News and Miscellany

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 31, 1871

News and Miscellany.

“Can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

The Great Fires Supernatural.

Those who were exposed to the terrible tornado during which Chicago, Peshtigo, Manistee, White Rock, and other towns on Lake Michigan and Huron were burned testify nearly unanimously that “the air seemed to be on fire.” These words are almost invariably used in describing the phenomena. The fire did not spread gradually from tree to tree and house to house, but a great sheet of flame overcoming them like the clouds, and moving with the rapidity of a hurricane, rushed upon them without warning. It surrounded them. The atmosphere seemed filled with fire. Many people who inhaled the hot air fell dead. Corpses were found without a trace of fire upon them, or even upon the clothes which still covered them. There were frequently no marks of fire among the adjacent trees and fences. Many were killed in compact masses as if by a blast of death. They were found huddled together away from trees and buildings. Fish were killed in the streams by the intense heat. Many of these people believed that the last day had come; as well they might. The roaring of the whirlwind which preceded the blaze sounded enough like the last trump to suggest a prelude to the final catastrophe. The black midnight sky suddenly burst into flame. The flying brands might be easily mistaken for falling stars, and the vision of the apocalypse be reproduced before their terror-stricken eyes. “The moon became as blood. And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.” The imagination of those horrified people could without difficulty see prophecy fulfilled in the terrors which encompassed them.—Detroit Post.