To be an infallible guide, the Bible must be able to instruct in all things pertaining to life and godliness. Such instruction, to be competent, must reveal the eternal purpose of God concerning this earth and its inhabitants. This purpose being a fixed one, God's omniscience must foresee and make note of those events which are to affect the destiny of His people. To believe otherwise would belittle the Creator, and make Him unworthy of confidence in time of dire need.
Taking this view of the Bible, we are compelled to believe that the terrible calamity just visited upon the Pacific Slope is significant, as indicating something for which the people ought to be prepared. The havoc wrought in San Francisco, San Jose, and other cities of California, was not wholly accomplished by the shaking of the earth. In San Francisco particularly, fire of the most persistent character followed, devouring the most formidable structures the art of men could devise. This is remarkable in one way, because these two elements are represented in God's Word as accompanying agencies for the destruction of those whose sins have become so flagrant as to provoke the indignation of Heaven. Isa. 29:6.
By the combination of these two elements the destruction of the world will be accomplished in due time. Speaking on this point the prophet says: "And the seventh angel poured out his vial [of wrath] 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 great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." Rev. 16:17-20.
A view showing the power of the earthquake in front of the new Post Office Building, Seventh and Mission Streets. This street was previously level. The new Post Office Building was not greatly injured.
Those who passed through the recent earthquake will corroborate the statement that the scenes which followed it beggar description. Rich men lost their all, and were reduced from affluence to poverty. Poorer people were reduced to beggary, and cried like children. So much confusion prevailed that martial law was proclaimed. But calamitous as was this recent occasion, the event predicted in the foregoing scripture will bring infinitely greater distress, so much so that "the mighty man will cry there bitterly," for that day will be "a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness." That day will be "the day of the Lord's wrath," in which "He shall make a speedy riddance of all them which dwell in the land." Zeph. 1:14-18.
A view from the ferry-boat Berkeley on its way from Oakland to San Francisco, taken the morning of the earthquake when the fire had well started. The tall tower is the center of the Ferry Building, the fire tug at the right.
At this time the ethereal arch of heaven will pass away as a scroll being rolled together, and every mountain and island will remove. Then all men—kings, rich men, chief captains, and earth's mighty men, with the bond and free—will hide together among the rocks of the hills, and in one mighty chorus of lamentation, cry to the rocks and mountains to fall on them, and to hide them from the face of Him whose wrath they have provoked by their glaring enormities in sin. Rev. 6:14-16. But rocks and mountains can not then bury them away from impending destruction; for as in previous foretastes of that day, fire springs up in all directions, and consumes them from off the earth.
That this is not a fancy sketch, we have only to refer again to scripture. Speaking of the attitude of those who will make light of the evidences of Christ's near coming, the apostle Peter says such are willingly ignorant of the fact that by the word of God the world was once destroyed by water. He then adds: "The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." 2 Peter 3:4-7.
Such a sure and terrible ending of all things sinful must be reserved for a definite time in the purpose of God, who could not be true to His declared merciful character should He fail to give warning of its direct approach. When the Saviour was asked what signs would herald His second advent and the end of the world, among other things He said: "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be in divers places." Matt. 24:1-8; Luke 21:10, 11.
The first really great earthquake to be noted in history since that prediction was made, is that of 1755 in Portugal, when Lisbon was overthrown. Since then they have occurred in ever-increasing rapidity, until quite recently they have followed almost upon the heels of each other. Within ten years Stromboli erupted, following an earthquake. Mount Pelée soon followed, carrying great destruction in its wake. Within three months Vesuvius has vomited forth fire, ashes, and lava, destroying at least two towns and threatening others. These, to say nothing of an earlier disturbance affecting Charleston on the Atlantic Coast, with others in South America, Central America, and in other countries, are a sure indication that we are approaching the end of the world, according to the prediction of the Lord Jesus Himself.
But, as if to make this doubly sure to us,7there now comes unheralded the sad catastrophe in California, breaking down and destroying important centers of industry. This also must be accepted as a premonition of the great and terrible earthquake before which all the cities of the nations will soon surely fall, and the accompanying fires of the last day which will complete the destruction of all sinful things.
He who pays heed to this warning and lets the Lord direct his ways, will certainly escape the general ruin, because he will have found shelter under the protecting wing of the Almighty. A thousand shall fall at his side, and ten thousand at his right hand, but it—the destruction—will not come nigh him, because he has made the Lord his refuge, even the Most High his habitation. The angel of the Lord shall keep him in all his ways. Ps. 91:5-11.
In that day, every earthly thing will be removed by the terrible shaking it will receive. One thing alone will remain, the word of God, because it can not be shaken, hence must stand forever. Fixed on this, one will be safe, even tho the earth be removed out of its place. Heb. 12:26-28.
