Strong
arms and stout hearts were in the lifeboat, and that accounts for her
reaching the wreck. Had the rowers the choice of a stimulus, we dare say
they would have taken a swig of brandy in preference to any quantity of
the Holy Spirit. What Providence _might_ have done if he, she, or it
was in the humor, was to keep the shipwrecked sailors safe until the
lifeboat arrived. But this was _not_ done, Those who were lashed to the
rigging were saved, while the captain and four others, less fortunately
situated, were lost. Where the _material_ means were efficacious there
was salvation, and where they failed there was disaster and death.

So much for the logical side of the matter. Now let us look at the moral
side. Religion pretends to minister to the unselfish part of our nature.
That is the theory, but how does it work out in practice? Thanking God
for saving the survivors of a shipwreck implies that he could have saved
those who perished. It also implies that he did not choose to do so. It
further implies that the saved are more worthy, or more important, than
the lost; at least, it implies that they are greater favorites in
the "eye of heaven." Now this is a frightful piece of egotism, which
everyone with a spark of manhood would be disgusted at if he saw it in
its true colors.

Nor is this all. It is not even the worst. There is a viler aspect of
this "thanksgiving" business. One man is saved in a disaster and another
is killed. When the first realises his good luck he congratulates
himself, This is natural and pardonable, but only for a moment. The
least disinterestedness, the least sympathy, the least imagination,
would make him think of his dead companion. "Did he suffer much, poor
fellow? What will his wife do? How will his little ones get on without
a father? After all, mightn't it have been better if he had been spared
instead of me? Who knows?"

If these reflections did not occur under the stimulated instinct of
self-preservation it would be bad enough. How much worse when the
survivor keeps up the selfish attitude in cold blood, and deliberately
goes about thanking God for _his_ preservation! Ordinary reason and
humanity would cry shame on such egotism, but religion steps in and
sanctifies it.

Some of these days an honest man will be provoked into a bit of good
strong "blasphemy." When he hears a fellow thanking Providence for _his_
safety, while others perished, this honest man will shrug his shoulders.