Article February 15, 1919 Issue

Signs of the Times

[The Jackson (Mich.) News]

The Spanish influenza, as la grippe is now called, has become almost an established disease in this country. In many localities it has passed its peak and is receding. It has proved to be a "pestilence that walketh in darkness" and "destruction that wasteth at noonday." The psalmist told the people they need not "be afraid for the terror by night" if they put their trust in the truth. There is a healing or preventive value in this, for centuries later the divinest character the world has ever seen, proved his mission to doubting disciples by curing many persons of "their infirmites and plagues," so that "the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised." And this power possessed by Jesus of Nazareth was also possessed by his disciples and followers during the early centuries of the Christian era. This historic fact cannot be gainsaid. There was curative and preventive power in faith in the truth in those days, and may there not be again?

Discussion is already taking place as to means of preventing the plague from invading this country in the future. There seems to be no preventive or curative medicine, and it appears doubtful if the most exacting and vigorous quarantine could have kept it from our shores. While an old disease, its present name was given it only after alarming and fearful-stories had come from Spain of its prevalence. These stories aroused fear. Of course, no proper measures were taken to exclude the pestilence. It not only entered the country, but it spread from one city to another, apparently traveling on the wings of the wind and not waiting for personal contact with those who had it. It fell heavily on country districts, and attacked with special virulence soldiers in cantonments and training camps throughout the country.

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