The Darkly Lowering Heavens by L. D. SANTEE

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 14, 1872

The Darkly Lowering Heavens.

By L. D. SANTEE

As I seat myself before the window, I see a bank of black clouds slowly rising above the rim of the western horizon. As they come up higher, they assume a greenish hue. At short intervals, scuds of fog will dash over them and then disappear. Lightning is continually playing through the dark mass, making appropriate the words of the poet:—

“There, like a trumpet, loud and strong, Thy thunders shake our coast, While the red lightnings wave along— The banners of the host.”

The air is oppressive and sultry, and the wind that a few minutes ago was quite fresh has died away save now and then a fitful puff. By all these tokens, I know that the storm will soon burst upon us.

By the inspired word of God, by the signs in the political heavens, by the throes in the earth that portend approaching dissolution, I know that there is another storm, more dreadful and bringing destruction and ruin in its train, that will soon illume with its lurid lightnings and sweep with its fiery breath the frail and trembling planet on which we live. The earthquakes that cause the crust of the earth to tremble, the tidal waves that sweep thousands into eternity, are but the heralds of that last desolating storm that shall be ushered in with burning and fuel of fire.

As I open my Bible, I read concerning that storm: “For, behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble.” Mal. 4:1. Isaiah, as his prophetic vision is directed to this scene, exclaims, “The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. . . . And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”

Daniel testifies, “There shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time.” Chap. 12:1. The language of the prophet Joel is pertinent and full of meaning: “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; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains.” Chap. 2:1, 2.

Is there a possibility that these prophecies will fail? None. “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” 2 Pet. 1:21. In the same chapter, the apostle tells us how sure it is. He first declares that they were eye-witnesses of the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ, and he adds in verse 19: “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed.” There is an old adage that “seeing is believing;” but this word of prophecy is more sure, more infallible, than eyesight.

In chapter 3:10, he has given a graphic description of the last tempest, the final consummation: “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

As I turn away from these evidences of the coming storm, my soul repeats the words of the prophet Joel: “The day of the Lord is great and very terrible, and who can abide it?” In seeming answer to this question, my eyes fall on the 31st verse of Acts 16, where the condition of salvation and refuge is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But how can we follow his example? He was without sin; while our sins are like scarlet. Without divine assistance, we must perish. Like a strain of rich, sweet music come these words of inspiration to us, floating down through the ages, yet losing none of their life-giving tenderness: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Heb. 13:5. And the apostle, to confirm the wavering and strengthen the weak, adds, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Heb. 7:25. Daniel, speaking of the time of trouble, adds, “At that time thy people shall be delivered.” Blessed Jesus, Saviour of thy people! “Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And, although unbelief lift her head in defiance of Heaven and to ridicule the God-fearing, still in him, and in him only, will we trust. Then when the desolating tempest of the wrath of God makes a speedy riddance of them that dwell in the land, we shall be hidden in that shelter where no fire, tempest, or flood, can reach us.

It is a matter of certainty that the world that now is, is reserved unto fire. The next question is, When shall these things be? Are we to look for them? or will some age far in the future witness these terrible scenes? This question we propose to answer, first from prophecy, secondly from nature, and lastly from the testimony of learned men on this subject.

The first prophecy that throws light on this subject is found in Dan. 2, where four kingdoms are represented as arising, bearing rule for a season, and then passing away or being merged into the succeeding kingdom. These kingdoms are respectively, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, and Rome. At the close of the fourth kingdom, the Lord will come, and all earthly kingdoms will be broken, destroyed, and swept away as chaff. The first three kingdoms are matters of history, and Rome, the fourth and last, has crumbled until her civil power is gone; and in the ecumenical council even her ecclesiastical power is questioned. What next? Manifestly the destroying of the earth and burning of the works that are therein when our Lord shall inaugurate a kingdom of peace and righteousness that shall endure forever.

