St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-11-16
SERMON ON THE ECLIPSE.
Rev. II. NJ. Simmons Considers II
as Religious Sign.

heFs H. NJ. simmons Considers 1t
as a Religious Sign.
The eclipse of the moon gave Rev. II.
NJ. Simmons. of the First Unitarian
church, subject for 4 sermon yester-
day morning. He preached on 1.-The
Eclipse as a religious sign. In the
course of his sermon he said:
The New Testament writers natur-
ally supposed that supernatural signs
in heaven and earth had appeared in
honor of Jesus Christ, for such signs
were then supposed to appear in honor
OF many great men. We reads in Ovid
that Caesars death. half a century be-
fore that of Christ. was said to have
been attended by darkening of the
sun. by great earthquake, and by the
dead rising from their graves and
entering the city. Precisely these
same things were atterward told
in the New Testament lust
as naturally of Jesus death. 1t was
also as natural that such signs should
be expected To attend that return of
Jesus which the early Christians were
looking for. Hence, among those signs.
we read that there would be eclipses
and meteOrs: that the sun shall be
darkened, and the moon shall not give
her light, and the stars shall fall from
heaven The New Testament also
tells us repeatedly that these signs and
the return of Jesus in the clouds. and
the destruction of the world, were to
take place before the death of men then
living. This is taught most clearly by
Paul and others, and still more emDhat-
ically in the book of Revelation; and so
careful writer as w. r. Greg says
the apostles unanimously and unQues-
= fba
end of the world was at hand. and would
arrive in the lifetime of the then exist
ing generation This expectation failed
only 10 lie deferred. and in almost every
century since some part of the church
has claimed that Christ would soon re-
turn: that Antichrist of the book of
Revelation. by whom the author meant
Nero, has been seen successfully in
scores of men from Trajan to Napoleon:
and that destruction of Rome and com
Ing of the Millennium and end of the
world have been prophesied and post
pOned again and again, until wise men
have ceased to take any interest in the
date. Those terrible signs in the sky.
too, have proved to be all natural and
harmless. Those eclipses are so
regular that they are calcu-
lated centuries ahead. Even those
trightful falling stars are Just as orderly,
and the terrific showers of them prove
to be more regular than the showers of
summer rain. They are as harmless as
the rain; and, when astronomers tell
us that the great meteOric shower will
return eight years from last week. we
/ believe them, and hope that we may be
there to see. Such things have ceased
to be regarded as religious signs.
But would it not be truer TO say that
they are far better religious signs than
the ancients knew? They are signs of
that unerring faithfulness which is the
best thing that we can conceive in a
divine government of the world. What
faithfulness Is proclaimed in these
great worlds moving so swiftly and yet
so truly that it has been known for
a hundred years just what minute
the moon will reach the earth's shadow
to-day. And how much more faith
astronomers show in the universe and
its ruler than did the people who
thought eclipses came from the anger
or interference of a God. or that the
sun and moon were stopped by Deity
one day to lengthen battle in little
Palestine. TheOlOgianS used to try to
prove 4 God by comparing the world to
watch which must have a maker; but
they Slandered that God by teaching
that he stopped the watch for such a
purpose. If mayor should stop the
town clock, to so derange the time and
plans of all the citizens. just to allow
two boys to fight a little longer, you
would not honor him for it. And d.
vine ruler who should stop the sun and
derange the time and plans of all man.
kind. and subvert the laws of the solar
system. just to lengthen the fight of
two armies, would be no more hon
ored by it, Religion has re son 10
thank science for showing that the