THE DISASTER IN PARIS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIB,—Do you not think that their may be another answer to the persistent queries in our mind as to the cause, the ulti- mate cause I mean, of the Paris disaster ? Is it not possible that the Christian world may some day come to the belief that God did not prevent that catastrophe because he could not? Have we not trifled long enough with the words " Almighty " and " Omnipotent," making them mean "able to do all things," which is meaningless, instead of "able to do all things that can be done," which is reasonable and in- telligible ? Is it not conceivable that God, in suffering the Creative act, placed limitations upon himself which no one but he himself can remove P Is not the Creator limited by the material upon which he is working,—a carver, a painter, a musician, are not their supreme powers limited by the material they have chosen for the moment, as the means of expression of their thoughts ? So is not God limited by matter,—does it not impose conditions with which even he must comply ? and, therefore, in this region may there not be combinations resulting in catastrophe which even he is
unable to avert P—I am, Sir, &c., X.
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