quickly,” and his longing response voices the prayer of the church in all
her pilgrimage, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”(466)
From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where saints and martyrs
witnessed for the truth, comes down the centuries the utterance of their
faith and hope. Being “assured of His personal resurrection, and
consequently of their own at His coming, for this cause,” says one of
these Christians, “they despised death, and were found to be above
it.”(467) They were willing to go down to the grave, that they might “rise
free.”(468) They looked for the “Lord to come from heaven in the clouds
with the glory of His Father,” “bringing to the just the times of the
kingdom.” The Waldenses cherished the same faith.(469) Wycliffe looked
forward to the Redeemer’s appearing as the hope of the church.(470)
Luther declared: “I persuade myself verily, that the day of judgment will
not be absent full three hundred years. God will not, can not, suffer this
wicked world much longer.” “The great day is drawing near in which the
kingdom of abominations shall be overthrown.”(471)
“This aged world is not far from its end,” said Melanchthon. Calvin bids
Christians “not to hesitate, ardently desiring the day of Christ’s coming
as of all events most auspicious;” and declares that “the whole family of
the faithful will keep in view that day.” “We must hunger after Christ, we
must seek, contemplate,” he says, “till the dawning of that great day,
when our Lord will fully manifest the glory of His kingdom.”(472)
“Has not our Lord Jesus carried up our flesh into heaven?” said Knox, the
Scotch Reformer, “and shall He not return? We know that He shall return,
and that with expedition.” Ridley and Latimer, who laid down their lives
for the truth, looked in faith for the Lord’s coming. Ridley wrote: “The
world without doubt—this I do believe, and therefore I say it—draws to an
end. Let us with John, the servant of God, cry in our hearts unto our
Saviour Christ, Come, Lord Jesus, come.”(473)
“The thoughts of the coming of the Lord,” said Baxter, “are most sweet and
joyful to me.”(474) “It is the work of faith and the character of His
saints to love His appearing and to look for that blessed hope.” “If death
be the last enemy to be destroyed at the resurrection, we may learn how
earnestly believers should long and pray for the second coming of Christ,
when this full and final conquest shall be made.”(475) “This is the day
that all believers should long, and hope, and wait for, as being the
accomplishment of all the work of their redemption, and all the desires
and endeavors of their souls.” “Hasten, O Lord, this blessed day!”(476)
Such was the hope of the apostolic church, of the “church in the
wilderness,” and of the Reformers.
Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ’s coming, but
presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near. Said Jesus:
“There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.”(477)
“The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the
stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be
shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with
great power and glory.”(478) The revelator thus describes the first of the
signs to precede the second advent: “There was a great earthquake; and the
sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood.”(479)
These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century.
In fulfilment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most
terrible earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as
the earthquake of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe,
Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the
island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It
pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa
the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was
destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight
or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the
coast of Spain and Africa, engulfing cities, and causing great
destruction.
It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme
violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high.
Mountains, “some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as
it were, from their very foundations; and some of them opened at their
summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of
them being thrown down into the adjacent valleys. Flames are related to
have issued from these mountains.”(480)
At Lisbon “a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately
afterward a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the
course of about six minutes, sixty thousand persons perished. The sea
first retired, and laid the bar dry; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet
or more above its ordinary level.” “Among other extraordinary events
related to have occurred at Lisbon during the catastrophe, was the
subsidence of a new quay, built entirely of marble, at an immense expense.
A great concourse of people had collected there for safety, as a spot
where they might be beyond the reach of falling ruins; but suddenly the
quay sank down with all the people on it, and not one of the dead bodies
ever floated to the surface.”(481)
“The shock” of the earthquake “was instantly followed by the fall of every
church and convent, almost all the large public buildings, and more than
one fourth of the houses. In about two hours after the shock, fires broke
out in different quarters, and raged with such violence for the space of
nearly three days, that the city was completely desolated. The earthquake
happened on a holy-day, when the churches and convents were full of
people, very few of whom escaped.”(482) “The terror of the people was
beyond description. Nobody wept; it was beyond tears. They ran hither and
thither, delirious with horror and astonishment, beating their faces and
breasts, crying, ‘_Misericordia! the world’s at an end!_’ Mothers forgot
their children, and ran about loaded with crucifixed images.
Unfortunately, many ran to the churches for protection; but in vain was
the sacrament exposed; in vain did the poor creatures embrace the altars;
images, priests, and people were buried in one common ruin.” It has been
estimated that ninety thousand persons lost their lives on that fatal day.
