible Rush of Waters; Immense Destruction of Dwellings, Business Houses, Churches, and Loss of Thousands of Human Lives; Thrilling Tales of Heroic Deeds; Panic-Stricken Multitudes and Heart-Rending Scenes of Agony; Frantic Efforts to Escape a Horrible Fate; Separation of Loved Ones, etc., etc.; Narrow Escapes from the Jaws of Death; Terrible Sufferings of the Survivors; Vandals Plundering Bodies of the Dead; Wonderful Exhibitions of Popular Sympathy; Millions of Dollars Sent for the Relief of the Stricken Sufferers

by Paul Lester

SERMONS ON GALVESTON.

The Galveston catastrophe furnished the theme for Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell’s sermon on Sunday, September 16th, in the Temple of Grace Baptist Church, Philadelphia. He attributed the disaster to the working of God’s immutable laws, and declared that the calamity in its end was for the good of all things. At the conclusion of his sermon he made an appeal for the aid of the sufferers. There was a generous response. Many pledged themselves for specific sums.

Dr. Conwell took his text from Genesis xiii, 36. He said in part: “It was Jacob who said ‘all things are against me,’ but Paul said, ‘All things work together for good to them that love God.’ Paul’s position was true. Jacob’s was untrue. Yet Jacob had philosophy in his expression; but his philosophy was so much inferior that Paul’s inclosed it, left it out of sight. There is no sorrow or affliction or pain or death but it worketh out in God’s hands a greater good.

“The disaster at Galveston fills me with terror. It was a lovely city; its people kind-hearted and enterprising. The destruction of that city so suddenly was God’s doing, and consequently it must be for good. It was His doing and what He does is right. The hurricane was the necessary outcome of all the working laws of God. He sent it and it must be for good. We can not understand that; we sit back in our heart’s darkness and say, ‘God is wrong; He is not governing the universe.’