An Amazing Year by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 23, 1912

"An Amazing Year"

By Editor

"An amazing year" is what the Springfield Republican calls the year just closed. It says further, "For such a topsyturvy year as this, one must search long in the annals of the past." It then tells of the very mild, balmy weather in New England at Christmas time; and while it was so mild in New England, the storm king was playing havoc in other parts, there being six storm-centers in other sections.

The Republican then goes on to record the storms that broke on so many parts of the world during the last year, speaking particularly of the extremes of heat not only in this country but in Europe — extremes that resulted in much suffering and loss of life. These heat waves were followed by midsummer frosts in parts of Canada, and very early frosts in parts of this country, that did much to damage crops. Then there were earthquakes in some of the islands, and tornadoes in numerous places.

The concluding paragraph of the article reads:

In the Philippines, in November, there was a frightful cyclone, and with it the greatest rainfall — seven feet — ever recorded in human history since the Noachian Deluge. Through the fall the North Atlantic was tormented by such a series of violent gales as old captains say they can not remember in a lifetime at sea. With December things went from bad to worse. Costa Rica suffered a cyclone which destroyed half the banana crop. In Spokane there was an unprecedented snow, stalling trains so that some passengers had to walk sixty miles through the drifts. In Seattle, on the other side of the mountain, the snow was a disastrous rain, and a warm chinook melting the new fallen snow in the mountains caused violent floods. In Colorado this same storm cost the life of a Massachusetts woman, lost in the mountains while on her honeymoon. On the Atlantic there were fresh hurricanes, and even on the big liners many men and some officers were swept overboard by monstrous waves. In the middle of the month severe winter marched down into the Southwest, and two feet of snow fell in the "Panhandle" of Texas — another record. No less astonishing has been the recent invasion of Kansas City, Topeka, St. Louis, and Chicago by such fogs as have previously been known only in London at its worst — fogs in which at midday one might feel in the street the touch of a hand and be unable to see it or the body to which it was attached. Truly, an annus mirabilis, a year of portents, but New England has had little to complain of.

Let the foregoing statements of the conditions of the past year be borne in mind while you read the following:

And 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 coming of Christ is to be immediately preceded by unprecedented disturbances in nature. The foregoing text shows it clearly. A scripture from Isaiah is of the same import:

Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. Isa. 24:17-21.

The disturbances in nature that the Republican tells about will increase more and more as the days go by. We have hardly seen the beginnings of them yet. There is a scientific reason for them, but that reason is to be found in the science of divine prophecy. In the realm of nature we find that scientific law is infinitely accurate and reliable in its operation. God is the Author of every such law; and since He is infinite in all His attributes, His laws must show infinite perfection. But the law that the scientist studies is not any more accurate than are the prophecies that come from the same Author.

The meaning of these great storms may be understood, and the same One who tells their meaning has also provided a shelter from them. Do not delay to find it.