Shall we not, then, learn the lesson God would have us study in what is occurring about us, and so yield our hearts to be controlled by Him that our lives may be moulded after the fashion of His own, and we be prepared to meet those things that are so rapidly coming upon the earth? God grant that we may. J. O. Corliss.
Further Particulars
By A. J. S. Bourdeau
Map of the burned district, from the Ferry Building to Van Ness Avenue, and from Channel and Twenty-Second Streets to North Beach, seven square miles. 1. City Hall. 2. Call Building. 3. Chinatown. 4. Nob Hill.
SAN FRANCISCO'S SISTER CITIES TO THE RESCUE.
Oakland, Berkeley, and Alameda.
TOUCHED by the sad plight of their sister city, San Francisco, the Bay cities came nobly to her assistance. Oakland, Berkeley, Alameda, and other sister cities less afflicted, vied with each other in their warm-hearted efforts to extend shelter, treatment, food, and comfort to the refugees from San Francisco. Owing to her close proximity, it was but natural that
Oakland
should lead in this noble work. Tho badly shaken up herself, this city escaped with the loss of only seven lives and comparatively few of her brick buildings. As in the case of her ill-fated sister city, Oakland's sky-scraper, a steel structure, stood the shock the best of any building. Every office in its thirteen stories, is now occupied. Having escaped the scourge of fire, Oakland immediately forgot her own woes in the effort to relieve the awful distress. Homes, churches, hospitals, public halls, and the parks, were thrown open to the refugees; and rich and poor strove with each other to excel in deeds of kindness. Storekeepers stripped their shelves and gave their goods away; householders emptied their wardrobes and pantries to relieve distress. Every citizen seemed to belong to the Relief Committee.
Every house of worship not condemned as unsafe was turned into a hospital, restaurant and lodging-house. The popular churches threw aside their thumb-worn creeds, and forgot their large profession and their little deeds, in their zeal to minister to afflicted humanity the milk of human kindness. All-told, Oakland cared for about 30,000 refugees. Martial law was proclaimed in all of the large cities about the Bay.
A view on the south of Market Street, showing acres and acres of the devastated business districts, in which all that can be seen is smokestacks, iron telegraph poles, and ruined walls.
Berkeley
also extended her helping hand, caring for about 10,000 of the homeless San Franciscans. Her university campus was converted into a refugee camp, and her halls and churches and hotels were also thrown open, as well as the homes of her citizens. The buildings of the University of California escaped the earthquake's devastation, and were turned into Red Cross hospitals, dispensaries, and lodging-houses. Strict sanitary precautions were taken by the authorities, to avoid pestilence and disease.
Alameda
also shared her surplus and even necessaries with the homeless people from the stricken city, taking in several thousand refugees.
Further Particulars.
All of the great San Francisco newspaper plants having been wiped out of existence by the great temblor and the flames, the Call, Chronicle, Examiner, and Bulletin, were obliged to remove their headquarters to Oakland. The publishers immediately had their papers printed at the offices of the Oakland Tribune and Herald. Thursday morning, April 19, in fact, the three leading dailies of San Francisco printed a combination, four-page paper, entitled The Call Chronicle Examiner.
A Hopeful Spirit
seems to pervade the atmosphere. The newspapers breathe a spirit of buoyancy and good cheer, and seem to hurl proud defiance even at the elements, boasting of their tall sky-scrapers as "great, scarred giants that withstood the shock of earthquake and the destructive flames."
(Continued on page 11)8
San Francisco's Sister Cities.
(Continued from page 7.)
So Many People Are Blind
to the meaning of these catastrophes. They refuse to accept them as warning from the Almighty to get ready for the great consummation of all things earthly. I was standing with a physician on Washington Street, Oakland, when another prominent physician stepped up to talk the situation over with us. My friend and I remarked that this great disaster was but an introduction to other worse ones that are to precede the second coming of Christ. The newcomer sneered and said: 'I don't think God had anything to do with this earthquake!
If I thought did, He I would have no respect for such a God.' We answered: 'No doubt, my friend, many people in Noah's day said they had no respect for a God who would bring a great Flood upon the earth.' 'I don't believe there ever was a Flood,' rejoined the physician. This is but one of many like remarks that I heard during these days following the earthquake. So many are determined to ridicule and scoff at the Bible and all that it predicts concerning the last days. On the other hand,
Entrance to the university grounds in Palo Alto, built of concrete on steel frames.
Many Interpret Aright
the catastrophe of Wednesday, April 18, 1906. Scores have said, within my hearing: 'God wants to remind us that He is running things.' 'I thought surely the end of the world was upon us!' 'God made the country; man made the cities.' 'This made us remember our God.' 'We all began to pray to our forgotten God.' And other like expressions.
