p. 16 | Earthquakes in Russia by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 26, 1902

Earthquakes in Russia

By Editor

Only in God's vision can we see aright, and we can use His vision only by faith. Learn from His Word how to see.

Earthquakes in Russia.

Jutting into the west side of the southern part of the Caspian Sea, south of the Caucasus Mountains, is a rocky peninsula, upon which is the city of Baku. West of Baku about seventy-five miles is the town of Shamaka, or Shamanka, the center of the earthquake disturbance. For days the country has been shaking; the earth has opened great mouths, out of which have poured sulphurous flames, and into which buildings and people have fallen, until thirty-four villages, and four thousand houses have been destroyed, and two thousand people have perished, mostly women and children. The vividest imagination can not picture these scenes of terror. The old earth is "waxed old like a garment."

Sad News.

A telegram came to this office February 18, stating that the Battle Creek Sanitarium, so well known not only in this country, but throughout the world, was totally destroyed by fire, together with the hospital across the street. This without doubt was the best equipped sanitarium in the world. Every known and proved remedy was in use for the treatment of disease. There were present in the building about 400 guests, but all escaped without injury with the exception of a lady patient, who fell from the fire-escape, breaking her leg. She is reported in no danger. The fire department was unable to secure water to cope with the flames. The report placed the loss between $300,000 and $400,000; but this seems to us low. The insurance was $160,000. The aggregate loss in clothing and jewelry of the patients will amount to a large sum. Dr. J. H. Kellogg, the manager, was absent in the West at the time. The fire did its work in about two hours. Heroic work was done by the nurses. The room of every patient was visited three times before the building was abandoned to its fate. Occurring in the early morning, as it did, before the patients were dressed, it is remarkable that there was no loss of life. Despatches say that it will be immediately rebuilt. Our heartfelt sympathies are extended to the managers and all connected with it. May God's blessing rest upon them in this trial. Later reports say that one old gentleman, aged eighty-three, is missing, and is supposed to have perished. The Pacific Press Board of Directors wired expressions of sorrow, sympathy, and offer of help. Pray for the sufferers.

Release of Miss Stone.

Despatches from Paris, dated February 18, state that Miss Ellen M. Stone, missionary for twenty years in the Balkans, has been released by the brigands, by whom she was captured, with Madam Tsilka, a companion, July 3, 1901. She was held for a ransom of $110,000, but the brigands compromised for $65,000, the amount raised by private subscription. The Paris despatch states that the husband of Madame Tsilka, himself a preacher, has been arrested by the Turkish Government for complicity in the kidnapping of Miss Stone. However this may be, we rejoice in Miss Stone's release.

The Lenten season is on, during which for a period of forty days many persons will endeavor to live pious lives, and so atone for the rest of the year. One paper, and that a Presbyterian, says that it "should come to Christian people at this time as a benediction." Why more than other forty days of the year? Why limit God's abundant blessings, which are new every morning and ever fresh, to forty days of about the worst weather, in our northern clime, of the year? The same paper also tells us that "it is an undisputable fact that Lent is winning its way." " 'Tis true, and sorry 'tis tis true." It is a sign of backsliding, of certain conscious loss of the constant presence and power of Christ. It has ever been true that a backslidden church has multiplied her forms, her fasts, her days of observance, substituting her inconstant ways for the abiding ways of God. The Pentecostal church knew no Lenten season. It originated in the apostasy. The Reformation church knew no Lenten season; the whole year was a season of refreshing. To the professed Christians who are tired and drilled and fagged and worn out, whose life for ten months is utterly yielded to stocks and mines, to parties and plays, to eating and drinking, the Lenten season may come as a time of rest; but to the normal, living Christian it is no different from all the rest of the year. God is near, God is loving, God is mighty, at all times.

