STORMS OF APRIL by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · May 13, 1880

STORMS OF APRIL.

By Editor

APRIL has always been counted a "fickle" month; a period of alternate sunshine and showers; but not a month of very heavy storms. In California, usually, the rainy season is nearly or quite past when April comes, and in the Eastern and Mississippi valley States, storms with heavy winds are seldom felt before June. But April, 1880, has rendered itself remarkable as the month of, not only heavy but terrible, storms from ocean to ocean. The injury done by the storms and floods in California, during last month, is very great. Such a season of snow and consequent labor and loss on the Sierra Nevada mountains has not been known since the railroad has been in operation. We can give our readers no idea of the effects of the April storms on the Pacific slope, as the columns of the daily papers were loaded with the accounts, day after day.

To record the terrible disasters in the East would more than fill our paper. The storm of April 19, in Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri, was the most destructive that has ever occurred in the United States. At first the news came of the destruction of Marshfield, county seat of Webster Co., Mo. Later intelligence showed that the ruin in other towns was nearly as complete. The dead and wounded were numbered by hundreds, and the loss in property cannot well be estimated.

And later, we had accounts of unusually severe storms in the South; in Mississippi the town Macon was nearly destroyed. In Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, tornadoes have spread terror and ruin. In Wisconsin a cyclone passed through Rock county, strong enough to lay stone buildings in ruins. To give particulars of all the destruction of all these would fill a good sized volume.

What is the matter with the elements? It is certain that wonderful things are transpiring, and will the people lay it to heart? We believe the judgments of God are abroad. The earth is groaning under its burden of sin, and struggling toward the day of doom. The perils of the last days are advancing—coming swiftly upon us. And yet the cry, "Peace and safety," is heard on every hand. But skepticism and scoffing will not avert impending calamities. The prophecies forewarn of these things, and the plagues of God's wrath upon a guilty world will soon descend. O, that men would listen to the voice of wisdom, and turn to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, before the reaping time comes, when justice, without longer mercy, will overtake the impenitent.