at magnificent
display; ... no one who did not witness it can form an adequate conception
of its glory. 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."(556) "A more correct picture of a fig-tree
casting its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to
behold."(557)

In the New York _Journal of Commerce_ of Nov. 14, 1833, appeared a long
article regarding this wonderful phenomenon, containing this statement:
"No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, 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, ... in the only sense in which it is possible to be
literally true."

Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which
Jesus bade His disciples, "When ye shall see all these things, _know_ that
it is near, even at the doors."(558) After these signs, John beheld, as
the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while
the earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and
the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of
man.(559)

Many who witnessed the falling of the stars, looked upon it as a herald of
the coming judgment,--"an awful type, a sure forerunner, a merciful sign,
of that great and dreadful day." Thus the attention of the people was
directed to the fulfilment of prophecy, and many were led to give heed to
the warning of the second advent.

In the year 1840, another remarkable fulfilment of prophecy excited
wide-spread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading
ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of
Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman empire. According to his
calculations, this power was to be overthrown "in A.D. 1840, sometime in
the month of August;" and only a few days previous to its accomplishment
he wrote: "Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly
fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks,
and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first
period, it will end on the 11th of August,