p. 8 | THE OUTLOOK by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 8, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 10.

THE OUTLOOK

By Editor

THE EARTH "WAXED OLD."

AN old garment is full of surprises. The unexpected happens with the expected. It tears where you expect it; it breaks out where you don't expect it. Some parts are threadbare; other portions look as good as new; and yet at unexpected times the newer-appearing portions rend rottenly. You are never quite certain as to what may happen in time of stress.

The Word of God declares of this planet, "The earth shall wax old as doth a garment." This is indicated by the unexpected and unprecedented cyclones, droughts, electric storms, and long cold spells of recent years in this land of the New World. Men are uncertain, and are growing more so.

Just now the whole country is passing through a terrible cold inundation. It is more than a cold wave, it is a cold sea which lies fathoms deep upon the land. From cities as far south as Louisville, St. Louis, Nashville, Baltimore, Washington, come reports of weather from zero to 18° below. Never since the weather bureau was established in New York City has there been made such a record as the last five days have left. East River is frozen solid so that men have crossed on the ice. The Hudson is almost closed. The local, and, in fact, nearly all water transportation is at a standstill. Places of business have been closed. Men have been forced to quit work because of the cold. One chills to the bone in walking, and freezes in riding in the cold, slow, fireless street-cars. Not less than a dozen have perished from the cold, some because they were drunk, others because they had not sufficient food and clothing. Some persons have become insane because of the weather. Thousands unnumbered are suffering.

Last night we looked through the Waldorf-Astoria, the first hotel of the world, where hundreds take their ease in warmth, comfort, and luxury. Many of New York's wealthiest families, so the newspapers report, were forced to leave their elegant palaces and palatial houses for the hotels. Many are in the hotel named. They were not prepared for such unprecedented cold.

If this is the case with those who have wealth to command not only the necessities but the luxuries of life, what must be the case with thousands upon thousands of New York's poor. It is certainly a time when plethoric pursestrings should be loosened for the sake of the poor and needy.

We present herewith three pictures, one indicative of the cold and the other two of the suffering. The one presents a picture of an ocean liner, the Fuerst Bismarck, as it came into New York. On one steamer, the Germanic, three days overdue, there was solid ice not less than two feet thick on her forward deck. In our illustration the ice is from eight to twelve inches thick.

The other illustrations are of the eager poor as they stood about some of the places in New York City where bread was dispensed to the cold and hungry.

In a land of plenty, in a "wave of prosperity," men starve. In a land of millions of Christian comfortable homes men, women, and children freeze and die. And such anomalies are manifest in every phase of life in the sick, infirm old earth. It has waxed old as doth a garment, and in a little time God shall by His power fold it up and change it;

Christ will come and reign, and sin and sickness and cold and hunger and misery and death shall be no more. Hail, coming day!

New York City, February 12.