_Darkness at the Crucifixion_.--The following passage, in a volume
of Lectures by the Rev. H. Blunt, has fallen under my notice:--
"It was this Dionysius (the Areopagite) of whom
the earliest Christian historians relate that, being at
Heliopolis, in Egypt, at the time of our Lord's crucifixion,
when he beheld the mid-day darkness which
attended that awful event, he exclaimed, 'Either the
God of Nature suffers, or the frame of the world will
be dissolved.'"
Having very limited opportunity of studying the ancient historians,
I should be greatly obliged if you would inform me from what work
this account is derived; or refer me to any authors, _not_ having
embraced Christianity, who give a description of the crucifixion of
our Saviour; and especially with reference to the "darkness over all
the earth" at the time of that event, mentioned by St. Luke, who
also adds, that "the sun was darkened." Your kindly consenting, as
you did in your second number, to receive queries respecting
references, has induced me to trouble you so far.