The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-13
STAR SHOWERS.

Rev. w. A. Burch Tells of Their Sig
nificance to the Coming of the Lord.
The subject of the morning sermon
at the Second Advent church, yesterday
was Star showers-their prophetic re-
lation to the second advent" Rev.
William A. Burch took for his text the
29thA verse of the oath chapter of Mat
thew, 1.-THE stars shall fall from
heaven" and said in part:
These are the words of him who
said, Heaven and earth shall pass
away, but my words shall not pass
away First, 1 shall call attention
to popular fallacies. One makes the
falling of the stars to synchronize with
the dissolutions of the heavens and the
earth, of which Peter speaks in connec-
ton with the day of the Lord. But
this cannot be, because the falling stars
are among the signs which must pre-
cede the advent.
Others place the great tribulations
and special signs in sun and moon and
stars, after the coming of Christ, for
the saints, but this is plainly a mistake
since these special signs are to give
knowledge to the church that his com
ing is near, hence must precede that
coming, and the great circulation is
prior to these signs. Therefore, the
work of the anti-Christ and the great
tribulation are not subsequent to the
coming of the Lord, but have their
place previous to the advent. In the
oath of Matthew the 21st of Luke, the
18th of Mark and the 9Th of Revela-
tions, we find the falling of the stars as
prior to the advent and subsequent to
the great tribulation, the darkening of
the sun and moon. AS the original
words here used might mean fixed stars,
comets or meteors, and as fixed stars
could not fall unto the EARTH, we see
that only the falling of meteors could
fulfill the four-fold prophetic announce
ment
Signs, to be of service. must be
known and understood. The lights
spoken of in Paul Revere's ride, must
be in the tower Of Old North church,
not anywhere in Boston that lights
might appear. In Genesis TIA, we are
told of the stars, ETC., as made for signs
and Jesus declared, There shall be
signs in the stars, or in other words, at
a certain time in the history of the
world, the falling of innumerable me-
teors would be one of the marked signs
of the advent.
THE great tribulation of many cen
turtles had well nigh spent its force with
Austria's edict of free liberation in
1878. May 10, 1880, the sun was dark
ened, and in November, 1888, occurred
the great star shower so famous in his
tory. This, we believe filled the mould
of prophecy as to event and time A
writer in the Herald of Gospel Liberty
for Sept. Is, 1908, asserted that the sun
and moon had been darkened, and that
Christ was soon to return. He adds,
Whether there have been any partic-
ular signs in the stars, I have not been
able to determine, but while there are
SO many other signs, we may expect
them soon. They soon came.
While some scientific men tell us
that these star showers are periodical.
it is a significant fact that the only
magnificent, alarming and universally
visible star showers known to science
have occurred since the dark day of
1880. Prof. Kirkwood writes: The me-
teoric showers never attracted the at
tention Of scientific men until the close
OF the last century. The British Quar-
terly says: The falling of meteoric
stones was not recognized as a fact by
the learned until the beginning of the
present century Prof. Olmstead Of
Yale college wrote of the star shower
of 1888: Those who were so fortunate
as to witness the exhibition of shoot
ing stars on the morning of Nov 49,
1888, probably saw the greatest display
of celestial fireworks that has ever been
seen since the creation of the world, or
at least within the annals covered by
the pages of history
THE falling stars are last day phe-
nomena, and speak for God of the near
coming Of his son, and should there be
a repetition of the solemn scene some
night this week, let all who witness it
remember they are viewing one of the
last signs of the near coming of our
Lord. May we all be ready"