Twenty-five years later appeared the next sign mentioned in the
prophecy,—the darkening of the sun and moon. What rendered this more
striking was the fact that the time of its fulfilment had been definitely
pointed out. In the Saviour’s conversation with His disciples upon Olivet,
after describing the long period of trial for the church,—the 1260 years
of papal persecution, concerning which He had promised that the
tribulation should be shortened,—He thus mentioned certain events to
precede His coming, and fixed the time when the first of these should be
witnessed: “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be
darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.”(483) The 1260 days, or
years, terminated in 1798. A quarter of a century earlier, persecution had
almost wholly ceased. Following this persecution, according to the words
of Christ, the sun was to be darkened. On the 19th of May, 1780, this
prophecy was fulfilled.
“Almost if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet
unexplained phenomenon of its kind, ... stands the dark day of May 19,
1780,—a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and
atmosphere in New England.”(484)
An eye-witness living in Massachusetts describes the event as follows:
“In the morning the sun rose clear, but was soon overcast. The clouds
became lowery, and from them, black and ominous, as they soon appeared,
lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and a little rain fell. Toward nine
o’clock, the clouds became thinner, and assumed a brassy or coppery
appearance, and earth, rocks, trees, buildings, water, and persons were
changed by this strange, unearthly light. A few minutes later, a heavy
black cloud spread over the entire sky except a narrow rim at the horizon,
and it was as dark as it usually is at nine o’clock on a summer
evening....
“Fear, anxiety, and awe gradually filled the minds of the people. Women
stood at the door, looking out upon the dark landscape; men returned from
their labor in the fields; the carpenter left his tools, the blacksmith
his forge, the tradesman his counter. Schools were dismissed, and
tremblingly the children fled homeward. Travelers put up at the nearest
farmhouse. ‘What is coming?’ queried every lip and heart. It seemed as if
a hurricane was about to dash across the land, or as if it was the day of
the consummation of all things.
“Candles were used; and hearth-fires shone as brightly as on a moonless
evening in autumn.... Fowls retired to their roosts and went to sleep,
cattle gathered at the pasture-bars and lowed, frogs peeped, birds sang
their evening songs, and bats flew about. But the human knew that night
had not come....
“Dr. Nathanael Whittaker, pastor of the Tabernacle church in Salem, held
religious services in the meeting-house, and preached a sermon in which he
maintained that the darkness was supernatural. Congregations came together
in many other places. The texts for the extemporaneous sermons were
invariably those that seemed to indicate that the darkness was consonant
with scriptural prophecy.... The darkness was most dense shortly after
eleven o’clock.”(485) “In most parts of the country it was so great in the
daytime, that the people could not tell the hour by either watch or clock,
nor dine, nor manage their domestic business, without the light of
candles....
“The extent of this darkness was extraordinary. It was observed as far
east as Falmouth. To the westward it reached to the farthest part of
Connecticut, and to Albany. To the southward, it was observed along the
seacoasts; and to the north as far as the American settlements
extend.”(486)
The intense darkness of the day was succeeded, an hour or two before
evening, by a partially clear sky, and the sun appeared, though it was
still obscured by the black, heavy mist. “After sundown, the clouds came
again overhead, and it grew dark very fast.” “Nor was the darkness of the
night less uncommon and terrifying than that of the day; notwithstanding
there was almost a full moon, no object was discernible but by the help of
some artificial light, which, when seen from the neighboring houses and
other places at a distance, appeared through a kind of Egyptian darkness
which seemed almost impervious to the rays.”(487) Said an eye-witness of
the scene: “I could not help conceiving at the time, that if every
luminous body in the universe had been shrouded in impenetrable shades, or
struck out of existence, the darkness could not have been more
complete.”(488) Though at nine o’clock that night the moon rose to the
full, “it had not the least effect to dispel the deathlike shadows.” After
midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first visible, had
the appearance of blood.
