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Promises of Christ’s Return
175
“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.
Moon as Blood
“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.
“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.
After midnight the darkness disappeared, and the moon, when first
[192]
visible, had the appearance of blood.
May 19, 1780, stands in history as “The Dark Day.” Since the
time of Moses no darkness of equal density, extent, and duration
has ever been recorded. The description given by eyewitnesses is an
echo of the words recorded by Joel 2500 years previous: “The sun
shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the
great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”
Joel 2:31
.
“When these things begin to come to pass,” Christ said, “then
look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.”
He pointed His followers to the budding trees of spring: “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.”
Luke 21:28,
30, 31
.
But in the church love for Christ and faith in His coming had
grown cold. 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, until it was, to
5
William Gordon, History of the Rise, Progress and Establishment of the Indepen-
dence of the U.S.A., vol. 3, p. 57.
6
Isaiah Thomas, Massachusetts Spy; or, American Oracle of Liberty, vol. 10, no.
472, (May 25, 1780).
7
Letter by Dr. Samuel Tenney, of Exeter, New Hampshire, December 1785, in
Massachusetts Historical Society Collections, 1792, (1st series, vol. 1, p. 97).