all believers should long, and hope, and wait for, as being the
accomplishment of all the work of their redemption, and all the desires
and endeavors of their souls." "Hasten, O Lord, this blessed day!"(476)
Such was the hope of the apostolic church, of the "church in the
wilderness," and of the Reformers.

Prophecy not only foretells the manner and object of Christ's coming, but
presents tokens by which men are to know when it is near. Said Jesus:
"There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars."(477)
"The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the
stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be
shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in the clouds with
great power and glory."(478) The revelator thus describes the first of the
signs to precede the second advent: "There was a great earthquake; and the
sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood."(479)

These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century.
In fulfilment of this prophecy there occurred, in the year 1755, the most
terrible earthquake that has ever been recorded. Though commonly known as
the earthquake of Lisbon, it extended to the greater part of Europe,
Africa, and America. It was felt in Greenland, in the West Indies, in the
island of Madeira, in Norway and Sweden, Great Britain and Ireland. It
pervaded an extent of not less than four million square miles. In Africa
the shock was almost as severe as in Europe. A great part of Algiers was
destroyed; and a short distance from Morocco, a village containing eight
or ten thousand inhabitants was swallowed up. A vast wave swept over the
coast of Spain and Africa, engulfing cities, and causing great
destruction.

It was in Spain and Portugal that the shock manifested its extreme
violence. At Cadiz the inflowing wave was said to be sixty feet high.
Mountains, "some of the largest in Portugal, were impetuously shaken, as
it were, from their very foundations; and some of them opened at their
summits, which were split and rent in a wonderful manner, huge masses of
them being thrown down into the adjacent valleys. Flames are related to
have issued from these mountains."(480)

At Lisbon "a sound of thunder was heard underground, and immediately
afterward a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city. In the
course of about six minutes, sixty thousand persons perished. The sea
fi