THE COMMAND TO WATCH by James White

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 16.

THE COMMAND TO WATCH.

By James White

This lesson, as well as the last, should be carefully studied in connection with the corresponding records in Matt. 24, 25, and Luke 21. Matthew gives the fullest account of our Lord's great prophetic discourse, and in it, rather than in Mark or Luke, do we find the key to its interpretation and the data by means of which we are enabled to rightly divide the teaching as it refers to the several classes of persons who are most deeply interested in it. The immediate and primary reference to the destruction of Jerusalem and the tribulation attending that awful period is soon lost sight of in the greater and more appalling events which it symbolizes. From the destruction of the temple and the sacking of Jerusalem by the Romans, the Master proceeds to the consideration of the greater events that will usher in the end of the world. (Matt. 24:3.) It is not to be supposed, for a moment, that the destruction of Jerusalem, dreadful as that event was, and frightful as were the circumstances attending it, fills up the lines of this wonderful prophecy. We must look ahead to that more dreadful time spoken of by Daniel the prophet, and elaborated by St. John in the Apocalypse.

Two methods of treating this lesson are open to us. First, we may attempt a minute and careful exposition of the whole prophecy, and point out its several scenes and parts in the order of their prophetic fulfillment. This would involve an amount of study, and the examination and comparison of so much Scripture, and the criticism of so many conflicting theories of interpretation, that we should become hopelessly lost in a maze. Second, we may indicate the general drift of the prophetic teaching, and leave our readers to pursue the study of detail according to the best light and help they may be able to find. . . . Our Lord's second coming and the end of the world, while they are often spoken of in the Scripture as one event, as "the day of the Lord," "that great and notable day," etc., constitute, in fact, one great double event in which there are many minor and contributing happenings. If the whole were dramatized (as, in a sense, it is by the prophets), it would be seen to comprise, in the course of the development, many separate acts and scenes."—G. F. Pentecost.

This lesson opens with a reference to the long period of Papal persecution, namely, from 538 to 1798. This time is mentioned in Daniel 7:25, and also in parallel passages in Revelation. During that time, over 50,000,000 of Christians suffered death at the hands of Papists. Referring to this our Lord says: "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; and then shall all tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Mark makes it more definite, thus: "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light."

From Matt. 24:22 we learn that those days of cruel persecution were to be shortened for the "elect's sake." Some seek to apply this text to the destruction of Jerusalem, but the elect were not in that city. Not a Christian was in Jerusalem during the final siege by the Romans. The Papacy was clothed with civil power to punish heretics for 1,260 years; and had not the period of tribulation of the elect, in the providence of God, been shortened, the martyrdom of the church would have continued to 1798, in which event, in all human probability, no flesh of the elect would have been saved. But the Reformation under Martin Luther and those associated with his great reform, modified this tribulation, and continued to restrain the rage and consume the power of the Papacy until 1700, since which time, according to all church history, there has been no general persecution against the church. In this was fulfilled the words of the prophets: "The earth helped the woman." Rev. 12:16. "They shall be holpen with a little help." Dan. 11:34.

We have before seen that our Lord speaks of the long period of tribulation upon his followers, and we have also seen how those days of tribulation were shortened for the elect's sake. Christ says that the sun should be darkened immediately after the tribulation of those days. We refer to the noted dark day of May 19, 1780, as the fulfillment of this declaration. We do not say after those days, but "after the tribulation of those days." The days (1,260 years, Dan. 7:25) reached to 1798, eighteen years later than the dark day in 1780. As given in Mark 13:24, this point is still plainer: "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened." That is, before the 1,260 years closed, but after the tribulation or martyrdom of the saints ceased, the sun was darkened. Those who would point to the future, or to the past prior to the eighteenth century, for the darkening of the sun here mentioned, will do well to read again Mark 13:24: "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened."

"A something strikingly awful shall forewarn that the world will come to an end, and that the last day is even at the door."—Martin Luther.

In May 19, 1780, there was a remarkable fulfillment of the predicted darkening of the sun; and in reference to the facts and date, there can be no doubt; for besides the historical accounts, which all agree, there were many aged persons, with whom men of the present generation have mingled and conversed, who witnessed it, and have testified to it.

