THE beautiful city of San Francisco is gone; there are only smoking ruins, ashes, and a few unsteady bare walls on the spot where years and years of the work of man had built monuments to civilization and American enterprise. In a few seconds of shaking, of resistless destruction, the mighty earthquake did for San Francisco the work planned and carried out over a long period by the Romans at Carthage. As the soil of that doomed city was ploughed and strewn with salt, so the site of San Francisco has been ploughed by the earthquake, strewn with the ashes of her beautiful buildings." So writes the editor of an evening paper.
How easily God can come into a city, and in a few seconds wipe it out. How quickly could He hurl men into destruction! What an awful awakening for this world, when the Almighty sets to His hand to work! This doomed city was wicked indeed; its moral tone was very low; but God has come in, and God will come in one day and judge the sinner. "What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matt. 16:2626For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26)). Many have lost millions in this downfall, but what is it to be compared to the loss of the soul?
Chicago was rebuilt, Baltimore was rebuilt, Galveston was rebuilt, and San Francisco will be rebuilt, but the “lost soul," what would a man give in exchange for it? Lost! lost! for all eternity! the "weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8. 12). What an awful future before the unsaved man! No warning voice was raised for the safety of San Francisco; but God has sent warning to all, and prepared the remedy whereby all may escape. “He spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all." “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners "(1 Tim. 1:1515This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. (1 Timothy 1:15)). Only one way of deliverance was opened for the sinner—Christ must die; no other way; and, blessed be His name, "Christ died for the ungodly." Because of this, the sinner may be delivered from the wrath to come by accepting the Lord Jesus as his or her personal Savior. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Believe Now and live for evermore. F. W. B.