of Christ , when this full and final conquest shall be made ." -- Ibid ., vol . 17 , p . 500 . " This is the day that 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 endeavours of their souls ." " Hasten , O Lord , this blessed day !" -- Ibid ., vol . 17 , pp . 182 , 183 . 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 ." Luke 21:25 . " 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 ." Mark 13:24-26 . 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 ." Revelation 6:12 .
These signs were witnessed before the opening of the nineteenth century . In fulfillment 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 ." -- Sir Charles Lyell , Principles of Geology , page 495 .
At Lisbon " a sound of thunder was heard underground , and immediately afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part of that city . In the course of about six minutes sixty thousand persons perished . The sea first retired , and laid the bar dry ; it then rolled in , rising fifty feet or more above its ordinary level ." " Among other extraordinary events related to have occurred at Lisbon during the catastrophe , was the subsidence of a new quay , built entirely of marble , at an immense expense . A great concourse of people had collected there for safety , as a spot where they might be beyond the reach of falling ruins ; but suddenly the quay sank down with all the people on it , and not one of the dead bodies ever floated to the surface ." -- Ibid ., page 495 .
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