Under one of the seven plagues which the “more sure Word of prophecy” declares will come upon the world thru and because of its wickedness, is one in which power is given to the sun “to scorch men with fire.” “And men were scorched with great heat.” See Rev. 16:8, 9. We have no reason to believe that all these plagues will come upon the world in their full force suddenly. They come as the consequence of sin. When man, the prince of the world under God, yielded himself to Satan and sin, he yielded his dominion, the earth, and all that pertained to it. All that has prevented the coming of these plagues in the past has been the restraining influence of the Spirit of God holding in check the working of sin. When men reject the pleadings of the Spirit of God, they reject the power that holds in check the disintegrating influence of sin; and men are to-day rejecting the Spirit of God, speaking thru His Word, appealing thru the needs of humanity. Rejecting Him, they are inviting the destructive influences of sin which will culminate in the seven last plagues. The mighty power of the sun’s heat has to a greater or less extent been felt in various parts of the earth, generally in those parts where the curse lies heaviest, ever since sin entered. God in mercy has withdrawn at times His countervailing goodness, that men might know, if they would, the power of sin-perverted law. In these last days of overwhelming evil, and rebellion most frequently in the guise of righteousness, the effects of sin are manifesting themselves anew, in flood and tempest, in cyclone, and earthquake, and tidal wave, in disease and pestilence, in torrid heat of the sun. Even in June, this year, summer’s maiden month, in many places all heat records have been broken. The great central West, east of the Rockies, has been spoken of as a seething, scorching furnace; and the wave has passed eastward and westward till cooled by the kisses of the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific. July 1 was the fifth day of great heat in the East. June 30 there were twenty fatalities in Greater New York, more than double that number of prostrations, and several cases of insanity. The mercury in Chicago arose at a jump thirteen degrees, and climbed in the afternoon to 104° and 106° in the streets, and 11 o’clock at night it registered 99°! Think of it! Think of the crowded tenement houses! July 1 in New York the temperature registered by the Weather Bureau thermometer 102°. In Philadelphia the same. Casualties of July 1 and 2
In New York alone there were 87 deaths; in Pittsburg and suburbs, 18; in Baltimore, 14; in St. Louis, 6; in Cleveland, 3. In other cities there were deaths. In Chicago 11 were killed by lightning. From Atlanta, Ga., on the south to St. Paul on the north; from Boston in the east to Kansas City in the west, the thermometer ranged from 90° to 100°. In New York, hospitals were crowded to their limit, hundreds of horses fell dead in the streets. July 2, the sixth day of the intense heat, the sufferings had increased in geometrical progression, the cumulative effect of the entire period. In little Wilmington, Delaware, 6 were killed by the heat and 32 prostrated; in Baltimore 23 dead, 100 prostrated; in Cleveland 7 dead, 20 prostrated; in Philadelphia 52 dead, 210 prostrated; in Pittsburg 50 dead, 300 prostrated; in New York 210 dead, 500 prostrated. These generally are minimum figures. Philadelphia and other places recorded their highest temperature, nearly 103°. At Phoenix, Arizona, it registered 106°. The Pacific Coast has tasted the heat, but with the blessed respite of cool nights. Clear consciences, temperate living, and cheerful hearts are blessed panaceas now-a-days. Then connect with the great Spirit of life. “And the Man shall be . . . as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.”