“No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet 1800 years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars; or ‘_hoi asteres tou ouranou epesan eis teen geen_,’ in the only sense in which it is possible to be literally true.”—_Henry Dana Ward, in Journal of Commerce, Nov. 14, 1833._ Not only here in Matthew 24 is attention directed to these signs as premonitory of the coming of Christ. The Lord through the prophet Joel says:— “The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.” Under the sixth seal, as given in Rev. 6:12‐17, we have the following language:— “And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and 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. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.” That the fourth and fifth seals apply to the papal persecution there can be no reasonable doubt. If so, then the great earthquake with which the sixth seal opens would be that of Lisbon, in 1755, which agitated the greater part of the earth and destroyed many thousands of lives, 60,000 in Lisbon alone. The darkening of the sun and moon follows in 1780, and the falling of the stars in 1833. Consequently the next event which we are to expect under this seal is the departing of the heavens as a scroll. This being future, we may say that we are living between the thirteenth and fourteenth verses of Revelation 6. In the gospel as written by Luke, however, we have at this point some additional specifications given, which are of such interest at the present juncture. And they rightfully belong to this exposition, since both Matthew and Luke are giving versions of the same discourse. The passage from Luke to which reference is made is the following:— “And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Luke 21:25‐27. [Illustration] Modern Cyclone.