Seeking entertainment, or mere amusement, in the late hours of night is the devil's trap. Even late religious services, excepting on rare extraordinary occasions, are unprofitable. This principle is recognized, by comparison, in the Scriptures. Evil work is called the works of darkness (Rom 13:12; Eph. 5:11), and wicked people are said to walk in darkness (Prov. 2:13; Eccl. 2:14). The thief cometh in the night (1 Thess. 5:2), "and they that be drunken are drunken in the night" (verse 7). The people of God are "children of the day;" they "are not of the night, nor of darkness" (verse 5). Christ has called them "out of darkness into His marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9. Satan works by the "power of darkness" (Luke 22:53), and Christ was arrested and condemned in the night. Peter says: "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." When do the lion and beasts of prey in general mostly seek their victims? is it not in the night? And when do people usually dread the possibility of molestation by evil persons? Is it not in the night? The more innocent beasts and the birds are quiet in the night, and wide awake by day. The grosser forms of sin and crime are peculiar to the night. All nature shows that the night is for rest and quiet; and if this rule were followed, men would be wiser, better, healthier, and happier.

Saul of Tarsus was intercepted by the Lord on the road to Damascus, whither the "exceeding mad" man was going in pursuit of his self-imposed task of doing "many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." The Lord's sudden appearance smote him to the ground. Jesus was not designing to destroy him, or even to punish him, but to arrest his attention and show him a better way. It was the sharp contrast of light with darkness that gave the wayward servant such a shock. Saul was a servant of God, a "chosen vessel" set apart from his birth (Acts 9:15; Gal. 1:15); but he had been led out of the way by following the traditions of his fathers. So his Master just stopped him in the way in order to set him right. In Saul's case we have a worthy example of promptitude in accepting reproof and in obeying the light of truth. He says, "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance." This is just the thing that the Lord requires of those servants who to-day "have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge." He would have them turn from traditions, accept the light of truth, get out of deeply-beaten ruts, and carry the Gospel to the world.

The Bound Volume of OUR LITTLE FRIEND, Vol. XI., 424 pp., strongly bound in rich cloth; price $1.00, post-paid. Pacific Press Publishing Co., Oakland, Cal. Here, in permanent form, are gathered together hundreds of helpful lessons for the family, which the wise parent can make of incalculable worth in the early education of the children. Do you wish to make a pleasing and valuable present to some child who has not had the blessings of the Sabbath-school? You can do nothing better than to put into the hands of such this volume with its helpful Scriptural lessons, telling of God's goodness and love; its touching and carefully-chosen stories of real Christian life; and in addition to that its 52 regular Sabbath-school lessons. Many of those who have taken this paper during the year will be glad to have the bound volume to preserve for the children these lessons in character-building.

The increase of Protestantism in France, according to the Literary Digest, has led M. Ernest Renauld, aided by prominent officials in the State and army, with a capital of 300,000 francs, to start a new periodical for the purpose of combating Protestantism. The initial number says:—

For twenty-five years, some sixty thousand Protestants have domineered over thirty-six million Catholics. All the statesmen who have ruled this country during the past quarter of a century have been under Protestant influences. We are tired of being so oppressed, the persecuted, the conquered.

The name of this paper is the Deliverance, but is not France a Republican government? It is not that the Protestantism of France is too much, but it is well to remember that Roman Catholics call everything opposed to Catholicism Protestantism. A great deal of the so-called Protestantism is infidelity.

How much irrelevant talk there is over the question, Which is the superior being, Which is the head, man or woman? A good place of information is the primal record. When God made man, He said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet." This is not "helpmeet," one word, as it is usually pronounced, but two words. A help meet (a help proper) for him, a fitting companion, so not from man's feet, lest he should consider her a subordinate and tyrannize over her, not from man's head, lest she should consider herself superior, but from his side, near his heart, God took from man flesh and bone, formed woman, and gave her to man as a fitting life mate. Let them so remain.

Not in America Alone.

In another column is quoted the view of an English labor-leader concerning the future strife between capital and labor in America. He sees only a fearful conflict in this land. But let no one solace themselves over the thought that the trouble will be local. The American trusts are becoming world trusts. The power to influence legislatures and governments will be world-wide. The dominance over organized labor will extend with the trust; and when the strife does come, it will be confined to no one country or continent; it will be world-wide.

The religious condition of the metropolis of our country, judging from the house-of-worship viewpoint, does not argue strongly for increasing religion, but rather the contrary. For instance, Dr. Henry A. Stimson, in a recent address before the National City Evangelization Union, points out that in 1830 New York had 109 churches, one to every 1,800 people. In 1902 there are 1,000 churches, one to every 3,800 people. Two assembly districts near Manhattan have but one church for every 6,000 inhabitants.

Righteousness alone is life.