THE SOUTH AMERICAN EAllTHQUAKES. 153 



about to say, so scanty in i(s accommodations — tluit it 

 Bccms to me less like a peaceful and permanent dwell- 

 ing, than a frail ship beaten by the storms of three oceans 

 — the sea of waters round about, the sea of air above, the 

 sea of lire underneath ! Once already it has foundered 

 in the waves; may it not, peradventure, be sometime 

 swallowed up in the flames ? For "' the day of the Lord 

 shall come as a thief in the night, in the which the 

 heavens shall pa.-ss away with a great noise, and the 

 elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also, 

 and the works that are therein, shall be l)urned up."'* 



AVas this calamity the presage of that day? And 

 must I needs repeat the fearful story of it in your ears ? 

 See those happy populations, on the evening of one of 

 their most cherished festivals, the Assumption of the 

 Virgin, their well-beloved patron-saint. While for the 

 Mother of Christ the shadows of death are shot tlirough 

 with beams of happiness and radiant life, for them life 

 itself is on the point of changing suddenly to death. 

 Their beds are made their tombs ; their cities, in a mo- 

 ment, are transformed to ruins. Convulsed with internal 

 fires, the earth reels like a drunkard in his cups; the 

 sea rears itself in sudden rage, and leaps upon the shore, 

 flinging the ships in wild wreck among the crumbling 

 houses. 



See them now, these decimated families, camping out 

 in tents, hiding in caves, houseless and homeless, and 

 without the implements of labor ! Look upon it, that 

 nation in mourning, its cities overthrown, its harbors 

 choked with sand, its roads obstructed, its country rav- 

 aged, plunged in misery I This I call their trial — a trial 

 rather than a pnnishment ; an occasion for religious 

 resignation, but at the same time of manly energy ; a 



* 5 Peter, iii. 10. 



