SIGNS IN THE HEAVENS

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven; and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:29-31.PROLI 123.2

In these verses we are carried rapidly over the time from the close of the days of tribulation to the coming of the Lord. Right here come in the signs which show in the clearest possible manner that the Saviour’s coming is near. “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.”PROLI 123.3

The record in Mark locates this sign still more definitely. Thus: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.” Mark 13:24. What could be more definite than this? In the year A. D. 31 our Saviour predicted that, before the close of the period of papal supremacy, but after the terrible, wholesale persecution had ceased, the sun and moon should be darkened. In other words, he said in effect that the sun and moon should be darkened between the years 1773 and 1798. Now read the following from “Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary,” in the department of “Noted Names,” etc.:—PROLI 124.1

“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 till 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 cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known.”PROLI 124.2

Many similar testimonies might be given, but this is sufficient to establish the fact. Says the writer, “The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known.” It was not caused by an eclipse, for the moon was full; besides this, the length of the period of darkness, and its intensity, would prove it to have been caused by something besides an eclipse, even if the moon had not been full. One writer says that greater darkness could not be imagined, even though we should conceive of every luminous body being blotted from the heavens. It was almost like the Egyptian darkness, that could be felt. Says the astronomer Herschel:—PROLI 124.3

“The dark day in Northern America was one of those wonderful phenomena of nature which will always be read with interest, but which philosophy is at a loss to explain.”PROLI 124.4

But even though somebody could give an explanation of that wonderful darkness, that would not affect it in the least as a sign of the day of the Lord. The fact that the sun was darkened at the very time that the Saviour said it would be, shows that it was one of the great signs which God has hung out to let us know whereabouts we are in the history of the world.PROLI 124.5

This wonderful sign was presented to the apostle John, in vision, and he describes it thus: “The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.” Revelation 6:12. So it was on this occasion. The unnatural darkness lasted till far into the night, when the sky assumed its ordinary appearance, but the moon had the appearance of blood.PROLI 124.6

“And the stars shall fall from heaven.” This was literally fulfilled on the night of November 13, 1833. Before describing this sign, it may be in place to notice a question that sometimes arises, namely, “Why should not this sign, according to the specifications of the prophecy, have occurred in those days after that tribulation?” The answer is that the prophecy does not necessarily locate it there. The first sign must have come within that limit; but the Saviour went right on with the next sign, and without any break in language he told of the shaking of the powers of the heavens, which occurs in immediate connection with Christ’s appearing, and could not, of course, have come within the period of papal supremacy. This shows that we need not necessarily look within that period for the fulfillment of any of the signs, except the darkening of the sun. The Christian Advocate and Journal, of December 13, 1833, said of the falling of the stars:—PROLI 125.1

“The meteoric phenomenon which occurred on the morning of the 13th of November last was of so extraordinary and interesting a character as to be entitled to more than a mere passing notice.... The lively and graphic descriptions which have appeared in various public journals do not exceed the reality. No language, indeed, can come up to the splendor of that magnificent display; and I hesitate not to say that no one who did not witness it can form an adequate conception of its glory. It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted — thousands swiftly followed in the track of thousands, as if created for the occasion.”PROLI 125.2

In the Signs of the Times (Oakland, Cal.) of April 13, 1888, there was a description of the falling stars, by one who witnessed the event, and from it the following statements are taken:—PROLI 125.3

“While many were excessively frightened at the wonderful display of ‘celestial fire-works,’ to the great majority it appeared so grand and magnificent as to be truly exhilarating. It was a sight never to be forgotten. It stands as vividly printed on my memory to-day as it did a month after it occurred.PROLI 125.4

“A number of attempts have been made to illustrate this scene, but it is impossible to give a just idea of it in a picture. It is not possible to give in a picture a representation of the stars falling at all points of the compass at once. But they fell in myriads to the north, east, south, and west. Any representation on paper must at best give a very limited idea of the reality.... They emanated from a point far beyond the regions of our atmosphere — so far that to the beholder they did not appear to come from one point.” (Professor Olmstead, of Yale College, says that they could not have been less than two thousand two hundred and thirty-eight miles from the earth.) “They penciled their way down the vault of the heavens, having the same appearance of relative distance that other stars present to the naked eye.”PROLI 125.5

“I viewed the actual scene for hours, and saw millions of stars, but I did not see one shooting star that night. I have seen lone shooting stars, but I never saw three in the heavens at once. I never saw anybody who professed to see a shooting star that night. They presented exactly the appearance given in the description in the prophecy: ‘The stars of heaven fell unto the earth.’ ...The point from which they emanated was so far beyond our atmosphere, and of course so far beyond the range of vision, that in every locality they appeared to fall straight downward.”PROLI 126.1

“How long they continued to fall we had no possible means of determining. In the eastern part of Pennsylvania, where I was, they began to fall about eleven o’clock in the evening, increasing in frequency until, in a few hours, they became a perfect shower. They could no more be counted than one can count the fast-falling flakes of snow in a hard storm. They continued to fall without any diminution of numbers until the dawn of day obscured them. And when the approaching light of the sun paled them in the east, they still covered the western sky. And when the spreading light obscured them in every direction, occasionally one of great brilliancy would leave its trace in the west, showing that they were still falling.PROLI 126.2

“While most of the incidents and scenes of my early years lose their interest and are seldom thought of, this increases in interest with the increase of years. To nothing do I look back with greater delight, and I never think of it without feelings of thankfulness that I was permitted to behold it. Never have I spoken on the subject of the signs without having the Scripture representation of this sign inspire me with hope and courage. It has made the Saviour’s predictions a reality in my experience which, it seems to me, nothing but the memory of the sight could. Such a scene of glory I never expect to behold again until the heavens depart as a scroll, and Jesus with his myriads of shining angels appears.”PROLI 126.3

Thus we have the fulfillment of the two great signs of the Lord’s coming, which he himself gave in his discourse upon that subject. But how do they show the nearness of that event? The following verses give the answer:—PROLI 126.4

“Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; so likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [he] is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.” Matthew 24:32-34.PROLI 126.5

There are some things that it is our duty to know. It is our duty to know the laws of the land in which we live. Ignorance of the law does not excuse the violator thereof, because the law is published for the express purpose of giving people a chance to become familiar with its provisions. It is likewise our duty to know God’s will, because hePROLI 126.6

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