TERRIBLE RECORD OF A MONTH.
“The curse devoureth the earth.”—“There is sorrow on the sea, it cannot be quiet.”—“The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain.” From Sept. 6 to Oct. 6, 1869, deserves to be remembered as a month of extraordinary events. A mere glance at some of them is sufficient to show that earth is greatly disquieted on account of sin—creation groans for the promised deliverance—the times are perilous—and God hath a controversy with the nations. On Monday, Sept. 6, “one of the most frightful colliery disasters that it has ever been the painful lot of American journals to put on record,” occurred at the Avondale mine in Plymouth, Pa. One hundred and ten persons lost their lives; the widows and orphans bereft number “not less than one hundred and sixty-eight,” and a generous public have been called upon to raise means for the relief of those thus suddenly left destitute of support. Sept. 8 brought “the great gale” on the Atlantic coast. “No gale approaching it in severity has been witnessed in this city for the past thirty years,” says the Boston Journal. Such a storm has not occurred here “since the great gale of 1815,” says the Providence Press. Several lives were lost, a number of vessels were wrecked, and an “immense destruction of property” took place. The damage done to the shipping and buildings in the Eastern Navy Yard alone, amounts to $30,000—of which Boston comes in for a share of $9,000. Sept. 12, a tornado in New Braunfels, Texas, lasting only about a minute, “killed two persons, fatally injured three, and more or less hurt thirty or forty others, besides tearing thirty or forty houses to atoms,” and killing cattle and fowls. Telegrams from Great Britain and the Continent, of Sept. 12 to 18, say, “A fearful hurricane has swept over the north of France, causing much damage to the crops and property.” Telegraph wires were prostrated; and it is estimated that 120 vessels were wrecked, and several hundred seamen injured. Good judges estimate the damage done to wheat alone, by the great storms throughout the State of Minnesota, to be not less than five million bushels, while two-thirds of the hay crop is worthless. Wall street, in New York, on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 24 and 25, was a scene of excitement such as is seldom witnessed even among gold speculators—in fact “the excitement was without parallel among gold dealers on the Continent.” The price of gold advanced from 135 to 165, when the bubble burst, “fortunes vanished, speculators were ruined,” and an insane asylum received at least one more inmate. “Probably the entire average amount of gold which could be raked together from all the vaults and treasure-hidings of that city, would not reach twenty millions,” says the Congregationalist; and yet, during the excitement, there was the pretense of the sale of four or five hundred millions of gold, which shows that “the whole business of selling gold and stocks, as now carried on there, is as purely gambling and swindling as are the transactions of the avowed gambling saloons.” At the State Fair at Indianapolis, Ind., Friday, Oct. 1, a boiler attached to a saw-mill had just been fired up for a test with another machine, when it exploded, killing twenty-seven persons and wounding nearly sixty,—several of whom it is feared will die. Five horses were also killed. On Sunday and Monday, Oct. 3 and 4, a terrible storm of wind and rain swept over many of the States, and some of the British Possessions, drowning thousands of cattle and sheep, sweeping off in the swollen streams, bridges, houses, lumber, crops, and people—for not a few lives were lost. Telegraph wires have been broken, railroad tracks gullied out, traveling impeded in all directions, and millions on millions of property taken away as it were with a stroke. Reports of the fearful disasters are daily coming in. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions also have been “in divers places.” “Colima has been blazing in Mexico, another volcano is smoking in Costa Rica, and the old mountain furnaces of South America are not silent. Quito is in imminent danger, and great alarm exists along the whole coast. Three shocks occurred Sept. 17, at St. Thomas; and Etna is reported, by cable dispatch, to be again in a state of serious eruption, and throwing out lava.” A dispatch from Fillmore, Utah, dated Oct. 1, says: “At ten minutes to 7 o’clock this evening a violent shock of earthquake was felt here. . . . It is said to have been the most violent shock that has been felt in this part of Utah since its first settlement. The shock and trembling altogether lasted two minutes.” We will say nothing of thefts, burglaries, and murders, which are of every-day occurrence, but when have so many heavy bank robberies, “defalcations,” and business “irregularities” been reported within the same space of time? Look where you will, and earth, sea, and society, are apparently in a state of unrest. France has been shaken to her centre by the illness of Napoleon—not knowing what his death would bring forth, should it occur while the Prince Imperial is in his minority. The interest in the Pope’s Ecumenical Council, appointed for December 8, has been increased by various circumstances, not the least of which is, the defection of the renowned Pere Hyacinthe of Paris. Spain is unsettled, Cuba still is in a state of insurrection, and “unusual bustle and activity” prevail in the United States Navy yards—having an eye probably to Spanish affairs. We know not what a few weeks will bring forth in the East or West. As we have seen, the last month has brought events—startling, unusual, and terrible,—but who heeds them? In the race to be rich, the whirl of pleasure, and the excitement of sin, there is little pause to listen to the voice of the Almighty in his mercy or judgments. Men may be startled for a moment by the earthquake’s tread, the sweep of the tidal wave, the fatal accident, the fury of the wind from the fists of Jehovah, or the wasting rainstorm, but in the rush to repair damages, to travel by steam, and talk by lightning, who heeds the cry, “PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD?” As forces on the battle-field trample on the dying and dead in the excitement of the conflict, so do earth’s inhabitants press onward in sin and worldly business, regardless of passing events! But it will not be always so. The day of the Lord cometh!—“a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” Earth has never yet witnessed the like. Through the telescope of revelation we see it—in the light of prophecy we behold it. It comes apace. It is “the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” Men will then be compelled to pause and acknowledge the hand of God—but it will be too late. Happy they who will be hidden “in the day of the Lord’s anger.” Reader, are you ready? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”—Advent Herald.