Great Destruction of Life and Property—Destitution and Suffering Follow
What Do Such Things Signify?
By ROSS C. PORTER
Elder Porter is president of the Asiatic Division of our work, and was in China during the time of her floods and typhoon. A single occurrence of the kind described in the following article would not in itself be significant or worthy of special note. The world in different places and at different times since the days of Job has been visited by occasional storms, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, and the like. But the very frequent occurrence of these things in all parts of the world in recent years, should awaken serious reflection. What is their significance? Thoughtful people will surely consider this question candidly.
ONE year ago, central and south China were visited by unprecedented floods, followed by almost famine conditions in portions of the flooded territory.
At the time of my visit to Canton, July 10, 1915, the rivers began rising again. A railway bridge was washed out between Canton and Hongkong, and we were compelled to return by steamer. This was but the beginning. The water continued rising until it was eight feet higher than at any previous time. The report of disaster and death that resulted is very conservatively given in the following statement by the Hon. Lau Chu-pak, of Hongkong:
"People only know just the beginning of what has happened. It is easy to talk of relief; but the destruction is so widespread, and many of the sufferers are so difficult to reach, that it seems almost a hopeless task, and one hardly knows where to begin. I do not think that many people in Hongkong realize that thousands of these poor folk are not to be got at all. They are shut away there in Canton, where they cannot be reached either on foot or in boats; in some cases completely shut off by the fire, in others by the narrowness of the streets and courts, which will not admit the passage of a boat.
VIEWS OF THE WORK OF THE STORM IN CHINA
"The scenes that the rescue parties have encountered are beyond description: bodies of women and of little babies floating here and there, wreckage washing in all directions, and rats — rats everywhere! You can't imagine it. One of my sons took out a couple of sampans loaded up with provisions for distribution, and he also managed to pick up a few drowning persons. He found a boy of about eight years tied to a plank, and very nearly dead from exhaustion; and in another place, he managed to drag an old woman of seventy out of the water. She said that she was literally the sole survivor of her family; husband, children, and grandchildren all drowned.
"All over the city, the position appears to be pretty much alike. On the native bund, every lodging house is full; in fact, there isn't standing room. And where are the people to get food from? You can form some idea of the depth of the water round about here, from the fact that the highest spot on the bund is now four feet deep.
WHAT THE FIRE DID
"As to the fire, I am afraid I cannot believe that the generally accepted account is exaggerated. At the very least, there must be two thousand houses already destroyed; probably the number will prove to be far greater when the official report comes in. It is quite true that the night before last, people thought that it had burned itself out; but during the night, the wind got up very gusty, and the flames spread worse than ever. The heat was so great that no one dared go near. I think the accounts of the looting and robbing must be very much exaggerated, though of course there is sure to be a certain amount of theft going on among a mixed population at such a time."18
THE TYPHOON AND ITS WORK
On July 28, there followed one of the worst typhoons at Shanghai that has been known in the history of China. Fences were leveled, telephone poles blown down, trees uprooted, small buildings demolished, and large factories unroofed. Vessels lying in the harbor broke from their anchorage, and ran down and crushed smaller vessels, killing the occupants. Many lives were lost.
How completely these extremes of natural phenomena proclaim that the earth is waxing old, and nearing the time when she will exchange her sin-stained garments of desolation, decay, and dissolution for glorified robes of Edenic purity and eternal glory and stability!
The following last-day forecast is most strikingly fulfilled: "With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together before the Lord; for He cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall He judge the world, and the people with equity." Ps. 98: 6-9.
Thus the signs that herald the approach of the final Judgment and the second advent of Christ are rapidly fulfilling. The final Judgment will soon pass sentence upon all. Universal destruction, of which these temporal judgments are warnings, will soon sweep over the whole face of the earth. And "the mighty man shall cry there bitterly." Zeph. 1: 14. "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come." Joel 1: 15.
Reader, are you prepared to meet that day with the assurance that your sins are all pardoned, and you are a free child of the kingdom of God?