In Dan. 7, the same powers are brought to view under different figures, and the Judgment is introduced in close connection with the downfall of the divisions of the fourth power. Verse 11, speaking of the duration of the Roman power, adds, “I beheld even till the beast was slain, and his body destroyed, and given to the burning flame.” In the light of these prophecies, where are we? Just before the burning day of God, and where we may expect the scenes of eternity soon to become a thrilling reality.

We might refer to Nahum’s chariots running like the lightning over our iron roads as evidence that we are living in the day of God’s preparation. Daniel prophesies that in the last days knowledge shall be increased. Would that we could notice some of the results obtained from scientific research; but space forbids. Wind and water, fire, steam, and electricity, are all made subservient to the will of man, and to increase his pleasure and profit. In scriptural knowledge our progress is no less marked. The prophecies, which to our fathers were a sealed book, are opened to us as it was foretold they should be in the time of the end. In all these prophecies, there is perfect agreement, and they say to us that the end of all things is at hand.

Paul says that “in the last days perilous times shall come.” In 2 Tim. 3:1–5, he enumerates a long catalogue of sins that should be found in the church. As we look over the religious world, we are forced to confess that he has described our times. We might bring more proof on this point; but brevity is our motto, and we pass to another division of our subject, remarking as we leave this that the warning, “Prepare to meet thy God,” is peculiarly applicable to us, standing, as we are, almost within the sound of the coming storm, and seeing around us the gloom of the lowering heavens.

Next in order we shall present evidence drawn from nature.

“In the sun, the moon, the stars, Signs and wonders there shall be; Earth shall quake with inward wars, Nations, with perplexity.”

On this division of our subject, we are at a loss where to begin, not from the absence of testimony, but from the great amount which the narrowness of our limits forces us to exclude. Every one who carefully examines the earth must be struck with the increasing number and violence of earthquakes. All confess that the interior of the earth is in a state of fusion, a molten sea of fire. Earthquakes are caused by some internal commotion whereby the crust, or surface, of the earth is shaken. Noted geologists compute the crust, or surface, to vary from twenty to thirty miles in thickness. How can we expect things to remain as they are while this crust is shaking and trembling from internal fires.

We are humbled as we think of the destroying agencies held in check by the power of Omnipotence, and our hearts exclaim, “What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that thou visitest him?” With gratitude and love we acknowledge the mercy and long-suffering of that almighty Power at whose word our earth goes plunging through space at the fearful speed of nearly nineteen miles a second.

We referred to the increasing number of earthquakes. It is estimated by historians that 7000 earthquakes occurred up to the year 1850. But within the last fifty years, 3240 have occurred. What are these but omens of approaching dissolution, heralds of the storm that is to be ushered in with burning and fuel of fire? We might refer to the earthquakes that within the last five years have rocked the greater part of Africa, nearly all of South America, and to many shocks which have been felt in our own country, and later still, the earthquake in China hurrying multitudes into eternity. They have become so common that it is conjectured that some portion of the earth’s surface is continually oscillating.

In view of these convulsions of mother earth, bespeaking approaching dissolution, we cannot better express the language of our hearts than by quoting an extract from the pen of Bro. D. T. Taylor: “We insist that with such utterances and facts blazoned forth at noonday, we, who have made the prophetic word our careful study for a period of a quarter of a century and see the light that is now shining, shall not stay for the dreamy indifference of a sleeping church, nor be hindered by a mocking world, but send out with affectionate solemnity a world-wide voice of entreaty and warning, and cry, ‘The Judge is at the door, prepare to meet him.’”

The increase of storms is no less startling. For the last ten years, the reports of our secular journals have been one continual record of storm, shipwreck, and disaster. Shall we refer to the terrible storm in India that ten years ago destroyed sixty thousand inhabitants? In the same country six years later, thirty thousand more were destroyed by the same agency. In Laynan the same year, ten thousand were destroyed by inundation. The South American coast has suffered terribly as the thousands of the slain testify. We will not sadden the minds of our readers by mentioning further the multitudes that storm and tempest have swept away from among the living. Sufficient it is that these things are so.

