A startling headline shouted from the front page of the newspaper: “Flu hits young women hard”. The article revealed that the second wave of swine flu (H1N1) is striking healthy teenage girls and young adults particularly hard. Canadian researchers at the University of Manitoba studied the cases of 113 women and 55 men admitted to hospital intensive care units between April and August of this year: The average age was 32 years. Twenty-nine of those people died (17%). This is reminiscent of the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918.
According to the CBC’s Technology and Science on-line news, the H1N1 virus belongs to the same subtype as the Spanish flu that killed more than 20-million people worldwide in 1918-19.
PANDEMIC
The Spanish flu was most deadly amongst people 20-40 years of age. It was unusual in this way because influenza most often kills the elderly and young children. The death rate from the 1918 Spanish flu was 2.5 percent. That meant that out of every 1,000 infected people, 25 died. (The typical mortality rate during flu season is less than one tenth of one percent.) People became ill and died quickly.
There were stories of people developing the flu while on their way to work and dying within hours. There was an anecdotal account of four women playing bridge together. Overnight, three of them died from influenza. According to a Stanford University internet site on the Spanish flu, a physician related how his patients with ordinary flu symptoms would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen". The doctor stated: "It is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate." Physicians were helpless against the Spanish flu. (For more information see http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/)
Fortunately, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the H1N1 strain of influensa virus is not as virulent or deadly as the 1918 pandemic. Perhaps with vigilant health care practices and proper vaccinations we will be able to keep it that way!
WHAT IF?
But let us imagine for a moment that H1N1 becomes a deadly global pandemic similar to the 1918 Spanish flu. It would probably trigger widespread alarm, at times verging on panic, as people would
be confronted with the prospect of their own mortality and fear for loved-ones. Who would live through the pandemic and who would die from it? Everyone they love would be at risk! It would be a terrible experience to watch a child or spouse slip into the grip of death ― and be helpless to stop it. At such a low and desperate point of grief, all the material possessions acquired in life and the things of this world would mean nothing! What good is wealth or possessions without those who loved and were loved?!
TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS
At some point of desperation or defeat, the only consolation lies in God. Unbelief is a most desolate human condition. The atheist thinks that the dead people he loved have ceased to exist. He does not believe he will ever see them again. The agnostic does not know what happened to his loved-ones who perished or what is in store for him. The Christian knows that death is not the end of existence. He places his hope in Jesus Christ. He can find solace in the Hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. It was written in 1918, by Helen Lemmel, as the Great War and Spanish Flu were killing millions of people who also loved and were loved:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
This great hymn has comforted millions of people for more than ninety years. It certainly has comforted me in times of loss of a loved one, or during periods of terror with neurological degeneration.
The composer of that hymn was right. When we focus on Jesus, the things of earth really do grow strangely dim. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus has spoken so often to me at a heart-level. It is my favourite hymn. I invite you to take a few minutes to watch Michael Smith's moving rendition of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR0LiRiz4l4
MP
According to the CBC’s Technology and Science on-line news, the H1N1 virus belongs to the same subtype as the Spanish flu that killed more than 20-million people worldwide in 1918-19.
PANDEMIC
The Spanish flu was most deadly amongst people 20-40 years of age. It was unusual in this way because influenza most often kills the elderly and young children. The death rate from the 1918 Spanish flu was 2.5 percent. That meant that out of every 1,000 infected people, 25 died. (The typical mortality rate during flu season is less than one tenth of one percent.) People became ill and died quickly.
There were stories of people developing the flu while on their way to work and dying within hours. There was an anecdotal account of four women playing bridge together. Overnight, three of them died from influenza. According to a Stanford University internet site on the Spanish flu, a physician related how his patients with ordinary flu symptoms would rapidly "develop the most viscous type of pneumonia that has ever been seen". The doctor stated: "It is simply a struggle for air until they suffocate." Physicians were helpless against the Spanish flu. (For more information see http://virus.stanford.edu/uda/)
Fortunately, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the H1N1 strain of influensa virus is not as virulent or deadly as the 1918 pandemic. Perhaps with vigilant health care practices and proper vaccinations we will be able to keep it that way!
WHAT IF?
But let us imagine for a moment that H1N1 becomes a deadly global pandemic similar to the 1918 Spanish flu. It would probably trigger widespread alarm, at times verging on panic, as people would
be confronted with the prospect of their own mortality and fear for loved-ones. Who would live through the pandemic and who would die from it? Everyone they love would be at risk! It would be a terrible experience to watch a child or spouse slip into the grip of death ― and be helpless to stop it. At such a low and desperate point of grief, all the material possessions acquired in life and the things of this world would mean nothing! What good is wealth or possessions without those who loved and were loved?!TURN YOUR EYES UPON JESUS
At some point of desperation or defeat, the only consolation lies in God. Unbelief is a most desolate human condition. The atheist thinks that the dead people he loved have ceased to exist. He does not believe he will ever see them again. The agnostic does not know what happened to his loved-ones who perished or what is in store for him. The Christian knows that death is not the end of existence. He places his hope in Jesus Christ. He can find solace in the Hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus. It was written in 1918, by Helen Lemmel, as the Great War and Spanish Flu were killing millions of people who also loved and were loved:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.
This great hymn has comforted millions of people for more than ninety years. It certainly has comforted me in times of loss of a loved one, or during periods of terror with neurological degeneration.
The composer of that hymn was right. When we focus on Jesus, the things of earth really do grow strangely dim. Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus has spoken so often to me at a heart-level. It is my favourite hymn. I invite you to take a few minutes to watch Michael Smith's moving rendition of it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR0LiRiz4l4
MP
3 comments:
I had never heard the hymn "Turn Your Eyes on Jesus" though it is a scriptural lesson I quote frequently. As Peter let his eyes wander towards the high waves he sank because he failed to keep his eyes turned on Jesus. We too can walk across stormy seas providing we keep our focus on Our Sweet Lord and Saviour. Thank you for the link to Youtube.
Thank you for your comment, Linda.
Mark
Thanks for your reference to Helen Lemmel's lovely gospel song. (Today is the 145th anniversary of her birth.) If you'd like to learn a bit more about how the hymn came to be written, I invite you to check out my daily blog on hymn history, Wordwise Hymns.
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