May 19, 1780, stands in history as “The Dark Day.” Since the time of
Moses, no period of darkness of equal density, extent, and duration, has
ever been recorded. The description of this event, as given by
eye-witnesses, is but an echo of the words of the Lord, recorded by the
prophet Joel, twenty-five hundred years previous to their fulfilment: “The
sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the
great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”(489)
Christ had bidden His people watch for the signs of His advent, and
rejoice as they should behold the tokens of their coming King. “When these
things begin to come to pass,” He said, “then look up, and lift up your
heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” He pointed His followers to the
budding trees of spring, and said: “When they now shoot forth, ye see and
know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye,
when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is
nigh at hand.”(490)
But as the spirit of humility and devotion in the church had given place
to pride and formalism, love for Christ and faith in His coming had grown
cold. Absorbed in worldliness and pleasure-seeking, the professed people
of God were blinded to the Saviour’s instructions concerning the signs of
His appearing. The doctrine of the second advent had been neglected; the
scriptures relating to it were obscured by misinterpretation, until it
was, to a great extent, ignored and forgotten. Especially was this the
case in the churches of America. The freedom and comfort enjoyed by all
classes of society, the ambitious desire for wealth and luxury, begetting
an absorbing devotion to money-making, the eager rush for popularity and
power, which seemed to be within the reach of all, led men to center their
interests and hopes on the things of this life, and to put far in the
future that solemn day when the present order of things should pass away.
When the Saviour pointed out to His followers the signs of His return, He
foretold the state of backsliding that would exist just prior to His
second advent. There would be, as in the days of Noah, the activity and
stir of worldly business and pleasure-seeking—buying, selling, planting,
building, marrying, and giving in marriage—with forgetfulness of God and
the future life. For those living at this time, Christ’s admonition is:
“Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come
upon you unawares.” “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be
accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and
to stand before the Son of man.”(491)
The condition of the church at this time is pointed out in the Saviour’s
words in the Revelation, “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art
dead.”(492) And to those who refuse to arouse from their careless
security, the solemn warning is addressed, “If therefore thou shalt not
watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I
will come upon thee.”(493)
It was needful that men should be awakened to their danger; that they
should be roused to prepare for the solemn events connected with the close
of probation. The prophet of God declares: “The day of the Lord is great
and very terrible; and who can abide it?” Who shall stand when He
appeareth who is “of purer eyes than to behold evil,” and cannot “look on
iniquity”?(494) To them that cry, “My God, we know Thee,” yet have
transgressed His covenant, and hastened after another god,(495) hiding
iniquity in their hearts, and loving the paths of unrighteousness,—to
these the day of the Lord is “darkness, and not light, even very dark, and
no brightness in it.”(496) “It shall come to pass at that time,” saith the
Lord, “that I will search Jerusalem with candles, and punish the men that
are settled on their lees: that say in their heart, The Lord will not do
good, neither will He do evil.”(497) “I will punish the world for their
evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of
the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible.”(498) “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to
deliver them;” “their goods shall become a booty, and their houses a
desolation.”(499)
The prophet Jeremiah, looking forward to this fearful time, exclaimed: “I
am pained at my very heart.” “I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast
heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction
upon destruction is cried.”(500)
“That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of
wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm.”(501) “Behold,
the day of the Lord cometh, ... to lay the land desolate: and He shall
destroy the sinners thereof out of it.”(502)
In view of that great day the word of God, in the most solemn and
impressive language, calls upon His people to arouse from their spiritual
lethargy, and to seek His face with repentance and humiliation: “Blow ye
the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain: let all the
inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is
nigh at hand.” “Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly: gather the
people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the
children: ... let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber, and the bride
out of her closet. Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep
between the porch and the altar.” “Turn ye even to Me with all your heart,
and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: and rend your
heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for He is
gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.”(503)
To prepare a people to stand in the day of God, a great work of reform was
to be accomplished. God saw that many of His professed people were not
building for eternity, and in His mercy He was about to send a message of
warning to arouse them from their stupor, and lead them to make ready for
the coming of the Lord.
This warning is brought to view in Revelation 14. Here is a threefold
message represented as proclaimed by heavenly beings, and immediately
followed by the coming of the Son of man “to reap the harvest of the
earth.” The first of these warnings announces the approaching judgment.
The prophet beheld an angel flying “in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud
voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is
come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the
fountains of waters.”(504)
This message is declared to be a part of the “everlasting gospel.” The
work of preaching the gospel has not been committed to angels, but has
been intrusted to men. Holy angels have been employed in directing this
work, they have in charge the great movements for the salvation of men;
but the actual proclamation of the gospel is performed by the servants of
Christ upon the earth.
