his relation of
the mind to nature, God, previous to great catastrophes, often causes
those precursors of them to appear more frequently and vividly, than in
the ordinary course of nature. In a manner especially remarkable, this
took place previous to the destruction of Jerusalem. Compare
_Josephus_, _d. Bell. Jud._ iv. 4, 5. "For during the night, a fearful
storm arose,--there arose boisterous winds with the most violent
showers, continual lightnings and awful thunders, and tremendous
noises, while the earth was shaken. It was, however, quite evident that
the condition of the universe was put into such disorder for the
destruction of men, and almost every one conjectured that these were
the signs of impending calamity." A great number of other signs and
precursors are mentioned by him in _B. J._ vi. 5, Sec. 3. These will never
be altogether absent, as certainly as punishment never comes without
sin, and sin never exists without the consciousness, without the
expectation, of deserved judgment. But the chief point in this mode of
viewing things, is not the sign itself, but the disposition of mind
which interprets it,--the consciousness of guilt, which fills the soul
with the thought of an avenging God,--the [Pg 342] _condition of
filings which brings into view the infliction of the judgment._ It is
by this that we can account for the circumstance that; in the Old
Testament, the darkening of the sun and moon, and other things,
frequently appear as _direct images_ of sad and heavy times.

Ver. 4. "_The sun is turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before there cometh the great and terrible day of the Lord._"

Among all interpreters, _Calvin_ has given the most admirable
interpretation of this verse: "When the prophet says that the sun
shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, these are
metaphorical expressions, by which he indicates that the Lord will show
signs of His wrath to all the ends of the earth, as if a whole
revolution of nature were to take place, in order that men may be
stirred up by terror. For, as sun and moon are witnesses of God's
fatherly kindness towards us, as long as, in their changes, they
provide the earth with light, so will they, on the other hand, says the
prophet, be the messengers of the angry and offended God.--By the
darkness of the sun, by the bloody appearance of the moon, by the black
cloud of smoke, the prophet intended to express the idea, that
wheresoever men shou