SIGNS IN THE EARTH by A. J. Saxby Bourdeau

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 8, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 45.

SIGNS IN THE EARTH

By A. J. Saxby Bourdeau

Where Are These "Signs" Recorded?

"In the last days, saith God, . . . I will show SIGNS IN THE EARTH." Acts 2:17-19.

Tell us . . . what shall be the SIGN of Thy coming, and of the END OF THE WORLD?—Disciples. Matt. 24:3.

There shall be SIGNS . . . UPON THE EARTH. . . . THEN shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.—Jesus. Luke 21:25-27.

THE apostle Peter tells us (2 Peter 1:19) that "we have also a more sure Word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts." The secrets which the Almighty has revealed "unto His servants the prophets," we may read in the Bible, God's "Sure Word of Prophecy:"

"Most wondrous book, bright candle of the Lord! Star of eternity; the only star By which the bark of man could navigate The sea of life, and gain the coast of bliss."

Where Are the "Signs" Themselves?

About us on every hand, the mighty Ruler of the universe has hung His great "signs"—(1) in the physical world; (2) in the social world; (3) in the political world, and (4) in the religious world. So plainly written are these great "signs," that "he may run that readeth." Hab. 2:2.

A mere catalogue of all the "signs in the earth," to say nothing of the "signs in the heavens" (see article "Signs in the Heavens," Message Series No. 2, October 25, by Prof. Geo. W. Rine) would consume a goodly portion of the sixteen pages of this issue. We shall, therefore, of necessity be obliged to mention only a few of the many responses of current history to the voice of second advent prophecies.

Signs in the Physical World

1. Earthquakes in Divers Places

These are the exact words of our Lord in His outline of the world's history from A.D. 33 to His second coming. Read Matthew 24 or Luke 21.

"There shall be . . . earthquakes in divers places." Matt. 24:7. Such was His direct reply to the disciples' question: "What shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the world?" Matt. 24:3. Luke says, "Great earthquakes."

Note the growing frequency of earthquakes "in the last days," as given by Ponton and Mallet, showing that the earth is waxing old (Isa. 51:6):

No. of Earth-
Years	quakes	Average
Those recorded before—
A.D. 1	1700	58 1 in 29 years
" 1 to 900	900	197 1 " 4 "
" 900 " 1500	600	532 1 " 1 year
" 1500 " 1800	300	2,804 9 " 1 "
" 1800 " 1850	50	3,240 64 " 1 "
" 1850 " 1868	18	5,000 277 " 1 "

In one single year (1868) over 100,000 perished by earthquakes. The great Lisbon earthquake, affecting a large portion of the earth, destroyed thousands upon thousands of lives—60,000 in Lisbon alone. In 1875, the city of Cucuta, Colombia, became, in thirty brief seconds, "a mountain of ruins, over 10,000 persons being destroyed. And so we might quote page after page of thrilling accounts of awful earthquakes; the most recent of all, occurring in Italy about one month ago, is still fresh in the minds of all newspaper readers.

2. "Fire, and Pillars of Smoke"

"I will show wonders, . . . in the earth . . . fire, and pillars of smoke . . . before the great and terrible day of the Lord come." Joel 2:30, 31.

What great "wonders" of God "in the earth" emit "fire" and "pillars of smoke"?—Volcanoes, most assuredly. And, as if to confirm this application, Peter, quoting this same prophecy, translates it: "Fire, and vapor [or steam] of smoke." Acts 2:19. Thus are graphically described the fire, steam, and smoke emitted by volcanoes. History records 13,000,000 deaths by volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, from A.D. 79, when old Vesuvius buried wicked Pompeii and Herculaneum, to the overthrow of St. Pierre by Mt. Pelée, in 1902. In the latter instance 30,000 perished in three minutes, and 20,000 more later on. Extinct volcanoes are again showing signs of activity, and new ones are being forced up from ocean's depths. How forcibly do these lofty, fiery torches of the Lord remind the world that "the heavens and the earth, which are now, . . . are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men"! Read 2 Peter 3:7.

3. "The Sea and the Waves Roaring"

Said Jesus: "There shall be signs, . . . the sea and the waves roaring. . . . Then shall they see the Son of Man coming." Luke 21:25-27. This evidently refers to extraordinary upheavals of the ocean, such as terrific storms and tidal waves, the latter being generally caused by earthquakes and submarine volcanic action. A few pithy extracts from many and detailed accounts of notable tidal waves, cyclones, etc., must suffice:

I saw the whole surface of the sea rise as if a mountain side, actually standing up. Another shock, with a fearful roar now took place. With a horrible crash the sea was on us, and at one sweep dashed what was Iquique onto the pampa. I lost my companions, and in an instant was fighting with the dark waters. The mighty waves surged, and roared, and leaped. The cries of human beings and animals were frightful.—Harper's Magazine, May, 1877.

