Deseret Evening News | 1906-12-15 | Page 104 | Testimony of Earthquakes

TESTIMONY OF EARTHQUAKES Shortly Shortt after the establishment of the Church the mes messengers of the Gospel aver werl told For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes that shall cause groan ings in the midst of her ant and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand And all things shalL be in commotion ant and surel surely mens hearts shall fail them for fear shall conic come upon all people Doc and CO Section 88 Some of the events of this year forcibly remind us o othis of this prophetic forecast It has been in a marked degree a year ear of commotion The works Ot of men have gone down downto to ruin in calamities such as the records of few years cars show The long list opens with the outbreak of Vesuvius From time the impulse of hidden forces the vcr very shape of the historic mountain was changed and and many homes were totally de destroyed destroyed In the heart of the South Sea through volcanic nic outbursts valleys were filled up plantations destroyed and the n driven away to seek refuge in new localities s The destruction of San Francisco belongs to the awful rec record ord of this year The earth for miles slipped several inches and the movement was w s enough h to humble into the thc dust the Around cit city of the Golden Gate Then came the doom of Valparaiso a city which was a wealth wealthy center of the worlds commerce long before the North orth American ports had become These calamities have been man would be sufficient to mark an epoch in the annals of disaster But to these numerous others must he be added to complete the record Floods and storms famine and pestilence have visited many places It is a year ear in which as the New ew York Sun SlIn some time ago e expressed it the acts of God have been made manifest It is curious to reflect upon the fact that we wc arc travel traveling traveling ing through space on this little globe of ours at a rate of speed that even imagination fails to grasp and ancl that time the slightest derangement of existing conditions would mean in instant instant stant destruction The slightest lack of balance in our mo motion motion tion around the sun the slightest shifting of time the poles would mean th that t the oceans would overflow the continents and wipe out every living being A slight light change of the average temperature would mean death to the entire human A collision with any of the other bodies that also whirl through space and the entire globe would be reduced to fragments The destructions caused by volcanic eruptions by bi earth earthquakes earthquakes quakes hUrricanes tidal floods and other agencies are but reminders of our dependence upon the almighty Power that governs the world to whose word it Owes its existence and maintenance They are testimonies t