THE SUN SHALL BE DARKENED
By M. E. Cornell
Interesting Extracts. No. 3.
"THE SUN SHALL BE DARKENED."
John Kennedy, in a sermon published in Danvers, Mass., A. D. 1780, says: "The late wonderful and unusual darkness, on the 19th day of May last, struck the inhabitants of this State with horror and amazement, and at the same time filled them with alarming apprehensions. Yea, the very brutes seemed greatly agitated. If so, could a thinking being sit unmoved while he beheld the sun veiled in darkness at noon-day; * the husbandmen returning from their fields in great surprise; the beasts gazing in wild consternation; every countenance seemed to gather blackness; yes, a dismal gloom, which filled the beholder with fear and astonishment, waiting with much anxiety for some event. In fine, the darkness was as we nor our fathers never saw." The Boston Gazette says: "They were obliged to dine by the light of the candle. Such a phenomenon was never before seen here by the oldest person living." A correspondent from Newport, May 20, 1780, remarked that "It is not recollected from history, that a darkness of equal intenseness and duration has ever happened in any part of the world, except the miraculous eclipse at the crucifixion of our blessed Saviour." In a manuscript sermon by Rev. Elam Potter, M. A., on the dark day of May 19, 1780, delivered on the 28th of the same month, he says: "But especially I mention that wonderful darkness, on the 19th of May, last. Then, as in our text, the sun was darkened; such a darkness as probably was never known before, since the crucifixion of our Lord. People left their work in the house and in the field. Travelers stopped; schools broke up at eleven o'clock; people lit up candles at noon-day; and the fire shone as at night. Some people, I have been told, were in dismay, and thought whether the day of judgment was not drawing on. A great part of the following night, also, was singularly dark. The moon, though in the fall, gave no light, as in our text." THE FALLING STARS OF 1833.
The Christian Advocate and Journal, Dec. 13, 1883, says:* "It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point, near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted—thousands swiftly followed in the tracks of thousands, as if created for the occasion." A converted Papist writes: "It was, indeed, owing to this very doctrine (praying for souls in purgatory), that I saw the beautiful meteoric shower which occurred Nov. 13, 1833. I had been taught to make the sign of the cross once for every shooting star I saw, in behalf of departed souls; and being awake when the meteoric shower lighted up the heavens, the work of crossing myself began; but very soon the use of both hands could not suffice, for the stars apparently moved so rapidly that it became impossible to keep up. The consequence was, that the whole family was called up to see a wonder which excited no little fear in us all."—The Conversion of a Papist, pp. 39, 40. A writer in the New York Ledger says: "They fell each one from its own starting point, in lines conformed to the arching sky, as if they followed the outline of one vast umbrella, overshadowing the beholder. Yet the meteoric stars fell unlike the ripe fruit, which drops from the tree directly to the ground. They flew, they were cast, they were hurled from their place like unripe fruit, which refuses to let go its hold, until the tree is powerfully shaken, when at length it breaks loose, bursts away, and darts madly toward the ground."