The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-13

New Orleans and all the other American cities are doing
 Another Lesson.
 But I learn from the awful catastrophe another lesson. It is this: Men and wom- en seem to be blind to the ever present | signs of danger. Because the i~agedies Of | the past, like the lightnings, have struck right and left and hit everywhere except at their own lives, they seem to feel that they themselves are impervious to dang CTS and will never be smitten down. They | think because they live in San Franeisco' an earthquake will never jolt them Into ruins, as Pompeli and Herculaneam were l destroyed. They think because they live on Long Island they can never be sub merged as was Galveston. They think | because they live in St. Louis, cyclone l can never destroy them, as Louisville, l Ky. and Gainesville Ga, were destroyed. 1 Oh, yes, they can think of earthquakes 1 and tidal waves 1000, 2,000 or even 3OOO miles away from home. They may even 1 picture one in Charleston, but not one at | their own doorsteps.
 l Why. do you know that Italians have | built vineyards upon Vesuvius and for years have been living on the very hill- sides of the burning volcano? So we are all living and dwelling upon the very | threshold of death. "Oh," says some on l T feel SO sorry for those people of San | Francisco. They have not only lost hum | dreds of millions of dollars, but this l earthquake has absolutely ruined their | city for q dwelling place and business | place." Is that so? I do not believe that do not believe that San Francisco as a | dwelling place Is any more ruined than St Louis was ruined after the great cyclone a few years ago or Louisville was ruined, or Johnstown was ruined, or | Galveston was ruined, or Charleston was ruined or Lisbon was ruined. The sword | of death can be unsheathed and strike anywhere We are all living on the brink of destruction. Do not pity the people of l San Francisco for possible future dangers which threaten them any more than you pity yourself, no matter where you may dwell.
 We have had this thought pressed very close upon our hearts of late. Do you | think this earthquake will strike Los | Angeles?" was again and again asked me ] amid those awful slences during which we were waiting for news from the north , ern part of the state. ''I do not know l would answer Tt may. It may not. No one can tell. It may come to our own city, just as 1t did to San Francisco or | Charleston" One can feel as calm IS did the younger Plny when he looked upon the awful eruptions of Vesuvius which buried Pompeii and Herculaneum many. many centuries ago. He penned this let | ter to Tactus Just after the two cities 1 were submerger: 'I might boast that during all this scene of horror not sigh or an expression of fear escaped me. My 1 support was founded in that miserable l though strong consolation that all man. 1 kind were involved in the same calamity and that imagined that was perlshing with the world itself" So amid the hor- | 1fC Co.,, nof- rth To not feel like taking the train and going east as so many wanted to do. I did not l feel like going even after Los Angeles Itself was vibrated by a slight earth quake. Why? I felt that we were all face to face with like dangers wherever we went. We are all walking hand in hand with death, no matter In what state we live The question which faced the people of San Francisco is the same that faces all people. Our safety is not to be de- clded by how fast we can run, but by how we'll we can do the work God has given us to do. Then when the death summons ] comes, no matter how or where it may come, may we be able to calmly look up and say: 'Here am l. Lord. Here am I. Come and take me while I am working at my post of duty.'
 The Silver Lining.
 Now amid all these scenes of destruo- ton and sorrow that have come to our bereft sister city, I send to these suffering people words of congratulation and good cheer. First, l say, Thank God, if the earthquake had to come, that 1t came in the early hours of the morning." You know that San Francisco Is situated at the Golden Gate of the Pacific. It was truly the Golden Gate then. The sun was just arising over the eastern hills and | throwing it's light upon the shimmering waters of the bay. Had this earthquake come hours later Oakland and Berkeley and San Rafael and scores of other su burban cities and towns would have emp 1 tied their thousands and tens of thou sands of business men and shoppers into the great metropolis. Then the huge office buildings would have been crowded. Then ! when the walls cracked and fell it would not have meant the loss of hundreds Of lives. but of thousands upon thousands. Thank God, I say that the earthquake came at 5:30 a. m. instead of 10:30 a. m. God be praised. we say. San Franciscos walls have toppled. but San Franciscos fathers and mothers and children live. Even the blackest clouds may have the brightest of silver Things.
 Second fact for congratulation: AL | though the city of San Francisco has | fallen, yet the city of San Francisco shall rise again. The future San Francisco which shall arise will be as much ahead | of the old city as the modern locomotive Is better than the old prairie schooner or l canal boat Like Galveston, it's streets 1 will be broader and lined with nobler buildings. Its palaces will be richer, it's stores filled with better goods. It's people will have better homes. It is all nonsense to talk about this being the end of San Francisco. You can no more blot out San Francisco than you can obliterate New York or London.
 A Better City.
 Then, lastly, I congratulate San Fran cisco because this great sorrow is going to result in the purification and the cleansing from sin and the consecration of it's people to the service of the Divine | Master. The city of San Francisco has been filled with eastern people. Most of these people came from Christian homes. But after many of them left the old home- steads they broke away, or, rather, drifted away, from the old spiritual moorings. They did as so many eastern people who have come to Los Angeles have done. They put their church letters in their trunks and never took them out. They spent their week days in making money and their Sundays in sport and fun seek ing. In other words they have not been children of God, as their forefathers were children of God. But now, by the broken | fortunes and the new made graves. these people of the northern part of the state will surrender their hearts to Jesus Christ. They will renew their pledges to the i Savious. And thus with the right hand | they will reach out to the east and with