‘THOU SHALT NOT BE AFRAID.’
By Editor
THIS quotation is from the ninety-first psalm. The pronoun “thou” refers to the individual who has made God his refuge and trust in the time of trouble that is coming upon the earth. “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” The “terror,” the “pestilence,” the “plague,” and the “destruction” are already at work; so the comforting message to those who see in these things the fulfilment of the Word of God, “Thou shalt not be afraid,” is especially timely just now; for here and there throughout the earth are being manifested examples of such “perilous times” as will ere long be general. Continual reference is being made in the press to the wars, the strikes, the famines, the epidemics of disease, the disastrous fires on sea and land, storms, floods, earthquakes, etc. We give in this connection an extract from a private letter to friends in this city, from one of our laborers who was in Honolulu during the recent visitation of bubonic plague upon that city. From this we get but a faint idea of the condition of things when the final plagues are poured upon the earth. But it ought to be enough to set men to thinking upon the prophecies of the Scriptures, of which we are even now having a forecast. It would be hard for one not with us to realize the revolution made in the affairs of the little Hawaiian metropolis by the introduction of the plague. In the district which a few months ago was called home by one-third of the population of the city, and where an equal proportion of the local business was transacted, can now be seen nothing but the ashes of as many blasted hopes. The whole of the Chinese and Japanese quarters, together with quite a large portion of the native section, including the Kamakapili Church (one of the largest and finest in the city) were burned, leaving nothing by which to even locate the former business centers except the narrow depressions in the blackness once called streets, and at the same time leaving over ten thousand people homeless. It demanded the laying aside of both business and pleasure and the concentration of every energy to provide shelter for this great multitude of people. The rapidity with which a new city for this purpose was constructed, surprised and demanded the admiration of every one, and the way all responded to assist the unfortunates was inspiring. Yet, despite everything that could be done to relieve the sufferers, there were many circumstances that would touch the heart of the most unsympathetic. The very fact that ten thousand people with nothing but the little clothing upon their person should be thrown into quarantine, while everything that was prized by them was consigned to the flames, is startling, but some of the individual cases were pathetic. One poor Chinese, after having been released from quarantine, wandered about until, weakened from lack of food, he fainted upon the street. The frightened bystanders, thinking it was a case of plague, fled, but when a physician was called and an examination made, it was ascertained that his condition was due simply to hunger and exhaustion. The morning after the first fire the morning paper spoke a little carelessly of the “Celestials” fingering nervously the little trinkets and trumpery they must leave behind as the guards hurried them off to the quarantine station; but I could not help wondering if some of the rest of us would not finger a little nervously some of our trinkets (which, altho valueless to others, revive as many memories in us) if we were being hurried off that some one might touch a match to them. But those who witnessed the big fire of January 20, when the fire became unmanageable and over five thousand people were made homeless in a single hour, felt in no mood to jest. Picture to yourself a fire started in some specially infected buildings getting beyond control, and, impelled by a strong wind, spreading rapidly over that section of the condemned district still occupied by five thousand people. Hemmed in like rats in a trap by guards and frightened citizens armed with guns, clubs, sticks, and pick handles, lest they should escape and carry infection throughout the city, their homes were burned down almost before arrangements could be made to draw them off into a clean space where they might still be guarded. The roar of the flames mingled with the natives’ wailing for their church, the shrieks of frightened women and children, the hoarse yells of guards as some attempted to escape across the line, and finally the desperate men inside forming themselves into a little army to force their way out, while all the time the more thoughtful were kept busy carrying the old, the sick, and the infirm from the burning buildings, made most gruesome sights and hideous sounds. One member of the family is stricken with the plague. He is at once taken to the pest-house, and, if death occurs, is cremated. The remainder of the family are hurried off into quarantine, while the home and all it contains are burned. This all seems necessary, yet how awful! I shall never forget one poor Chinese mother with four little ones clinging to her as she was brought weeping from the death-bed of her husband to the quarantine station the last day I was there. It would be hard to imagine the feelings of this poor woman, who had scarcely been outside her own home, as she was thus thrown among a great crowd of strangers upon the occasion of her husband’s death. That night I was asked to nurse in the pest-house, or plague hospital, just then being opened, and among our first patients was a poor Hawaiian woman, and with her a little five-year-old girl. During the first night the mother died, and the sleeping child was removed to another room. The awakening among strangers was a touching incident, and we did all in our power to divert her attention and make the little thing feel at home. That afternoon I carried her to the quarantine station, and if you could have seen the little thing cling to me (a friend of only a few hours) when she saw all those strangers, you could better appreciate what plague means. Yet this is but a slight foreshadowing of the time when “a thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand.” O, that we might be prepared for that time! Are we doing all we might to fit others for those terrible scenes?