The Rev. T. L. Josephs Does Not Attribute Tragedy to Divine Retribution
St. John's Rectory,
Ward, Pa., August 28, 1911.
To the Editor of The Canonsburg Daily Notes:
Dear Sir: --- I wish to express through The Notes my deepest sympathy for the people of Canonsburg in their sufferings due to the terrible disaster which occurred at the Opera House on Saturday evening. I am not personally acquainted with the victims of the disaster, but inasmuch as I was pastor of a church in Canonsburg for two years and that so recently I cannot but feel a deep sense of sorrow for those who had lost their loved ones, and those who were seriously injured, and for the citizens of the town in general, all of whom must feel keenly the affliction that has come to them.
It is impossible to explain such calamities. They remind us that "in the midst of life we are in death." The show, it would seem, was not wrong in itself, and the subject seems to have been a very good one, and I would think educative, which perhaps accounts for so many children being present, so that it could not be regarded, as a divine retribution.
May the good Lord sustain His afflicted people in their sorrows and sufferings and sanctify the affliction to the spiritual good of all, is my prayer.
Respectfully yours,
T. L. Josephs