Faithful men, who were obedient to the promptings of God’s Spirit and the
teachings of His word, were to proclaim this warning to the world. They
were those who had taken heed to the “sure word of prophecy,” the “light
that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star
arise.”(505) They had been seeking the knowledge of God more than all hid
treasures, counting it “better than the merchandise of silver, and the
gain thereof than fine gold.”(506) And the Lord revealed to them the great
things of the kingdom. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him;
and He will show them His covenant.”(507)
It was not the scholarly theologians who had an understanding of this
truth, and engaged in its proclamation. Had these been faithful watchmen,
diligently and prayerfully searching the Scriptures, they would have known
the time of night; the prophecies would have opened to them the events
about to take place. But they did not occupy this position, and the
message was given by humbler men. Said Jesus, “Walk while ye have the
light, lest darkness come upon you.”(508) Those who turn away from the
light which God has given, or who neglect to seek it when it is within
their reach, are left in darkness. But the Saviour declares, “He that
followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of
life.”(509) Whoever is with singleness of purpose seeking to do God’s
will, earnestly heeding the light already given, will receive greater
light; to that soul some star of heavenly radiance will be sent, to guide
him into all truth.
At the time of Christ’s first advent, the priests and scribes of the holy
city, to whom were intrusted the oracles of God, might have discerned the
signs of the times, and proclaimed the coming of the Promised One. The
prophecy of Micah designated His birthplace;(510) Daniel specified the
time of His advent.(511) God committed these prophecies to the Jewish
leaders; they were without excuse if they did not know and declare to the
people that the Messiah’s coming was at hand. Their ignorance was the
result of sinful neglect. The Jews were building monuments for the slain
prophets of God, while by their deference to the great men of earth they
were paying homage to the servants of Satan. Absorbed in their ambitious
strife for place and power among men, they lost sight of the divine honors
proffered them by the King of heaven.
With profound and reverent interest the elders of Israel should have been
studying the place, the time, the circumstances, of the greatest event in
the world’s history,—the coming of the Son of God to accomplish the
redemption of man. All the people should have been watching and waiting
that they might be among the first to welcome the world’s Redeemer. But
lo, at Bethlehem two weary travelers from the hills of Nazareth traverse
the whole length of the narrow street to the eastern extremity of the
town, vainly seeking a place of rest and shelter for the night. No doors
are open to receive them. In a wretched hovel prepared for cattle, they at
last find refuge, and there the Saviour of the world is born.
Heavenly angels had seen the glory which the Son of God shared with the
Father before the world was, and they had looked forward with intense
interest to His appearing on earth, as an event fraught with the greatest
joy to all people. Angels were appointed to carry the glad tidings to
those who were prepared to receive it, and who would joyfully make it
known to the inhabitants of the earth. Christ had stooped to take upon
Himself man’s nature; He was to bear an infinite weight of woe as He
should make His soul an offering for sin; yet angels desired that even in
His humiliation, the Son of the Highest might appear before men with a
dignity and glory befitting His character. Would the great men of earth
assemble at Israel’s capital to greet His coming? Would legions of angels
present Him to the expectant company?
An angel visits the earth to see who are prepared to welcome Jesus. But he
can discern no tokens of expectancy. He hears no voice of praise and
triumph, that the period of Messiah’s coming is at hand. The angel hovers
for a time over the chosen city and the temple where the divine presence
has been manifested for ages; but even here is the same indifference. The
priests, in their pomp and pride, are offering polluted sacrifices in the
temple. The Pharisees are with loud voices addressing the people, or
making boastful prayers at the corners of the streets. In the palaces of
kings, in the assemblies of philosophers, in the schools of the rabbis,
all are alike unmindful of the wondrous fact which has filled all heaven
with joy and praise,—that the Redeemer of men is about to appear upon the
earth.
There is no evidence that Christ is expected, and no preparation for the
Prince of life. In amazement the celestial messenger is about to return to
heaven with the shameful tidings, when he discovers a group of shepherds
who are watching their flocks by night, and as they gaze into the starry
heavens, are contemplating the prophecy of a Messiah to come to earth, and
longing for the advent of the world’s Redeemer. Here is a company that is
prepared to receive the heavenly message. And suddenly the angel of the
Lord appears, declaring the good tidings of great joy. Celestial glory
floods all the plain, an innumerable company of angels is revealed, and as
if the joy were too great for one messenger to bring from heaven, a
multitude of voices break forth in the anthem which all the nations of the
saved shall one day sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men.”(512)