Signs in the Sun by J. M. Cole

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 2, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 21.

"Signs in the Sun"

By J. M. Cole

Words That Have Been Most Literally Fulfilled—The Cause for the Great Dark Day Unknown

By J. M. COLE

IMMEDIATELY after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened." Matt. 24:29. "IN those days, AFTER that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened." Mark 13:24.

A MOST UNACCOUNTABLE DARKENING

Concerning the wonderful dark day, Mr. R. M. Devens, a member of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, says in his book "Our First Century," published at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1876: "Almost if not altogether alone, as the most mysterious and as yet unexplained phenomenon of its kind in nature's diversified range of events during the last century, stands the dark day of May 19, 1780,—a most unaccountable darkening of the whole visible heavens and atmosphere in New England,—which brought intense alarm and distress to multitudes of minds, as well as dismay to the brute creation, the fowls fleeing bewildered to their roosts, and the birds to their nests, and the cattle returning to their stalls."

The seer of Patmos tells us that the sun would become as "black as sackcloth of hair."

ALIKE INVISIBLE

Dr. Samuel Tenny, in 1785, as quoted in Gage's "History of Rowley, Massachusetts," in describing the intensity of the darkness, said it "was probably as gross as has ever been observed since the Almighty fiat gave birth to light. It wanted only palpability to render it as extraordinary as that which overspread the land of Egypt in the days of Moses. . . . I could not help conceiving, at the time, that 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. A sheet of white paper held within a few inches of the eyes, was equally invisible with the blackest velvet."

WENT DOWN AT NOON

"And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the CLEAR day." Amos 8:9.

Milo Bostwick, writing from Camden, New Jersey, March 3, 1848, says: "The 19th of May, in the year 1780, I well remember. I was then in my sixteenth year. The morning was clear and pleasant, but somewhere about eight o'clock my father came into the house and said there was an uncommon appearance in the sun. There were not any clouds, but the air was thick, having a smoky appearance, and the sun shone with a pale and yellowish hue, but kept growing darker and darker, until it was hid from sight."

TO BE IN THE MORNING

The prophet Isaiah, speaking of the darkening of the sun, says, "The sun shall be darkened in his going forth." Isa. 13:10. The historian records the fact.

Josiah Litch, in his "Prophetic Expositor," says: "I refer to the dark day of A. D. 1780, May 19. That was a day of supernatural darkness. It was not an eclipse of the sun, for the moon was nearly at the full. It was not owing to a thickness of the atmosphere, for the stars were seen. The darkness began about 9 A. M. and continued through the day. Such was the darkness that work was suspended in the field and shop, beasts and fowls retired to their rest, and the houses were illuminated at dinner time. . . . The sun was supernaturally darkened."

Noah Webster, in the New Haven Daily Herald, says, "No satisfactory cause has yet been assigned." Also in his dictionary, edition of 1869, we find the following: "The dark day, May 19, 1780, so called on account of a remarkable darkness on that day, extending over all New England. In some places, persons could not see to read common print in the open air for several hours together. . . . The true cause of this remarkable phenomenon is not known."

UNSOLVED MYSTERY

Sir William Herschel, England's royal astronomer, private astronomer to George III, said, "That phenomenon of the dark day, May 19, 1780, has baffled all astronomical solution, and must remain an unsolved mystery to the end of time."

After making a careful study of the event, he gave his understanding of it in the following language: "The dark day in North America was one of those strange phenomena that will always be read with interest, but which philosophy is at a loss to

explain. We have had dark days when there were eclipses, but here there was nothing of the kind. It was dark at noonday without intervention of a heavenly body; and after the lapse of more than a hundred years, it stands unexplained by the great scientists that have studied the perplexing problem."