Signs of the Approaching End
By W. A. S.
Part 5. The Falling Stars of 1833
In the New York Journal of Commerce, Mr. Henry Dana Ward emphasized the exactness of detail with which the prophecy described the scene as it appeared in 1833. This is the apocalyptic picture, as the ancient prophet saw it in vision:— “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.” Rev. 6:13. The Prophetic Picture Reproduced
Mr. Ward drew the picture as he saw it nearly eighteen centuries later, the correspondence to the prophetic description being forced upon him in every line:— No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars.—New York Journal of Commerce, Nov. 14, 1833. Mr. Ward noted the special appropriateness of the prophet’s figure of the fig tree casting the green figs in a mighty wind:— Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did not come as if from several trees shaken, but from one. Those which appeared in the east fell toward the east; those which appeared in the north fell toward the north; those which appeared in the west fell toward the west; and those which appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the park) fell toward the south. And they fell not as ripe fruit falls; far from it; but they flew, they were cast, like the unripe fig, which at first refuses to leave the branch, and when, under a violent pressure, it does break its hold, flies swiftly, straight off, descending; and in the multitude falling, some cross the track of others, as they are thrown with more or less force, but each one falls on its own side of the tree. Professor Olmsted’s long and carefully elaborated account in the American Journal of Science, quoted from a correspondent in Bowling Green, Mo., is as follows:— Though there was no moon, when we first observed them, their brilliancy was so great that we could, at times, read common-sized print without much difficulty, and the light which they afforded was much whiter than that of the moon, in the clearest and coldest night, when the ground is covered with snow. The air itself, the face of the earth as far as we could behold it—all the surrounding objects, and the very countenances of men, wore the aspect and hue of death, occasioned by the continued, pallid glare of these countless meteors, which in all their grandeur flamed “lawless through the sky.” There was a grand and indescribable gloom on all around—an awe-inspiring sublimity on all above, while—
“The sanguine flood
Rolled a broad slaughter o’er the plains
of heaven,
And nature’s self did seem to totter on
the brink of time!” There was scarcely a space in the firmament which was not filled at every instant with these falling stars, nor on it could you in general perceive any particular difference in appearance; still at times they seemed to shower down in groups—calling to mind the fig tree, casting her untimely figs when shaken by a mighty wind.—Vol. XXV, page 382 (1834). It was not in North America alone, but in all the civilized world, that the attention of men was called to the prophetic word by the discussions of the event. Thus the English scientific writer, Thomas Milner, writing for the British public, spoke as follows of the profound impression made:— In many districts, the mass of the population were terror-struck, and the more enlightened were awed at contemplating so vivid a picture of the apocalyptic image—that of the stars of heaven falling to the earth, even as a fig tree casting her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.—“Gallery of Nature,” page 140 (London, 1852). So this sign in the heavens made its solemn appeal to all the world. It brought to the multitudes who saw it thoughts of God and the last great day. An observer living at the time in Georgia, wrote, “Everybody felt that it was the judgment, and that the end of the world had come.” Another, in Kentucky, wrote, “In every direction I could hear men, women, and children screaming, ‘The judgment day is come!’” Rather, it was a signal that the hour of God’s judgment was drawing near. The signs so long foretold were appearing, one by one, to register their enduring mark on the record of fulfilling prophecy, and to arouse believers to the work of proclaiming the message of Christ’s second coming, which now was due to the world. Immediately following these times, there began an awakening concerning this vital Bible doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which has grown into the definite advent movement that is carrying the gospel message of preparation for the coming of the Lord to every nation and tongue and people.