Every one knows the awful calamity which has befallen San Francisco-a great city well-nigh swept out of existence. A mighty earthquake has shaken it into ruins; and fire instantly breaking out everywhere has reduced those ruins to ashes and made an untimely end of many who were entombed beneath the fallen walls.
It is appalling, and it has stirred the heart of the whole nation to the help of the sufferers. Many even from foreign nations have sent practical and substantial proofs of their sympathy. Thus even calamities have their profitable side in the development of the sympathies of the human heart.
But what do such terrible happenings mean ? Can we tell ? And why have they been so frequent of late, not only in this land, which has had a large share of them, but in various parts of the world ?
If we turn to the infallible, unerring Book, we have no difficulty as to their meaning:Why was the Deluge? Why was the burning of Sodom ? Why was Nineveh threatened with destruction ? Why did God command the utter extermination of the seven nations of Canaan ? Why are the Jews without a country ? Why was Babylon overthrown in one night ? Let us quote Daniel's own words, for they give us God's unchangeable principle of action:"O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honor:and for the majesty that He gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him. . . . But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him; . . . till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that He appointeth over it whomsoever He will. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know :and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. … In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans slain. And Darius the Median took the kingdom" (Dan. v).
One watches in vain for any expression of humiliation and acknowledgment of the hand of God in these fearful events which follow each other in quick succession, and wonders what next must come to awaken a people who worship gold; who are going to master earthquakes by building in iron; who are giving free course to their licentious desires; and, worst of all, who are desecrating the holy things of God, despising His Word, and proudly asserting themselves and the thoughts of their foolish hearts. Will there be repentance and a turning to the Lord, that grace may continue its work; or will there be hardening of heart and increasing evil until the Lord Himself must come again to this earth, with power and glory, to sweep the wicked off its face and establish His rule in it?
One feature is comforting:Who knows how many, in the midst of the terrors which filled their hearts that morning in San Francisco, have cried like the jailer of Philippi in similar circumstances, "What must I do to be saved ?" Oh that many, by this sudden overthrow, may be turned from the vanities of things that perish, to seek and find the imperishable and true riches of acceptance and peace with God.