"In the words of most, they fell _like flakes of snow_."--_American Journal of Science, Vol. XXV (1834), p.

372._

Nothing less than this could have presented the counterpart of the prophetic picture.

Thoughtful hearts were solemnized by the unwonted spectacle. Prof.

Alexander Twining, civil engineer, "late tutor in Yale College," giving his views as to the nature of the flaming visitants from s.p.a.ce, wrote:

"Had they held on their course unabated for three seconds longer, half a continent must, to all appearance, have been involved in unheard-of calamity. But that almighty Being who made the world, and knew its dangers, gave it also its armature--endowing the atmospheric medium around it with protecting, no less than with life-sustaining, properties....

"Considered as one of the rare and wonderful displays of the Creator's preserving care, as well as the terrible magnitude and power of His agencies, it is not meet that such occurrences as those of November 13 should leave no more solid and permanent effect upon the human mind than the impression of a splendid scene."--_American Journal of Science, Vol. XXVI (1834), p. 351._

Mult.i.tudes felt that the great Creator had spoken to men in this notable wonder of His heavens. Again and again in the records and reminiscences of that time, testimony is borne to the fact that observers were impressed with the likeness of the scene to that described in the divine prophecy as one of the signs of the end of the world.

The Prophetic Picture Reproduced

The New York _Journal of Commerce_ emphasized the exactness of detail with which the prophecy described the scene as it appeared in 1833. This is the apocalyptic picture, as the ancient prophet saw it in vision:

"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.

A correspondent of the _Journal of Commerce_ draws the picture as it was seen nearly eighteen centuries later, the likeness to the prophetic description being emphasized in every line:

"No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event like that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars."--_New York Journal of Commerce, Nov. 14, 1833._

In this connection was noted by the same writer the special appropriateness of the prophet's figure of the fig tree casting the green figs in a mighty wind:

"Here is the exactness of the prophet. The falling stars did not come as if from _several_ trees shaken, but from _one_.

Those which appeared in the east fell toward the east: those which appeared in the north fell toward the north; those which appeared in the west fell toward the west; and those which appeared in the south (for I went out of my residence into the park) fell toward the south; and they fell not as ripe fruit falls; far from it; but they _flew_, they were _cast_, like the unripe fig, which at first refuses to leave the branch; and when it does break its hold, flies swiftly, straight off, descending; and in the mult.i.tude falling, some cross the track of others, as they are thrown with more or less force."

Professor Olmsted's long and carefully elaborated account in the _American Journal of Science_, gave a report from a correspondent in Bowling Green, Mo., as follows:

"Though there was no moon, when we first observed them; their brilliancy was so great that we could, at times, read common-sized print without much difficulty, and the light which they afforded was much whiter than that of the moon, in the clearest and coldest night, when the ground is covered with snow. The air itself, the face of the earth as far as we could behold it, all the surrounding objects, and the very countenances of men, wore the aspect and hue of death, occasioned by the continued, pallid glare of these countless meteors, which in all their grandeur flamed 'lawless through the sky.'

"There was a grand and indescribable gloom on all around, an awe-inspiring sublimity on all above; while--

"'The sanguine flood Rolled a broad slaughter o'er the plains of heaven, And nature's self did seem to totter on the brink of time!'

"... There was scarcely a s.p.a.ce in the firmament which was not filled at every instant with these falling stars, nor on it could you in general perceive any particular difference in appearance; still at times they seemed to shower down in groups--calling to mind the fig tree, casting her untimely figs when shaken by a mighty wind."--_Volume XXV (1834), p. 382._

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SIGN OF FIRE

"As this sign of fire in the watchtower was a signal to G.o.d's people anciently to flee from the coming danger (see Jer. 6:1), so the signs appearing now in the heavens and in the earth are G.o.d's signals of warning to the people of our day."]

