What Do These Things Mean?
By M. E. Kelsey
THIS is a question which can but suggest itself to the mind of every person who takes any interest in the things that are transpiring around him. It is a very rare thing to take up a secular paper without finding quite a portion of it devoted to accounts of terrible disasters by fires, floods, tornadoes, and earthquakes. So frequent are these occurrences, and so numerous are the portents of coming events, that even the insane seeker after pleasure, the worldling in the giddy whirl of business, and people among all classes, and in all avocations, are constrained to pause and inquire, What is before us? What great event is the world being prepared for by these calamities? And well may they raise these inquiries. Only look at the number of desolating fires and floods that have swept over our country during the last few years, spreading sorrow and death in their track. During the late fires in Pennsylvania, many towns and villages have been laid waste, and the inhabitants have been obliged to flee for their lives. In Wisconsin, also, fires have been raging, and the city of Oshkosh was almost entirely destroyed a few months since, the loss being estimated at no less than $2,000,000. And while our own country has been suffering such disasters, other countries are not without their portion. France has recently been visited by floods and inundations devastating large tracts of country, and carrying away thousands of people. The appalling accounts of the Chicago fire of 1871 alone are sufficient to cause every one to stop and consider. It is said by eye witnesses of that event that "The very air seemed to be on fire." The Detroit Post gave at that time the following description of the scene:— "The fire did not spread gradually from tree to tree and from house to house, but a great sheet of flame, overcoming them like the clouds, and moving with the rapidity of a hurricane, rushed upon them without warning. The atmosphere seemed filled with fire. Many who inhaled the air fell dead. Corpses were found without a trace of fire upon them, or even upon the clothes which still covered them. Many were killed in compact masses as if by blast of death, and fish were killed in the streams by the intense heat. Many of the people believed that the last day had come, and well they might." It was estimated that a space one mile wide and five miles long was burned over, not even sparing buildings which were considered fireproof. Thus we have the enormous extent of "thirty-two hundred acres of burned buildings, the loss being three times that caused by the fire of 1666 in London, and over fifteen times that occasioned by the celebrated fire of 1868 in Portland, Maine." If this does not fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, "Thou shalt be visited of the Lord of hosts with thunder, and earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire," what can? Another fact which adds to the fears and strange forebodings of the people, is the alarming frequency and intensity of earthquakes. Only a few weeks ago we had accounts of the terrible earthquake in South America by which it is thought that not less than twenty thousand lives were lost. Also there have been accounts of recent disastrous ruptures in Iceland. At the rate this phenomenon is increasing the inhabitants of this earth may well wonder with astonishment to know what the end will be. The following figures found in the "Coming Earthquake," by D. T. Taylor, show they are on a fearful increase: "Earthquakes recorded before the Christian era for a period of 1700 years, 58; thence to the end of the ninth century, 900 years, 197; thence to end of fifteenth century, 600 years, 532; thence to end of eighteenth century, 300 years, 2804; thence to 1850, only 50 years, 3240;" and finally, "in the single year of 1868 over one hundred thousand persons perished by earthquakes, and the single month of March, 1869, there were eleven earthquakes, two of them great and destructive." Surely we could ask for no greater evidence of the times in which we live. When the disciples of Christ raised the question, "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" before giving a direct answer, he mentioned, among other things, that there should be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in diverse places. Therefore, as we see these signs fulfilling, and others fulfilled, how can we doubt the truthfulness of our position that Jesus is soon to return to earth? These things are given as waymarks whereby the Christian may know where he is in the world's history. The remnant people of God will be called to witness many trying scenes ere they reach their final home, but Christ has promised grace to those who ask it, and has left for us this encouraging promise that "he that endureth to the end the same shall be saved." May we all be among that number. M. E. KELSEY.