The Financial Side.
Among the many services which Oakland will now be able to render to the entire State, may be mentioned those of a financial nature. The Oakland banks will handle the clearing for all California for a time. These banks are sound, and possess ample facilities to meet the extraordinary demands which they will be called on to meet. Governor Pardee, whose headquarters are in Oakland, issues, from day to day, a proclamation making every day a legal holiday, thus closing all banks in the State until the standing of the great San Francisco banks can be determined.
Martial Law.
The cities about the Bay have now become great military camps. Every attempt to enter a public building without the proper pass from the police or military authorities, is promptly met by a soldier presenting the flat of his gun to your chest. Bayonets are fixed. All guns are loaded with ball cartridges. All instructions are to shoot to kill. Every one in San Francisco is at liberty to leave the city, but no one from the other cities about the Bay is allowed to enter the ruined city without a military pass from the governor of the state. Each morning a line of about 2,000 men and women may be seen slowly winding in and out of the City Hall in Oakland, all waiting for a permit to go to the burned metropolis. A curious crowd they are—mothers anxious to return to find their children or husbands, eastern relatives searching for dear ones that lived in the burned district, laborers looking for work, etc. Many are refused the passes. On Sunday last I read the following glaring posters on the front of the Oakland court house:
'Notice to the Public!'
'It is absolutely imperative that people remain away from San Francisco.
The going of people from this side of the Bay disturbs the efforts that are being made to relieve the conditions there.'
'Notice!'
'Those people seeking their relatives are advised to wait another day.'
'Notice To the Public!'
'This is no occasion for people to attempt to gratify their curiosity. It is imperative that all persons obey these instructions.'
The Oakland Chamber of Commerce, 12th and Franklin Streets, Oakland, was like a swarming bee-hive from morning till night. Throngs of refugees registered there and found at the hands of willing volunteer clerks vital information regarding their loved ones. Many, however, turned away with sad, tearful faces, not having heard any news, good or bad. By recommendation of the Relief Committee, any destitute person was secured free transportation to any part of the state, and often to remote parts of the United States, all of the great railways being generous to the extreme. For once one can truthfully deny the trite allegation that 'corporations have no soul.' The railway officials collected no fares from refugees on all out-bound trains from San Francisco, on either side of the bay. One paid if one chose—otherwise it was all right. The great ferrysystems did likewise on the bay.
Our Denominational Property in Oakland
including the large church on 12th and Brush, the former buildings of the Pacific Press Publishing Company, and the headquarters of the Pacific Union Conference, at 1059 Castro Street,9all escaped without any damage to speak of. All of these were frame buildings.
Oakland Shelters Chinatown Refugees.
It is safe to say that over 10,000 Chinese refugees from San Francisco's far-famed 'Chinatown' found a refuge in Oakland. Their business blocks, lodging houses, and opium-joints having vanished in the great holocaust, the citizens of 'the Newer and Greater San Francisco' will never allow the celestials to rebuild their 'Chinatown.' This brings Oakland face-to-face with the serious problem of how to dispose of these thousands of Chinese in her midst. There is talk of isolating them on an island. Many of the Chinese are being cared for by the Chinese Empire Relief Association.
Each day the newspapers are filled with long lists of names and addresses of the dead, of relatives missing and found, and other desired information—page after page, each page containing nearly 1,000 names and addresses, etc. Nailed on the walls of each church or public building are to be found alphabetical lists of the refugees housed within.
Oakland's Probable Gain in Population.
Not counting the thousands who will return to San Francisco to help rebuild the ruined city, many other thousands will, without doubt, make Oakland their future home. The fact that it escaped most of the evils of the great disaster, together with its proximity to San Francisco for business purposes, will aid materially in building up Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont, and Alameda. But, who can say where the next earthquake will be? Vain are the delusions of the man who fondly hopes to escape from the judgments of the Almighty upon a wicked world! There is safety only in Him who is our Rock.
A. J. S. BOURDEAU.
How San Jose Fared
THE city of San Jose, like so many of its sister cities in California, has made forced obeisance to the perverted powers of nature.
San Jose is known throughout the country as the Garden City of California—beautifully situated, practically every residence a flower garden, well supplied with buildings good to look at, artistically constructed, and seemingly strong to resist any ordinary manifestation of nature's forces. Some of these buildings were years in process of construction; millions of dollars were put into them. So far as outward appearances went, these buildings were as good and as strong as men could make them.
Hotel Vendome Annex. Out of this mass of wreckage 128 of the 129 occupants are said to have escaped alive. It seems an impossibility.
In twenty-eight seconds the best that men could do was leveled with the ground or stood tottering like a reeling inebriate. All that men had put dependence in of that nature was swiftly proved a broken reed.