A Sign to All the World

It was not in North America alone, but in all the civilized world, that the attention of men was called to the prophetic word by the discussions of this event. Thus the English scientific writer, Thomas Milner, writing for the British public, spoke as follows of the profound impression made:

"In many districts, the ma.s.s of the population were terror-struck, and the more enlightened were awed at contemplating so vivid a picture of the apocalyptic image--that of the stars of heaven falling to the earth, even as a fig tree casting her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind."--_"The Gallery of Nature" (London, 1852), p. 140._

So the sign in the heavens made its solemn appeal to all the world. It brought to the mult.i.tudes who saw it, thoughts of G.o.d and the last great day. An observer living at the time in Georgia, wrote, "Everybody felt that it was the judgment, and that the end of the world had come."

Another, in Kentucky, wrote, "In every direction I could hear men, women, and children screaming, 'The judgment day is come!'"

Rather, it was a signal that the hour of G.o.d's judgment was drawing near. The signs so long foretold were appearing, one by one, to register their enduring mark on the record of fulfilling prophecy.

Immediately following these times, there began an awakening concerning the vital Bible doctrine of the second coming of Christ, which has grown into the definite advent movement that is carrying the gospel message of preparation for the coming of the Lord to every nation and tongue and people.

The Sign of 1833 Emphasized by Other Displays

We have mentioned the fact that Humboldt had observed an extraordinary fall of meteorites in South America, thirty-three years, before, in 1799. And he reported at the time that the oldest inhabitants there had a recollection of a similar display in 1766.

From these reports, scientists deduced the theory that these showers were to be expected every thirty-three years. Hence in 1866 they were watching for a repet.i.tion of the 1833 display.

That there was a measure of truth in the deduction was made evident by an unusual fall of meteorites Nov. 14, 1866. This time Europe was the scene of the display. But the event was not to be compared with that of 1833. This appears plain from the account of observations made by Sir Robert Ball and Lord Rosse, the British astronomers.

Sir Robert Ball says that when the meteorites began to fall, he and Lord Rosse went out upon the wall of the observatory housing Lord Rosse's great reflecting telescope:

"There, for the next two or three hours, we witnessed a spectacle which can never fade from my memory. The shooting stars gradually increased in number until sometimes several were seen at once."--_"Story of the Heavens," p. 380._

Grand as the spectacle was, it was but a reminder, apparently, of the star shower of 1833, when not "several" meteorites fell at a time, nor many, merely, but, as it appeared, "the stars of heaven fell unto the earth."

However, the spectacle of 1866, which was observed over a great part of the Old World,[D] served to direct renewed attention to the incomparable event of 1833, as well as to the prophetic descriptions of the "wonders in the heavens" (Joel 2:30) which were to appear as the end drew near.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHRIST'S PROMISE TO RETURN

"I will come again, and receive you unto Myself." John 14:3.]

Textbooks and astronomical works thereupon began to count it as fully established that every thirty-three years the displays would be repeated. It was confidently predicted that 1899 would witness a repet.i.tion, possibly on the scale of 1833.

Professor Langley's "New Astronomy" (published in 1888) said:

"The great November shower, which is coming once more in this century, and which every reader may hope to see toward 1899, is of particular interest to us as the first whose movements were subject to a.n.a.lysis."

Chambers's Astronomy, published in 1889, said:

"The meteors of November 13 may be expected to reappear with great brilliancy in 1899."---_Volume I, p. 635._

But the November date pa.s.sed in 1899, and the years have pa.s.sed; and the wondrous scene of 1833 has not been repeated. Clerke's "History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth Century" says:

"We can no longer count upon the Leonids [as the meteorites of 1833 were called, because they seemed to fall from a point in the constellation of Leo]. Their glory, for scenic purposes, is departed."--_Page 338._

The Lord's Signal to Watch

Thus the wisest astronomical predictions made shortly before 1899, based upon the apparently recurrent regularity of the phenomenon, failed; but the predictions of the sure word of prophecy, set down on the sacred record eighteen centuries before, were fulfilled to the letter.

At the close of the days of the predicted tribulation of the church, the signs began to appear--the sun was darkened, the moon withheld its light, and the stars of heaven fell.