One of the signs of His Coming

We read in the “Herald of Faith” (Dec.,1910):-- “It is said that before the destruction of San Francisco by an earthquake, weeks before it happened, there was a poor old coloured woman who went about the city telling the inhabitants that God was going to send an earthquake to destroy it. They, of course, thought she was only an old fool, and gave no heed to her warnings; but the earthquake came, and San Francisco was destroyed, and many lives were lost.

Before the destruction of Messina it seems there was also a warning given. F. Marion Crawford, in the Outlook for April, 1909, says:

‘There appeared in the city one of those wandering religious fanatics whom the Italians call Nazarenes, a bare-headed, half-starved, wild-eyed man, dressed in a sort of hermit’s frock. A boy of 12 or 14 by his side carried a cow-bell. The two stopped always at the busiest corners, and the boy rang the bell as the public criers still do in old Italian towns. The man lifted up his voice, shrill and clear, to utter his prophecy, and his wild eyes were suddenly still and looking upward, fixed on the high houses opposite, and this is what he cried:

‘Be warned, take heed and repent, ye of Messina. This year shall not end before your city is utterly destroyed.’

But they who were about to perish laughed and jeered at the Nazarene, and went about their business. The editor of a paper called “The Future,” published then in Messina, went so far in his mockery and daring blasphemy that he published the following fearful challenge to Almighty God, “The Almighty if you are not an------ ------, (I cannot print the blasphemous words) send an earthquake to prove you exist.” The earthquake came the next day, and about 200,000 people perished in the fearful visitation.

A short time before the destruction of St. Pierre, an Evangelist passed through the city which was said to be the wickedest place on earth. He was willing to preach the Gospel to them, but they did not want it. There was also a faithful Roman priest who warned them often that judgment would fall upon them unless they repented; but to all this they turned a deaf ear. It is said that a short time before the city was destroyed, the citizens took a pig into an open square, and crucified it in derision of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was one street in that city which was a perfect hell upon earth for immorality, blasphemy and corruption of the lowest kind. One day the end of it all came. In less than thirty seconds of time, 40,000 people were launched without mercy into eternity, and their city was completely wiped off the face of the earth--all except a few smoking ruins which now lie desolate, filled with ashes and the charred bones of those who lie buried beneath.

As one looks out upon the scene, the Lord’s words come home with increasing force, “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” This world is literally steeped in sin and wickedness from one end to the other. It is now just as it was in Noah’s day, corruption and violence covers the earth.’’

From: Seven Signs of His Coming

Confidence, Vol. III, No. 12, December 1910, pag. 283, 287, Sunderland, England

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