MODERN PHENOMENA OF THE HEAVENS.
CHRIST, the prophets and apostles, have distinctly and repeatedly foretold of remarkable phenomena or "Wonders in the heavens," and of "Fearful sights and great signs," particularly describing them, which on being witnessed, were to admonish the world of the near coming of the "great and terrible day of the Lord," which he has appointed, "in the which he will judge the world in righteousness." While even the church and her watchmen, quite generally, have long been slumbering over the prophecies and signs of the Lord's coming again, with the pleasing dream of a temporal millennium first, they have been thus fulfilling another prophecy of the Advent at hand, which foretells that "darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people;" (and that both the wise and the foolish would be finally aroused from their midnight sleeping, only by the cry, "Behold the bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him.") And while asleep under such darkness, it is not at all surprising that they should consider, as many do still, that those prophecies of Christ's return, and the signs of it, are all mystical, and as referring only to political and other temporal events, mostly already fulfilled and as having nothing to do with things so solemn as Christ's coming to judgment. In now attempting briefly to show that the Second Advent of Christ, personal and glorious, is now specially nigh at hand, from the modern fulfilling of the prophetic wonders, sights and signs in the heavens which were to precede the great day, I would class them under the following heads: I.—"Great Signs" "in the Heavens," "Blood, and Fire, and Pillars of Smoke."
II.—"Signs in the Sun and in the Moon"—both darkened, &c.
III.—"Signs in the Stars,"—Stars falling, &c.
IV.—The Great Comet of 1843, and
V.—Miscellaneous other late Phenomena. I.—"GREAT SIGNS" "IN THE HEAVENS," "BLOOD, AND FIRE, AND PILLARS OF SMOKE." Or the Aurora Borealis and Northern Lights are to be considered. Some of the scriptures foretelling these phenomena are as follows: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, that I will pour out of my spirit . . . . And I will show wonders in heaven above, and in the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke . . . . before that great and notable day of the Lord come.—Acts ii, 17—20. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke, . . . . before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.—Joel ii, 30, 31. Fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars . . . . And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory, and when these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.—Luke xxi, 11, 25—28. While many, in their putting "far away the evil day," and saying the "Lord delayeth his coming," presumptuously maintain that these passages are mystical, and fulfilled without showing the judgment at hand, they must themselves be responsible for thus denying or altering the words of Jehovah; but I claim for myself and my brethren of the "blessed hope," the right to understand them all literally, and to mean precisely all that is most naturally implied or understood by them. And in now showing that the Aurora Borealis has perfectly and literally fulfilled these predictions, with special regard to the "Wonders," "fearful sights, and great signs" in the heavens, of "blood," "fire," and "pillars of smoke," I will here give a description of the phenomenon, as it was witnessed in London, Sept. 3, 1839, seen also in this country, so far as respects the Aurora only, though much less remarkable.—See New York Com. Advertiser, Sept. 4, and Ch. Advocate and Journal, Sept. 13, 1839.