To the observing, the question will arise, Whither are we tending? Shall we in the light of this testimony swell the ranks of those who cry, against reason and revelation, All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation? The Lord forbid. Let us watch and be sober.

We might also speak of volcanoes and tidal waves. They help to swell the great number of victims that earth and sea shall give up when is heard the voice of the archangel and the trump of God.

On May 19, 1780, there was a dark day, terrific and supernatural. On the night succeeding, the moon was totally obscured. Eclipse was impossible, as the moon had fulled the day before. On the night of Nov. 13, 1833, there was a dense shower of falling stars, or meteors. These phenomena in the heavens were a source of fear to some and of wonderment to all. Astronomers frankly confess their inability to account for it. By consulting the word of God, we may obtain a solution of these mysteries; Matt. 24:29: “Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the papal tribulation ending about the year 1700] shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven.” These are enumerated by our Saviour as signs of his coming, and of the end of the world. Verse 3. He continues in verse 33: “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it [margin, he] is near, even at the door.” Here we have the explanation. These wonders in the heavens are outriders telling that the day of the Lord is at hand. What shall we say of the aurora borealis that “nightly waves its flaming banners in our northern sky”? Two centuries ago, it was unknown. We are told that it is not in our atmosphere, but that the ether just outside is heated to a white heat. This

does not set our minds at rest; for, if this be true, why does it heat more now than formerly? Is it not because the element of hydrogen is becoming exhausted in the air, that its friction should heat more than formerly?

But enough of conjecture. We are satisfied to consider all the signs we have mentioned as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:30, 31: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.”

We might dwell at great length upon this subject without exhausting it; but it would go beyond the design of this article to say more. We leave it with a feeling of regret at the thought of leaving so much unsaid. Do you ask more evidence? Read it on the scroll above your head, read it on the earth beneath your feet, hear the thousand voices of nature that tell of an approaching crisis, read it in the inspired volume; and then, if you have ever doubted, ask pardon of God for your unbelief.

In closing, we shall introduce the testimony of some learned men:—

Sir Charles Lyell says: “The wonder is, not that the earth will be dissolved, but that it exists for a single moment.”

Dr. Hitchcock, of Amherst, says: “In a very short time, far shorter than we imagine, all the scenes of futurity will be to us a thrilling reality.”

Dr. Baird, in Rochester, remarked that no well-informed man can look upon the world as it is without coming to the conclusion that some great consummation is about to take place.

Professor George Bush says: “If we take the ground of right reason, we must believe that the present age is one expressly foretold in prophecy, and that it is just opening upon the crowning consummation of all prophetic declarations.”

Rev. Hollis Read, author of “God in History,” says: “We live in a very remarkable period of the world’s history. A very general impression obtains in all reflecting minds that we are on the confines of another of those signal crises which mark the history of our race. The signs of the times are strangely significant. There is a feeling in the human breast that despotism, bloodshed and oppression, and unbridled lust, have, in defiance of Heaven, rioted long enough, and that a righteous God will soon rise in his wrath and make a short work. This prophetic yearning for deliverance—this instinctive prophecy of the human heart—is not peculiar to the Christian. The Hindoo, the Mohammedan, the Papist, feel it. The world waits the coming change.”

Dr. Geo. B. Cheever writes: “It is impossible to look upon a more sublime spectacle than that which rises to the mind of the spiritual observer at the present crisis. . . . The trains laid with divine wisdom are fast completing.”

We might adduce testimony from hundreds of others, but it is unnecessary. And now, dear reader, let me ask, with affectionate solicitude, Is your name written in the Lamb’s book of life? If not, strive for the life that is eternal. Obey God, seek an interest in Christ. So shall you be safe amid the perils of the last days, safe from the coming storm, forever safe in the kingdom of God. L. D. SANTEE.