[Further news comes from the great earthquake in Chile, in a letter from Pastor F. H. Westphal of Valparaiso, from which we take the following. We also thankfully acknowledge the receipt of three photographs from Pastor Westphal, and two from Pastor Wm. Steele. As the latter came first we have not time to use the former in this article. Will give them next week. Ed. S. of T.]
Front View of the Church of the Mercedes, Valparaiso, Chile.
WHILE you, intimately connected with the Pacific Press, have had a great loss, because in our eyes there was much to lose, we in Chile have had a little loss, because apparently we had little to lose. You have evidently read of the great disaster in Valparaiso. Valparaiso was not the only place that was shaken by the earthquake, but a large portion of Chile and also of Argentine. The entire range of the Andes that stretch between Chile and Argentine, and from the Pacific Ocean, and we know not how far within the ocean, eastward through the mountains to Rosario in Argentine, was shaken.
I read with deep interest your descriptions of the catastrophe in San Francisco, and they brought some things vividly to my mind, but the real thing itself produces still more profound impressions. I was not in the fury of the disaster directly, but was much farther south, near the southern limits of the earthquake. The shocks were, nevertheless, so severe that many of the people ran out of their houses, but no material damage was done. To reach Valparaiso I had to travel over a stretch of country of about one thousand miles. As I proceeded on the journey little by little I could see how the force of the earthquake had been more severe. The first indications of damage done were the ruin of some heavy walls made of sun-dried bricks, and next the cracks made in many houses. After that the inner walls of houses were caved in, and then parts of the outer walls and roofs of houses thrown down. This was followed by lives lost, and next came sections where the earth had been cracked, and in one place it was cracked in furrows resembling very much a field of ground that had been newly plowed.
I forward three illustrations to you. There is such a call for pictures that the photographers can not produce them fast enough to supply the demand. One of these illustrations is of the Republican Street of Limache, a city between Valparaiso and Santiago, and another of Veña del Mar, about three miles from Valparaiso, the other of the back part of the Catholic Church de la Merced in Valparaiso. You can get some idea of what I saw on the way to Valparaiso by these illustrations. Viña del Mar is a place where many of the wealthy people of Valparaiso have their dwellings, and these were mostly ruined and many lives lost.
When I neared Talca, a city much farther south of Santiago, there was almost a panic in a coach of the train. Some spoke of an earthquake, and the train made several severe movements because of the roughness of the track caused by the shaking of the earth a few days before, when the people began to scream and beat their breasts and cry for mercy. When we came to the station some of the ladies had almost fainted and others were still crying very sorrowfully. Surely "the hearts of men are failing them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming on the earth."
In a store, while talking with a merchant about the cause of the earthquake, he said that the real cause was the many Protestants and Masons in the land. In various places the priests are teaching this. The merchant was surprised when I read to him Isaiah 24, and Hosea 4 where the real cause is named, which is, summed up in a few words, the transgression of God's law of Ten Commandments.
It is now springtime in this southern zone, and the beautiful blossoms of the fruit trees and the flowers are sweetly spreading their fragrance everywhere. All the trees join in putting forth their buds beside the ruined buildings, but the fearful and sad hearts of the people tell us that the end is nearing. The Saviour said: "There shall be signs, in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth." Luke 21:25-27. "Now learn a parable of the fig-tree; when his branch is yet tender, and putteth15forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [He] is near, even at the doors." Matt. 24:32, 33. "Watchman, what of the night?" "The morning cometh, and also the night." The everlasting night of despair and death to the wicked is at hand; also the never-ceasing glorious morning of life, joy, and happiness to the pure and the faithful. The Saviour is coming soon.
The needs of the people are many, and the work to be done great. We ought to have had workers stationed in various cities and villages for some time in the past. What a work might have been done, and what a work we now might do, if the cities and the outposts were well supplied with workers.
When the earthquake occurred, thousands and thousands of voices were heard crying in despair for succor to the Virgin Mary, Saint Antonio, and other saints. How few, how very few, know their Saviour! Many, very many, are returning to the confessional, and thousands are inquiring, What do these things mean? We have published a special number of Las Señales los de Tiempos (Signs of the Times) of fifty thousand, with one of the headings of articles, "What Do These Things Mean?" In a very few days about ten thousand were sold in Valparaiso by our little company there. They passed some into the hands of the newsboys who sold them freely. A blind man not of our faith, possibly a Catholic, sold our paper readily, and another man with but one foot hobbled through the street selling Señales de los Tiempos. We published more of this special number than we usually publish during an entire year. We could not send any papers away from Valparaiso through the mails, because of the destruction caused by the earthquake. We shall have to send various workers to our churches and companies with thousands of these silent messengers of truth, and set the brethren to work.
The bright light of present truth ought to shine in clear, bright rays upon the moral darkness of the world. What a work could be done if all who profess to believe it were at work and stationed in various places in this world! The people know not a loving Saviour. Pamphlets are being sold by the clergy calling upon the people to offer prayers for the souls in purgatory, and the people are doing so. I bought one the other day to see what it contained; and the description of purgatory is horrible. It is presented as a place where the sun, moon, and stars never break the intense darkness by their rays of light, and the sufferings of the souls is intense beyond all description. It is said that one day in purgatory appears as long to the souls there as one hundred thousand years in the world would be to us if we should live so long. The terrible things taking place in this world and the horror of purgatory after death has stamped a hellish fear in the hearts of thousands upon thousands of people. They are afraid to live and they are afraid to die. Hearts of men are failing them for fear.
I wish that I could impress upon the minds of all the readers of this letter how important it is that we know our Saviour and His pardoning love, and then make Him known to those who know Him not. The favorable time to work in the cities is fast passing. Strikes, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, fire, and severe persecution face us. A Bible colporteur was attacked and beaten and cast into prison twice for selling Bibles in the city of Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The judge was a liberal-minded man and so the colporteur was set at liberty each time. What we have failed to do in favorable times we must now do under very unfavorable circumstances and trying times. Let us therefore buckle on the armor, and do under unfavorable circumstances a quick and successful work.