Speaking of marine cyclones, Mr. Talmage said: "At the mouth of the Ganges are three islands—the Hattia, the Sundeep, and the Decan Shahbaspoor. In the midnight of October, 1876, the cry on all those three islands was, 'The waters! the waters!' A cyclone arose and rolled the sea over those three islands, and of a population of 340,000, 215,000 were drowned, only those being saved who had climbed to the tops of the highest trees. Did you ever see a cyclone? No? I pray God you may never see one."

Says the New York Tribune: "The tidal disturbances are the most remarkable and extensive of which there is any record. Both the great ocean waters of the Atlantic and Pacific have been agitated in their whole extent. We mention in particular the tidal waves at St. Thomas (1868) and all the neighboring islands, which were full fifty feet in height. It is said by those who have witnessed these waves that the ocean's roar is exceedingly frightful."

May 9, 1877, a terrible earthquake and tidal wave on the Peruvian and Bolivian coasts destroyed 600 lives and $20,000,000 worth of property.

With the terrible fate of Galveston, still vivid before our minds, and with encyclopedias and newspapers filled with instance after instance of tidal disasters, cyclones, and other havoc produced by the "stormy wind fulfilling His word" (Ps. 148:8) who shall say that the "roaring" of the sea and the waves is not a sign of the end?

4. Armies of Crop-destroying Insects

The first chapter of Joel describes the times just before Christ's second coming:

"Cry unto the Lord, Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand." Verses 14, 15.

The Lord deems this prophecy of sufficient importance to be recounted to generation after generation: Here is the prophecy (read the entire chapter):

"That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten. . . .

"A nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion. He hath laid my vine waste, and . . . my fig tree; he hath made it clean bare, and cast it away; the branches thereof are made white. . . .

"The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted. . . . Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vine-dressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished.

"The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered.

"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand.

"The seed is rotten under their clods." Joel 1. Here is the response of current history to the prophecy:

In the Scientific American (article entitled "The Annual Battle with Insects") we read:

For a quarter of a century science has been laboring in the cause of agriculture to reduce the number of garden pests and to hold them in check. The annual battle with the insect foes are carried on energetically from early spring till late autumn; and the farmer or gardener is not quite sure of his crops until they have been actually harvested.

In spite of all the protective agencies that science has surrounded the fields and gardens with, disasters of gigantic proportions will break out occasionally through the sudden increase of some obnoxious insect or fungus growth. It is the destruction of the potato crop one season, by the Colorado beetle; the total failure of the wheat-fields in certain states by the rust or blight another year; or the wide-spread injury to the cotton plants by the boll-worms.

Somewhere within the United States some crop is pretty sure to be seriously damaged by the insects

or the fungus growth nearly every season. . . . By the middle of summer, insect foes are swarming all over the garden and on every plant. Plant-lice, or aphides, attack all weak plants, and they multiply at the rate of from five to twenty millions in a season from one progenitor.

As a further, authoritative substantiation of the prophecy, I take the following list of "the principal injurious insects of the year" from the Year-book of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, for 1900. And this list, the Secretary of Agriculture says, is "only a partial one."

The Hessian fly, green pea louse, apple louse, grain lice, San Jose scale, striped and twelve-spotted cucumber beetles, squash bug, cabbage worms of different species, various cutworms, particularly the variegated cutworm, the Angoumois grain moth, plum curculio, oblique-banded and strawberry leaf-rollers and related forms, flea-beetles of various species, . . . fruit-tree bark-beetle, common species of fruit-tree borers, oyster-shell and other bark-lice, codling-moth, and similar fruit-species; the bean weevil, apple-tree tent caterpillar, pine-bark beetles, . . . tomato worms, the boll worm or corn-ear worm, harlequin cabbage bug, rose chafer, cinch bug, pear-tree Psylla, army worm and fall army worm, bill bugs, melon louse, cabbage louse, and horn fly.

Is it any wonder, then, that with these armies of insects to contend with, and multiplying as they do—is it any wonder that the prophet says that "joy is withered away from the sons of men"?

5. "Famines and Pestilences . . . in Divers Places"

With the proofs of the earth waxing old before us—crop failures always somewhere, how easy it is to see fulfilled "in divers places" the following prediction of Christ:

"There shall be famines, and pestilences, . . . in divers places." Matt. 24:7.

Famines.—History records over 350 great famines since A.D. 1769. Over forty of these occurred in India alone. Thousands upon thousands perished in the India famines of 1897 and 1900. But these are as nothing compared to the great famines yet to follow in the wake of the world's great, final wars between the nations.

Pestilences.—Among the great pestilences may be mentioned the following: "A.D. 169, in Rome, 10,000 deaths daily; A.D. 717, in Constantinople, 300,000 deaths; A.D. 1346 to 1349, in Europe, 25,000,000 deaths (about one-fourth of the inhabitants) by the "black death;" A.D. 1570 to 1670, 500,000 deaths; in 1472, in Paris, 40,000 in one day," to say nothing of millions upon millions of modern victims of cholera, smallpox, yellow fever, etc.

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. . . .

"Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter 3:9-13.