Signs of Our Lord's Return

Notes

1. "In those days, after that tribulation." The papal tribulation here mentioned ended in 1798. The persecution, by means of the influence of the Reformation, ended about 1773. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days," or May 19, 1780, the sun was darkened. The sign in the moon occurred the following night; and Nov. 13, 1833, the stars fell from heaven. The following historical extracts show the fulfilment of these words of the Saviour.

#### The Dark Day.

"DARK DAY, THE.—May 19, 1780; so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day, extending over all New England. In some places persons could not see to read common print in the open air for several hours together. Birds sang their evening song, disappeared, and became silent; fowls went to roost; cattle sought the barn-yard; and candles were lighted in the houses. The obscuration began about ten o'clock in the morning, and continued until the middle of the next night, but with differences of degree and duration in different places. For several days previous, the wind had been variable, but chiefly from the southwest and the northeast. The true causes of this remarkable phenomenon are not known."—" Webster's Unabridged Dictionary," edition of 1884, page 1604.

"The cocks crew as at daybreak, and everything bore the appearance and gloom of night. The alarm produced by this unusual aspect of the heavens was very great."—Portsmouth Journal, May 20, 1843.

#### The Moon.

"The moon shall not give her light." The following statements show how completely this prediction was fulfilled the night following the day of the sun's darkening:

"The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as has ever been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light. I could not help conceiving at the time that if every luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable darkness, or struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more complete. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes, was equally invisible with the blackest velvet."—Mr. Tenney, of Exeter, N. H., quoted by Mr. Gage to the "Historical Society of Connecticut."

"But especially I mention that wonderful darkness on the 19th of May, 1780. Then, as in our text, the sun was darkened; such a darkness as probably was never known before since the crucifixion of our Lord. . . . A great part of the following night, also, was singularly dark. The moon, though in the full, gave no light."—From a manuscript sermon by Rev. Elam Potter, delivered May 28, 1780.

"My father and mother, who were pious, thought the day of judgment was near. They sat up that night, during the latter part of which they said the darkness disappeared, and then the sky seemed as usual, but the moon, which was at its full, had the appearance of blood."—Milo Bostwick.

#### The Stars.

"Extensive and magnificent showers of shooting stars have been known to occur at various places in modern times; but the most universal and wonderful which has ever been recorded, is that of the 13th of November, 1833, the whole firmament, over all the United States, being then, for hours, in fiery commotion. No celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in the community, or with such dread and alarm by another. . . . During the three hours of its continuance, the day of judgment was believed to be only waiting for sunrise."—"Our First Century," by R. M. Devens, page 329.

2. A definite message, announcing the coming of the King and the immediate establishment of the eternal kingdom spoken of by seers, and looked for by God's people through all ages, constitutes one of the surest signs of the end of the world. Just such a message as this is now being carried to all parts of the world, and the end is near.

3. In addition to an increase in the knowledge of the prophecies as indicated in the text, we may note the increase in general knowledge as described in the following extract:

"To appreciate them [the wonders of this age] let us briefly contrast the conditions to-day with those of a hundred years ago. This is no easy task, for the comparison not only involves the experiences of two generations, but it is like the juxtaposition of a star with the noonday sun, whose superior brilliancy obliterates the lesser light. . . .

"As we make the backward run of one hundred years, we have passed by many mile-stones of progress. Let us see if we can count some of them as they disappear behind us. We quickly lose the telephone, phonograph, and graphophone. We no longer see the cable-cars or electric railways. The electric lights have gone out. The telegraph disappears. The sewing-machine, reaper, and thrasher have passed away, and so also have all india-rubber goods. We no longer see any photographs, photoengravings, photolithographs, or snap-shot cameras. The wonderful octuple web perfecting printing-press, printing, pasting, cutting, folding, and counting newspapers at the rate of 96,000 per hour, or 1,600 per minute, shrinks at the beginning of the century into an insignificant prototype. We lose all planing and wood-working machinery, and with it the endless variety of sashes, doors, blinds, and furniture in unlimited variety. There are no gas engines, no passenger-elevators, no asphalt pavement, no steam fire-engine, no triple-expansion steam engine, no Giffard injector, no celluloid articles, no barbed-wire fences, no time-locks for safes, no self-binding harvesters, no oil or gas wells, no ice machines or cold storage. We lose air-engines, stem-winding watches, cash-registers and cash-carriers, the great suspension bridges and tunnels, the Suez Canal, iron-frame buildings, monitors and heavy ironclads, revolvers, torpedos, magazine guns and Gatling guns, linotype machines, all practical typewriters, all Pasteurizing, knowledge of microbes or disease germs, and sanitary plumbing, water-gas, soda-water fountains, air-brakes, coal-tar dyes and medicines, nitro-glycerine, dynamite and guncotton, dynamo-electric machines, aluminum ware, electric locomotives, Bessemer steel with its wonderful developments, ocean cables, enameled ironware, Welsbach gas-burners, electric storage batteries, the cigarette machine, hydraulic dredges, the roller mills, middlings purifiers and patent-process flour, tin-can machines, car couplings, compressed-air drills, sleeping-cars, the dynamite gun, the McKay shoe machine, the circular knitting-machine, the Jacquard loom, wood pulp for papers, fire alarms, the use of anesthetics in surgery, oleomargarine, street-sweepers, Artesian wells, friction matches, steam hammers, electroplating, nail machines; false teeth, artificial limbs and eyes, the spectroscope, the kinetoscope or moving pictures, acetylene gas, X-ray apparatus, horseless carriages, and—but enough! the reader exclaims, and, indeed, it is not pleasant to contemplate the loss."—From introduction to "Progress of Inventions in the Nineteenth Century."