July-August, 1934
T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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1923. There were thirty-six o f them, each consisting o f from one to three thousand separate shocks! They were scattered all over the earth— from Kamschatka westward and southward to New Zealand. Another record in our files states: Forty-three earthquakes in four months, six o f them major disasters to life and property in widely scattered parts o f the world, is the appalling seismic record of 1931 to the end of April. Eleven quakes in January, eleven in February, thirteen in March, culminating in the catas trophe that, on the 31st, overtook Managua o f Nicaragua, and eight in April, tell the story o f an abnormally tremb ling earth. The tales o f ruin and death within those four months came from Argentina, from Oaxaca (in southern M ex ico), from New Zealand, from the Caucasus regions, and “ one, a very mild one, rattled doors and dishes and cracked a few ceil ings in the Hudson and Mohawk valleys in New York State.” x N ew Y ork C ity N ext ? It may be o f interest to note that Professor David Todd, o f Amherst College, internationally known scientist, whose “ observations,” it is said, “ are not based on any Sodom and Gomorrah o f divine vengeance, but are, as he points out, the result o f cold scientific reasoning,” declares that “ there is very real danger that New York City may suffer from an earthquake one o f these days.” New York City, he says, is as-likely a site for the next earthquake as any in the United States. This is because o f the geological formation o f the land beneath it. He predicts that when this earthquake finally comes, the destruction will be far greater and more terrible than that which followed the Japanese upheaval. Many other earthquakes during the period o f years o f which we have been speaking— earthquakes o f the major type—are worthy o f note. Among these might be men tioned the second quake in Kansu, China, with its awful toll o f another 100,000 lives. . Quakes in Persia, England, India, and one even in our own city o f Long Beach, are still very fresh in mind. A S ignificant Q uake in I srael ’ s .L and No recent earthquake seems so significant to the pro phetic student as the one which occurred in Palestine on July 11, 1927. Rev. S. B. Rohold, Haifa, o f the B. J. S. Mission, an eye-witness, described it thus: This afternoon, at 3 :05 o’clock, while I was in my study, an awful and peculiar noise disturbed me. There immediately followed a motion of shaking—a real shaking, not a mere tremor—a movement to and fro, up and down. There was no need to inform me that this was an earth quake. . . . The official estimate of actual dead is be tween 600 and 700. . . . The number o f injured is over 3,000. The actual amount of loss of property, one can hardly estimate. The damage done in Nablus alone may amount to over one million sterling, and a conservative estimate o f the loss in Transjordania would be about two millions. It was an awful and terrible sight—a city of 20,000 all in motion. And then, most significant are the words: Nablus, the ancient city of Shechem, suffered the most . . Nabus was the city that refused, in 1919, 1920, and 1921, to have any Jews there. The people of Nablus were like those o f Sodom and Gomorrah in reputation. T o those of devout mind, and who enter into the treas ures o f the prophetic Word, o f tremendous significance is the fact that this earthquake which shook a goodly part o f the Holy Land (filled, as it is, with Jews) did considerable damage to Jewish houses and synagogues, the New Hebrew University, and other public edifices, wounding many Jews, yet not a single death occurred among the Jews! Hundreds from other nationalities were killed, but not a Jew! This caused the rabbis o f Jerusalem to call upon all Jews in Palestine to assemble in their synagogues and give thanks
o f the rocks, and into the caves o f the earth, for fear o f the Lord, and for the glory o f his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth” (Isa. 2 :10, 17 ,19 ). “ T here S hall B e E arthquakes in D ivers P laces ” The Lord Jesus was sitting one day upon the Mount of Olives. His “ disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us . . . what shall be the sign o f thy coming, and o f the end o f the age?” (Matt. 24:3, R . V .) . In His reply to that question, Christ not only gave one, but many signs. Among them was th is: “ There shall be . . . . earthquakes, in divers places” (Matt. 2 4 :7 ). Now, earthquakes always have been shaking the earth. How then could the Master speak o f them as a coming sign by which the Lord’s people could know that His return was near, “ even at the doors” (Matt. 2 4 :33) ? Surely only as the earthquakes shall come in an unusual number and with unusual intensity, can they be true portents. But thus have they been occurring, since the close o f the great World W ar in 1918. Sir Oliver Lodge, the world’s most eminent living physicist, recently said: “ I do not know the reason, but there is abundant proof that the earth’s crust is at present in an unstable condition.” Authorities inform us that the earth has been shaking re cently as never before. There have been three major earth quakes, bringing appalling losses o f life and property, which, in their intensity outrank any previous disturbances in seismic history. On December 16, 1920, in the far-off province o f Kansu, China, an earthquake struck. Almost 200,000 lives were snuffed out in a few- brief minutes. Spientists related that which seems almost unbelievable — “mountains walked” for two miles. Seismic instruments around the world re corded the story o f the then world’s greatest earthquake. Only the Yeddo earthquake in 1703, when 190,000 people perished, and the Messina quake in 1908, when 164,000 died, could even approach this earthquake o f Kansu. The Japanese earthquake on September 1, 1923, was o f such intensity that all instruments in an observatory in Italy, on the opposite side o f the earth, were broken under seismic waves that lasted more than five hours. New islands were forced up from the bed o f the ocean, and others disap peared. Rivers, it is said, changed their courses. Mighty tidal waves were hurled upon other shores thousands of miles away. In Tokyo, 350,000 houses are said to have collapsed or burned, or both. The streets were heaped with the bodies o f the dead. A quarter o f a million per ished. The greatest and m o^ destructive earthquake in the history o f mankind had take» place! And now read this: New York, Nov. 21, 1933. (Exclusive.) The great est earthquake on record, which jiggled seismographs all over the world, was traced today to a remote and unin habited spot in the icy wastes between Greenland and Baffin Bay. Rev. Joseph Lynch, S. J., in charge o f Ford- ham University seismographic laboratory, termed the quake especially remarkable for its proximity to the North Pole. He'said he had never heard of one happening so far north. Professor Perry Byerly, seismologist at Berkeley, Calif., described the shock as “ probably greater in intensity than that which destroyed parts o f Tokyo and Yokohama in 1923.” God, in His mercy, let the stroke fall in an unin habited region o f the earth. Verily, “ there shall be . . earthquakes in divers places.” And it would appear in tensely significant that the three greatest quakes o f human history all came within the brief period o f thirteen years out o f man’s six thousand. Apart from these three major shocks, we have had other “ Earthquakes Enough and to Spare,” as a recent article in the Literary Digest assures us. W e are in possession o f an authentic list o f major earthquakes and tidal waves which occurred between January 4 and September 18,
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