The Preaching Tours and Missionary Labours of George Müller (of Bristol)Müller, Susannah Grace Sanger
Religion
The Preaching Tours and Missionary Labours of George Müller (of Bristol)
Müller, Susannah Grace Sanger
Müller, George, 1805-1898
On April 17th, therefore, we rose at half past 4, set off by an early
train for Bloomington, Illinois (90 miles from Jacksonville), and
arrived there the same morning at half past 10. The next day (Sunday,
the 18th), my husband preached morning and evening at the First
Presbyterian Church, when the congregations were larger than could have
been expected, considering the unfavourable weather, which was
oppressively hot, with very high wind and rain that fell at intervals in
torrents. These storms gradually increased, and on Monday, in the middle
of the night, we were roused by a cyclone, which broke over the town.
The high wind then became a hurricane, the sky was in a blaze with
lightning for hours, loud peals of thunder burst overhead, and rain,
mixed with hail, swept down upon the streets in a complete deluge. Every
moment we expected our windows to be blown in, and feared that a
frightful crash in some part of the hotel would announce that great
damage had been done; but, happily, towards morning, the wind gradually
abated, and at last (through the Lord's kindness) the storm ceased. For
a few days the newspapers contained alarming accounts of this tornado,
and mentioned numerous places devastated by it, amongst which was
Marshfield, where the destruction was overwhelming.
"This part of the country" (said the "Daily Sentinel," of Indianapolis)
"was visited last evening by one of the most terrific cyclones on
record. After passing through several miles of country, it struck
Marshfield about half past 6 p.m., when, an eye witness of the
approaching storm, described it as a frightful-looking black cloud,
lined with fleecy white. It was funnel shaped, and moved like a
screw-propeller with wonderful velocity, literally destroying and
blowing away everything in its path, which was about half a mile wide,
and carrying death and destruction with it. Seventy-eight people were
killed instantly, and eighty-five were wounded. Large trees were twisted
off, telegraph wires were snapped, houses were blown from their
foundations, and what was a beautiful, peaceful, quiet town 24 hours
ago, is now a waste of desolation."
Before our departure from Bloomington, Mr. Müller preached at each of
the two Presbyterian Churches, and held one German meeting.
On April 21st we went to Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana (166 miles
from Bloomington) a beautiful city on the western branch of the White
River, surrounded by an extensive plain. There my husband preached at
the Second and Third Presbyterian, the First Baptist, the Meridian
Street Methodist, and the German Methodist Churches, and attended a
meeting of pastors on the 26th, when he addressed many of his brethren
in the ministry for an hour.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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