APRIL 18, 1906 has been rendered memorable by the great earthquake on that day on the Pacific Coast. Millions upon millions of property have been destroyed, and hundreds of precious lives lost, and the end of sufferings and deaths is not yet.
If this is the voice of God speaking to this hitherto fortunate and prosperous people of this American Gold Coast, how many will rightly interpret the voice, and profit by this great lesson of bitter experience? Will there be a turning to the Lord by embracing with all the heart the everlasting Gospel, and thus preparing for the greatest earthquake, as also the last, that this earth will ever know, which, by the way, is not far distant, or will there be a maddening rush to build for time, instead of eternity?
The Ten Words of the first great sermon on the mount were made most terribly emphatic by an earthquake. In speaking the Ten Commandments from Mount Sinai to more than six millions of souls at the foot of the mountain, God's voice shook the earth, and the mountain quaked greatly. Ex. 19: 18; Heb. 12: 26. Could that people who had been delivered from abject slavery and made a free and independent nation only about three months before, ever forget the presence, majesty, and power of the living God, or the importance and holiness of the living oracles thus revealed to them on that memorable day? God was about to establish a true theocracy among that people, and hence the wonderful phenomena and great glory manifested in the proclamation of the constitution of that theocracy. But that people did thereafter become backslidden and rebellious, and hence the Lord at times visited them "with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire." Isa. 29: 6.
Now sin, all sin, is the transgression of that holy law of Ten Commandments uttered by the Lord from the summit of Sinai. But all have sinned, and thus come short of the glory of God. But God so loved the world that He gave His beloved Son to die for us, that we, through His death, might obtain everlasting life, becoming, through Christ, loyal subjects of the government of God.
When Christ cried with a loud voice, bowed His head, and died on Calvary's cross, there was a great earthquake. The solid rocks were rent, and graves were opened. Thus the event of the Lamb of God presenting Himself as the great sin-offering to take away the sin of the world, was made emphatic by an earthquake.
And this same Jesus said of the period between His going away and coming again, There shall be "earthquakes in divers places." Matt. 24: 7. These prophetic words of Jesus have been most fully demonstrated many times, "Earthquakes in divers places." It is now frequently observed by those who know best that no country on the earth is exempt from earthquakes. They may occur in any place at any time. Twelve or thirteen earthquakes every year for centuries past, in different parts of the world, with varying degrees of intensity, loss of life and property, demonstrate the certainty of the fulfilment of all the prophecies of Jesus. It is estimated that not less than 13,000,000 people have lost their lives by earthquakes alone. The Lisbon earthquake of Nov. 1, 1755, came at about the right time to meet the requirement of Rev. 6: 12. That was indeed a great earthquake, extending over a very large part of the earth and destroying the lives of more than 60,000 human beings in the city of Lisbon alone.
Dynamiting the Great Central Lodging-house, Third and Mission Streets, San Francisco.
But earth's mightiest earthquake is the last. It begins at a point of time immediately preceding the coming of Christ in all His glory, with all the holy angels, to raise the sleeping saints, to transform all the blessed and holy, in a moment, from mortality to immortality, and to change their vile bodies and fashion them like unto His glorious body. They will then be withdrawn from the earth, caught up to meet the Lord in the air.
Breaking Open of 17th Street, San Francisco, by the Earthquake, April 18, 1906.
This innumerable host of redeemed and glorified ones will be the only refugees of a doomed world that will be saved from the awful wreck and ruin of that great earthquake, earth's mightiest and last. Not a soul of all the inhabitants of the earth will escape alive in that fearful time except those who are accounted worthy of eternal life, and are, by the power of God, taken from the earth, evermore to live with the King of saints. So terrible will that day be to the unprepared everywhere, that the involuntary cry will go up from all over the earth, from kings, captains, mighty men, rich men, and all classes, "Mountains and rocks, fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?" Rev. 6: 16, 17.
Now the reader will be interested to read the prophecy of Jesus relating to this last great earthquake yet to come, and that, too, in the near future. Here are the portentous words: "And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. . . . And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." Rev. 16: 17-20.
Thus, when Jesus and the redeemed leave the earth, it will be completely broken down, made empty, turned upside down, utterly destitute of all its living inhabitants (Isa. 24: 1-6), and will thus remain, dark, moving, trembling, shaking, empty, and void (Jer. 4: 23-27), till Jesus comes at the end of the millennial reign of the saints in heaven. Then Jesus will plant His feet upon the Mount of Olives; it will part asunder, become a great plain (Zech. 14: 4, 8, 9), the place for the location of the holy city, the Paradise of God that comes down from God out of heaven. Rev. 21: 2. The wicked raised from the dead will go into perdition in the earth when it shall burn as an oven. Mal. 4: 1. When the great controversy is ended, God will make a new heaven and a new earth. 2 Peter 3: 7-13.
A Scene in Santa Rosa after the Earthquake and Fire April 18. At the right of the street in which the men are standing stood "The White House," the first store in Sonoma County. All the business part of the city was ruined by the earthquake. The fire completed the work.
No more sin, suffering, or death, no more curse, no more earthquakes. The saints, with Jesus as their King, will take possession of the kingdom of glory, to dwell therein in perfect bliss forevermore. They receive "A KINGDOM WHICH CAN NOT BE MOVED." Heb. 12: 27, 28. H. A. ST. JOHN.