"In the month of May, 1780, there was a very terrific dark day in New England, when 'all faces seemed to gather blackness,' and the people were filled with fear. There was great distress in the village where Edward Lee lived; 'men's hearts failing them for fear' that the Judgment-day was at hand, and the neighbors all flocked around the holy man; for his lamp was trimmed, and shining brighter than ever, amidst the unnatural darkness. Happy and joyful in God, he pointed them to their only refuge from the wrath to come, and spent the gloomy hours in earnest prayer for the distressed multitude."—Tract No. 379 of Am. Tract Society—Life of Edward Lee.

"The 19th day of May, 1780, was a remarkably dark day. Candles were lighted in many houses. The birds were silent, and disappeared. The fowls retired to roost. It was the general opinion that the day of Judgment was at hand. The Legislature of Connecticut was in session, at Hartford, but being unable to transact business, adjourned."—President Dwight, in (Ct.) Historical Collections.

The supernatural darkening of the sun, May 19, 1780, has been so universally understood that Noah Webster's dictionary, under the head of Explanatory and Pronouncing Vocabulary of Noted Names, says, "The dark day, May 19, 1780;—so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day, extending over all New England. . . . The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."

"THE MOON SHALL NOT GIVE HER LIGHT."

"The night succeeding that day (May 19, 1780), was of such pitchy darkness that in some instances horses could not be compelled to leave the stable when wanted for service. About midnight, the clouds were dispersed, and the moon and stars appeared with unimpaired brilliancy."—Stone's History of Beverly.

Mr. Tenny, of Exeter, N. H., quoted by Mr. Gage, to the Historical Society, speaking of the dark day and dark night of May 19, 1780, says: "The darkness of the following evening was probably as gross as has ever been observed since the Almighty first gave birth to light."

"THE STARS SHALL FALL FROM HEAVEN."

We here give an extract from an article written by Henry Dana Ward, in regard to the falling stars of Nov. 13, 1833, published in the Journal of Commerce, Nov. 15, 1833: "At the cry, 'Look out of the window,' I sprang from a deep sleep, and with wonder saw the east lighted up with the dawn and meteors. The zenith, the north, and the west also, showed the falling stars, in the very image of one thing, and only one, I ever heard of. I called to my wife to behold; and while robing she exclaimed, 'See how the stars fall!' I replied, 'That is the wonder!' and we felt in our hearts that it was a sign of the last days. For, truly, '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. This language of the prophet has always been received as metaphorical. Yesterday, it was literally fulfilled. The ancients understood by aster, in Greek, and stella, in Latin, the smaller lights of heaven. The refinement of modern astronomy has made the distinction between stars of heaven and meteors of heaven. Therefore, the idea of the prophet, as it is expressed in the original Greek, was literally fulfilled in the phenomenon of yesterday."

Professor Olmstead, of Yale College, says: "The extent of the shower of 1833 was such as to cover no inconsiderable part of the earth's surface, from the middle of the Atlantic on the east, to the Pacific on the west; and from the northern coast of South America, to undefined regions among the British possessions on the north, the exhibition was visible, and everywhere presented nearly the same appearance. The meteors did not fly at random over all parts of the sky, but appeared to emanate from a point in the constellation Leo, near a star called Gamma Leonis, in the bend of the sickle. This is no longer to be regarded as a terrestrial, but as a celestial, phenomenon, and shooting stars are now to be no more viewed as casual productions of the upper regions of the atmosphere, but as visitants from other worlds, or from the planetary voids."

POWERS OF THE HEAVENS SHAKEN.

This event we must regard as being future. It holds the same place in the events of this chapter that the departing of the heavens as a scroll does in the events of the sixth seal of Rev. 6. Both follow the falling stars. Please compare Matt. 24:29, 30 with Rev. 6:12, 17. But though nature be convulsed, the people of God will be safe. Islands may disappear, and mountains be thrown down; but the saints will remain unharmed. Earthquakes may break up the earth's surface, so that kings and nobles, rich and poor, bond and free, may hide "themselves in dens and in the rocks of the mountains," still God will be the hope of his people.—James White.