The stupendous meteoric shower of November 13, 1833, was the
greatest display of celestial fireworks known in the annals of man.
It, too, was foretold in sacred prophecy.
“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.” Matthew 24: 29, 30.
by the words of Jesus as given in the Gospel of Mark: “In
those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened.”
Mark 13:24. The religious persecution waged against
dissidents began to abate about the middle of the eighteenth
century, and by the year 1773 religious toleration had been
granted by most of the leading nations of Europe; while, let
it be observed, the days of papal supremacy extended to the
captivity of the bishop of Rome in 1798. In harmony with
these facts, the darkening of the sun and the moon men-
tioned by our Saviour and other Bible writers, was to occur
within a limited number of years, “in those days,” yet “after
that tribulation —that is, between 1773 and 1798.
Had there been a thousand other dark days, none of them
would have fulfilled the specifications, but the notable **dark
day” of history occurred on scheduled time.
“The 19th of May, 1780, was unprecedented in New
England for its great darkness. . . . The darkness extended
over several thousand square miles, though differing much in
intensity in different places. Nowhere, perhaps, was it
greater than in this vicinity. The day was appropriately
called and is still known, as The Dark Day.” —*‘History of the
Town of Hampton, New Hampshire,” by Joseph Dorr, p. 217.
" “The dark day of New England,’ so familiar to old and
young, came May 19, 1780. . . . Near eleven o'clock, it
began to grow dark, as if night were coming. Men ceased
their work; the lowing cattle came to the barns, the bleating
sheep huddled by the fences, the wild birds screamed and
flew to their nests, the fowls went to their roosts. . . . At
night it was so inky dark that a person could not see his hand
when held up, nor even a white sheet of paper.” —""History
of Weare, New Hampshire,” by William Little, p. 276.
The mysterious darkness of that day and night was not
caused by an eclipse, for the moon was approximately at its
full, in which event no eclipse of the sun
The readers attention is also di-
rected to the sequence of events as pre-
sented in the parallel prophecy by John
in the Revelation: “And I beheld when
He had opened the sixth seal, and, lo,
there was a great earthquake; and the
sun became black as sackcloth of hair,
and the moon became as blood; and the
stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even
as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs,
when she is shaken of a mighty wind.”
Revelation 6:12, 13.
The introductory sign in this series
is “a great earthquake.” It occurred
precisely on time. Just as the relentless
persecution, or “tribulation of those
days,” had spent its fury, the world
was stunned by the tragedy of the Lis-
God's Law
G. C. Hoskin
I gazed into my mirror and I knew
The stains of toil and weariness and sin,
And I was vexed at the distressing view
That seemed to have but mockery within.
Impatiently I grasped its fragile mold
And quickly cast it heedlessly aside,
Unwilling to thus consciously behold
My faultlessness the spectacle belied.
And thus it is with God’s most holy law
That shows defects in character and deed,
To crush the one does not amend the flaw,
To scorn the other but avows the need.
would be possible. Eminent astronom-
ers assert that there was no transit of
either Venus or Mercury during that
year; while in Noah Webster's Dic
tionary, edition of 1869, under-Explana-
tory and Pronouncing Vocabulary of
Noted Names, it is stated: “The true
‘cause of this remarkable phenomenon is
not known.”
The event created a profound im-
pression upon men.
William Little further said: “Men,
ordinarily cool, were filled with awe
and alarm. . . . Some ran about saying
that the day of judgment was at hand;
the wicked hurried to their neighbors
to confess wrongs and ask forgiveness;
the superstitious dropped on their
bon earthquake. On the morning of
November 1, 1755, 60,000 persons perished in less than six
minutes. While mentioned as the “Lisbon earthquake,” be-
cause that city was the greatest sufferer, half of the world
felt the convulsion; and according to Professor W. H. Hobbs,
geologist, this historic catastrophe “takes first rank . . . in
some respects, among all recorded earthquakes.”
The second great sign is the darkening of the sun and
moon. The identity of this particular dark day is made clear
SEPTEMBER — 1043
knees to pray in the fields, or rushed
into the meeting houses to call on God to preserve them.”
“And the moon shall not give her light.” Although the
moon was approximately at her full, the darkness of the fol-
lowing night was so intense that the animal creation, as well
as man, was gripped with a nameless terror. “The darkness
of the following evening was probably as gross as ever has
been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light.
(Continued on page 15)
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