First Street, the finest street of San Jose, lined on both sides with substantial and wealthy business enterprises, is a trembling wreck from end to end. No single structure in all that stretch of brick and steel and stone buildings is without its mark of devastation. Some that appear to have weathered the upheaval in a fair degree are found on closer inspection to be unable to withstand a common forceful breeze; and have been condemned. Some of them will be torn down piece by piece; others, too dangerous even to be torn down, are to be blown down with dynamite. Massive stone-pillared fronts are shattered and seamed, their very seeming massiveness only accentuating their treacherous weakness, and making man's strength and man's ingenuity appear frailer and less dependable by comparison with the elements that are pitted against him.
Added to the great expense of building is the other great expense of unbuilding what nature seemed content to leave standing. Practically the whole of First Street comes down, or requires outlays of means which are nearly, if not quite, equivalent to the original cost of the structures.
But First Street did not suffer alone. The writer drove over a considerable part of the city, and found everywhere the striking evidences of the fearful temblor. It is stated that there is not a whole chimney in that city.
There is an effort on the part of many in this city to minify, rather than magnify, the results of the earthquake. It is firmly believed that there were many more lives lost than have been reported. Nineteen are admitted to have perished in this city. Some declare the number to be double that. For instance, the management of the Hotel Vendome state that "one man was killed and several injured" there; but he who can look upon the picture of the wrecked building and conceive how one hundred and twenty-eight of the one hundred and twenty-nine inmates of the Annex escaped with their lives certainly has very strong faith in human resistance. We saw buildings whose whole tops were crushed in by bricks and stones from the tops of other buildings. The sidewalks are broken, dented, or shattered in front of many buildings by the great stones that were thrown down from the higher structures, in a veritable bombardment. Look where you will, it is but broken stones, shivered timbers, plaster, heaps of brick, twisted iron frames, and tangled wires. Persons not generally considered timid are camping in their dooryards or in the parks, and companies of militia and special police are guarding the city.
Pacific Coast Business College and Home Union Store.
In walking the length of First Street one is surprised at the number of buildings it has been found necessary to prop at top and bottom to prevent their pitching into the street. In various parts of town, residences are set off from their foundations. Some of them crushed or driven back upon their haunches, with porches torn off or tilted at dangerous angles, the buildings propped and braced to prevent serious accidents while they are being torn down.
Imagine a hale, strong man, smitten in death while still standing, and propped up that he might present an appearance of life. Such is but a weak representation of how San Jose impresses the one who has looked upon what it was and now sees it as it is.
The financial loss is now placed at $3,000,000. It is impossible to conceive how it could be rebuilt as it was for any smaller amount.
LAST-DAY DELUSIONS.
THE Lord is not always in the earthquake. We have one notable exception, which warrants the assumption that there may be others. When Elijah, suddenly frightened by the threat of Queen Jezebel to take his life, fled to the wilderness, the Lord sent an angel to comfort him. As he lodged in a cave, word came to him to go and stand upon a mount before the Lord. "And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake." He had nothing to do with these interruptions. "And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire." That was another outside interruption. "And after the fire a still small Voice." This was the voice of God, and from it Elijah received instruction concerning his future work.
The wonderful demonstrations were evidently the work of the adversary in order to distract the attention of the Lord's prophet, and make him believe that the great commotions were the work of the Lord. Could this have been effected, Elijah would have looked to the instigator of the earthquake and the fire for his instruction.
The Scriptures recognize Satan as "the prince of this world" (John 14:30; 16:11) and "the prince of the power of the air" (Eph. 2:2). He is also able to appear as "an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14), and through his agency a certain earthly power is yet to arise that will be able to call down fire from heaven to deceive men (Rev. 13:11-14). So, through the excitement of these great phenomena, men can be led into all manner of extravagant theories
Hobson's Store—a complete wreck, under which three persons were buried. Two of these were rescued alive.
(Continued on page 9.)
LAST-DAY DELUSIONS.
By G.
(Concluded from page 8.)
and follies, thinking that they are led to the Lord, and that the Lord is causing all the commotion.
Especially in the last days does Satan come down with "great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. 12:12. Were it not for God's merciful limitations of Satan's power, there would be far more destructive disturbance of the elements than we have yet seen.
Before the Flood in Noah's time, the Lord said, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man" (Gen. 6:3), and when it ceased to plead with that rebellious world, the Deluge came. And the Lord has told us that "as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Matt. 24:37. And the Scripture also informs us that the next general destruction will be by fire. See 2 Peter 3.
If we cling to the Word of God under all circumstances, no power on earth, no disturbance of the elements, no "wonderful works" of any character (Matt. 7:21-23) need ever disconcert us or lead us astray. G.
