Destruction upon Destruction by Francis M. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Aug 17, 1916

Destruction upon Destruction

By Francis M. Wilcox

It requires no prophetic utterance to tell us that we have reached the days of violence, destruction, and desolation. The very atmosphere itself pulsates with danger. We know not what a single day will bring forth. Eagerly we scan the papers every morning and every evening to determine what the last twelve hours have chronicled. War and bloodshed, famine and disease, political commotion and industrial strife, keep the nerves of the great multitude of earth’s inhabitants tingling with the continual excitement of the hour. How different these days from the days of our fathers!

Strange times have fallen upon us. The hearts of millions are oppressed with a terrible foreboding. Every new horror brings a fear which causes the heart to grow fainter.

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N. Y.

We live and move today in a world of unrest and disquietude. And while we need no prophetic vision to understand the character of these times, it is well for us to recognize that the very days in which we live and the events which we see taking place about us are subjects of prophetic delineation. We have reached the days foretold by the pen of prophecy, and the very conditions we see are significant signs of the times in which we live, signs of the approaching end of the age. Said the Master:—

“There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21: 25-27.

The prophet Jeremiah, looking down through the long ages, describes the scenes now taking place around us:—

“My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I cannot hold my peace; because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment. How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people are foolish, they know me not; they are sottish children, and they have no understanding; they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.” Jer. 4: 19-22, A. R. V.

How strikingly is this pen-picture met in the wholesale destruction going on in the great European war! Locally, in various parts of the world, the words of the prophet are also meeting a striking fulfilment. An illustration of this was seen in the terrible destruction to life and property resulting from the unparalleled explosion which occurred in New York the morning of July 30. A great store of ammunition kept on Black Tom Island, a small strip of land jutting out into the bay from the New Jersey shore, exploded, causing a property loss of many millions of dollars. The number killed and injured will probably never be definitely known.

There was a series of terrific explosions, the detonations of which were felt in five States, and the thundering echoes of which roused people from their beds ninety miles from the great metropolis. The surrounding country and water for miles were literally showered with bursting shrapnel. Wild panic seized the people, and thousands rushed from their homes, some crying, “The end of the world is come.” In one locality people rushed to the church, hoping to find relief from destruction by prayers and intercessions. Newspaper reports speak in graphic utterances of this terrible catastrophe. From its New York correspondent the Washington Times of July 30 publishes the following account of the explosion:—

“The first explosion was followed by thirty minor explosions in railroad yards and terminals on the New Jersey shore.

“Hundreds of fragments of shells rained on the lower city, and bodies were hurled high in air in plain view of police and firemen, called frantically to the scene of the blazing warehouses.

“Rocked by the upheaval, Ellis Island immigrants ran screaming from

their beds, were hurried aboard barges and rushed away, as two lighters, loaded to the gunwales with explosives and blazing fiercely, bumped into the piers of the island.

“For ninety miles into New Jersey people were roused from bed by the thundering echoes of the catastrophe.

“In Manhattan and Brooklyn the first effect of the reverberating quake was amazing. People rushed to the streets half clad from hotels and homes.

“Windows in hundreds of stores were shattered, leaving the contents easy prey for looters, who gathered a harvest.

“Police headquarters flashed orders all over the city, bringing every available man on reserve duty to lower Manhattan to guard the prizes that had been exposed in Maiden Lane and other wealth-laden streets of that district.

“Reserves who had been detailed to car-strike duty were called off and scattered throughout the city.

“Broadway was a sea of glass. Signs were torn down and crashed to the gutters.

“Fulton Street, in Brooklyn, and even Bath Avenue, in Bensonhurst, were

strewn with fragments of broken windows.

“Broadway’s white-light district was terrorized. At first it was thought the subway had blown up or a building had collapsed.

“Frightened guests ran from the Astor, the St. Regis, the Waldorf, the McAlpin, the Biltmore, and a score of other hotels in Manhattan.

“On every lip was the frightened cry, ‘The world is coming to an end!’”

“Lower Manhattan, with its streets of great skyscrapers, seemed to rock like a tree in a gale. Behind the towering Woolworth building flared a ghastly light, adding to the terror of the thousands.

“Brooklyn bridge and Manhattan bridge seemed for a moment to swing uncertainly. Crossing trolley cars seemed to hop into the air for inches and then to stumble back to the tracks. Passengers were crushed against each other, and glass was shattered.”

The damage to plate glass alone, according to the New York Times, will exceed one million dollars. It was feared at one time that the force of the explosion had caused injury to the Statue of Liberty and to a number of large buildings in the city.

We would not be understood as holding up this terrible disaster as a judgment of the last days, but we do present it as a striking indication of the times in which we are living. It shows the utter disregard which men have for the safety of human life, and the greed for wealth which will lead them to pile up in the midst of a vast population such great stores of munitions. It indirectly presents a picture to this peace-preserved country of the terrible results of war. And it shows the terrible destruction which may be visited upon our great city centers at any time, not alone through

the elements, but through forces stored up within their own boundaries by the insatiable greed of men. And above all, what a picture, on a small scale, it presents of the world’s final destruction and the scenes of terror which will take place at the coming of the Lord. Men’s hearts will indeed fail them for fear in that great day.

There is an uncertainty in life’s existence, and not for a single moment is one safe outside of the protecting care of God. As never before, the human family is the prey of disease, of accident, of disaster by sea and land. The oppressive heat is bringing death to scores. The toll from flood and storm, from fire and earthquake, from railroad wreck and ocean disaster, mounts upward into the thousands yearly. The children of the Master are safe only as they rest under the shadow of his wing. They are safe only in the security which the protecting angels of God afford. Terrible scenes are being enacted today. They will grow more terrible as the days pass. May God help us to flee to our Rock of defense. In the shelter of that great Rock we may say, in the words of the Sweet Singer of Israel: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” Ps. 46: 1-3. F. M. W.